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This morning I ran the Run for the Grapes Half Marathon in St. Catherines, Ontario. I completed with a PR of 1:36:10 – a 7:20/mile average pace. I’m very happy with this. My splits were:

1. 7:53
2. 7:02
3. 6:57
4. 7:03
5. 7:06
6. 7:13
7. 7:33
8. 7:30
9. 7:12
10. 7:31
11. 7:11
12. 7:40
13. 7:29
14. 6:29 (.1 mile)

After the race, I was happy to find myself on the first page of the result sheets – my time placed me 70/400 overall, 61/213 of all males, and 9/12 in the 25-29 male category. (Geez they’re fast north of the border!) More details can be found on the results page.

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This past Sunday I ran the 2008 Rochester Half Marathon, completing in 1:41:29 – a 7:46/mile overall pace. This is the third year I’ve run the Rochester half, previously finishing with 1:45:05, 08:01/mile pace (2007) and 1:52:40, 8:36/mile pace (2006). While this was technically a PR (personal record), the split from the first half of my 2008 Buffalo (full) Marathon time was faster, falling in the 1:38s.

Ask anyone who participated this weekend about the race and odds are they will tell you about the weather. Wham, the D&C & RNews all mentioned the oppressive heat and humidity in their marathon article summaries. Forecasts the week prior called for race day temperatures in the 70s, a 60% chance of rain and wind. The day prior to the race was rainy and depressive, but still warm. As I headed to bed the night before the race around ~11pm, it was 72 out. At 5am the morning of the race, it was still 72 – but there was no rain. After the race, when I arrived back at my friend John‘s place near Cobb’s Hill, it was a scorching 85. The heat and humidity were no fun for me, yet others on the course suffered even more – the wind arrived up shortly after my finish & those who ran the full were exposed to the sun for the majority of their extra half along the canal.

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