Long Branch Half Marathon

There's not much to be said about this event, so I'll be brief.

I was well trained for this race, so I had high hopes of beating my PR of 1:52:37. I even lined up with the 1:50 pacing group, hoping to hang with them for as long as I could. But not even a mile into the race I got a bad feeling about this, as I was all sweating and almost unable to breathe. There were over 80 degrees at the start, and very humid. By the end, the heat index was at 95F.

But I stayed with that group for the first 4 miles, then I couldn't keep up any more. I decided to settle for just a PR, but by Mile 6 everything started falling apart. It was so hot I couldn't run anymore. Close to Mile 8 I gave up all my plans and started walking. I should've just pull out, since this was a waste of time, but I remembered I've never quite a race ever, so I'll just crawl to the end. But 5 miles was such a long walk in that heat. I walked/jogged for the next miles, as people started dropping on the sides of the road.

Close to Mile 12, we returned to the boardwalk for the final stretch, and with the cool ocean breeze I found my running legs again, and I ran pretty hard to the finish line. But it was a weird scene... the course was lined with sick people who were dropping like flies. I can't even imagine what was in the mind of marathoners, who had to do this all over again, and it was just getting hotter and hotter.

My finish time of 2:11:17 is my 2nd worst ever. I did a training run 2 weeks ago, and it was faster. In October at Bassman, my Half Marathon after a 1.2mi mi swim and a 56mi bike ride was about the same.

But now, to put things into perspective, I finished around 1500 out of about 5300 finishers. That puts me in the top 29% of those who finished the race, something I've done only once before. Even when I hit my PR, I was in a lower percentile. It makes me feel a bit better about this disaster, and it was obviously my fault to think I can run in that abominable heat at my regular pace. And it gets me back to the fact that I still perform "better" in the heat, compared to my competitors.