Dayton River Corridor Classic Half Marathon- Half Marathon #30

I am way behind on this blog!  The Corridor Classic was last week and I have a race coming up this Sunday.  Rather than give you a double dose at once, I wanted to give my thoughts on this race.  The big news is this was half marathon number 30 for me!  It's hard to imagine that my first one was in September 2009.  Before that, the half was simply a goal that I was too scared to try.  Funny how things change so quickly.

This was my third time running this race, though the course is different every year due to the construction in Dayton.  University of Dayton Arena was the location the two years I previously ran (2010, 2012), but we had a brand new start at the Moraine Recreation Complex.  This seemed, to me, like a better location.  Easy to get to, plenty of parking, more indoor space, and a better post-race area were the highlights of the new location.

Having ran the Akron Marathon only two weeks prior, my only goal for this race was to keep my sub-2:00 streak alive.  The course looked pretty flat and I wanted to use the run as training for my last two races of the year.  As it was a training run, there's not much to report.

We started out at 9:00 and I kicked in with my usual nine minute pace.  Nothing fancy.  The course wound through a bit of Moraine, over I-75 and back around to the Great Miami River bike path.  We had roughly nine miles of bike path in this one.  It was dull at times but definitely resembled my normal training runs.  The path is at least wide enough to accommodate the runners without much congestion.  I held steady for the first four miles or so, but then some minor GI issues started in and didn't stop until well after the race.  I simply slowed down and tried to keep on pace for a sub-2:00.

We continued south on the bike path to the turnaround just past the seven mile marker. I was holding steady but getting a little worried that I wouldn't come in under 2:00. The GI issues were not getting any better.  My time at the 10 minute mark was just over 1:30, well behind my normal pace.  We finally made our way off the bike path shy of mile 11 and made our way back to the rec center.  I was able to speed up some and hit the 12 mile marker in 1:49 and change, meaning that I could finally relax.  The final mile was on road back to the original start.  I came in at a respectable 1:58:16 and 212/580 overall.  Certainly not my best effort, but not bad considering the recent full marathon and stomach issues throughout the race.  My sub-2:00 streak continues at twenty-two straight.

Next race: Buckeye Half Marathon- Peninsula, OH