I have to admit, my first few weeks in Korea have been busy and its been tough to make my workouts. Despite my lack of a regular routine, I managed to commit to a half marathon this weekend. It was called the Saber Run and took place on Osan Air Base which is about an hour away from Seoul.
I managed to figure out how to catch a bus and headed out at 7AM. I was traveling alone but met two Army guys who were headed to the race as well. Derrick and Mike, both in their late 30's. It turned out derrick was from WV and we ended up talking about running the whole trip.
Signing up for this run was a no brainer. Free running shirt, free coin, and a free BBQ at the end. I usually spend around 50 bucks for an event like this!
On to the run itself. I had one goal for the day. Beat my previous best half marathon time of 1:59. Since its been about 6 months and 25 pounds since I ran my first Half-marathon, I was pretty confident I could meet this goal. The two army guys were also trying to run it in under 2 hours so I decided to run with them and see how I felt.
Prior to this run I had not ran over 10 miles since my marathon on Sept 19 so I was a little concerned. It turned out I had nothing to worry about. I settled in to a nice brisk pace and felt good for the whole race'. The whole course was two laps around the flightline and in the end I can in at about 1 hour and 47 minutes. Around 12 minutes faster than my previous half marathon. That's over 13 miles at a 8 minute 9 second pace! The fastest half marathon of my life at 43. Oh yeah, I feel kind of bad for mentioning this but I also finished in front of my two new Army friends. Sorry guys, couldn't resist.
This pace is good news for many reasons. From what I have read, that pace should actually allow me to finish a marathon in under 4 hours which is my goal before I leave Korea. I'm not confident I can meet that goal at this time though. Hopefully I will slip into a good training routine with a good group and start pushing myself to new limits.
So, where will my next run be? I have a big plan in the works for my next marathon. If it works out it will be THE RUN OF A LIFETIME and I don't use that term lightly. I'm keeping the details under wraps until I see if I can actually make it happen.
Stay tuned,
FatSergeant
That's awesome!
ReplyDelete