Race Weekend

This weekend was a busy one, starting with the big woods half marathon on Saturday morning.  I haven't done any runs over 6 or 7 miles since the marathon, but that didn't really worry me, and I figured 6 minute pace would feel pretty sustainable.  I was right, my race ended up being 1:20 which is about 6:06 miles.  I went out in a group of 5 off the front immediately and we stuck together until mile 3 and the 10k cutoff where 3 turned off and it was just a 2 person race after that, and even then not for long.  I hung with the eventual winner for another mile or so when he started to form a gap.  He had 40 seconds at mile 7 and was out of sight by then.  I ran the second half of the race all alone, something I'm getting oddly used to in races, but still haven't been able to push the pace on these long races when running solo.  I had a great 1/2 earlier in the year where I chased down Sam Pertz over the second half of the race to run a 1:17 PR, so to run alone to a 1:20 wasn't bad, not good enough for any kind of prize though unfortunately.  Several of my friends also ran it, and there was the 3rd win in a row for my coworker Mike over my friend Jeff.  With that race over running season is winding down.  I might have one 5k left in a couple weeks, otherwise it is time to buckle down and get in shape for the upcoming ski season, which means I need to get back going on the rollerskis, which I haven't touched since the weekend before the marathon (I did the first ever Birkie marathon +2 miles to get 28 miles for my 28th birthday this year).  I might try to jump right back into intervals on Tuesday, they keep me pretty exciting about rollerskiing since they are a way to mark progress.  Long skis are very effected by route and wind so they do not provide as good of an indicator.  Then Saturday evening I went to my friend and fellow skier Travis's wedding, but that's another post.  Soon I'm going to try to start taking pictures to spice up a huge boring wall of text, so be on the lookout for that one.