13.1 PR

13.1 PR

13.1 PR

Jan 21, 2012 by Scott Bauhs
13.1 PR

Heading into the Houston Half Marathon I was more excited to watch my teammates run the Olympic Marathon Trials the day before than to actually run my own race. That said, my training was going very well and the Houston Half Marathon gave me a great opportunity to test that fitness.

The splits on my watch were: 4:50, 4:42, 4:35, 4:40, 4:43, 4:45, 4:46, 4:28, 4:46, 4:41, 4:38, 4:43, 5:08 (1.1 mi on last split). I am glad that Jon (Grey) and Luke (Puskedra) went out slow with me for the first mile because it is really easy to get carried away and go too fast. I am not very good at hanging on at the end of a race that isn't going well and I am much better at making up lost time at the end if I am feeling good. The 4:28 mile happened during the eighth mile when I surged trying to catch Tilahun Regassa who was coming back to us a bit before the turn around at around 9 miles. I never did catch him and while the surge dropped Jon, Luke stuck around. Eventually I wasn't making up any ground on Regassa and Luke wasn't going anywhere so I let Luke go to the lead to get out of the wind. I let Luke lead until around 400 meters to go and then I gave one last shot at catching Regassa but it was too late. In the end I'm glad I beat Luke, that kid is fast and has a great future but I can’t let college kids beat me.

I am definitely happy with my big PR. 1:01:30 is faster than most Americans have been running the past few years and it could be the top time for the US at the end of the year. It could also be argued that it is the best time that I have ever run, better than my 10k's. That said, I plan to do a few more and try to improve before the year is over.

Running this PR showed that I am stronger than ever. I know that will translate to the track when I start doing more speed work. I am very excited to see where my training takes me. I know that I can be a factor at the Olympic Trials and I don’t plan on making it easy for anyone to make the team ahead of me.

Now though I am off to hang out in Ensenada, Mexico with Pat Smyth, because we don't get enough of each other at practice.

@ScottyBauhs