Run fast

 Today I ran the Canyonlands Half Marathon. 

I finally gave in and wore a heart rate monitor during a race.  After going out too fast, especially in mile 2, I quickly learned that a HR of 180 was unsustainable for 13 miles.  I pulled back slightly and made sure to keep the rate at around 170 until the last few miles when I wanted to put in a final push.  I am guessing that my threshold HR is about 175-180.  Staying over that for any length of time in a long race is probably a race killer.

The overall results were good and I actually got a couple guys in the last half mile, which is uncommon.

Some things I could have done better:

1. Not eaten Taco Bell the night before.  Hmmm....I wonder why.

2. Take the first couple of miles a little bit easier (first mile was downhill so the 5:12 wasn't a shocker).  I think I overdid the 2nd mile, based the high HR rate.  Not sure how much this affected me in the end.

2.  Probably could have taken a GU at mile 7 or 8 or so.  It could have only helped so why not?

3. A longer warm up and don't take one of the earlist busses to the start.  Maybe because of the high number of runners they start bussing people to the start line at 8 AM and the race doesn't start until 10.  As usual, I didn't bring enough clothes and was shivering at the start area for over an hour.  Not fun.