Santa Cruz Half Marathon 2014 (PR)

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Today, I ran a the Santa Cruz half marathon in 1:28:32 (6:45 min/mile).

This is a new PR for me on the distance by 1 minute and 21 seconds. It pleases me a lot because I have been training very hard running 2,100 miles in the last 365 days.

Also, Santa Cruz is my favorite half marathon so it is nice to run a PR there again like I did in 2010. The course is really nice, the race well organized, and the field size is great to make it enjoyable without feeling suffocated.

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New this year was the presence of a pacer team. I ran most of the race 100-200 yards behind the 1:30 pacer. I had not really managed to stick with him early on but having him as a target was good enough as it motivated me to keep on running hard even when I ended up alone. And then later, on our way back W Cliff Dr, I finally overtook him with a bit more than 2 miles to go as I was down to a 6:30/mile pace.

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The table above says I finished 24th for the marathon (there was a 5K and 10K as well) but once you add back the 6 overall winners, 3 male and 3 female runners that all ran faster, then I actually finished 30th.

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