Good golly, did this race start early. I dragged myself out of bed at 5:15 a.m. and was out the door ten minutes later. I stopped at Safeway for coffee, Gatoraide, and a light breakfast. Only half the lights were on, so I thought they were closed at first. Just after 6:00, I arrived in Tacoma, parked, and headed to the start area.

After using a sani-can, I started warming up, just a little light jogging to loosen up my legs. The starting area was right in front of a soup kitchen, which made for some interesting pre-race conversations. As I was bagging my sweats at the clothing drop, I saw a pacer go by with a 4:30 sign. I figured this was Jon Yoon, since I knew he was working as a marathon pacer for the four hours and thirty minutes group. I went over and introduced myself. Jon is the first person from the internets that I've met who I didn't already know first. And to think I've only been doing this for seven years.

I didn't have much time to chat with Jon—he was busy, and I needed to get closer to the starting line. Moving my way into the second row, I hoped I wasn't too close to the front. When the starter sent us on our way, I realized I was in the perfect position; everyone around me was going my speed. I went out a little faster than I wanted to. I thought a 7:30 mile would fit the bill, but between tucking into a couple of guys' draft to stay out of the wind and having sprightly legs, I cruised the first mile in 6:55.

My pace settled down a little bit after that, but I was running a hilly part of the course. Some downhill greeted me around mile four, and my pace went up without any extra effort. Before I knew it, I was running 6:50s. By the time I hit the long flat stretch near the water, I was cruising, and it felt pretty easy.

I had a little trouble getting through the aid station at nine miles. It was after the turn-around for the half, and I was fighting my way through a crowd of slower marathoners and half marathoners coming toward me. There was such a crowd around the water table I had to come to a complete stop to avoid running into people. It irritated me a little, and I had to control myself to keep from sprinting off in anger. I didn't want to blow my good pacing.

At mile 11 I thought I had a sub-seven minute pace in the bag. I was even entertaining the idea of going under 90 minutes. Then the hills started. The last mile-and-a-half was a series of short, steep uphills broken up with short flat sections. It was brutal. I thought every hill was the last hill. It seemed as though the finish line would never come. The last tenth of a mile was pure downhill, but it was such a twisty bit of road it was hard to keep a high pace. I managed to finish in 1:31:41. Sine 1:31:42 is a seven-minute pace, I managed my sub-seven after all! Technically, I should round my 6:59.9 up to 7:00, but I'm not going to.

My calves started cramping immediately after I crossed the finish line, so I may have overdone it a bit. I guess time will tell. All things considered, this was the first half marathon performance I've been happy with since the 2003 Capital City race. Angie said she likes it better when I'm happy with a race. I have to admit, I do too.

My splits:

Distance	Split	Total
Mile 1	6:55	6:55
Mile 2	7:23	14:17
Mile 3	7:22	21:39
Mile 4	7:02	28:41
Mile 5	6:43	35:24
Mile 6	6:54	42:18
Mile 7	6:53	49:11
Mile 8	6:54	56:04
Mile 9	6:47	1:02:50
Mile 10	6:52	1:09:42
Mile 11	6:47	1:16:28
Mile 12	7:14	1:23:42
Mile 13	7:22	1:31:04
Last 0.1	0:37	1:31:41

  ¶ 11:13 PM