Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

This was my first time racing a 1/2 marathon and I was a little unsure about how hard to push myself and race it. So, when the gun went off I started running and took it kind of easy in a 6:30 or so pace. I slowly started to speed up and found that everything was clicking very nicely today. Running almost felt effortless and breathing, HR, cadence, stride, everything was just spot-on. Shortly after 1/2 mi or so I settled into a pace of around 6:10. As the race went on I tried to slowly increase my speed and bust out some negative action. I like running like that. Almost the whole race I was by myself, slowly picking off one after another. Nobody passed me (after the start) from what I can remember. When I would reach someone, I would sit on their heels for a while, check their pace and usually pass them and keep going on with my own race. About 3/4 of the way in we hit a few gradual hills and the headwinds which slowed us down a little. Around that time (approx. mile 9) people really seemed to start dropping and I started to try and speed up to drop a few seconds. My goal time for this race was to run 6:20s (around 1:23 or so), but everything was clicking nicely so I upped the anty. Around mi 10 I realized that I had a chance to break 1:20, but as I was getting closer and caught the headwinds I knew that I was going to fall just short no matter how hard I pushed. We made our turn around to Lambeau and I started eyeing up distances and checking times. Yup, gonna fall just short. Oh well. I'm going to kill my initial goal and still have a really good time for my 1/2 marathon debut. I made my final kick going into Lambeau (mi 11.5), ran around the field and hit the finish running hard.

Nutrition/Hydration: Took a Gu at mile 8.5. Alternated water and gatorade at each water station - approx. 1.5 mi apart.

Maybe come out a little faster and hold that pace. Push a little harder. I think I held back a little too much from not knowing how hard to go out for a 1/2 marathon.

Got some gatorade, hit up a banana and went back to the finish to see some friends finish. After they finished (only about 4 min behind me) we did a short cooldown jog around the parking lot and I got and drank my recovery drink from the bag-n-tag.


The wind got in our faces a little. Also legs felt a little worked from the training the week before. Not two huge factors, but I think they did contribute a little bit to limiting factors.


The Green Bay marathon and events is always put together really well. Always a good event to take part of. You really can't beat brats and beer at the end either.

There is a group of local guys in my AG that usually take most of the small races around here. Pretty fast guys and must be ex-college runners. 5 of the top 10 OA were in my AG. Top 3 OA were in my AG. Tough crowd for sure!