Photo Time!

Sorry for the out of order photos...but I struggled to organize them. Anyways, the photos are from the March Madness 1/2 Marathon that I did a few weeks ago. Overall, it was a great race and my third time winning the race overall. There are 1000 runners and the race sells out very quickly. This year the was fastest ever and was sold out in under 5 hours. So you basically had to be sitting on the computer ready to sign up!

Jacqui's dad is a big part of this race due to the fact that his running club, the Hillstriders, put the race on each year. It's basically a year long project and a TON of work. I have only heard positive things about this year and how well it is run.....and I would definitely agree. Not to mention..this race is one of the hardest out there. Hills in Illinois you think? Think again. Each hill even has its own name! I think throughout the race there are over 10 and those last few from miles 10-13 are very exhausting.

My race strategy was to basically go out with the leaders and hold it. I wasn't sure what the level of competition would be, but knew I'd be able to hold 5:20 per mile on this course if needed. Welllll, the gun went off and immediately a group formed. It was much slower than I had anticipated. I stuck to my word though and sat in the pack. We ended up through the mile in 6 flat. Sure it felt nice to be running that pace, but I needed to break off. I opened it up a little bit and from there on never looked back. I settled into a comfortable pace and hit the following splits thanks to my new Garmin FR60 watch:

Mile 1- 6:00
Mile 2- 5:09
Mile 3- 5:08
Mile 4- 5:25
Mile 5- 5:23
Mile 6- 5:34
Mile 7- 5:40
Mile 8- 5:27
Mile 9- 5:14
Mile 10- 5:42 (big hill!)
Mile 11- 5:41
Mile 12- 5:43
Mile 13- 5:31

Overall- 1:12
Avg HR- 175

So as you can see, the last few splits were slow. That is where allll the hills are. Its tough to run even pace on the course, but I was happy with my performance and knew that I could've gone harder if need to be. I was battling a cold and struggled to breathe throughout the race so didn't want to push all out. I also had the Powerman Alabama race the weekend after and needed to get ready for it.

Jacqui also ran the race and did awesome. Since we starting dating, we both have done this race. The first year she ran 1:30. The second year she ran 1:28. This year she went 1:26. So solid improvement from year to year. She also ended up placing third overall for the women! It's awesome to see the progress that she is making....especially with her busy teaching/coaching/part time job schedule that she has!!! I couldn't be more proud!

SO here are the pics from the race: