Looking back to last weekend and ahead to next weekend

Before I move past Las Vegas for good, I finally had a chance to upload and look at the data from the half marathon I ran there. It wasn't quite as positive as I thought it was -- I didn't, in fact, run each mile faster than the last, and the fact that I ran the first mile a couple seconds over 10:00 really hurt and makes me kick myself harder for not moving up corrals and starting with faster runners, but I ran the second 6.55 miles (59:27) over two minutes faster than the first 6.55 miles (1:01:33), which is by far the best negative split differential I've ever run for any race at any distance. But if I'd have run that first mile at even 9:30 and gotten to a 9:00 pace faster I could have broken 2:00:00 rather than finish in the 2:01:22 I had to settle for. Oh, well.

This is the medal I was awarded upon completion:



It's not a great picture and it doesn't really depict the heft of the medal, but trust me when I say it was without a doubt one of the nicest and probably the heaviest finisher's medal I've ever gotten.

And with that, the Las Vegas Rock N Roll half marathon is officially part of my running history.

I'm now getting ready for my favorite 5 mile race, the Celtic Winter Solstice 5 miler. I set my 5 mile PR there last year (39:11), and while I don't think I'll get close to that this year I'm still looking forward to it. I did my first post-half marathon pre-5 miler run yesterday, 4 miles on a treadmill at my gym. That took me 33:35, but I ran the first mile slowly (for 4 miles) at an 8:57 pace. So all of my runs for the next week are going to be short or short-ish fast tempo runs. I might not set a PR next week, but I would like to break 40:00. Or at least 41:00.

Or 42:00. Or 42:30...