Palos Half Marathon and Weekend in General

3 words can describe this weekend - Busy, Fun, and Eye-opening (I think that is a word).

Busy
It started with Master swim on Friday night. I did the short workout and then went home and hung out with my son. My wife plays softball and they had a 9:30 PM game. Saturday AM up early as usual. Out on the bike by 7. Rode to Frankfort to meet a few friends there. Then off to the Monee Reservoir and then the long way back home to get in 47 miles by 10 AM. Garmin says 2800 calories burned. That's an entre day's intake for most people! Breakfast a shower and then off to a double-header of Mustang division baseball. The first game went extra innings. That was close to 5 hours of baseball on Saturday. Got home and cut the grass and got the hot tub emptying for a much needed water change. Unfortunately with training these chores don't go away. Ordered a pizza for dinner had a couple of cold ones with it and then was sleeping on the couch by 9 PM. Early pre 6 AM wake-up call on Sunday (what else is new?). Then off to the Palos Half Marathon. This is a race that I didn't sign up for. Last Wednesday I figured I needed to get a 1 1/2 hour run this weekend so I would just do the Palos Half "bandit". At Master swim on Friday one of the swimmers gave me his registration since he was injured and couldn't do it. I really like these local races. Totally hassle-free experience. I left the house at 6:20 for a 7:30 race and had plenty of time to park and get to the start line with plenty of time for the mandatory socializing and goofing around.
The race strategy -- Really didn't have one. I was treating this as a no goal training run. I was just going to se how I felt and run in a comfort zone. So I found a couple of friends that were planning on running a pace to get them under 2 hours. So they would be the people that I would be running with. I started out with them and then after like 2 miles I started feeling really good so I pick up my pace a bit. Started running around 8:40/mile. For me anything under 9:00 I consider good. Was able to hold this pace for a long time and started to think at this pace I might be able to cut 4 to 5 minutes off last year's half marathon. Well mile 10 hit and hit me hard. Mile 9.99, feeling good and still in that 8:40ish groove. Mile 10.01, not feeling that 8:40 groove any more. Instantly pace is 9:15. WTF, this all happens in like the matter of 10 strides. Heartrate is still the same but the legs won't move the way they were before. A freind of mine that I ran with last year picked me up there and ran with me in. It really helped. I finished about 1 minute ahead of last year's time, 1:58. So I still managed under 2 hours. A friend who didn't do the race this year was waiting at the finish line with a cold can of Miller Lite. Oh, did that taste good. A bunch of us hung out for a long while at the after-race festivities. I think we might have bee the last people to leave.
Hung out the rest of Suday afternoon with some of the neighborhood friends.

FUN
See above.

Eye-Opening
I think I was in more pain at the end of the race this year than last year. Last year I way under-trained for this half marathon, this year as part of the Ironman plan I have been running my ass off. Religously following the running part of the plan. As a matter of fact in 9 weeks I have only missed/skipped 1 run. And that was a 30 minute zone 2 run. I have been running in wind, rain, snow, cold, indoor and outdoor and all I cut off my time was a lousy minute.
I have to do another half marathon in a month. But with this one I have to do Saturday's bike right before that half marathon. Oh, yeah. And I got to do Friday's swim before the bike. A half-IM distance triathlon in a month! Oh shit.
Now for the good. The guy I ran as is in the 60-65 AG. I finihed 4th. So I guess if I was 20 years older I would be fast. HA!
Now for the bad. Looked at the calendar and my May is totally SCREWED. 1 kid playing baseball, 1 kid playing softball. Often at the same time and in different places. So for the next month it's looking like if I can get 1 swim and 1 long run and 1 long bike in I will be lucky. Hopefully, the weather cooperates with my schedule.

Next up: Quarryman 10 mile. Hills, hills, and more hills.

"Alright partner...keep on rollin' baby
You know what time it is "
- Limp Bizkit, Rollin (Air Raid Vehicle)

118 days 'till Ironman. Oh shit!