Detroit Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


View Member's Race Log View other race reports
Detroit, Michigan
United States
Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank
30F / -1C
Sunny
 		Total Time = 1h 58m 1s
Overall Rank = 1221/3338
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 238/586
Pre-race routine:

Woke up, had whole grain english muffin with peanut butter, decaf coffee, and a banana. Picked up brother-in-law and drove downtown to the race.
Event warmup:

Found the porta potties, got in the right race corral and did some stretching.
Run
  • 1h 58m 2s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 01s  min/mile
Comments:

Bad day for me. I had projected a finishing time better than last year (1hr 48 mins and change) and was shooting for 1:45:00. The first 5 miles I felt fine. I had been fighting a cold/upper respiratory infection and I think it caught up with me somewhere in mile 6. As I write this, today was the first time I looked at my HR data. HR was clearly elevated and might have had a lot to do with the proverbial wall I hit.

I did a lot of walking and seriously thought about quitting a few times during the run. I finished mostly as a good example to my kids. Ran by the three runners who passed away as they were down on the ground and being worked on. Very depressing.

Overall results posted above are for men only.
What would you do differently?:

(1) Not be sick, (2) more endurance volume. I tried the FIRST training plan, but didn't adhere to the cross training like I should have and skipped some runs. That being said, my long training runs were all better than my race on Sunday. Definitely think whatever sickness I had/have contribued to the poor run.
Post race
Warm down:

Hydrated, tried to warm up, had a banana.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Sickness and hamstring.

Event comments:

The Detroit Marathon and Half Marathon are great events. I would recommend them to anyone.




Last updated: 2009-10-19 12:00 AM
Running
01:58:02 | 13.1 miles | 09m 01s  min/mile
Age Group: 238/586
Overall: 1221/3338
Performance: Bad
Mile / Mile pace / Avg HR; Mile 1 / 7:54 / 174; Mile 2 / 7:46 / 184; Mile 3 / 7:59 / 189; Mile 4 / 8:04 / 185; Mile 5 / 7:54 / 188; Mile 6 / 9:13 / 183; Mile 7 / 8:51 / 181; Mile 8 / 9:41 / 176; Mile 9 / 9:52 / 175; Mile 10 / 9:52 / 175; Mile 11 / 8:42 / 178; Mile 12 / 9:29 / 171; Mile 13.1 / 8:17 / 181 zone 1 2:01 zone 2 4:37 zone 3 7:32 zone 4 44:51 zone 5 59:01 Mile 3, 8 and 9 were uphill. Mile 6 had a restroom break (30 sec), mile 9 had a break to stretch left leg as my hamstring started to cramp up.
Course: Course was better this year as congestion at the bridge was fixed. Also, wave start alleviated a lot of the bunching up experienced last year.
Keeping cool Good Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 2
Physical exertion [1-5] 2
Good race? No
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5