INDEPENDENCE DAY HALF MARATHON YEAR TWO

Will I win the race? Answer: no.

Thursday, I am running the Independence Day Half Marathon again at Champoeg Park. I ran this race last year for the first time and generally enjoyed it, so I signed up again for another round. I have not had a dense year of racing, only three races so far, so it'll be good to get out there again. I wanted to sign up for more, but it is hard to fit them into my marathon training schedule without blowing out an entire week.

Since I've built this one into my schedule and want to make sure it counts, I'll be "racing" it. Like last year, running a half during marathon training isn't ideal, but with today and tomorrow off my legs should be in reasonable shape. It will be a good baseline for my fitness after running 1:47:33 a year ago. Obviously, I will want to beat that time at minimum. While my winter was really poor in terms of maintaining my fitness, I do feel like I am a touch faster than last year. So it will be good to run this to the best of my abilities and see how that shakes out.

Weather this year looks pretty decent. It is going to be a sunny day but it should be high 50s when the race kicks off at 8am, and low 60s by the time I finish. The course also has a decent amount of shade, so while not ideal, the weather shouldn't be a factor. The course also isn't the fastest, but also isn't too bad. There are a couple rolling hills and one decent climb on the second loop, but overall these will maybe add a minute or so over a completely flat course. Besides, it will be a good "apples to apples" comparison to last year.

As for an update on training in general... it is going well! I have been very good about my new "easy or fast" distinction, and if I am not doing speedwork, all my runs have basically been truly easy at 9:30 or slower. Last week I did a 5 mile tempo run on a HILLY course and got 7:41/mile overall. I was shocked I was able to do that given the route. Regardless of course, it was my fastest tempo run in training since August 2015. Almost four years! So that was a shot of confidence. I am also able to run my long runs (17 miles last week) without any issue. They don't even really feel hard. So I'm feeling like I'm in a good spot.

I've thought about my goals on Thursday and I basically have two. The first, and most important, is to beat last year. If I don't do that, I am going to be feeling pretty down on myself. So that's the goal at minimum. However, I would also really like to get under 8 minutes a mile. I feel like that is back in me (after losing it over the winter and spring), so that will be my main focus. I'm going to pace myself at 7:50/mile and try to hold onto it as long as possible. I feel like with race day adrenaline I can hold this for at least 8 or 9 miles. We'll see about the final few as it will depend on my how legs feel.

So that's the update! As always, I will post a race report with the results. Really hoping I can get under 8:00/mile. That would put me ahead of last year, and the main goal at Portland will be to beat my time at MCM, so that would mean I'm on track.