Races love to tout their "flat & fast" courses. And honestly, what runner wouldn't love to run that? My race season kicked off on Saturday with the Run the Bluegrass half marathon in Lexington, and that course was definitely not flat. And I thought several times to myself about how challenging the course really was, because it was constant up and down for the entire 13.1 miles. It was by far the most difficult course I've ever run, and it being the first race I've done in 6 months made it that much harder. Oh, and the weather conditions? They started out ok, overcast and 50 degrees or so, but right before the start the wind picked up and then the misting rain. And with 2 miles to go, hard and cold rain. I was soaked and it took nearly all day for me to warm up.
But despite all that, I walked away with a new PR of 1:48:28. The late night miles on the treadmill paid off. Some of my splits were pretty slow, so I do feel there is still room for improvement on that time, but I am very happy with it given the course and the conditions. That time was good enough for 309/2535 overall and 14/283 in my division!
After the race, I enjoyed two guilt free days off. And today kicks off Ironman 70.3 training! Or, it technically started yesterday with a "rest" day. Check. So today I'm heading out in a beautiful 65 degrees on my bike. The wind is really strong, which I'm not thrilled about, but the sun is shining and it's well above freezing!
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