Here's my not-exactly-triumphant finish photo from the Flying Pirate Half Marathon out on the Outer Banks last weekend. The race was the NCUSATF title for the 1/2, and there was some money on the line, so I figured it was worth the drive. We found a nice, cheap hotel (not too nice, but I mean - what do you need?) for 55 bucks, right on the beach. Since I didn't apply for a comp until the Wednesday before the race, I didn't get a free hotel. The beach view would have been nice if it didn't rain most of the time the day before. I got up nice and early and caught the bus to the start. The course was a point to point from north of Kitty Hawk, down to just south of downtown Nag's Head. From the start, it appeared that I would be pushing the pace the whole way. After a 5:20 first mile, I started ramping it down to 5:08s and was alone by the 3 mile mark. I was able to keep hitting 5:03-5:10 until a little before the 10 mile mark, when all of the sudden we turned onto a muddy gravel trail. Somehow the trail had a lot of ups and downs and turns, which I really didn't expect. The last mile morphed into a weird switchbacky, woodchip mess over the top of a pile of sand. I lost track of splits, but I'm pretty sure my last mile was in about 5:45. I won in 1:07:23, feeling pretty good, having pushed pretty hard, and was glad that I didn't have to race the last couple miles. I didn't have much left for a fight.

Now I'm trying to find some more races nearby that are worth the trouble and training for Grandma's Marathon in June. I'm still getting some tendonitis problems in my ankle every once in a while, so we'll see how it goes. Here's a much better picture, I think I actually posed for it, hoping for something dramatic.