Park 2 Park Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Cedar Falls, Iowa
United States
Trekman Racing
60F / 16C
Overcast
Total Time = 1h 34m 17s
Overall Rank = 45/385
Age Group = M 25-29
Age Group Rank = 6/20
Pre-race routine:

Friday night was the expo and pasta dinner. food was great and there was tons of free swag just for signing up. good to see all of my running friends.

stayed at my in-laws house which is about 5 miles from the race site. got up and enjoyed my pre-race breakfast.
Event warmup:

last year i was training for a marathon, so i decided to have some fun with this race. this year, i wanted to rock and roll a little bit. a bunch of people asked, "no cape this year." there's always next year.
warmed up about a mile. i was looking to go about 1:35:00, the pace felt good. time to man it up and race.
Run
  • 1h 34m 17s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 07m 12s  min/mile
Comments:

so the goal here is to break 1:35 with the help of my polar and ironmitch. the start gun wasn't very loud and so i think we just sat there for a few seconds. i said to ironmitch, "if we blow this by three seconds, i'm going to be pi$$ed."

the first couple miles felt good. nice and strong, quick but not stupid. ironmitch said that he has never taken a race out this fast before. uh-oh. passed the first aid station, but i was ready for some water at the second. took a pull off the gel flask before and grabbed a cup of....gatorade? no!! great, now i'm going to be sticky the rest of the race.

about mile 3 ironmitch was hurting a bit. mile 4 he dropped off. all by myself. i have run over these trails countless times, so it wasn't so bad.

started to see the leaders coming back around mile 5. man these guys are fast. i also saw my friend who is going to take a crack at boston in two weeks. didn't even look like he was trying.

after the turn around, i saw my running friends and started the high fives. i also saw the boss, who was toughing it out despite limited training. she's amazing to me.

the second half i was trying to pick it up a little. i felt like i was giving more effort, but that effort wasn't really translating into faster splits. at least i wasn't going slower.

for the last four miles i had people cheering on a guy named bob behind me. bob and another gal finally passed me at mile 9 after drafting off me for about 30 minutes. too soon says i because i caught bob at mile 10 and the gal at 11. later gators.

i was catching people in the last couple miles. again, i was trying to pump in more effort, but i wasn't going too much faster. i did get passed by some gazelles, but i was doing more passing than getting passed. and for a swimmer, that is a pretty big deal.

the last half mile is on a slow uphill. not a ton of fun. i just stayed focused and kept on going. crossed that line at 1:34:17. beep beep.
What would you do differently?:

for the race, not much. the early gatorade/hammer gel combo gave me a few side stiches, but that went away and that was the extent of my problems for this one. i think i raced the best race i could that day.
Post race
Warm down:

after i finished, i began to felt the extent of the effort i gave. my legs started to lock up and i started feeling ill. perfect.
i walked around a bit sipping water and then headed over to the massage tent. (the guy worked on me for about 20 minutes! score!)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

i was really excited about this race because i felt like i ran strong the entire race. i think for next time i will do more pace work and get that time down even more.

Event comments:

i love this race. this is marathon quality race for a 10k price. every year i do this race, it gets better.




Last updated: 2008-05-27 12:00 AM
Running
01:34:17 | 13.1 miles | 07m 12s  min/mile
Age Group: 6/20
Overall: 20/385
Performance: Good
Course: bike trail race from george wyth park to black hawk park and back. smooth and flat, well shaded and volunteers everywhere.
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 Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5