Lake Inawashiro Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Inawashiro, Fukushima
Japan
Xebio Co, Ltd.
11C / 52F
Overcast
Total Time = 1h 44m 23s
Overall Rank = /2470
Age Group = 50-59
Age Group Rank = 84/408
Pre-race routine:

Up at 4:45. quick breakfast of yogurt, banana, toast, coffee. My buddy picked me up at 5:30 and we drove the two hours to the city hosting the race. It took us another 30 minutes to get to the parking lot - small city and a few too many cars trying to get to the race. We then had to take a bus from the parking lot (a ski resort lot) to the race start area.
Event warmup:

I jogged for about 5 minutes just to loosen up. They wanted every to start lining up 30 minutes before the start of the race so I knew the warmup wasn't going to do much for me.
Run
  • 1h 44m 23s
  • 21.1 kms
  • 04m 57s  min/km
Comments:

My goal was hold 5 min/km and consider picking up the pace at the 10 or 15 km mark if it felt like I could go faster. I knew at the 10 km mark that I was holding the right pace and from the 15 km mark, I did my best to hang on. I was also using my HRM and trying to keep my HR up around 150. If I saw it dropping off, I cranked up the pace a little (usually a slight down or a flat).
What would you do differently?:

From a race execution perspective I would not do anything differently.
Post race
Warm down:

Ha. Picked up one of the blankets they were giving everyone and got in the long line to wait for a bus back to the start. This was the only thing that they really screwed up on. They should have had more buses at the finish sooner. The lines got really long and I guess most people ended up waiting anywhere from 30-50 minutes. It was cold and windy. The blankets were giveaways from the sponsor and they did help a lot.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I need to do more long runs in the 15-20 km range, i.e., once a week rather than the total 6 or 7 I've done in the last year or so. I also need to step up my weekly mileage. My leg muscles and joints are really the limiters - and they hurt like heck right now.

Event comments:

This was the first event for the race organizers and I think they did a great job considering the location. The town is not that big and the parking had to be at a separate location. Although it was nice to take the course down to the lake, I think they would have been better off coming up with a loop that brought the race back to the start point. It was a real pain in the butt standing around in 12 degrees C waiting 40 minutes for a bus.




Last updated: 2011-10-31 12:00 AM
Running
01:44:23 | 21.1 kms | 04m 57s  min/km
Age Group: 84/408
Overall: 408/2470
Performance: Good
Course: The course was relatively flat: that means long slow ups and downs and a couple of smaller hills. It was actually a very good course - there were enough of the ups and downs to put a hurt on you by the 15 km mark.
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] 4