Two weeks after the Army Ten-Miler, I was back at another race. In July, I saw the 2012 Governor’s Cup Half-Marathon advertised and I wrestled with the decision to run a “half” right after the Ten-Miler. It boiled down to state pride. I’m from SC, so for me to miss this race while I was in the same town—I knew I would regret it. So, by September, I signed up and determined that I would run it in under two hours.
I arrived early Saturday morning to pick-up my race packet and to stretch out. And before long, it was time to go across the start line.
I was happy to being doing well as I started. I was running comfortably at a 8:30 minute pace. I even thought it was slow. My strategy was to run at a 9:00, but I was doing well—so I just continued to run along.
This was a good plan, until about mile 8, when I began to have flash-backs of the “Longest Mile” in the Army Ten-Miler—which was also mile 8. I kind of worked through the mental encouragement when the hills started getting steeper. It seemed as if there was a steady hill from mile 8 to mile 12.
Then there was mile 12. The course began to get steeper and I hit a wall. All of my training fell apart and every part of me wanted to walk. The three races—the Army Ten-Miler, the Army PT test (2 mile run—three days before), and the first 12 miles all caught up with me. I slowed nearly to a crawl, down to 10:31 minute pace.
It all began to feel better as I saw the finish line. I began to get a adrenaline rush—for 30 seconds just enough to push me through the finish at a 8:30 minute pace.
My final time was 1:57:57 with a 9:01 minute pace. The Nike+ graph tells the story.
The Governor’s Cup was a very challenging course, with rolling hills throughout the course. I enjoyed running this race and seeing the capital city of SC. I would encourage anybody to give it a try, just be ready for the hills!