Gads this one was a mess. Perfect weather, perfect day, legs were perky and hammered out a 1:25 half for the first time since 2003! BUT- the damn course was nearly TWO KM LONG! I'm truly disgusted with the whole situation. To run a 1:25 only SIX DAYS off a hard xc half is noting to sneeze at and would have been my A qualifier if I decide to do Chicago this fall. I wasted my legs and should have probably dropped out. I now have this slow as molasses time over 1:30 next to my name in the results not at 22.8km but as if it were a half! I am truly disgusted by the lack of competence on the part of the organizers this time. This race has not ever had this issue whenever I have run it before, and how do you f#ck up so badly that you add nearly TWO KM to the course?! I knew something was up when I came through "2km" in 9:30! I just thought the markers were off. Sometimes that happens. Then I finished the first of 4 loops in 23 min and change and that was when the WTF alarm went off?! So I now run just over 5k in 23 min????Ummmm methinks not. So yeah each loop was 5700m and after that the desire to even try just died. Problem was that 4 min/km pace seemed damn easy and I ended up using this race as my final long workout in preparation for a longer race coming up. At the very least the organizers could have published the true distance in the results so as not to have a totally sh!tty time next to my name and everyone else's. On one of the running sites they did actually publish the correct distance but not in the official results which just sucks rocks. I have done this half many times before, but after this debacle, I think I'm going to blacklist it and not bother anymore. I expect this from the Korolev races because they are almost always off and I just go there to get in a workout, but this really floored me. To run one of my best halves and not have it count for crap was a huge waste of my time and legs. I ran this race even steven parking at 4 min pace(just oover 4 on the uphills, just under 4 on the flats). I am 39 years old and I can't get up and pull a 4 min/km half out of my ass every day and I usually don't get the chance to because by the time our halves roll ariund, I'm recovering from and ultra or some other long race that has put my speed in the gutter for a few weeks. The thing that pisses me off the most is that I MIGHT NOT EVER DO THAT AGAIN because I'M NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER! Yes, after the quadruple, i did manage to get into speed/distance shape. I just hope it works out for the longer race that is coming up very soon. I committed to doing said race only about 6 weeks out and didn't actually officially sign up til 3 weeks out. I feel like a student who has tried to cram for a big exam at the last minute to be perfectly honest, so I'll just go and do it and see what happens. Not revealing said race just yet. Only a few people know who need to and this is something I need to disappear into the night and do in quiet without the pressure of everyone following my results or plans.
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