Platte River Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Littleton, Colorado
United States
Alamo Events
40F / 4C
Sunny
 		Total Time = 2h 10m 58s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Did the Heritage 5k Trail Run the day before, but didn't push too hard.
Up at 6:30, had a small normal breakfast, 3/4 the normal amt of coffee.
Looked out the window numerous times expecting a Hollywood-esque storm to appear from nowhere based on the doom forecast all week, but all I saw was blue sky. Sweet!
Event warmup:

Arrived and parked at 8, Stretched in the parking lot, on the fences, the park benches, used the port-o-lets a couple of times, headed over to the start.
I was looking for Kathleen and Matt in the start crowd, never saw either beforehand...I waded into the crowd between the 9- and 10-minute starters. Crossed the start line at 9:05am
Run
  • 2h 10m 58s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m  min/mile
Comments:

3,000 people on an 8ft bike path is a crowd, especially when folks don't self-seed properly; there was a lot of wading through people for the 1st 5-6 miles, which surprised me.
I also was happily surprised I was able to maintain ~9:45 pace well into the race. If my left calf hadn't gone knotty during mile 8, I'm pretty sure I could have kept it going to the end, it felt like I had a noticeable gimp the last 4.5 miles. Though based on how the quads feel today, I may well have flamed out differently around mile 12.
What would you do differently?:

Before the start I drank 1/4 of the HEED bottle I carried, and left Honey Stinger chews in the car; if I had it to do over again I would start with a full bottle and carry the chews, I was able to feel the HEED hitting the bloodstream in the second half.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around a few minutes drinking water, got in the food line, then saw Wavedog with the PBR recovery fuel in hand. Nice!


What limited your ability to perform faster:

A solid calf cramp for the last 5 miles, and being a little light on fuel over the 2 hours.

Event comments:

Aside from the calf cramp, I'm really happy to be :30/mile better over this distance since October, especially for just the 3rd time completing 13.1




Last updated: 2010-12-24 12:00 AM
Running
02:10:58 | 13.1 miles | 09m  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Good
Course: ~1.5 miles of road at the beginning & ~1/4 mile at the end, paved trail in between.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5