1:55:13

That, my friends, is my personal best for a half marathon (well, the better of the two that I've done)...did it today at the Grand Rapids Half Marathon in Michigan. I went into the race with two goals--the major goal being that I ran my race, meaning that I paced myself according to what I can do, not what the pack of runners around me was doing, and the secondary goal of breaking the 2 hour mark. I did both--and feel great (albeit a little stiff this evening). The crazier thing is that I actually even did a mile warm-up and a mile cool-down (with the cool-down taking about 3 minutes longer than the warm-up--go figure) so I could get my 15 miles in today per my marathon training schedule as well. The race is a good one--would definitely recommend it, as the race director's emails alone are well worth the registration fee in entertainment value. The course was pretty--a lot of it was on a bike path that ran through a wooded area, and the Michigan leaves are absolutely gorgeous now. Met some very cool people along the run as well--started running with a guy who was trying to break the 4 hour marathon mark in honor of his 40th birthday. This was his second marathon--his only comment about his first race was that he knew he could handle the "wall" at mile 20, but that no one told him the wall was backed up by a Mack truck. After asking some others around me for advice on dealing with the wall, I think the best advice came from a guy who said simply, "Just keep putting one foot in front of the other." So much for a deeply insightful piece of hugely helpful wisdom, but it makes sense...

It was a great weekend, all in all--got stuck in some pretty brutal Chicago traffic due to a bad accident just across the border in Indiana, but once I made it through that, the weekend perked up. I met some friends in St. Joe, MI for lunch, then picked up my race packet, etc. in Grand Rapids and headed back down towards Battle Creek to stay with some friends of mine. They were hosting a party for some of Kathy's co-workers...sad thing is that I bailed early from the party and actually went to bed at the same time as their 5- and 8-year old children, and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep well before them. Guess I'm getting the hang of this sleeping thing, after all. After the race today, I drove back down and hung out with them--I miss having them around (they used to live in Chicagoland as well), but it was great spending time with them. Nothing fancy--had lunch with Kathy, Steve, and the kids (who had just carved their pumpkins), went on a walk with Kathy and the puppy, then went to an orchard to buy yummy apples, good cider (unpasteurized--the best kind of all), and apple butter. Low-key, but pretty much a perfect way to spend a beautiful fall day.

On the drive home, I started thinking about my race today and about how different things are now for me. Six months ago, I ran my first 5K with a whopping 10:40 pace...today I ran a half marathon with a pace of 8:48. Pretty wild to think about all that's transpired since my first road race...and even crazier to think that was just 6 months ago. On a day-to-day basis, I don't really stop to think of my progress, other than just to consider that I'm able to run a little longer and usually a little faster each week, but I guess it's probably a good sanity check to take a step back and look at the bigger picture every now and then, too. Definitely a good thing for a detail-minded person like me to keep in mind over the next year...

Given that it's 8:30 and I'm wiped, I'll do my weekly wrap-up tomorrow...but I'll keep smiling about my PR today!!