Shamrock'n Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

My previous 1/2 mary PR was 2:07:18. Last year I did this race in 2:09:36. My goal was to get under 2:00. So I blasted my PR and hit my goal with time to spare. How cool is that?

I did the race by heart rate, keeping it up in the high 160's for pretty much the whole race. Toward the end, I just let it go and I'm not sure what my HR was.

It also got really hard at the end. This is the longest run I've done in a while and my training has been a little less than consistent over the last couple of weeks. So I think I could have done even a little better, but I'm very pleased with my results.

The weather cooperated. It was a little windy, but sunny and cool-ish. I wore running shorts, a long-sleeve base layer and my tri club jersey, a beanie, and cotton running gloves. I probably could have gotten away with an even thinner long-sleeve base layer.

My (coach's) plan was to drink a bottle of Cytomax over the first 45 minutes, then take a gel at 60 and 90 minutes, tossing the bottle and using on-course water/sports drink at every aid station. Well, as usual, I didn't drink enough and I never did toss the bottle, although I had it filled with 2 cups of water a couple times. So I probably drank about 36oz altogether. I only had one gel at about 1:15. This was not enough.

And I made a mistake: I mixed my Cytomax too strong. I mixed it at 2 scoops / 24oz. I should have mixed it at close to half that. So at one point my stomach was starting to feel "sloshy" because my stomach probably couldn't digest the calories and the fluid was just sitting there. Luckily it worked itself out because I drank a little less, then got my drink diluted at the next aid station.

I enjoyed the run. It's a decent course, well supported. The bands were nothing to write home about, but it was nice to have a little entertainment. Lots of people were wearing green stuff for the St. Paddy's day holiday. That was probably more entertaining. I got a few "Go Sac Tri Club!"s and even a couple of "Go Mike"s (this was the first race I've ever done where my name was printed on my bib).

The first mile was a little slow due to people-dodging. I tried to keep my pace consistent, though. I actually wasn't sure I could hold my HR that high for that long (168 was my avg HR from the last time trial test). I was supposed to negative split. That didn't work out too well, but it was good to keep in mind anyway.

Mix my Cytomax to the right concentration. Drink more.

After walking up the steps from the floor of Raley Field to the concession level (Raley Field is a baseball stadium -- this was just cruel), I found a place to stretch and spent about 10 minutes stretching out. Then I went looking for my clothes and ran into my wife who was meeting me there after the race. Finally found the booth and changed into dry and warm clothes, then got my goodie bag of food, sat in the sun, and ate.


I probably could have gone faster with more consistent training, more run training, better race nutrition, and if I lost some weight.


I ran this race last year and again I was impressed with it being well organized. It is also pretty flat and fairly fast, although there are quite a few turns. The weather was cool and sunny but a little windy -- almost perfect. Recommended.