As part of my 2012 goals to run a 1/2 marathon every month I decided to do a virtual run put on by For the Love of the Kids on Valentines Day. The reason for the selection of this race was that there no actual hosted races in Indiana and the only one in surrounding states did not work with my family schedule.
Normally, running a 1/2 marathon on the road would have not been any big deal other than the fact that it decided to snow last night in Indiana. The roads this morning were snow covered and had minimal plowing done to them when I started. This made the conditions interesting considering that I was wearing my Virbram Trek Sports for this run. After settling in to a comfortable pace, my toes and feet got to the point of not really noticing the elements.
The hardest part of the run was that I decided to run a 1 mile loop through my hometown. This made the run rather boring and a mental challenge, especially on miles 11-13. Also, for whatever reasons my calves and feet hurt more during this race then on my last 1/2 marathon 2 weeks ago.
All in all, I happy with the results of the race since I was able to run a 1:53:24 which is my best time ever for the half marathon distance. I still have some work to before my next 1/2 at the end of March where I would like to be able to maintain the same pace/splits for the entire race.