Sunday will be my first running of the LIVESTRONG Austin Half Marathon. I’ve done the full twice before (including my second ever marathon and last year). I’m not really looking to set any land speed records here. However, this race is going to have all kinds of secondary goals attached to it.

First, it’s the final chapter of the Austin Distance Challenge. Now, I already have things wrapped up to win my age group. I’m looking forward to closing out the ADC and direct all my focus on Vermont (and the Cap10K trials, and the Cap10K itself, and the Texas Independence Relay)… oh man. So really I’m looking forward to crossing one of the many items off my running list.

Second on the agenda is to run the race at my marathon race pace (7:00 min/mile). This one is a bit more difficult. “But you just ran a half marathon much faster than marathon race pace!” you say. And to that I reply “yes, but that was all downhill.” The Austin Half Marathon is a killer. The elevation profile has been known to bust (knee) caps and invalidate months of training*. Not quite as bad as the Decker Challenge, but brutal nonetheless. The other half of the challenge is to reign it in if I happen to be hitting my pace. This is not the time for me to push things too hard.

And if you’re

having trouble sleeping and want to track me in real time, you can get the official Austin Marathon app! Here for iPhone, here for Android, here for Blackberry (psyche!) and here on your computer. Look for #6843 and get ready to be impressed. The race starts at 7am CENTRAL time, and should hopefully be finishing (for me) around 8:33am. Stay classy and I’ll be sharing my race report soon!

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p>*unconfirmed