Final half-marathon of the season today, on the State Park trails near my house. 2 loops, three substantial climbs each loop with descents that can get tricky (unstable large gravel) or slippery (leaves), with a fair amount of relatively benign flats as well. It was 36 degrees (F) at the start and foggy, everyone was layered up. There was also a 30k race at the same time with three 10k loops that share 95% of the route, so about 10 miles in Iām getting passed by 30k leaders who are at 15 miles.
The first 3 miles or so there are several people around, but after that we start stringing out and only occasionally passing others or getting passed. I did see 2 wipeouts, one early on when a dude hit a little āankle breakerā (miniature stump that didnāt get fully cleaned out when they cleared off some volunteer shoots earlier this year) and rolled. And then one about 2 miles from the finish, two twenty-something girls were walking on a downslope ahead of me and one of them just went down.
Intended to run up more inclines than I did, but I still finished in 2:50, 10 minutes shorter than target time, and pretty happy about it!
Placing: overall 78 / 97, male 54 / 59, age group (40-49) 16 / 18. Those were very consistent, from the first timing check at 3 miles I was in places 76, 54, and 15. I would like to be in the top half of my age group again, I used to be in the top 30%, I feel like if I can drop 30 pounds I may be able to do it again.
Feet are sore, got a bit of an āorthopedic massageā afterwards where the PT guy didnāt like do one of those soft, relaxing massages but rather some intense pressure targeted at removing the tension in some of my places. We discussed some pains Iāve been having and he pointed out that the excess tension in my right side is probably due to the left side being weaker and therefore Iām overcompensating on the right, plus foot pain being due to (1) too-small toebox in the shoes, and (2) weak muscles on the outside of my shin. I will take a couple of weeks to recover, then probably start up again and see if I can find some PT exercises to strengthen some of the things he told me about. I donāt remember all of it, naturally, so Iām already thinking that if I donāt feel good next spring, I may schedule some sessions.
Anyway, happy with progress! Looking forward to next year.