Martian Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I may have started a bit far back in the field but it felt good to have that almost mandatory slow down. The first loop around the campus was fun and it felt great. The aid stations were right about every 2 miles and that was great. Took ultima the first time, really did not mind the red stuff but the yellow was just gross. Was shocked when we got to the second aid station and there was GU on the course. I had figured that because Cliff was at the Expo that it would be Cliff products out on the course. At the second aid station there was a volunteer telling people that the bathrooms right there were locked and that there were porta pots in one mile. Got to mile five and there were still no porta pots in sight. Finally after another half mile they came into sight and I made my way to the substantial line. We lost about 4 minutes at this stop. Continued on well until the turn around. It was nice to know that you were more than half done at this turn around. Started running back in and fond that even though it did not feel like it we had been going downhill to that point and had to look forward to going back up those hills. At mile 10.5 had to stop again at the prota pot and lost more time. Then headed back on into the U of M Dearborn campus.
As for the run itself I really did not hit a wall. It felt ok with the exception of the canted road. The worst mile for me was mile 11 witch was uphill and was the fastest mile that I ran the entire race. The canting on the roads made my hip lock up about mile 12 but it released again somewhere in the nature reserve. I overall feel really good about my time and performance, the race was a 41 minute PR.
So over all the course was a good one and made it fairly easy to PR on it. The was a huge lack of porta johns but not a lack of aid stations with choices I could eat without having to choke down.

Train more in advance for going out slow. Train more so that I can do longer runs than just 10 miles, I felt like I may have been able to go faster with more training under my belt. Maybe try to find some "friendly" bushes.

Walked a bit then tried to stretch out a bit. Then said good bye to the freinds that had finished right behind us and got changed to drive back to home(NY).


Fitness, porta johns availability


Race was very well put together with the exception of the porta pot situation. The race would have gone much smoother for me had they opened up the bathrooms in the park or placed porta johns at each aid station. There are just some things that the Disney Races do right.