The Snake River Half Marathon. This was the big day for which I've been training since ... November? December? Something to keep me motivated and running throughout the winter.

The headline news is that I ran a PR, cutting almost exactly 4 minutes off my time from last year - by my watch I did a 1:49:28. The official time is 1:50:02 but I started at the back of a pack of 700 (registered) entrants and it took +30 seconds to even get to the starting line. So I'll award myself the half-minute bonus. My time works out to an average pace of 8:24/mile; I did do a negative split as my time at the halfway pt. was 58:02, so I ran exactly 6 minutes faster on the back leg - hey, that's almost a mile a minute better!

I placed 193rd out of ... 700?

I am so pleased with the outcome, given that I'd felt interrupted and a bit inconsistent with training this last month. I never run with an I-pod but did play music in my head part of the time - I'd been listening to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3 yesterday so that was what I ran to today - oddly, it worked well! I was mindful of keeping my form intact and not speeding up too much when I felt really good on the back stretch ("you still have 5-4-3 miles to go"). I did feel my legs get tired at mile 12 but just pushed through to the end. As last year, the run by the river was a scenic and calming setting. Temps were in the mid-to-upper 40s and the winds were light this year.

Good to know too that the minimalist running and the wheat-free and gluten-free diet we've adopted are clearly working out well. My wife set a PR too! We did NOT eat big plates of pasta last night for our pre-race dinner - rather, ground beef with kelp noodles (definitely low, low carb) and salad.

On a non-me note it was great to see so many fit and capable runners of all ages and both sexes. Inspiring.

Here is a picture to commemorate a great day.