March Madness Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

This was a pretty good run. My super secret goal on this course was to get to 1:35 and I accomplished that. I started out and was seeded pretty good. The field had a ton of accomplished runners and BQers on training runs. As always, the pack started out a little quick, but I remained in my position and pretty much went out at the pace I wanted to hit (7:10). I also knew that the next two miles would be fast b/c they are net downhill, so I wanted to take advantage of them, without letting my HR get out of whack.

I knew that I wasn't going to negative split this race with miles 10-12 being what they were, so I planned on going by HR. I wanted to keep the HR in check for the first 4 - 5 miles, and then just let it go. I had done a 70' tempo run at/around LT, so I knew I could survive the race once I got through mile 4 at an easier pace. So, although the splits for 1-3 were faster, they weren't out of control HR wise.

I kind of lost concentration during mile 4, b/c although its somewhat uphill, its not a big hill and my pace should have been faster their. Once I made that turn, I gradually started picking up the pace. I saw davidclough in front of me, and he was flying. I wanted to catch him, so I made him my rabbit. He came back to me faster than I expected, as when we hit the first big hill at mile 5, he was slowing down. I passed him at the top, sent him some encouraging words and really started to dial in for the next hill. Once you hit that hill at mile 7, then its recovery time for the next couple of miles. I used that to get my overall pace down, but also to keep the HR in check for the last 5K of climbs.

At mile 10 I was in position 175, according to this dude that was shouting position. This was way cool, b/c even though I was struggling a bit there, I realized everyone else was, too. I made my way through mile 11 and then Hangloose was riding his bike and followed me a bit offering some encouraging words. Once I got through mile 12, I decided to leave it all out there. I ended with everything I had and passed a few people while kicking it to the end.

My garmin had it at 13.18 miles, and others had it at 13.2 or so. This is close enough, though..

1m: 7:11, 148 ahr
2m: 6:54, 157 ahr (downhill)
3m: 6:56, 158 ahr (downhill)
4m: 7:31, 158 ahr (uphill)
5m: 7:21, 159 ahr
6m: 7:17, 162 ahr
7m: 7:22, 164 ahr (uphill)
8m: 7:10, 163 ahr
9m: 7:07, 159 ahr (downhill)
10m: 7:24, 165 ahr (major uphill)
11m: 7:25, 165 ahr (major uphill)
12m: 7:26, 165 ahr (uphill)
13m: 7:09, 168 ahr
0.18m: 6:21, 171 ahr


Not much. I would like to have kept the pace going for mile 4 that I had for mile 5. Lost a few seconds there. And I would have started my kick a little sooner b/c I still had a little left, there at the end.

I met with my family and had some endurox and stretched. Talked awhile as I watched other BTers finish. Then I changed and got some of the warm pretzels that are so darn good.

We then sat down and re-hashed the race. Good times.


Not much, again. I have a feeling if I wasn't traveling with the guys the 4 days before the event, I probably would have had even a better race time. I didn't get much sleep while out in NYC, and did over indulge in eating (and drinking) a bit. We played hoops (for 2 hours) and football (for another 2 hours) in back to back days. Not exactly the perfecct taper, as my legs had some soreness from doign sports I am not used to.

Post race analysis from coach, showed that I may have been a little dehyrdated towards the end of the race. Considering I only took in 18 oz, that is highly likely.

Not sure how much this affected the overall time, but probably a bit. Just leaves more room for improvement next time! And I am very happy with this time and improvement over my PB (4.5 minutes!).


They put on a great race. No wonder it fills up in 2 days so fast.