American Family Fitness Half Marathon - Run


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Richmond, Virginia
United States
Sports Backers
27F / -3C
Sunny
 		Total Time = 1h 59m 54s
Overall Rank = 2820/8452
Age Group = M 50-54
Age Group Rank = 142/301
Pre-race routine:

Got up at 4:15, showered, ate light. One cup of coffee. Drove to Richmond. Remember to bring toll and parking money! Parked near the Y for $5. Not quite early enough to get on street parking. Wore long sleeve technical t-shirt with "no pipeline" shirt on top, fleece pants, winter hat, gloves. Forgot to bring water for the drive. Probably started too dehydrated. Did lots of little things wrong in my prep. Showed I haven't been racing this year.
Event warmup:

Mainly just walking to the start. Arrived about 10-15 before the race. Found the 1:50 pace group.
Run
  • 1h 59m 54s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 09s  min/mile
Comments:

Plan was to hang with the 1:50 pace group as long as I could - thought I might make 8 miles with them, but they went out fast and were keeping a 8:15 or so pace and they started pulling away around mile 5. Lost them for good in the Park with the first hill. Which is also where I started struggling. Went out too fast? Not enough nutrition? Too cold? Hills in the Park showed my lack of leg strength? Probably all contributed to it. Anyway, hit the 10K mark at 53:04 which I think is my fastest 10K as part of a half and was ahead of my 1:52 pace. But I knew by then I was already in trouble and the next 3-4 miles had some rough moments in them. I rallied around mile 10 (maybe the Powerade I picked up in the Park helped?) and was able to do low 9s the rest of the way. But overall, not run smartly. But part of the point was to find out where I was. I might have been able to do 1:57 or so with smarter race execution, but I really wanted to see where I stood relative to 3-4 years ago. Now I know :-)
What would you do differently?:

Starting pace should have been 8:30 instead of 8:15 for me. More G/water pre-race.
Post race
Warm down:

Just grabbed some powerade and pizza and headed for the Y for a shower. Got stuck in miserable traffic for 2 hours.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Weight. Lack of leg strength / speed training.

Event comments:

They run a great race! Really should try to make a weekend of it with Karen.




Last updated: 2014-11-16 12:00 AM
Running
01:59:54 | 13.1 miles | 09m 09s  min/mile
Age Group: 142/301
Overall: 2820/8452
Performance: Below average
10K was 53.04
Course: Pretty straightforward course, some up and down in the Park that I had forgotten which proved to be my undoing, but otherwise just very light grade up or down... until the steeper slope down to the river at the end.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Bad
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Ok
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] 5