Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon

I compete in the Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon near Seattle last week.  The course is flat and fast, and remarkably scenic -- winding through farmland at the base of the Cascades near the small town of North Bend.

I had dreams of breaking 80 minutes but I was not able to come close, despite the good conditions and my effort and pacing on race day. I was advised to stay behind a CNW runner, Laura, who ran like a metronome at 6:10 per mile pace.  I ran in this pack of six for miles (picture). The pace felt so amazingly easy for the first 4 miles, and I really thought I could run negative splits. 

But somewhere around mile 8 the pack split up and my strength faded despite all the bike training.  I guess there is no substitute for event-specific training.  My finish time was roughly 1:21:30.