Koala/Luke's Locker 1/2 Marathon Today

I went into this race today with limited expectations. I'm seven weeks into my comeback from an eleven week layoff and am certainly not yet at the fitness level I was at this time last year when I set my 1/2 PR of 1:23:29. I knew that number was out of reach and knew that placing in my age group was out of the question so there wasn't much to run for other than pride and to get a gauge on where I am in my return. Bottom line - I wanted to at least come in under 1:30, and hopefully hold a pace of 6:45 or 6:50. Long story short, I managed both, thanks in large part to an excellent runner named Chris Robbins. Here are my mile splits:

6:27
6:43
6:50
6:51
6:48
6:43
6:46
6:38
6:46
6:31
6:41
6:44
6:42
Final .18 miles = 1:08, 6:18 pace (my Garmin calculated a total distance covered of 13.18)

I give credit to Chris because we buddied up somewhere into mile three and stayed together through eleven miles, when he had a little more in the tank than me and picked it up. Chris is a machine at finding a pace, locking it in and sticking with it - very disciplined. The pace he was on, 6:40-6:45 was about the fastest I could manage but back just off red-line enough that I was able to maintain it mile after mile. Chris is coming back from an injury as well so today is the last time I'll be running alongside him for a while.

I finished with a time of 1:28:17, equating to a pace of 6:45 (6:42 by the Garmin). A little better than I expected and either a flat split or maybe even a negative split. I know that I was 20 seconds faster in the final six miles than I was in the first six.

Next up is probably the 25K, although I haven't registered yet. I wish that race was three weeks away instead of two.