Paul Runs!

This morning was the Super Jock-N-Jill (that's a running shoe store) Half Marathon that I told you about recently. It started at 9AM at the Redhook Brewery, went North into Bothell, then looped around and came back down the Sammamish River Trail.
I got up at 6:15 so I could have some breakfast and time to digest it before the race. I ate light, yesterday as well, to try and avoid getting any stomach cramps/side stiches during the race.
I had planned out the paces I want to run to try and finish in around 1:40. Basically I would run the first 5 miles in 7:50 pace, then drop down to 7:40 for 4 miles, then run 7:25 for the last 4 miles (man that's a lot of miles...). Here was my pace chart:

I wrote down the cummulative time I wanted to be at for each mile mark so I wouldn't have to do the math on the run. I pinned it to my shirt for easy reference, but I made the mistake of putting it on the right side, which is the "water side." Water stations are on the right side, so at each one, I would grab a cup, drink about one ounce, and spill the other 5 ounches on my shirt, soaking and rendering illegible my pace chart.
Amazingly, I was *exactly* on pace for the first three miles. 7:50, 15:40, 23:30. I was pretty impressed with that, and I felt pretty good. The next mile was a little rolling, and I ended up dipping under the pace a little bit, and at 5 miles I was about 15 seconds under. Then the 6th mile was slower than planned, but it was hard to tell because I was still passing lots of people (that's what happens when you run an even pace). Around 5.5 miles these two young Asian girls caught up to me and I paced off of them for the next mile and a half or so.
When I saw the 6th mile was slow I started to pick it up a bit, trying to get down around 7:35 - 7:40. This was the time when we hit UW Bothell, including this relatively steep 300 yard hill. Despite that, I ran around 7:15 for that mile, probably because there was a big downhill after the uphill :)
At the end of the downhill (after I moved ahead of the Asian girls) I started to feel some pain in my side. I wasn't surprised because this seems to happen pretty frequently when I go to fast on downhills. So then it flattened out and I tried to relax and slow down a bit and just stay on the 7:40 pace I wanted... But I think the momentum just carried me through and I ended up running another 7:15 or so for the next mile. Around the beginning of the 7th mile I caught up with this guy who was running a good pace and I stuck with him for a while. We were battling back and forth for the next two miles, and for the first time in this event I actually started to feel like I was racing rather than just running for a time. The cool part was that while we were pushing each other, we were passing tons of other people along the way. I moved ahead of him slightly after the water stop just before the nine mile mark, but then I started feeling a little tired (after running three miles around 7:15, much faster than I had planned. He caught back up to me, and motioned for me to pick it up and come with him, but I was spent and knew I had to just relax for a while. I hit the ten mile mark at 75:55, which is about 7:36 average mile pace so far. So I was pretty pumped to have hit that mark. I knew if I kept under eight minute pace I'd be right around my goal time.
At mile 11 we passed through this park on the Sammamish River Trail in Bothell where there were a lot of people cheering, so that was uplifting. But shortly after that I really started to fall apart, and my pace slower even more. My legs felt okay, my upper body was a little stiff, but I just felt like I didn't have a whole lot of energy left. Another problem was that I started thinking too much. I knew around 11 miles that I should be able to run right arond 1:40 without much trouble, and since that was my goal, I knew I'd be pretty content with anything around that time, so I lost a little bit of motivation (for some time I was able to see the guy i had been racing with up ahead, but by about 11.5 miles he was too far ahead).
I just tried to keep up a steady pace and not completely fall apart. In the last half mile, the two girls I had been running with easier caught up with me. Well, one of them caught up, and the other one was a little behind me. I looked at the results later and was surprised to see they were 18 and 15! Wow.
I was able to pick it up a little bit the last few hundred yards and passed one guy a little before the end, so I was happy my sprinting skills were still there :)
After the race I was completely spent. I walked around and drank water for a while. I was so sore, especially my upper body, I just had to lie down on the ground for a while and stretch out. I had some bananas and clif bars that they were giving out, went and put on a sweatshirt, and walked around and stretched some more.
Then I went home and took a short nap. Mainly because lying down was the only comfortable position I could get in. Standing hurt my feet and legs, sitting hurt my back (not real back pain like i had before, just muscle soreness).

All in all I was pretty happy with my run. I just don't know how people run twice that far. Well I guess they train better. For now this is long enough for me though.

Results here.