Ventura Habitat Half Marathon

This morning I ran the Ventura Habitat Half Marathon in Ventura, CA.   For the last 4 weeks I've been averaging right around 45 miles of running a week. Just base miles and no workouts. Ok...I might have had 4-5 fifteen second sprints across stoplights trying to beat the red light. Other than that all of my running has been at 6:20-7 minute pace. My goal coming into this half marathon was to use it as a workout. I wanted to run 5:45 pace on the way out and 5:35 pace on the way back. I was thinking I could run right around a 1:15ish. The course was an out and back that climbs roughly 300 feet the first 6.5 miles on a bike path. The race is pretty low key but it had a great venue.

At the start it was right about 44 degrees with a brisk 10 mph head wind for the first half. I ran the first half controlled and at the turn around my time was 37:48. Right on target at 5:45 pace. On the way back I started to push the pace a little to a 5:30 pace. I closed in 36:01 to finish in 1:13:49 and in 1^st place. I ran in my Skechers GoRun3 shoes, Timex Multisport top and of course my american flag shorts. Nothing like spectators cheering "Go Captain America!"

I was a little surprised to run as well as I did since I haven't been running high mileage or any running workouts. I have to contribute a lot of my fitness from all of the swimming I’ve been doing with Tower 26. Adam Rossi who also swims with Tower 26 raced as well. He was the one that told me about this race. It's always great heading to new races and meeting new people. That's a big reason why I like to race...meeting up with friends and meeting new ones!