Oak Barrel Half

I PRd.

I PRd at a course which website boasts "this will NOT be a flat and fast personal record setting course."

A new Personal Record.

I ran 1:53:11 beating my last record by over four minutes.

I placed seventh in my age/gender group, 35th among all female finishers and 149th among all 1600 entrants.

The morning started off very cold, the wind chill had be in the 30s. I hemmed and hawed for awhile about wearing my jacket and I took off for the start line wearing the jacket. A wise decision--the wind on the ridgeline was downright brutal.

Brr! So cold!

Whiskey Hill is infamous. It has its own Facebook page. As a San Francisco Runner--a Presidio Trail Runner--Whiskey Hill has NOTHING on us. Sure, I was a bit breathless at the top and my pace dropped dramatically for that mile, but I never once thought "this is unbearable, I should walk." Thank you SF. You've got somethin' goin' for ya.

There is a timing mat at the bottom and top of the hill, allowing participants to see their place at the bottom of the hill and at the top. I moved up an entire six spots on that hill alone and held my place from then on out.

After the hill, was a blur. It was beautiful out in the backcountry roads of Lynchburg. Green pastures and spring blossomed trees enveloped the course. Around mile 6.5, I was under an hour and thought to myself that might be able to beat 2:00. I planned to hold steady until mile 10 when I could plan if I had a fast 5k in me to be able to beat 2:00. By the time mile 10 came around it was clear that I was WELL within striking distance of a PR and I let myself GO.

Split	Elevation Gain	Elev Loss	Avg Pace
1	0	39	0:08:28
2	0	7	0:08:35
3	72	59	0:08:45
4	79	0	0:08:56
5	279	0	0:10:25
6	30	66	0:08:36
7	82	43	0:09:28
8	0	23	0:08:43
9	46	164	0:08:16
10	0	95	0:07:58
11	0	72	0:08:03
12	0	33	0:08:07
13	7	26	0:07:52
14	7	0	0:07:46
Summary	600	627	0:08:37

I heard my name as I came close to the finish line. I heard the surprise in the announcers voice that I was from San Francisco. If only he could announce that this was also my best half marathon performance to date.

 Floating my way through the finish line.

I knew I had it a mile back.

Finishers items included a hat, socks and long sleeve cotton quarter zip. The post race party had grilled cheese sandwiches, pimento cheese sandwiches (with SO MUCH MAYO), hoe cakes (my new favorite) and Brunswick stew. Katy and I warmed up in the car before our tour of the Jack Daniel's Distillery (complete with tasting).

Ron, our amazing tour guide at the Distillery.

HUGE thanks to Katy for waking up early with me, driving to and from Nashville, taking some amazing race photos and celebrating my success. If you're in the Nashville area, check her out for your professional photography needs. She did a great job taking finish photos of me!

All that hair should earn me a handicap.

Done!