One race I'd love to do again: the Goodlife Fitness Victoria Half. My race there in 2012 was a great day - one of those race memories you can reach right back & touch.
The race was just great - I love running a half that way. Was relaxed & well-rested Sunday morning, stomach and headache cooperated in the morning, and got in a decent warmup run. Legs felt loose & springy. Walked to the start & got a spot a bit back from the line and just stood quietly waiting. I'd decided to set my watch to autolap each mile, but hadn't decided if I would look at it or not during the race.
Got over the line about 20-30 seconds after the start, and just went with a relaxed pace. Checked the watch at about 1/2 mile in & saw 7:50 average pace and toyed with the idea of doing a marathon pace run, but didn't think too much about that. Didn't think too much about anything the whole race, really.
Miles 2 & 3 were a bit quicker, but mile 4 slowed a bit, I think a hill heading into the park. Mile 5 dropped back below 7:20, and that's when I started to trust that I'd be able to hold the pace.
Took a gel around mile 6, and just kept clicking off the miles - I'd glance at my watch each mile & note the mile split, but didn't check the elapsed time or average pace at all - just watched to make sure I didn't slow up and didn't worry if I had a faster mile here or there.
The rolling terrain of the course was perfect for me - hills never steep or long enough to kill momentum or pace going up, but enough to boost pace going down. Never really crowded, and still plenty of people around so I had women to chase down in the last three miles. I did miscount miles and thought the mile 9 split was mile 10, so picked up the pace too early. Had a slower mile 11, but picked it up again for miles 12 & 13, then really pushed the last 400. Saw 1:37:xx on the clock & was a bit disappointed till I stopped my watch & saw 1:36:53 - a one minute PR :)
Splits:
1 - 7:40
2 - 7:21
3 - 7:19
4 - 7:33
5 - 7:13
6 - 7:19
7 - 7:25
8 - 7:19
9 - 7:10
10 - 7:16
11 - 7:24
12 - 7:05
13 - 7:08
13.1 - 1:42
Overall, I felt pretty comfortable till 1.5 miles to go; legs felt good the whole time. Hip a little tweaky right after the race but walked it out Sunday afternoon. Happy with the race and how I feel afterward. Very happy to have energy & speed coming back.
