Loudoun Half & 8K Race

Two years ago I participated in the inaugural Loudon Half & 8K. It is a race put on by a local running store in conjunction with an area running club. Its proceeds benefit local high school running programs. Plus, it's at a time of year when the cherry blossoms are still out, making for a really scenic run. At the time, I had had varying levels of success dating back to my first half marathon in 2007. I had never broken the two-hour barrier and so I set a conservative goal (based on my training at the time) to simply break two hours. I smashed that pretty handily at 1:48:12. Fast forward to this year and I had not run another race of that distance since 2014, let alone any run at all of that distance. With my daughter being born in January and the fact that I was still recovering from a knee injury, my training was inconsistent, but put it nicely. I wasn't sure what I'd be able to realistically run the race. I told my wife that my ...