Mercedes Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Mercedes Half Marathon - temp at start was 33 or so. Beautiful morning for a run. Last year I was right at 1:41 and had 1:37 in my head as a goal. Anything in that range and I would be very happy. I almost didn't attend as yesterday I felt like ####. Woke up feeling a bit better this morning. Popped an aspirin to get rid of my headache and headed out. 7000 of my best friends showed up to run with me - how nice of them. Got into the line late and only managed to get up to the 8-9 minute mile area by the time we started off.

First mile = 6:57 Definitely too fast, but typical of me. By the end of mile 2 my HR was up to 175 (very high for me) and I was concerned about it, but ultimately ignored it and just went by RPE.

First 5k = 22:06. Considering my 5k record is 21:30 or so, this was pretty good. Started feeling pretty decent around this spot (and the terrain is flat through mile 6) and just started cruising.

10k = 45:15 How do you know you're gonna have a good HM? Set a 10k PR by over a minute to start off. Road starts to wind up here, but RPE was doing pretty good, so I just went with it. Here through mile 8.5 is the toughest part, rising about 250 feet or so. Those miles went pretty well and I never dropped below a 7:33 mile here. Oddly enough my slowest mile was mile 5, which was a bit confusing because it isn't terribly hilly there. No telling.

10 mile = 1:13:29. This is a PR by a 3:30 over a standalone 10 miler last year. The worst of the hills are over here, but the last few miles are really tough as they are long streets that seem to stretch to California.

Last 5k = 22:25. Not too far off the first 5k, so it looks like pacing was pretty decent. I got passed like crazy the last couple miles, but my last 2 miles were 7:22 and 7:10. Can't be too unhappy, though it felt like I was running through molasses at that point. At the finish I caught sight of the clock at 200 yards from the finish and realized I had to sprint it in. I was able to get it in under the 1:36 mark.

Final time: 1:35:56

Very happy with that time. Good effort and I think I paced pretty well. First half = 47:40 and second half = 48:16, so a slight positive split. Average HR of 175(!!) - man that is high. It never did get under 170 the whole race. That is way high for me.

All in all a very good day.

Wife finished in 2:05 in her first half. She was also very happy with her time.



Nothing - good race. Pretty well paced, I thought.

Great race.