As you know if you read 2026 Fitness Goals, I've been training for a Half Marathon, the "Platte River Half Marathon", and Sunday was the day.
I finished the whole thing. I actually was able to run it faster than I thought I would be able to do it. So, I'm happy with my results.
While working through the training plan, Runna gave me a project goal pace of 9:50 to 10:25 per mile, meaning it expected me to finish in 2:09 to 2:16.
Quite frankly, I thought that pace was ridiculously optimistic based on my longer training runs. I'd never really maintained that pace for more than a few miles at a time.
But, apparently, the Runna AI knows what it is doing!
My official "chip time" was 2:08:40.52, which is an average 9:49 minutes per mile.
On this race, this put me pretty much right in the middle (and actually even worse in my age group). But, for someone who didn't start running until a year ago in his mid-50's ... I think it's pretty good.
I'm proud of how I did.
My Garmin watch / Strava Platte River Half Marathon with Runna was a little better.
Strava shows me completing 13.19 miles in 2:08:46, a 9:46 per mile pace.
I set Strava PR's in the:
- 10k -- 59:04 (9:30 / mile)
- 15k -- 1:29:33 (9:37 / mile)
- 10 mile -- 1:36:10 (9:37 / mile)
- 20k -- 2:00:41 (9:43 / mile)
- Half-Marathon 2:07:53 (9:45 / mile)
I was particularly proud of the consistency of my splits. My first 3 miles were my slowest and at every mile of the race, my "lap time" was under my average time.
Meaning I did a pretty good job of pacing myself to be strongest at the end.
- Mile 1: 10:34
- Mile 2: 10:05
- Mile 3: 10:01
- Mile 4: 9:45
- Mile 5: 9:58
- Mile 6: 9:41
- Mile 7: 9:46
- Mile 8: 9:31
- Mile 9: 9:32
- Mile 10: 9:25
- Mile 11: 9:29
- Mile 12: 9:33
- Mile 13: 9:37
It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good ... especially for a first timer.
Another thing I'm sort of proud of is that I was able to execute a "negative split" ... meaning my second half of the race was faster than my first half.
Over the first 6 miles ,I averaged 10:04 per mile. My last 7, I averaged 9:31 per mile. Not bad.
One thing I thought I wasn't particularly good at was smoothly accepting water / Gatorade at the aid stations without having to slow down and then pretty much stop to swallow down the liquid.
The only times my Garmin watch squawked at me for going "Too Slow" was around those water stations.
It's something I didn't really practice on my training.
So ... I can check off #5 on my 2026 Fitness Goals. I'm even able to give myself "extra credit" for finishing under 2:20.
By the way ... Breckenridge Brewery (which is walking distance from the Start / Finish line) threw an awesome after-race party.
Free beer and a free burrito for me. There was also a local band that was very good. "Raygunomics", which I thought was a clever name. I liked all the songs that they played while I was listening.
So, I did it. I'll probably run another Half Marathon someday, but I don't have anything planned yet. I've been thinking about whether or not to try a full Marathon. I guess you'll need to stay tuned to see what my next challenge will be.
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