We signed up for this one mostly because Marla wanted to run a half and we figured we could win our age groups or the Master's Division and win bottles of wine. I had run the half at Fiesta the month prior, and I knew that this one wasn't going to be nearly so fast as that one, but looking at previous year's times, I figured I could win the Master's Division without too much fuss.

The course itself was pretty hilly with 3 rather impressive hills on the out and back course (meaning we'd run over those hills twice). I just decided to run it on pace (6:36) on the flats and by feel going up the hills. The previous year's winner had blown the field away finishing in a 1:13ish, and I had no expectations of actually winning this race. With temperatures in the upper 40s or lower 50s and overcast at the start, we lined up - half marathoners and 10K runners together. At the gun, we started off and basically is was me and one other strong runner out in the lead, but he wasn't leaving me in the dust, so I figured we wasn't the fast guy from previous years. I let him lead it out until he turned around at the 5K turnaround - so he was a 10K runner. That left me out in front. I could hear one runner behind me, and he almost caught up to me several times when I slowed to go over hills in miles 5 and 6, but he never did.

After the turnaround, I was running along at about mile 8 or so when here comes this guy racing down the road like a rocket! I thought, "hey, that fast guy showed up late!". I knew that the winner of this race was determined by gun time, not chip time and at that point I really started making sure that I was winning the thing. As it turned out, it was never really a contest and I won finishing in 1:28:17 - and yes, the speedy guy who showed up late finished in a 1:13 and change, but didn't win on that chip time. First place prize was a $45 temperanillo.

The post-race spread was real food, and there was a free wine-tasting, as well as free beer. For a $95 entry fee (which is high for a half-marathon), I still felt like it was a good deal. Of course, I'm sure that they made a killing selling wine out of thier shop - despite winning 2 bottles ourselves (Marla was the 40-44 age group winner), we bought 2 more bottles for gifts.



Gear Check:

Shoes:  I ran in Merrell Bare Access 3s, size 10.5. 

Shorts:  I ran in my favorite 2.5" gray pin-striped split shorts from Adidas. 

Shirt:  I wore a green InknBurn "Run or Die" singlet

Socks:  Injinji medium weight no-show toe socks. I also wore 2XU compression sleeves on my calves to deal with the nagging injury from earlier this fall.

Fuel:  It was a half. Fueling? What's that? (I did drink some water along the way)

Hat: White Adidas visor.

Glasses:  none, it was cloudy

Watch: Garmin 610.

Watch Data