A Home County PR

Well, here it is the end of the third month of my MI Challenge and I still have not run a race in my home county of Genesee. That changed Saturday morning with the Flushing Township Half Marathon. I ran this race in 2009 as my first and only half marathon. My time last year was 1:54:36. I was very confident that I could better that time, but was unsure how hard I wanted to push to better the time. I went back and forth the last couple days before the race on whether I should run a relaxed race and achieve a PR or push myself and make a huge improvement.


I decided that I would push for the best time I could. When I woke up Saturday morning, I was not sure if the weather would cooperate. I left for Flushing and the temp outside was 25 degrees with a forecast of 35 to 39 during the race. But, when I got to Flushing High School, it felt warmer and the wind was not too bad. I met up with Brian and Traci Montpas at registration and we made our way to the starting line. Brian lined up with the 5Kers, while Traci and I lined up with the half marathoners. Matt and Paula Antoniou, fellow RUTsters, headed up for Matt to run the half. We met up at the start line and chatted before the race. Matt was planning for a quick pace, so my race plan was to keep Matt in my sight for as long as I could.


The race started and I had a real good first mile, passing the marker at 6:54. I kept Matt and his white hat in sight for the next few miles. Shortly after the 5Kers turned off for the finish, I saw Paula for the first time cheering on the runners. I passed the 4 mile mark at a little over 28 minutes and that was the last time I saw Matt. I could not keep up the 7 minute per mile pace, so I scaled back my pace to just under 7:30 per mile. I kept the sub 7:30 pace through mile 9. My pace dipped for the next two miles, but I was able to pick up the pace for the final two miles. I closed in on the finish and saw the clock. It was in the low 1:34s and got extremely excited that I would be under 1:40. I made the final turn and had 30 seconds to make it under 1:35. I picked up the pace just to be sure and crossed the finish line at 1:34:44.

That finishing time gave me a PR of 19:52 and I now have my sights set on getting my time under 1:30. Not only did I set a PR, but so did Matt and Traci. Brian bettered his 5K time from last year's race, so it turned out to be a great race for all of us. Next race on the docket is a fun run in Ann Arbor on April 1st. It is a race where runners eat Twinkies in between laps around the park. That should make for a fun April Fools Day!