Detroit Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Detroit, Michigan
United States
Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank
40F / 4C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 48m 12s
Overall Rank = 672/5947
Age Group = Male 35-39
Age Group Rank = 88/474
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 5:15, had a Cliff Bar and High Protein Boost and a cup of coffee. Got a bit later start to the race due to waiting for my Bro-in-law to get to my house. Got downtown about 40 minutes before the race but had a 3/4 mile walk to the race. Still had to hit the porta-pottys and drop off our gear bag. Got in the starting chute area (too far back) 2 minutes before the race.
Event warmup:

A bit of stretching.
Run
  • 1h 48m 12s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 08m 16s  min/mile
Comments:

This was my first run race. Have done 3 sprint triathlons. I was not prepared for how many people and how congested the run course was. Due to getting to the race late we started back to far and my first mile was slower than it should have been. Also, I was not mentally prepared (having never run the course before) for the hill coming up out of the tunnel. It and the smaller hill shortly thereafter kicked my butt and I had trouble getting my speed back after that.

Mile / Mile Pace / Avg Heart Rate
1 / 8:08 / 185
2 / 7:27 / 184
3 / 7:49 / 182
4 / 8:40 / 183 (Bridge - uphill)
5 / 7:57 / 178
6 / 7:42 / 180
7 / 7:47 / 180
8 / 7:50 / 179
9 / 7:51 / 182
10 / 8:35 / 178 (Tunnel - uphill)
11 / 8:15 / 180
12 / 8:18 / 179
13 / 8:08 / 183
Remainder / 8:03 / 183

What would you do differently?:

1. Get to race earlier.
2. I think I need more practice drinking from cups while at speed.
3. More training. I've been running just over a year, but last 5 weeks was first time I really focused on just running. Started doing speed work and tempo runs, etc.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around, drank gatorade, stretched

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I actually don't think I could have run this much faster. I was spent by the end of the race.

Event comments:

I think the decision to start the half marathon 5 minutes after the marathon was necessary due to construction on the bridge but it created its own set of problems. Walkers also started 5 minutes before the half.




Last updated: 2008-09-15 12:00 AM
Running
01:48:12 | 13.1 miles | 08m 16s  min/mile
Age Group: 88/474
Overall: 672/5947
Performance: Good
Avg Heart Rate over race: 180 Max Heart Rate: 187
Course: Flat with big exception of Ambassador Bridge to Canada and Tunnel back into United States. Some construction on Bridge created bottlenecks.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Not enough
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:
Race evaluation [1-5] 5