13.1 or More for 12

That title might be my new password, it's cryptic enough. Okay, maybe it's not that difficult, especially considering what most of these posts are about. 13.1 is of course a half marathon and the twelve, well that's how many months there are in a year. Figure it out yet? Yup, 2013 is going to be about running a race of at least a half distance in length every month for the entire year. The idea was thrown out there by a running friend, I kind of liked the idea, so here we go!

When I win the lotto, a challenge like this will be much easier. Simple logic would say find races in the winter months in beautiful, warm locations. Since that isn't going to happen any time soon (probably would help if I bought tickets), a quarter of the effort is finding races that happen as locally as possible in the winter months. No surprise, but for some reason people don't seem to like running in the snow. I know, that's crazy...perfect time for a race if you ask me!

Big goals this year, hopefully lessons learned. Keep in mind, I'm saying that, yet I'm lined up in shorts. Bang goes the gun, for the start of the Snowman Half Marathon. Since my last race, my Achilles has completely healed. It doesn't feel as if my speed is back to where it was prior to getting hurt, but I also feel stronger than I did. Not sure how that works out. I've got a different approach to training this year and that's run easy for the first half, then speed up. The hope is to prepare myself for the hardest late miles. Road conditions play a part in this, especially in the snow, but the goal is to stick with this formula and see what happens.

The first couple miles were on paved roads, the snow wasn't bad, but I could tell extra effort was being used. From about mile three until mile ten, the course became country back roads with potholes everywhere. Add some snow and hills to that and suddenly I'm glad of my plan to run the first half easy. Plenty of courses are out and back, but this one added a "T" type pattern where it was possible to see the leaders two times. I don't worry about the leaders much, I'd say it's more a curiosity to what they look like, does it look like they are struggling, or are they just sickeningly good form pros who shouldn't be running this damn race anyway? I may have digressed here a bit. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing how CT and friends are doing as well, but this race is the first that I can remember getting a sense of shame. I spotted an old man, and I don't just mean a guy in the next age group, I mean and OLD man so far ahead of me, it actually hurt. Granted I'm running easy, but my easy is still doing a hell of a lot of work and I think is a very respectable pace. To have OLD man crushing me, doesn't help the ego.

Mile seven is here, the point where I told myself I could pick up the pace. I couldn't do it. Don't get depressed quite yet. I couldn't do it because I was running up hill, into a strong wind, in the deepest snow to this point. Learning, remember? Better judgement said to wait a little longer. Patience paid off. Somewhere close to mile eight is when things cleared up and the governor came unhooked.

The last five miles were some of the best miles I've logged. I didn't start with the intention, but the more people I caught and passed, I did begin to wonder where OLD man was. On the fourth to last turn, I spotted him. It's fitting that I caught him on a hill. As I passed, I could help but tell him how awesome he was doing and inspiring he was...oh and I hope to be as fast as he is when I'm his age. FYI, 66 years old, took me eleven miles to catch him, and he still looked good!

Wasn't close to a PR for me, but it did end up being my second fastest half marathon to date, in the snow. Race #1 of 2013 in the books.