Steve - 13.1

I wasn't quite sure what to expect for the Hollywood Half Marathon. I ran only once all week after the 5k on Sunday. It was a quick 3 miler just to get something in. I was pretty sick for the early part of the week. Thursday and Friday I felt better but I wasn't sure if I would have the wind to run a good race and if I would be coughing a lot. Also the race was starting at 6 am, which is pretty damn early for a race. We had to leave the house at 4:30 am.

We parked around 5:30 and I was able to hit the bathroom just before the race and sneak up into the 7 minute mile pace starting group. Of course once we started we were jogging at 10 minute mile pace for the first 200 meters. I weaved through the slow runners and eased into an 8:xx mile pace. I didn't warm up much other than a few minute jog from the bathroom to the start line. I figured mile 1 would be my warmup. I started running with a guy who seemed like a pretty fast runner. I asked him if he was going for 7 minute mile and he said about that. We talked for a lot of the first mile. He said the first 2 miles would be downhill but that I should save some gas for the end of the race because we would have to climb that 2 miles. I didn't get a split for the first mile but it felt easy. I let my new friend go a bit and settled into a 7:30 ish pace. For most of the first 2 miles I was passing a lot of people. Apparently everyone starts in a faster pace group than they actually intend to run the race.

I passed my new friend after a while. I was still feeling good when I hit the 5k mat in 23:28 (7:34). It was mostly downhill for that 5k so it was actually kind of slow. I kept picking people off and settled into a solid pace. I hit 10k in 46:41 (7:32), meaning I had picked up the pace. It's weird that I almost never saw the mile markers. There was usually water every mile or so but I was never sure about the distance cuz I didn't see the markers. I guess they were somewhere though and I just missed them. I don't remember much from the next few miles of the race other than trying to speed up some and always wondering about mileage. I remember asking a guy at one point what he had on his GPS and he said 9.6 miles. For much of the 2nd half of the race there was a guy 10-15 meters in front of me wearing a shirt that said "No Whining" on the back. It stuck out to me for some reason and I made sure not to let this guy away from me. I finally pulled even with him somewhere around 10 miles. I was wondering when exactly the hill was going to start. I was still feeling good and hoping I could run around 1:35 overall. Finally we got to the hill and it was tough. People were slowing down all around me. I kept a nice short stride and was passing people but I was going pretty slow myself. I left No Whining in the dust though. For what felt like an eternity we kept climbing and climbing. I didn't look at my watch cuz I didn't want to get discouraged. Only one guy passed me I think in that whole time but I knew I was still going slow. Finally we got through the climb and there was a slight downhill. I started picking it up and caught sight of the finish. Legs were dying but I wanted to finish strong. I passed one guy from my group and hit the line in 1:40:10 (7:39 pace). Not bad considering the murderous hilly finish and that I was sick for a lot of the week. Here is a link to the course profile if you're interested:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/fullscreen/73601376/