Ohio River Road Runners Club Half Marathon

GF and I headed to the Dayton area for this small and amazing race in Xenia.  We stayed in Yellow Springs, a funky and fun village just minutes from the race, at the Arthur Morgan House Bed and Breakfast.  This gave the weekend a vacation feel and both GF and I loved the B&B.  Highly recommended!

This is my fourth time running this race as it is my absolute favorite half.  You can check out my reports from 2011, 2012, and 2014.  I always run well here and know the course like the back of my hand.  There are a few rolling hills early in the race, but for the most part this one is flat and fast.  The race is growing, too!  There were 522 runners in the half and 168 in the full for the 2011 running.  Compare that to 990 in the half and 269 in this year's event.  The cost of $25, terrific organization, and the fact that the race is in close proximity to Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus helps.

GF and I arrived about 45 minutes from the start and I was already feeling good.  Usually I'm quite nervous for a goal race, especially considering I had an unexpected PR at the Three Creeks Half Marathon last month.  But I felt good because I had already been on this course.

GF took a few pics to commemorate half number forty-four!

Miles 1-5: I felt very good from the beginning.  We started out from the YMCA and headed north for about a mile or so before making a small loop, heading back by the Y, and out toward the bike path.  I started out strong.  Too strong.  This is a fast portion of the course, but we started in with some hills during the third mile.  There's a brief section on the bike path, then we make our way on some country roads.  The hills  aren't terrible, but they can seem long if you started out too fast.  We loop back to the bike path at mile four and start in on some long, flat straightaways.  Here are the first five splits: 1 (7:17), 2 (6:58!), 3 (7:16), 4 (7:06), 5 (7:17).  I like the looks of miles 1, 3 and 5.  The other two are way too fast for so early in a half.  I was shooting for a PR but wondered how long it would take to crap out.  These splits are much faster than at Three Creeks.

Miles 6-10: I was feeling good but felt those first five.  We continued down the bike path until a left turn onto a different section moving toward Central State University.  I banked some more time here and passed a few runners.  There's a turnaround about 3/4 mile and then we head back.  I was surprised there weren't more people in front of me as the ORRRC races are extremely competitive.  We turned, headed back, and made a right turn back toward Xenia at the nine mile mark.  This is where the wheels started to feel the race.  I actually started sprinkling in some 15 second walk breaks as my quads were killing me.  Here are the splits for miles 6-10: 6 (7:23), 7 (7:06), 8 (7:10), 9 (7:29), 10 (7:28).  You can tell I was slowing down at miles nine and ten, but these are still incredible splits for me in a half.  I knew a PR was still a possibility as I was well under 1:15 at the ten mile mark.

Miles 11-13.1:  I was still feeling this race and sprinkled in a few breaks during mile 11.  The PR was still there, but I was going to have to push my pace during the last mile.  There were a few other runners around, so I simply concentrated on moving forward and trying to pick them off.  We turned back toward the YMCA with about a quarter mile left and made our way uphill to the finish.  I gave it whatever I had left, then kicked it in some more when I saw GF cheering and doing her celebratory dance.  I sprinted across the finish to my third PR of the year!  My splits for the last few miles were: 11 (7:38), 12 (7:46), 13 (6:56!), and 13.1 (1:28).  This gave me a new PR of 1:36:24.

I'm getting ever so close to my goal of 1:35.  This race took a lot out of me as I was pretty incoherent for the rest of the day.  Had I paced properly, I probably could have come in another 30 seconds faster.  Running my third PR of the year when it's only April is pretty amazing.  This new gear feels pretty good!  I'm looking at doing a half as a training run next week and shooting for the 1:45-1:47 range.

GF Training Update

GF continues her quest for a new PR and she is well on her way!  We did a two mile speedwork session and she killed it in 31:00.  We also went out to the bike path in Yellow Springs on Saturday and did a three mile time trial.  She started off a bit fast with a downhill first half.  The second half was at a slight grade but enough to feel it.  She still came in with a personal best of 46:15!  We are both counting down to the Flying Pig and I would not be surprised to see her shatter her personal best.  We're going to go out again a few times this week for some speedwork/time trial sessions.

Next race: Earth Day Challenge Half Marathon- Gambier, OH