Two Cities Half Marathon - Run


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Fresno, California
United States
 		Total Time = 00m
Overall Rank = 351/1279
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 30/73
Pre-race routine:

I really only did this race because I signed up for it 8 months ago, and I've never DNS'ed yet. Plus the finisher's sweatshirt for this race is always good. But since my HIM in early August I have only run a small handful of times and I've put on around 12 pounds, so I didn't have high expectations. Last year I did this race in around 1:52. I expected there to be some walking this time around, I wasn't going to push it too hard, just going to have fun with it. Around an hour and a half before the race I had a carnation instant breakfast. Normally I'd have a clif bar or something but I wasn't really feeling it. On the walk to the race from my car I ate some gel blocks.
Event warmup:

Light stretching, that's about it.
Run
  • 1h 59m 49s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 09s  min/mile
Comments:

The full marathon and half marathon (the half I was doing anyways, there's two) start at the same time, and there were a bunch of pace groups for the full. So I set myself somewhere between the 3:55 and 4:05 pace group and figured when we split I'd see how I was feeling. I ended up not far behind the 3:55 group when we split and I actually felt like I was hitting a good stride. At miles 7-9 I slowed down a bit talking to a Marine who was dressed in boots and camo gear, with a bunch of yellow ribbons on it, he said they were for fellow Buchanan High School graduates who had died in combat. He was a good guy. Eventually thanked him for his service and picked up my pace a bit. At the 10k mark my pace was 8:52 min/mile. I went into it expecting to get close to 2:10 or so. By the middle I thought I could stay under 2 so I pushed for that towards the end. Last year I remember having a lot in the tank and finishing really strong; this year my legs started getting really tight around mile 9. Extra weight and lack of conditioning really got to me. But I didn't end up walking at all, so I barely made it in under 2. I carried a bottle with Skratch the whole time, that worked well during my HIM so I stuck with it and it worked well this time too I thought.
What would you do differently?:

Train. Really didn't train for this at all. Had a lot going on around the house and frankly got a little burned out after my race in August so it is what it is.
Post race
Warm down:

Long walk back to the car. Some light stretching.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of conditioning and weight gain.

Event comments:

Maybe I'll do it again next year. I'd really like to keep up with training and push myself to see how fast I can do it.




Last updated: 2013-11-03 12:00 AM
Running
01:59:49 | 13.1 miles | 09m 09s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/73
Overall: 0/1279
Performance: Below average
Course:
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized?
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]