Rochester Half Marathon

So I did the Rochester 13.1 yesterday. It was a blast. High 40's, no wind with a sunny day on a heavily shaded course. Basically, very fast conditions on a slow course. It is hilly, with a net uphill from start to finish and 2 short climbs that are at a pitch that can only be described as obnoxious. Both of them make you feel like you are going to stall out while climbing. I finished with a 1:33:42 which felt great for a day that I was just out to have fun. I started behind 2 women but blew past them on a fast downhill right away. They caught me on the uphill so I tucked in behind them and let them set the pace. After a couple of miles I asked what they were planning and they said an average around 7 minutes a mile. Cool, that works. We chatted for a while off and on and it was nice having some running partners. I left them behind on another big downhill and said I'd see them in the middle of the next big uphill about a mile later. Sure enough, halfway up that big hill they showed up. I encouraged them and let them go, but then one of the women started falling off pace so I caught up to her and tried to help pull her up the hill. When we got through the worst of the hill I encouraged her to work with me to close the gap on her running partner. She started coming with me but then dropped off. I closed the gap by myself. I then ran with the faster woman for another 4-5 miles. I would chat, she would give one word answers, but it seemed she enjoyed having the help so I would call out the pace and let her know when we were too fast or slow. Eventually, I lost her on an uphill. I called back and tried to get her to join me but she was done. I ran solo for a while, but then leading up to the last turn on the course I had the sense someone was stalking me. At the turn I confirmed that my spidey sense was right. A quarter mile later he caught up to me and tried to pull me along. I said, 'no' because today was just a fun run and told him to get the guy 50 feet ahead in a pink shirt. He caught him pretty quick and kept going. About 200-300 yards from the finish I caught the guy in the pink shirt. He was a younger guy in his 20's plugged into his earbuds just cruising along. It was time to have some fun. I got up next to him and started screaming at him to pick it up and get the guy in front of us. He tried to ignore me. I just kept yelling at him. It all seemed fun at the time, but it has since occurred to me that I might have been acting like a jerk. Eventually, after enough yelling he took off on a sprint. I think he was just trying to get away from me, but whatever his motivation I got to watch the two of them duel it out to the finish line. Good times :-)

There were a lot more people out on the course cheering than I am used to.  There is at least double the spectators that the old course used to get.  My friend Chris was in town so he borrowed my bike and appeared on the course in random spots which made it fun.  I got to wear the tri kit that Bambi ruined and dang that thing is comfortable except that the zipper rubbed my neck raw.  That will be an easy fix.  It was also fun that the dude handing out water at the finish line is one of the regulars I'm used to seeing at the Y every morning.  Small town.





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