Victories...almost.

The Dark Side Half Marathon isn't going to be a race I remember fondly. But there were two things I took a little bit of pride in that I have not achieved in other races.

• Negative splits... almost. In the four other half marathons I've run, I had to practically crawl across the finish line. During this half, I was able to run each mile at the same pace or faster until the very end. I believe I could have hit a pace in the 8 min/mile range for my last mile, except the course narrowed for a while onto a dirt path, creating a slower bottleneck that was tough to get around. Still, I was in shock at how good I felt after the race. Usually I'm left wondering how a half marathon is half of anything. Makes me think I should have tried to run a little bit faster during some of those earlier miles.
  
  
• Running the entire race...almost. In 4 of 5 half marathons I've done, I began losing steam after mile 9 or 10. I'd always finish out my race using some form of the run/walk method, even in my first and fastest half marathon. This time, I didn't need to walk at all... except through ONE water station. That doesn't really count, right? I just haven't mastered the ability to drink water and keep running yet. You can see exactly where that was below:

Good stuff, right?

So now I've just got to get faster for the Avengers Half. And I know I can do it because I just had six months of experimentation to figure it out. I know what I need to do. I'm not going to lose time messing around with faulty heart rate monitors this time like I did last time. I have to throw in more sprints and faster runs in my training. And I have to build some strength.

But shaving off two minutes per mile in the next six months still sounds a bit daunting. And kicking my training off with an injury doesn't bode well.