"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."

Palio Half Marathon, Saratoga Springs, NY

And here I am, less than 1 month away from the marathon!  Yesterday I ran the Palio half marathon in Saratoga Springs, NY, here is how the weekend unfolded:

Friday the 13th....sure did live up its stigma here in Colorado.  That week Colorado saw the most rain it has ever seen in such a short period, ever.  Total rainfall was equivalent to what is seen over the course of the entire year.  I was awaken Thursday night to flash flooding alarms and again on Friday at 4:00 a.m.  I managed to fall back asleep Friday morning before getting up to go to the airport.  I left my apartment just after 7:00 a.m. and started my short 50 minute drive to DIA... but to my surprise they closed the interstate!  It ended up taking me 2 1/2 hours and I made my flight with 5 minutes to spare.  Luckily, security at DIA was a ghost town, which was an oddity.  I arrived into Syracuse at 6:00 p.m. and we stopped for dinner in Utica.  I finally made it back to good old scotia at 9:45 and was in my bed by 11:00.

Saturday, September 14th- I met Crystal and Mac daddy in Clifton Park and we headed to the race expo in Saratoga.  We did a 3.5 mile shake out run on the first part of the course.  Mile 1 was a major hill!  After a little photo session we drove the rest of the course and headed home.  I finished the day off with a soccer reunion and some family time that evening, catching up with my brother and his girlfriend.  

Sunday, September 15th- RACE DAY!!!  Woke up at 5:30 a.m. (Still on 3:30 mountain time)!  We picked up Crystal and her sister-in-law, Kelly, and arrived around 6:35.  After an easy warmup run, I got rid of some layers, changed into my racers and headed to the start to finish my drills and strides.  

Mile 1- went out easy.  The pack I was running with must have thought I was running too fast or something because they were saying rather loudly how it is a long race and people shouldn't go out too fast.  I decided to engage in their conversation and talk to them normally so they knew I was running at easy effort despite the uphill mile, we only went through the first mile in 6:17... clearly slower than my overall pace.  From then on I essentially ran the rest of the race alone, which was fine because mentally I can hit my pace without the help of anyone else or a pace group.  I hit the 5k in 19:00.  10k in 38:11.  15k in 57:30.  I threw out my gloves at mile 6.5, which I regretted later.  Miles 7-9 were tough for me.  There was an uphill just after 7, and a 180 turn around just before mile 8.  I also started to feel a bit of a headwind at this time and took it on completely solo.  Miles 10-11.5 went well, then the last mile and half got a little confusing.  There was no one near me and the volunteers were just kind of standing around talking amongst each other.  I wasn't exactly sure where I was turning until I reached the turn, which was kind of annoying, especially in the last mile because there were a lot of turns!  I finished the race in 1:21:21, a minute and 56 second PR. 

I am extremely thankful for all the volunteers (although I wish they were a little more directive the last 2 miles when I was alone and trying to look for the turns), but overall it was a well organized event.  From the expo, to the water stations, everything was great.  My only complaint was the 11:30 start time for the awards ceremony.  The ceremony included those for the 5k, which started at 7:35 as well as the half, which the majority of winners were done by 9:00 a.m.  It was such a perfect fall day and great to see so many people out there working hard and achieving their goals.