Reykjavik Half Marathon 2009 in 1:36:10 PB

I had decided that I would run the half marathon in Reykjavik in 1:45:00 which is 5 minute pace. The day started very early as I got a call from India at 5:45am and I had my alarm at 6:45. Never the less, got ready, Alok and An our friends from Amsterdam had come to visit us and also to participate in the Marathon. Alok was running the half marathon and An was running the 10k. We took a cab from our house to the start line, got there about 40 minutes before the start warmed up by running around the lake in downtown Reykjavik.

I started out a brisk pace and kept at it till the finish, I felt very good all through the way and actually I pushed myself to run hard at the end of the run. The strategy seem to work well and I ran the race in 1:36:10, which is my personal best and this was the fastest average pace that I have ever run even taking my practice runs into account. Here is the official result

The average pace was 4:32/km, I am very happy that the hard training is starting to kick in but the ultimate goal is Chicago Marathon and Boston qualification. I need to keep this above pace if I want to qualify for Boston. It is going to be hard but I feel confident that I can train hard for the next month and be best prepared for the marathon in Chicago.

Midnight Run - 10k PB 46:03

Reykjavik Marathon Association organized a Midnight run (starts at around 10pm) yesterday. I ran the 10k race and finished it in 46 minutes and 3 seconds. Here is the official result. This is my personal best in a 10k race and I improved on my previous best by 4 minutes! It is an amazing feeling to really see improvement after training really hard. I feel that I could have pushed myself a little harder in a couple of laps but I guess that is how you feel after every run... maybe thats what keeps us going.

Strategy during the run

I had a simple strategy to run as hard as I can for a lap (I have my Garmin, set for autolap on every 1 km) and try to keep it under 5 min/lap. It is amazing when you can set a goal and threshold... here are the splits: