The race plan

The Rose Bowl Half is coming up this Sunday, so here's the plan.

First of all, the Pasadena weather report shows a 50/50 chance of rain on Friday and Saturday, but perfect running weather for Sunday with 0% chance of rain. I hope the report is right.

I plan to break the race down into 4 segments:

Mile 0 - 4 at a 10min/mile, easy pace
Mile 5 - 8 at a 9min/mile pace
Mile 9 - 12 at an 8 min/mile pace
Mile 13 at sub-8 min/mile

That should get me to the finish line in less than 2hrs, but there's a bit of hill climbing and trail running to contend with, so I don't know how well the plan will work in real life.  My PR for the Half Marathon distance is 1:45:48.  I don't really have my eyes on a new PR, but I always like to know the number just in case things are going really well and I want to push it.

According to the official elevation chart, I'll be climbing pretty steady from mile 2 to mile 8.5.  Luckily those miles correspond with my slower pace miles, but the climb could be tougher than I anticipate and might hurt my pace later in the run. The good news is I should be able to lean forward and get some extra free speed after mile 8.5 on the downhill.  Downhill running tends to be tough on the quads, so I suspect I'll feel a little bit of the burn on Monday morning!