13.1 miles @ ~8.1 min/mi

1:45:25 for the Parks Half Marathon this year, thanks to cool weather and not-too-dumb pacing — it's a Personal Best for the distance, an improvement over the same course in 2013 by ~1 minute. The "secret", if any, is perhaps not-trying: running without expectations, in the moment, noticing the music of breath and footfall, softening into the experience, ...

Splits by watch and mile markers: 8:14 - 7:41 - 8:15 - 8:03 - 7:52 - {missed mile markers 6 & 7, total for 6-7-8 = 24:14} - 7:57 - 7:54 - 8:15 - 8:09 - 8:10 plus a final fraction in 0:43 – the Runkeeper iPhone GPS captures similar data.

Result: 303rd place of 941 male finishers, 8th of 45 men in the 60-64 year age group, behind 80 of 980 female finishers.

(happy hairy guy at mile 11 photo by Mark Schadley; finish line sprint picture by Arielle Reichmann)

(cf. 2008-09-14 - Parks Half Marathon Plus, 2009-09-13 - Double Parks Half Marathon, 2010-09-12 - Parks Half Marathon Plus, 2011-09-11 - Parks Half Marathon, 2013-09-08 - Parks Half Marathon 2013, ...) - ^z - 2014-09-29