Oct 21 was the Duke City Marathon in Albuquerque. I did the 1/2 marathon. Have no idea what my official time is because official times have not been posted yet. All I know is that I had a good time out there. It didnt feel like a race...it felt like a long training run.
Saturday I go to the packet pickup at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Get my race shirt, chip, number and packet. Wander around the expo a bit, and I immediately make a beeline to a booth. My wife thought I was going to the Radio Disney booth, but there was a Disney Running booth there too! Got to see the medals for prior years. The cast member at the booth said he has seen the new medal, but that he was not allowed to give any details at all. He did talk about the upcoming changes to Disney's California Adventure. I was wearing my Goofy Challenge shirt from 2007, so he knew that I was a disney veteran. He said that the reason they moved the
Disneyland 1/2 to Aug 31 (the sunday before labor day) as opposed to labor day itself was becase of the feedback given on the race surveys. So fill out your race surveys...the mouse does listen! At that point, we left and went to the Radio Disney booth to get my 3-year-old DD a Ratatoullie poster. Didnt spend too much time at the expo.
Sunday morning was cold and windy. The wind chill was below 40, so I scrap my original plan of short sleeves and shorts, and change to pants and short sleeves with a jacket. Should have kept the shorts. By about mile 1 the jacket was wrapped around my waist. Kept the gloves on the whole time. Practiced running through the water stations. I never spilled from me drinking...the biggest spills came from the exchange between the volunteer and me.
Here are my splits for the 1/2. Garmin was off by 0.2 almost the entire race. I blame the buildings around downtown Albuquerque for that.
mile 1 - 9:38
mile 2 - 10:10
mile 3 - 10:46 (bathroom stop)
mile 4 - 10:14
mile 5 - 9:59
mile 6 - 9:58
mile 7 - 9:52
mile 8 - 9:39
mile 9 - 9:50
mile 10 - 10:41 (gu and phone call)
mile 11 - 9:55
mile 12 - 10:10
mile 13 - 9:57
last 0.31 (per garmin) - 2:36 (8:22 pace)
Garmin time 2:13 13.31 miles, 10:01 average
I enjoyed the consistency of my splits, and I enjoyed the conversation I had with my running partners. Felt good on the run, no real foot or knee pain. I am glad that the Convention Center was open for the runners before the race. The 1/2 started 45 minutes after the full did, and 35 minutes after the 5k. Lots of standing around time. Carried water with me, which I am glad I did. The water station at 9 for the 1/2 was already empty. I feel bad for the full marathoners who did not have water available at 22. Fortunately it was cool but breezy. For example, mile 12 is run up Central Avenue back towards downtown from the bike path along the river. The wind was a tailwind at that time. I was getting outrun by cups.
My wife did the 5k and set a current PR since the birth of our 7 month old. She came in sub-40
!!
Thanks for all the well-WISHers, and congrats to all else who raced this weekend. Good luck to the Tower-of-Terror runners!
Paul
Nike Women's Half 
If I'm not mistaken, I think another WISH member or two will be joining Pat for the Detroit half but for the life of me, I can't remember who. Too much on my mind at the moment.
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