I ran the last pre-race before the half-marathon today, what a great race. My goal was not to place or break any records of any kind (especially not to get injured), but it was a three-miler and I ran it in 20:56 (my watch) and came in 19th place overall (4th in my division). This was the River Run in Wilkes-Barre (as of the time I posted this, the official results are not in). They actually have this race twice a year, in the spring its the river run and in the fall its the ben august memorial, but regardless, its a flat and fast course.

My goal in this was to remember the art of pacing myself, and not coming out too fast from the start. I also wanted to get one last speed workout in and overall, in comparison to when I ran this last fall, I ran it 6 seconds slower, but I felt better afterward. I recall the last time (and even checked my log from that day), that I even stated that I ran it too fast, and I was sucking wind the whole time. This time, I wasn’t worn out by the end and was not sucking wind at all, and actually ran the last mile faster than any other mile in the race, I sprinted the last quarter mile of it and passed out a kid who was dying. This whole experience today built up my confidence that I am ready for the half, and that I am in better shape than i was last fall … mission successful.

The most important thing was that it got the adrenalin pumping for the half marathon next week, which was another goal of this race. I was sad when it was over because I wanted to continue running … I felt great (a little tired), but either way, I can’t WAIT for next week, I am so psyched! I also determined that my family will travel with me to Allentown and spend the night, although they won’t attend the race because of the logistics required, they’ll be around for when i’m done. Maybe I can convince them to come to the race and see what its all about, guess we’ll see!