Lucky Numbers

Maybe I'm just a numbers person, but every time I pick up a race number, I try to think about what I like about the number.  Maybe it's  the number 3542 and I'll think 7 times 5 and 7 times 6 or 7(500+6).  My number for tomorrow's half marathon is 714, which is awesome on its own, but sit's the house number for my uncle, aunt, and cousins in Colorado.  When I went to pick it up, I had to find out my number at one table and then go to another table to get the number.  The girl (and it was a young girl) wanted to write it on a post it for me to take on the 10 foot walk to the number pick-up table.  Obviously, I don't need a post-it to remember an address to which I've written many a letter.  

It got me thinking...do other people think about their number like I do?  And then I thought, how do they assign numbers?  I've been looking at last year's Eugene Marathon results (more on that in a bit).  When sorted by bib number, it seems as though it's based on when you register and last name.  Eugene did assign someone the number 13, but not 666.

Tomorrow's half is not meant to be a race for me, but a chance to practice hydrating and fueling in a race setting, trying out the potential race outfit.  Right now, it's 78 degrees here and it's expected to be at least 80 tomorrow about 86 on Monday.  That is wicked hot.  Thankfully, it's quite cool here in the mornings, so I think we'll be okay from 8-10 tomorrow for the race...probably no more than 60.

About Eugene...in looking at last year's results, it seems that most people run the first half faster than the second half.  And the people who are finishing around the time that I plan to, seem to have run the first half about 15-20 minutes faster than the second half (1:40s for the first half and then finishing around 3:40).  What's going on in that second half?  Now, the course has been changed slightly since last year, so maybe it won't be an issue anymore (as the elevation profile is unchanged), but I'm still a bit worried (even the top finishers ran the first half faster than the second, although the difference for them was less than for the 3:40 group).  I have two weeks to obsess about my race strategy.  Lucky me!  If you have any thoughts, let me know.  I've signed up to run with the Clif Pace team, so that's good and I'll have a pace band ready.  I also am totally prepared if things unravel and I just need to "Finish Strong" (as we say at school).

T-minus nine workouts.  Giddy-up!