Detroit Free Press Half Marathon - Run


View Member's Race Log View other race reports
Detroit, Michigan
United States
Detroit Free Press Marathon
70F / 21C
Overcast
Total Time = 2h 37m 19s
Overall Rank = 6362/11229
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 468/633
Pre-race routine:

Got up ahead of time. Got ready, toasted a bagel with light peanut butter and off I went. Ran into construction and was getting nervous wouldn't make it on time. The exit i need to use was backed up for miles so I thought I'd go to the next one and cirle back to my work parking garage. Nope, exit was closed due to being on the course. Drove around town until I could circle back to the previous exit and waited. Managed to drive around all the people waiting to get into the casino parking garage. Whipped into work garage, ran into the building to use the bathroom one last time. Quickly made my way to the race start. Only had a few minutes to wait, but with all this my heart rate was already warmed up.
Event warmup:

No warm up, found my way into corral G which was about the pace I was expecting.
Run
  • 2h 37m 19s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 12m 01s  min/mile
Comments:

Free Press Half Marathon was my worst race to date. if there ever was an EPIC bonk it was today. Yes, I started out a little fast but nothing faster than I've trained before. By the second mile marker I was trying to reel it in, but no matter what i did my heart rate was very elevated. I walked up some of the bridge to try and bring it down. Then ran easily down the bridge. After the road flattened out i took a walk break and noticed my heart rate was still spiking. This made me a little nervous so I went into a walk/run. I did this until we approached the tunnel. Upon entering the tunnel I removed my hat knowing it would be really hot inside. On entering the tunnel it's a down hill, I ran relatively hard until the road flattened out. Looked down and HR was still at peak, beyond anything I see in training, even during all out sprint efforts. At this point I shut it down and decided to primarily walk it in, knowing full well my race was over.
What would you do differently?:

Need to run more often outside. The treadmill isn't teaching me pacing and the legs don't get use to the pounding that the streets dish out.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked through finishing shoot, grabbed whatever they were handing out. Headed straight back to car, not interested in hanging around. Path was blocked on way back to car due to course circling around town. Had to back track 4 blocks to get to a cross walk that the police allowed people to cross. Got back to car, called the wife to let her know I was done and headed home. She said it was raining super hard at home and we must have been soaked on the course. I said no rain yet, 10min into my drive it started. I'm glad I got off the course when i did. Got home, took a shower and headed over to the uncle's house for usual Sunday dinner, then went hunting.

Checked my heart rate a couple times throughout the rest of the day and it was lower but not back into the 60's where it usually is when resting.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of run training outside, and run training in general.

Event comments:

This is always a good race, there is nothing like running over the bridge and through the tunnel.




Last updated: 2016-09-28 12:00 AM
Running
02:37:19 | 13.1 miles | 12m 01s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/633
Overall: 0/11229
Performance: Bad
Course: Around town, over the bridge, back through the tunnel and into the finish. (Short version of the course)
Keeping cool Below average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 1
Physical exertion [1-5] 2
Good race? No
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 4