Viking Half Marathon

I didn't drink any coffee. In its place I had one of those Five Hour Energy things. That way I received my caffeine without too much fluid. Last year I went over the rails and down the rocks to the river's edge to take a pee. I looked back up to the roadway only to see everyone who ran by looking down at me. I couldn't pee. I climbed back onto the road and ran to the Boulevard where I then jogged over the Tallahatchie Bridge where I could pee in peace. It must have cost me five minutes. The other twenty minutes improvement was pure running performance.

That's right. I ran the 2016 edition of the Viking Half Marathon twenty-five minutes faster than I did in 2015. That in spite of weighing the heaviest I have in three years. Mileage. It was all about mileage. This year I have run 217 miles more than at the same time last year. That makes a difference.

The weather was perfect. At forty-nine degrees when I left home walking towards the start, I knew I was overdressed by the time I made it to downtown Greenwood. Luckily, the race course goes right in front of our house, so when we went by, I tossed in a cap and two shirts. That made me both lighter and cooler.

Picture stolen from Rod's Racers.

My hopes for the day were to run under a 10:00 minute pace. Secretly I wished for a 9:30. My time in the Batesville Ten-Miler indicated that I should be able to do the 9:30, but nothing in my recent training performance indicated I was able to run that. But when the "Go" was given and the heard of runners went, I settled into an easy 10:00 minute pace than slowly but steadily went down. Happily for me, somewhere along the way I joined up with a guy named Will from Southhaven, a retired military man. We were about the same speed and ran together for most of the race, helping each other hold pace. He pulled away from me between miles eleven and twelve.

I manually lapped the Garmin at each mile. Below are the splits.

1 - 9:44
2 - 9:25
3 - 9:21
4 - 9:36
5 - 9:42
6 - 9:42
7 - 9:30
8 - 9:19
9 - 9:07
10 - 9:13
11 - 9:34
12 - 10:00
13 - 10:23
14 (.1) - 8:27

For me, it was a PR in 2:05:22. Next year I will be gunning for a sub 2:00, but for now I am very pleased with that performance. I was happy at the end, ate some good Larry's Fish House fish, and saw some old friends like Wilson Carroll. Once more, the Viking Half was a hit with locals and travelers as well. 

Later in the afternoon, I worked out at Plate City Gym where I focused on the bench press and the swim pull. Below are the numbers I hope to beat next year.

Bench Press
17 X 100
8 X 120
4 X 140
2 X 151
2 X 151
5 X 140
8 X 120 (drop set)

Swim Pull
50 X 26.5
25 X 31.5
15 X 34.5
12 X 36
10 X 37.5

I did other stuff too, but those two moves are the ones I am always anxious to track.