ING Miami Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Today was the ING Miami 1/2 Marathon. Got to bed around 830 last night and slept fairly well, after being pretty tired from Race for the Cure (x2). Got up at 4:15, and was on the MetroMover by 5, and at Bayfront Park by 515. Race start 6:15. walked around a bit, made it to startline at America Airlines Arena. Ran back to BF and back to warm up. In start corral by 6. even though i knew i wouldn't be able to keep up a 2hr pace with my lack of training, i started with the 4hr/2hr pace group. immediately upon starting my right knee was hurting (hurt earlier as well), so things didn't bode well for a fast pace. race started at AAA and turned right over macauther causeway. the climb up the first bridge wasn't bad at all and i was able to keep with the pace group to the bottom of the bridge. i think the decent put extra stress on the knee and slowed me down more. it was only about 72 degrees, but the humidity was out of control. everyone was sweating like crazy. running the causeway was really cool seeing the cruise ships and the fireboat spraying water. TONS of people, i'm sure the entire causeway was full end to end at one point (looking at the official finishers list there were 11257 - 1/2 and 2904 full finishers = 14,155 runners!) 1st water station was at mile 3, just before the second bridge. made sure to stop at most of the water stations for water or gatorade to stay hydrated since i was sweating so much. 2nd bridge went fine and made the right turn onto the island. i passed elvis!!! (thank you very much, he kept saying) made 2 left turns and was at the southern end of ocean drive. it was really cool running down south beach. the beach had tents and all kinds of things setup for the superbowl week, and espn radio was broadcasting. my 10k time was 1:09 (about 1/2way point) and i knew even matching pb marathon time was out. we then turned in and continued north on washington past the convention center/etc. when we got to dade, the cold front finally arrived with a light mist rain that lasted about 5-10 mins. finally coolness. i was actually cold at a few points. ran up and past the golf course and high school (never been that way on the island before, neat seeing new places) and back onto dade to venitian causeway. by this time my knee was REALLY starting to hurt, and so knowing i wouldn't have a good time, my goal shifted to simply finishing, and i started walking more. venitian causeway seemed to go on forever, but it was such a cool view out over the water. at one house they were giving out empendas, cake and fig newtons (i passed) and another was giving out hersheys kisses (i missed). the fireboat was now at that causeway spraying. entering back into miami at about mile 11 it was AMAZING the amount of spectators cheering us on. the next half mile solid was spectators, then they thinned out a bit as we continued into an area one would normally be wise to avoid any other day. they advertise the race saying that the runners are the celebrities. it sure felt like it running into downtown. at mile 12 there was a group of random volunteers handing out orange slices and water. i know this wasn't an official water station because they didn't have the ING shirts, and the water was just in cone cups, not what all the other stations had. so cool that they would just do that on there own (there were like 20 of them!) one of the entertainment stations just before that was 3 or 4 guys playing rock band singing all american rejects i think. sounded pretty good for a video game. everywhere else were real bands, school bands, just music, etc. thought that was funny. the last mile was by far the hardest, walked a lot, but the crowds were awesome and very encouraging. as i turned the corner to head down the finish chute, i was able to dig down and get a little sprint (wouldn't ever call it a sprint on a normal day, but gotta take what i can). i even remembered to raise my arms in victory as i crossed the finish line (something i was always too tired to think of before). overall i felt pretty good thru the whole race other than my knee. no cramps, no other soreness, no out of breath, just knee pain. heartrate stayed low so i'm sure that helped with the endurance. i wore compression sleeves on my calves for the first time, maybe that contributed to the lack of pains. hope its short term. i was happy to finish. 3 or so women in the last 2 miles were being taken away by medics. sad they made it that far but didn't finish. now, 10 hrs after finishing knee is still only pain, unlike after PB half when i was hurting all over.

loved it.