Race for the Roses Half Marathon

This was my second year doing the Race for the Roses Half Marathon.

A few differences between the two years...

Last year, raining, This year warm and a bit humid
Last year, I had trained for the event, This year not quite trained
Last year I completed the walk in 2 hours and 40 minutes or so, this year I completed it in 2 hours 55 minutes
Last year, I had an on site cheering section at the end, this year they were cheering from a distance :o)

Both years I had fun... :o)

It really was a perfect day for this walk. It was a nice turnout of just 1389 people. Looking at the results it really had some interesting demographics... Out of the 1389 people only 29% of them were men! Is that strange? I would expect that for a race for the cure event, but it was just interesting to me for this one... (yes I like looking at statistics)

The weather was perfect. A bit overcast, kind of cool at the beginning, but I was sure glad I had left the warmer stuff at home. I just had a long sleeve shirt and a t-shirt over the top of it & capri length workout pants on. Had I had the headband and gloves I would have been way too warm, so this was perfect! Speaking of clothing during a walking event... There was a man that was at this event and the Bridge2bridge one I did a bit ago that had on JEANS!!! He wore the same outfit both times, blue jeans and a fleece sweatshirt & he walked pretty darn fast! I don't know how anyone could walk in Jeans for anything other than recreation... So he is going to be known as the "jean guy" from now on. (assuming I see him again at another event...)

This 1/2 marathon had us go way out Naito Parkway, turn around and wind back and forth through a bunch of the city, which was interesting to look at compared to where we walked out and back down on the industrial area of Front Avenue. I really enjoy the out and back sections where I can people watch. Fun to see the looks on people's faces, hear the chatter of what people are talking about and just plainly observe people. This event was different than a lot of them that I do in that there were A LOT of walkers... I walk at a pretty good pace & there were lots of people ahead of me walking at a really quick pace (10 minute miles I would guess) and there were A LOT of people behind me walking slower paces... In fact over 300 people finished behind me... Pretty neat when the race is set up that they allow people to finish at whatever pace they are comfortable with. (the final person crossed the finish line at 4 hours 13 minutes...)

When I was thinking ahead about doing this one last week, I was wondering what I was getting myself into without having much training over 6 miles under my belt for this season. (Triathlons don't generally go over 3 miles, I don't work too much on distance at this point) But I was glad I still proceeded and went and did it, it feels good knowing that I have the fitness base to pull off endurance events when I set my mind to it...

I can't think of much else to report, my storytelling isn't that great today... LOL

Final stats:
Half Marathon
2 hours 55 minutes - 13:23 minute mile - average pace