Cellcom Half Marathon

I'm ready to race.

My running partner, Melodie Dugenske, and I ran the Cellcom Half Marathon yesterday. The temperature at race time was about 40 degrees and sunny. Perfect for a great race.

We finished with an overall pace of 9:32/mile which was way below our expected/hoped for time of 9:00/mile so we could finish under 2 hours. We came in at 2 hours and 05 minutes and, while disappointed that we didn’t get 2 hours, it is a personal best for me by 45 seconds.

At 5 miles we were dead-on the pace for 2 hours with 8:57 miles. We both ran out of gas around mile 7.5 and our overall pace at the 10 mile mark fell to 9:22-ouch. The last 3 miles were a struggle with us both saying at some point – “I just need to make it to the next water station” and “When the hell will this end?”. Looking back it doesn't seem that hard.

We saw the back of the t-shirt on one of the runners that summed up our last three miles well.

Next year I think I’m just going to run for fun, slap high fives along the course, and generally just soak in the experience. Just forget about time and pushing myself.

Enjoying a beer specially brewed for the Cellcom.