Dexter-Ann Arbor Run - Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Weather was pretty much perfect. It was cloudy for much of the time, and it wasn't too cold or too hot. It did start sprinkling very lightly about halfway through, but that was only for a few minutes. And with a mile and a half to go the sun came out so hot air was felt, but other than that, pretty nice running weather.

Well I wanted to minimize the impact on my left foot's injury as much as possible, so I started running on my toes (left foot only.) Started off at a comfortable pace and was pleasantly surprised that the first 4 miles I average sub-8 minute miles... although that was the last I saw of that. But I kept going at what I felt was a sustainable pace. There was a "big" hill just past mile 7. I considered walking at this point but decided against that and trudged up it. After I made it up the hill, I decided to stop running on the toes because I felt a blister coming on so I went to my regular running form. This whole time it seemed like a lot of people were passing me. In fact, basically until mile 10, I felt like I was being passed a whole heck of a lot. I didn't let that bother me though because I wasn't sure how much I could handle and didn't want to burn myself out. At mile 9 I noticed I was off the 1:45 pace I was hoping for by just under a minute. So at that point I decided I would take in a GU to give me a boost for the remainder of the run. I believe this was a mental boost more than anything. It worked for about 2 miles. And then during mile 12, I really don't know what happened, but I slowed drastically. I guess I lost focus? I just really don't remember. For the last mile I tried to pick it up. And then came the gradual hill that ends the run. That was also the point where a lot of spectators were lined up until the finish line, so that's when I tried to just pick it up some more and started picking people off. This turned out to be a very good thing, because I ended up making the 1:45 range by just a couple of seconds, so this made me quite happy! My primary goal was a sub-1:45 which I missed by about a minute, but because I still made it within the 1:45 range, I can be happy about this run. :)

I stuck with water the whole race, I just didn't feel inclined to consume anything actually, but thought I should at least take a sip, so I got water at all aid stations (every 2 miles) and walked through them all, in part because I haven't mastered the art of drinking on the go, and partially as an excuse for a rest. Sometimes I would bend over for a quick stretch of the hamstrings because an old injury was starting to flare up. (!!)

Maybe I would think a little harder about not doing a half marathon when not fully healed from a foot injury, because of course now it is worse than it was before.

Walked around... stood around... stretched a little.
Had 2 bagels and some gatorade.


Banging my foot into a chair a week before the race? (How annoying!)
Being undertrained? Going into the race I really didn't think I was, but perhaps an old injury flaring up which never happened during training can be attributed to that? I went faster in the race than I was prepared for?
Mental stamina? In particular, really can't recall what happened during mile 12.
Walking through all aid stations? Or maybe that helped.


Nice course, nice event!