Detroit Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Basically as soon as I started running, the side stitches appeared. Seriously. Without fail, I have encountered side stitches in EVERY tri run I've done. And now this carries over to stand-alone runs?! I *need* to figure this out!!! I am convinced that today was because I drank too much water in the morning.

Anyway, so this side stitch nonsense was not good for my mental psyche. Due to the side stitches, initially I was thinking this is not going to amount to a good run. But I just tried to keep going best I could... At one point I put my fingers over the stitch for a couple minutes, and when I let go it went away for a bit. But for most of the run it was persistently nagging. As a result, I didn't want to consume any water/food as I didn't want to potentially further the problem. Finally in miles 8 and 9, I took in some gatorade at the aid stations which I walked through. Also grabbed a few m&ms that were being passed out. In both cases I just felt I wanted to add in a few calories to get me through to the end.

My mile splits were all over the place, but my 5k splits were relatively consistent. Generally speaking, whenever I tried to pick up the pace, I just felt like I couldn't go faster. The last half mile was a real struggle.

Despite the side stitches, I think I did close to as well as I could for this day, as immediately upon crossing the finish line I could feel the soreness in my calves when I started walking. And then when I went for a little jog, I couldn't, as my quads were not allowing it.

Upon quick reflection, I am okay with the race. Although faster would have been nice (of course always.) I say this because a couple years ago I ran basically a 1:46 on 3.5 months of running on 20mpw... well, this time around was a lot more running both number of months and miles per week, and I basically only cut down 2 minutes. It just seems like I should have gone faster... Although I guess this race did have a couple more inclines than the other course, but...

I would not drink as much water in the morning, as I *think* that may be the cause of the side stitches???

Well I wanted to jog around as part of my cool down, but that didn't work out too well for my legs. Instead I walked around, a lot. Did some stretching as well.


Things I liked: Running over the bridge and seeing the view of Windsor and Detroit. Running an underwater mile. Running through two countries, crossing an international border crossing twice. Hearing Canadians cheer us on, with a distinct Canadian accent. :D Being welcomed back to the great US of A. :D Mile markers were clear, and I did not miss a single one (which surprised me!) As someone who doesn't do big races often, I liked the atmosphere. Happy to get a long sleeve tech T. It was also cool that they differentiated the shirts between marathon, half marathon, and relay. They also definitely get an A+ for social media presence! They are very engaging with their facebook and twitter audiences and I think it adds to the excitement. The so-so: the post-race massage idea was nice, although they are students, so I feel it's probably hit or miss (I think I got a miss...) I wasn't too impressed with the post-race food. Although the chocolate milk was nice.