Did I choke during the Oklahoma City Memorial

During my normal run this morning with the gang from Luke's Locker, one of my friends, a real real real fast woman, says to me that maybe the pressure of racing got to me during the Oklahoma City Memorial half marathon.

She'd obviously run with me during training runs and saw me put down sub 7s with ease and thought I'd easily break my PR of 1:36 and get awfully close to a 1:30.

I'll admit, I was a bit nervous during the first half of the race. I'll also admit that I thought beating my PR would be easy.

So, after my friend said what she said, I wondered: "Did I choke?"

My goal going into the race was to do the first half in right around 46 minutes. On Saturday, I hit the halfway point (6.55 miles) in 46:26, a pace of 6:58 min/mile. And I did this despite the fact that I had to stop and walk/tie my shoe for about 30 seconds because my left shin muscle cramped up on me.

Now, I did have some "race nerves" during the first half of the race. My heart rate average for the first half (87 percent of max) was about the same as it has been at other half marathons, though I'll admit, this pace didn't 'feel' as easy as it did during my training runs.

I was holding this 7 m/m pace through the first 8.1 miles of the race. At this point, in fact, my time was exactly 58:07, which is exactly a 7:00 mile pace. Up to this point, I'd done everything I set out to do before the race. Stay right around 7, then push it the last 5 miles.

But, as I said in my race report, I couldn't push it. But it had nothing to do with nerves. From Mile 8.1 to mile 10.3, the course was slightly elevated and into a 25-mph wind. The hill/wind combo took everything out of me. I couldn't even run a sub 8-minute mile during this part of the race. I fought and fought and gave it everything I had and my calves finally said "Buh-bye.:

Nerves? I don't think so. Nothing out of the ordinary, anyway. And besides, doesn't everybody get race nerves? Doesn't everybody's heart rate spike at the playing of the National Anthem?

I think it was the heat (70-pus degrees at the start) and high humidity (over 75 percent) that did me in, and the fact that I didn't adjust my pace to the weather conditions. But maybe my friend was right? Maybe I choked.

What do you guys think?