Rutgers Recap

Let me cut to the chase: I didn't PR in the Rutgers Unite Half Marathon this past weekend. Which, of course, is disappointing.

Could I have run faster? Maybe. Should I have gone for broke at mile 10 and seen what happened? Probably. Can I come up with a thousand other excuses? Well let’s see, there was a lack of sleep the night before, a severely abbreviated warm-up before the race, and oh yeah, the fact that I raced another half marathon just seven days before…. But plenty of other runners have run under these—and worse—conditions and still PR-ed. Maybe I just wasn’t mentally prepared to run my best race; maybe I was ready to accept a lesser performance, because I had all of these excuses already in the back of my mind.

Regardless of why I ran a slower race, here’s what did go well:

The weather was perfect. (Sunny and warm enough to wear a singlet and shorts but cool enough to be comfortable at the start and finish lines.)

I had friends cheering me on.

I got to cheer on my friends (two of whom were running their first half marathon!).

I finished within the top 10 women running the race.

Best of all, I kicked it at the end and finished five seconds in front of a woman I had been trailing all race. It might sound evil, but there is no feeling like burning someone at the finish line. After all, that’s what makes it a race.

Rutgers Unite Half Marathon

Race Length	Finishing Time	Average Pace	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Group Place (F25-29)
13.1 mi	1:29:48	6:51/mile	66 / 3,131	6 / 1,604	2 / 285