Marion Arts Festival Half Marathon

Wasn't sure how to get to the start line and where to park my car, but I made it. Put on my shirt with the bib number and met with Jeff and Shawn. I told them my goal was to keep a pace of 8:20 or so during the race. The gun was shot and I started following Jeff, but I saw he was going a little bit too fast for me, so I let him go and try to run my own race.

The weather was not the best. It was raining and cold. In some points of the race, the wind was hitting hard. There were more than a thousand runners, so it was easy to follow some good pacers. Realized I was going faster than my goal time, so I kept the pace and tried to do better the second half.

There were 415 runners in the half marathon (223F and 192M). I guess many runners decided not to run because of the weather conditions. Zack Baker finished in 1 hr 10 min, that's a 5:19 pace!  This guy is fast!  I wonder how much he improved in his last trip to Kenya. 

GARMIN

Red Shoe Half Marathon 2017

Didn't know how fast to run this race, as usual. I met with Jeff and thought about running with him. He started too fast, first mile at 7:49 and second mile at 7:09 min/mile. I knew that was way too fast for a half marathon. But, tried to maintain the pace. Then, I saw Shawn, so I thought about keeping her pace.  She was running a little bit too fast for me. But we helped each other and stayed together until the end.
Got second place in my AG. Robert Cornell got first. Jeff got third place! He was not too far behind us. I got two medals in this race!

GARMIN