Holualoa Tucson Half Marathon - RunMarathon


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Tucson, Arizona
United States
40F / 4C
Sunny
 		Total Time = 1h 28m 14s
Overall Rank = 33/1307
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 6/69
Pre-race routine:

Nothing special.
Event warmup:

Stood around shivering, basically. The buses dropped us at the start about 40 minutes before race time and it was FREEZING. Not quite as bad as the Rock N' Roll marathon last year, but damn close. I think the only thing that made this slightly better was that they had some of those heat lamp kind of things out there, which helped a lot. Otherwise, ran for about 5 minutes with a few pickups and buttkicks, squats to load the legs, then off at the gun.
Run
  • 1h 28m 14s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 06m 44s  min/mile
Comments:

Just had a really good day. Felt good coming into the race, and comfortable with my training even though I knew it was less than ideal. We also looked at the course profile closely and knew where to push and where to lay back. I felt very comfortable through about 7, good through 10, and then ran the hardest 5K I had left. I knew I was on a good day when I went through the first 10K in about 41 minutes, and then just focused on holding the best pace I had in my legs without blowing up. Very happy with this result.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing really. I pushed hard off the line, but that was because the first few miles had a lot of big downhills and that seemed like a good time to push the pace. From there on I ran appropriately hard, with enough left in the tank to pass about 5 people in the last mile (all of whom passed me earlier). My only regret is not getting the training done for the marathon, which would have been an easy BQ.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around and waited on the buses to come get us.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Training. Basically did little or nothing in October, which couldn't have helped the overall performance.

Event comments:

I really liked this race. I thought the scenery was nice (overlooking the desert and North Tucson mountains), climate is perfect for a December race, the course was fast and easy, the Hilton where we stayed is nice and the race shuttles picked up from here, and it was just an easy, well organized and convenient event. I will be back here to run my BQ.




Last updated: 2007-07-20 12:00 AM
Running
01:28:14 | 13.1 miles | 06m 44s  min/mile
Age Group: 6/69
Overall: 33/1307
Performance: Good
HRM did not cooperate and I got zero HR data.
Course: Almost all downhill, with a few flats and small rises, until about mile 11 where there is more or less one mile uphill, then a short flat to downhill section into the finish. First half of the race was much faster than the second, but overall a VERY fast course.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Too easy
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 4