ING Miami Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

My plan was to run with the 2:10 pace group, with the hopes that keeping a steady, somewhat slower starting pace, would allow me to maintain for the entire distance. I had to rely on my Garmin pace for the first 3 miles since the girl who led the pace group got into the corral late and was a little bit behind me. Surprisingly I did a GREAT job of running my goal pace of 9:55. It was rather effortless, it's like my legs just knew how fast to go. It did help when the pacer finally caught up to me. I think she was going a little fast when she passed me but must have slowed a bit because even running with the group I was maintaining the same pace. Didn't drink at the first water station at 3 mi, and held off to mi 4. Reasoning is that I don't drink while running an hour or less, so why cause unnecessary bloat. I did have to pee though, even though I went right before the start. Decided to just push though it hoping the feeling would pass. Up until the halfway point, I did a great job maintaining pace and staying close to the pacer. Ate one of my Gu's at the 6 mi water stop. She got a little ahead at the 6.67mi point and I decided I HAD to hit the porta-potty. Garmin says about a minute delay. Not too bad. Coming out I could see her sign down the road but too far to catch up to. I managed to maintain my pace for the next mile or two but then the tank started emptying. My pace got progressively slower as the miles passed. I tried to push on when I could but near the end I just didn't have any more to give. I am happy though that the only places that I walked were very brief walks to drink water the second half, as opposed to my 2 prior HMs where I walked a bunch. That is a little victory in itself. My goal time was ~2:10, with a more realistic 2:15 on the radar. Crossed the line at 2:21:48. Oh well, I'll get it next time!

Run more long runs, run some bridges, lose weight! My longest leading up was 11 mi 2 wks prior, skipped the scheduled 12 mi last wk. Followed the Hal Higdon Intermediate HM program which was pretty good, I just need more of a base. Running a few bridges would have gotten me up them a little faster, but overall I'm pretty happy with how I handled them. They say losing a lb gains you 2 seconds. Since I'm about 20 lbs heavier than I should be, that would have put me at the 10 min mark and I should've met my goal time, in addition to the better fitness I should've had.

Walk around, stretch calves, eat.


Lack of overall fitness.


Great race, will definitely do again next year!