Seven, that is the number of seconds I have now put between my half marathon PR and the 90 minute mark.

Seven, that is also the number of minutes I shaved from last year’s PR I recorded at the same race last year.

Seven, that is how old I felt while running free, and full speed, in the final stretch of the race.

For my third participation to the San Jose Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon, I had set my mind on the 90 minute mark and decided to join the pace group at the start. Soon enough though, I had to let it go as the pace was feeling too fast for me and I did not want to implode later in the race.

In place, I settled on a 6:55 min/mile pace on my watch, knowing it was off by some at each mile, and cruised for the first 9 miles.

At mile 9, I knew I was a bit behind optimal pace. Mind games were on full time and I had thoughts that I would not reach my goal. Still, I was feeling good physically so I upped the pace to around 6:45 for the next 3 miles.

At mile 12, the clock was showing 1:22:50 and while pushing hard and struggling mentally to keep the pace, I was able to do the math and knew it was possible if I could just push a bit harder.

I must have hit the runner’s high at the same time because I ran the next mile in 6:38 and went under the 6 min/mile mark for the last stretch with the finish line in sight.

I could hear the speaker counting down the seconds and see the clock ticking so I sprinted all out to finish in 1:29:53 for a new PR. The amazing thing is that, as of this moment, you can actually see it!

Now, I am really pumped and I feel I can run a BQ in Sacramento in early December so back to training.