First Midwest Bank Southwest Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

This was a great race for me! I'm very excited to put this down for a PR. It was really my first stand alone HM so anything would be a PR. But I've done an HM as part of a HIM and have run a full marathon in the past. Still, I'm proud of my race!

After my warmup, I lined up at the 7min/mile group. I notice there were no pacers around so I was going to have to pace this one on my own. My cousin trained for this and raced with me. He lined up with me and counted on my to pace him too. The first few miles were tough. I was breathing pretty hard, but my legs felt good. So I just kept going. I notice in the first few miles we were keeping about a 6:50 pace. I was worried it was a bit too fast but still felt good. At mile 5 I noticed I was weasing when I exhale. While it sucks to have a slight case of asma, sometimes it's a good reminder to me as to where to keep the pace. In short races, I can run through that. But in longer courses I know I need to be just below the point of weasing. So I knew to back off a little. So at that point I was running at about 6:48 pace and new to back it off back near 7. My cousin didn't feel good. He dropped off around mile six and hit a bathroom shortly after. I ran by myself a lot of the way after that. Between mile 6-8 I felt REALLY good. I settled in nicely there. My breathing was controlled and the pace was still around 6:50 on my garmin. It was somewhere in my 9-10 I really started to feel it. I remember wishing my cousin was still with my to push me and having to tell myself "just keep putting one foot in front of the other". It was metally getting harder to keep pushing that pace. A couple of the rolling hills on the way back got really tough. It was there my pace started dropping some. By mile 12 I had dropped to 6:53/mile. I had hoped to pick up the pace here and finish strong. But I felt my calves at the verge of cramping and knew I couldn't push the pace any harder. It was then I realized I hadn't been taking much water in. I grabbed a cup at all but 1 aid station, but was too concerned with keeping the pace to get more than a gulp down at each of them. I also forgot to take my first gel. I planned it at mile 4 but didn't do it till 5 or 6. I took 2 more gels between there and the finish. Coming up on mile 12 I knew it was going to be hard. That last hill took a lot out of me even though it was only a light roller. Mentally, I had to keep telling myself to keep going! Pace kept dropping. By the 13 mile mark I was at 6:55 avg on my garmin. But it was there I saw my wife and my dog! I got excited and kept pushing, but still lost another second on my avg before the finish. I was REALLY amped to see on my garmin the 6:56 pace as I crossed the finish! Then I realized what everyone dreads. The garmin said the course was 13.3!!! My goal was sub 1:35 for this race, but secretly, I wanted to be sub 7min/miles. So according to the race results I didn't go sub 7min/miles, but according to the tool I was training with I did! Oh well, I'm proud either way. My goal when I signed up for this was a 7:30 pace. Training went so well I had to adjust it to sub 1:35. So I'm pretty darn exited to be around a 7min/mile pace, and shattered my 1:35 goal! Just missed a top 10 too!!!!! darn!!!

Overall, I'm extremely happy! Being a triathlete, I'm only a part time runner. Going to a HM and coming in 11th in a field of runners at a large event like this is humbling. Certainly a testament to a lot of hard work lately. :)

Not party the night before and get wasted on margaritas!

Pay attention to my gel timing

Learn to get more water down at aid stations and keep pace

Walk to the car, some light stretching


nothing


Good race!, really well run. They expected around 2500 runners and a pretty stacked field. It was neat to see some of the Kenyan's when they made the turn. Very impressive!