Run
Comments: Started at a 9:30 to 9:40 pace. Was feeling really good and thought maybe I should push harder to see if I could meet my long shot goal (under 2 hours). All was going well til mile 7 when I felt a blister develop on the front of my right arch. Never had that issue before. I ate a Hammer gel at mile 7 but think I waited too late. By mile 9, I was really losing pace and gave in to the urge to walk (other than the water stations which I did walk through when I took a cup). I started doing 1 minute walks hoping to only do 1 for each mile. By mile 11, I was doing 1 minute walks at each half mile. When I passed the 11 mile marker, the pace caller shouted 10:04....sigh. Another goal out of reach which was to do a sub 10 minute pace. By mile 12, I was determined to not walk anymore until the finish line. I didn't, but my pace really slowed down. What would you do differently?: Run smarter, stuck to my plan of running a 9:40 to 10 minute pace all along rather than starting out too fast. I did PR over my 1st half a month earlier, but this was a flat/fast course in comparison. Not improving from the last race would have been disastrous. Post race
Warm down: No real warm down. Found some water, Muscle Milk and my finisher shirt. Got back to my truck and got my towel out to dry off a little bit. What limited your ability to perform faster: Me. Not being smart or realistic about pacing. Event comments: This was a decent race, but it does not have the wow factor of the Houston Marathon/Half Marathon. A lot of runners ran entered when they did not get a lottery slot for that race which is 2 weeks later. Last updated: 2010-09-28 12:00 AM
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United States
58F / 14C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 313/1239
Age Group = 50-59
Age Group Rank = 26/71
Got up at 4 after a restless night with a sore throat. Ate usual breakfast. Rolled and stretched then out the door by 5:15. Traffic into the UH campus where the race start/finish was set up was already backed up to the freeway. There is only one way in/out of the campus which led to traffic issues at start time thus delaying start by about 30 minutes.
Hung out in the truck, ate a banana, drank some water and finished off my coffee. It had rained all night and was still drizzling/raining. Temps were in the upper 50's but the wind picked up.
Could not decide what to wear but when I saw the wind whipping the flags flat out, I decided to layer a sleeveless dri-fit running shirt with a long sleeve UA heat gear shirt.
I jogged around the parking lot then went to the start area. Everyone was huddled on the down wind side of the main building to stay warm.
Then the announcement about the delay, which was not a surprise. Traffic was still lined up in/out of the campus onto the main boulevard which was also the race route. The race can not start with cars blocking the route.
After waiting out the delay for about 20 minutes in the truck, I saw people gathering in the start area. There were pace signs set up and I decided to line up in the 10 min pace group.
I did not really warm up much and by now it had been 2+ hours since I rolled and stretched.