Charleston Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Cold and Windy. It was 34 when I parked the car to start the race but for the first 6 miles or so the wind wasn't too bad, the downtown streets did a good job of blocking the wind, and actually felt a little too warm and took off the hat but as soon as we hit the more industrial area the wind became a factor. I was able to keep up a sub 10 min/mile pace through mile 9 without much trouble. Right around mile 8 was an overpass over some railroad tracks and if it wasn't for Carrie being there I might have walked it. Kept going and attempted a wardrobe change and got fouled up, Carrie had already been pulling away from me and she had more left in her tank at that point so off she went. Got it all sorted out and kept trucking, had GU's at mile 4 and another at mile 9. The last mile or so was through paths and wasn't really sure where I was in relation to the mileage but signs were posted and the course was well layed out. Finished strong if a bit off of my goal time, but hey if it was an easy goal why strive for it right?

Buy better fitting cold weather running gear, was wearing tights that I use at work when it is cold out and buy those a little larger than needed for comfort on a 10 hour shift and so have some chafing issues. Other than that nothing besides stick to my training plan better, I definitely feel that sub 2 is doable for me with more training.

Find the tent with the heaters. Grab beer and shrimp and grits. Ran into my department's SWAT team they did the 13.1 carrying a 150 lb dummy on a stretcher to raise money for a fallen officer in NY. The cold definitely got to people that weren't expecting it, one guy we saw was shivering and about as blue as anyone I ever saw my wife the nurse had to force him in front of the heaterto get him to warm up.


Poorly executed training plan.


I had a blast at the race and the issues that did pop up seemed to be more of weather issues than anything else, everyone was cramed into the expo tent at the end but on a 40 degree day what do you expect? Had a bunch of bands at the beggining of the race but not enough until the last mile of the race, could have used a few more. Overall will defintely keep this race on the top of do again list, next year it's the full though.