Hospital Hill

The Hospital Hill Half Marathon, with its long history of heat and humidity, was blessed with perfect weather this year, and I'm sure it brought out many runners' best efforts. It certainly brought out mine.

Various forecasters were predicting temperatures ranging from 47 to 60 degrees for Saturday morning, and what we got was 53 with a bright blue sky and perhaps a very slight breeze. Stupendous.

I had a fair amount of nervous energy before the race, which anymore is an indication to me that I am putting some kind of pressure on myself. I was. I knew I was pretty well trained, and now I had the perfect day for running. I'd be disappointed if I failed to make something of it.

My plan wasn't too specific, but under the circumstances I thought I could get close to 1:50. This was my third or fourth Hospital Hill, and I knew exactly how the course was laid out. The first mile is down hill, and the second all up hill (it's where a lot of runners screw up their whole race by pushing too hard too early). I decided I'd run a faster than normal opening mile, then take it easy during mile two. The goal was to crest the first big climb with no noticeable energy burn. Mile one was 8:35 and mile two was my slowest of the entire race: 9:03. Best of all, I was still completely fresh.

After that first big hill, the middle part of the race is what I would call rolling. Yes, it's hilly, but you also get to go downhill. I slowed my pace going up and always made up time going down. Most of my splits were between 8 and 8:20. There was one in there at 7:55 (mile 4).

Around mile 8, while we were in a relatively flat stretch, I got the strange thought in my head that I'd kind of lost interest in the race. I couldn't explain the thought to myself then (or now), but I knew right away that I quickly needed to care deeply. The long climb up Broadway was just ahead. If you enter that not caring one way or the other, you're probably not going to make it.

I guess I got my head right, because I managed to churn my way up without too big of a slowdown. After that last long climb it's all downhill to the finish, so I was able to turn in my fastest mile of the race: 7:37.

I finished in 1:49:44, about 40 seconds off my best time in this race, which I did in 2009. I thought I might place in the top ten in my age division, but I ended up 13th. Four runners in my division turned in times in the 1:38s. Doesn't matter. I'm very happy with my results.

Training is going to get tough now with the summer heat rolling in. The next big race is the Kansas City Marathon in October, but I need to find a couple of races before then.