Good Day Sunshine

Silver Strand Half Marathon complete!

I've been patiently waiting for the official results. I checked the posted results sheet before I left the finish area and it showed were 2:13:29 chip time. That's only 18 seconds off from my half marathon PR of 2:13:11. My BiM stats gave me a finish time of 2:13:34, but I turned off the GPS after I passed by the finish line. Here's my splits.

Mile	Pace (min/mile)		Speed (mph)		Elevation Gain
	actual	+/- avg	actual	+/- avg
1	9' 50	-0' 18	6.1	+0.2	+9 ft
2	9' 29	-0' 39	6.3	+0.4	-9 ft
3	9' 22	-0' 46	6.4	+0.5	0 ft
4	9' 49	-0' 19	6.1	+0.2	0 ft
5	10' 06	-0' 02	5.9	+0.0	+6 ft
6	9' 57	-0' 11	6.0	+0.1	-7 ft
7	10' 17	+0' 09	5.8	-0.1	0 ft
8	10' 05	-0' 03	6.0	+0.0	0 ft
9	10' 33	+0' 25	5.7	-0.2	+7 ft
10	10' 40	+0' 32	5.6	-0.3	-3 ft
11	10' 45	+0' 37	5.6	-0.3	+13 ft
12	10' 46	+0' 38	5.6	-0.4	-17 ft
13	10' 12	+0' 04	5.9	-0.0	-7 ft
end	8' 42	-1' 26	6.9	+1.0	+6 ft
Versus average of 10' 08 min/mile: Slower Faster

I haven't had splits like that in ages. I even had something left for the end!

This is one of those races that went off without a hitch. It began at Sunset Park in Coronado, and ended at the Imperial Beach Pier. There's no mile by mile synopsis because I felt pretty good the entire run, I didn't need to push hard, and it was straight forward. I also saw a ton of San Diego Track Club Members, plus a few folks from Rehab United. It was like one huge party since live music, beer and snacks were provided at the end.

Not a lot of twists and turns, except once we arrived in Imperial Beach, we had to run for a couple of miles through a small residential section, then do a backtrack run on a rather barren section of the military base just to fit in the last 4 miles.

HOWEVER, Somewhere between miles 5 and 7, there was a rather large bush people kept going behind, since the port-o-potties were a ways up. I immediately thought about AKA Alice's bush story, and it just so happened that at that same time the song she suggested for my SDRNR Marathon 2009 mix came on a- Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) by Kate Bush. How coincidental! I had a good laugh.

At the end of the race, the guy right in front of me in the finishing corral gave me a hug. That was kind of funny... I got a hug from some (cute, young) random guy.

We did get a few photos from the day:

Michael, me, and Michelle from the track club waiting to start at Sunset Park, Coronado.

Me, Michelle and her husband Bruce

See? Very straight forward. The San Diego bay is on the left and Silver Strand State Beach is on the right. It was a GORGEOUS morining to be running.

Finished at Imperial Beach.

Worth the effort.

Thursday's song:
Baby, What A Big Surprise - Chicago - Rookie On The Run

PEACE

Gold Medal

Today, while looking for some different exercise ideas on Runnersworld.com, I had stumbled upon a site that I hadn't seen before, "Medals 4 Mettle."

"Medals4Mettle (M4M) is a non-profit organization founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2005. Its mission is to celebrate and reward the individual and collective courage of all human beings by facilitating the gifting of marathon finisher’s medals from marathoners to people who have demonstrated similar mettle, or courage. The recipients can be any age and might have exhibited such mettle by dealing with disease, handicaps or any similar challenge. Marathon runners around the world, and others who have won medals, give their medals to Medals4Mettle. Then our nationwide network of physicians and others award these medals to those who might not be able to run a marathon, but are in their own marathon to continue to live their life. As marathoners run through the streets, large crowds cheer the runners for their effort. Medals4Mettle lets these runners, healthy enough to compete in such an event, to return the cheers to those who have supported them."

A common topic amongst runners (in addition to running goals, personal records, injuries, and training schedules) is "what do you do with your finisher's medals?" Some people have suggested making wind chimes or Christmas ornaments. Some people frame the medals that have significant meaning to them, such as their first medal, the medal from the race where they blew past their last PR, their Boston Marathon medal, etc. After running in several long distance events, a person does end up with quite the collection of medals. I also have my medal collection, and I have plans to participate in more half marathons and marathons, but at some point it may be too cumbersome to hang on to all of those medals. I really don't have THAT many (10). They all hang on a hook along side a mirror in my bedroom. I do like the way they clink and clang against each other when they are moved, which serves as a reminder that I actually did all of those runs. Perhaps it is the sentimental part of me that doesn't want to part with my finisher's medals just yet, but when I do, Medals 4 Mettle will definitely be the recipient. They will take off the original ribbon and put their own Medals4 Mettle ribbons on before handing them out to people who are in "their own marathon to life life."

By the way, they also take event T-shirts.

Peace