We had rain again last night. I'm not sure how much but the streets were wet when I woke up this morning. It was really humid outside (90%) and around 73 degrees. My plan called for 110 minutes. I wanted to do the usual trail run out at Northshore this morning but DORBA said the trail was closed. I decided to do something a little different this morning. The concrete Campion Trail out of Valley Ranch is smooth and is scenic through the woods along the the Trinity river. It is fairly flat and I started out doing some easy mid nine minute miles with the intention of going 55 minutes and then turn around. I saw Joe's neighbor Fred at the 4.5 mile mark. He trail runs with us sometimes on Sunday. You never know who you will run into out there. I stopped for a few minutes to talk to Fred and then took off. I started feeling stronger as time went by. Around the 5-6 mile mark, I realized my time was going to be right at a 2 hour half marathon. I either had to turn around at 55 minutes or go to the 6.55 mark and turn around. I decided for the latter. If I couldn't make the time, I could just stop at the 1:50:00 mark and walk it back to the truck. At the turnaround, I tried to find a good sustainable pace that was less than nine minutes per mile. I was a shade over an hour at the turnaround and only had to make up about 30 seconds on the return. At about 9-10 miles, I didn't think I could keep the pace. I saw Fred coming the other way on his return and it made me feel a little better knowing I didn't have far to go. Seeing a friendly face was a big motivational lift. As I started looking at my watch and counting down the miles. I passed under the 635 bridge and was really close on time. I passed under the Valley View bridge and was a little ahead. Once I got to about 2 miles to go, I thought it was possible but I was fading and having a hard time hanging on to the pace. I got to the levee and had to get over it before finishing. The end was in sight and I was close. Once I got over the levee, I could see my truck in the parking lot and kept the pace to the truck. When my watch hit 13.1 miles, I was at 1:57:46. It has been sort of an under the table secret goal to bust a 2 hour half marathon. I took the Skratch Labs drink mix with me today. I have to say it worked great in warm, humid conditions. There may be something to that stuff. Never cramped at all. I'm pretty stoked about today's run.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/318389860
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