Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I'm always much colder than everyone else, so I'm really glad that I had long pants and long sleeves on. This made the temperature and wind tolerable for the most part. Kept the gloves and windsuit top until around mile 5 when I tossed both. The houses helped block most wind until mile 9 or 10. With a soaked long sleeve tech shirt, the wind after that was quite cold and I wished I had the windsuit top back. But all in all this was a good strategy and I'll rememeber that for the future.

Wore my new Nimbus VIII with less than 50 miles on them and this turned out to be a good plan. The cushioning is noticeably better and I had no blisters after the run. Makes the case for upgrading shoes, but not changing models.

Garmin saved me once again for overdoing the pace at the beginning. I slowed down to 9:30-9:45 min/mi vs. the low 9:00s that I was doing before looking at the Garmin pace. While I planned on alternating .75-.875 mile run and walk the rest per mile, I was able to keep running at the 6.0 mph pace for almost all the race except walking through and slightly past all water stops with very few exceptions. Took Gatorade and water at all stops and did the jelly beans at mile 10. Total walk time per the Garmin was 0.79 miles.

Basically nothing other than more outside training. I was well trained overall and sufficiently prepared for the race to finish it and hopefully do it under 2:30.

Very cold after race even with mylar sheet. Walked around for 15 minutes or so, stopped by Cellcom tent for time verification (Garmin was only 1 second longer) and waited until Pam finished near the reunite signs. Grabbed a brat and 26.2 beer with Pam and then headed to the Atrium to warm up for a few before heading on home.


1) Limited outdoor training-- the price to pay when so much was done on the treadmill 2) Geneal worry over tight muscles before and during the race and then specifically right calf cramping in mile 12 & 13- a dozen or so moderate pain jabs were a signal that a cramp was close to happening-- but I eased up on it, did a lot more deep breathing and made it!


I am ecstatic over the time of 2:13 which solidly beat my realistic goal of 2:30 and tied my best ever training time of 2:13 (4/29/07 on a treadmill with 0% incline). Doing a half-marathon was never even in my stretch goals until this year and is something I never though I would attempt. I followed an 18 week training plan (Prevea Plan extended back 6 weeks) incorporating weight lifting and cycling for cross-training. I never missed a single scheduled training activity until week 16 when I traded a 7 mile easy run for a 1 hour sports massage (which I needed so bad for very tight hamstrings and calf muscles). The training experience was awesome and this run made it all worthwhile. This is clearly in the top 5 personal accomplishments of my life. Thanks Pam for suggesting the possibility and encouraging me to try it. Is there a full-marathon in the future? -- never say never!