Sub 1:50!!!!

I am super happy to report I ran a sub 1:50 at the Toronto Goodlife Half marathon on May 6th!!! Woohoo!!!!  I am super stoked about that!  Official chip time was 1:49:57!  Just under the 1:50 barrier!  1:50 was a far goal for me, I was not expecting to break it this year but after the Chilly half I felt it was attainable.  So I went into this race hoping to come closer to 1:50.  After a bit of a hassle trying to get to the race start by transit and then calling a friend from work to drop me off on his way home I got to the start line with some time to spare.  I decided I was going to start running comfortably and see where my pace was at and if I can, I was going to go for it and try to PB even if it meant I was going to blow up.  It was an all or nothing deal I had going.  The plan was to run steady until after Hogs Hollow, a nice uphill in the first 5-6km of the run, and then push the pace from there.  I was easily running about a 5-5:05 min/km at the start and it felt good.  I slowed down a bit and took the hill steady and then I took a look at my average pace.  I was holding about a 5:08 and held this for the first 10km.  Then I decided I was going to try and hold a 5:08min/km and I did!  I had to work hard at times especially near the end but I did it.  It also helped that this course is a bit downhill.  My garmin read the course to be about 300m long so it had my average pace at 5:08!  Either way, I went sub 1:50.  I did pay the price of that effort as my quads were super sore for days after the race and it took me a little while to recover.  But I am happy and I hope that this will translate to my tri races this season!