Illinois Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Champaign, Illinois
United States
Illinois Marathon
40F / 4C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 35m 15s
Overall Rank = 153/3582
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 18/226
Pre-race routine:

Drove down to UofI the day before. We stayed at the hotel that's actually in the Student Union building. Nice enough room. Comfy bed, which is what really mattered. :)

Got up a bit after 6. Had a starbucks doubleshot, some trader joes Green smoothie. A bit of clif bar.

I was surprisingly nervous for this. I was hoping/planning to blow it up and set a solid new PR. I downplayed it leading up to the race, but I guess it caught up with me race morning.

3 trips to bathroom later and I was cured of the nerves. :) It looked like it was going to be a bit colder than I planned for, so I put some backup clothing options into the mix, deciding I'd make the final call when we got to the race start.
Event warmup:

Walked over to the race start from the union. This was bit further/longer than planned. Took about 20-25 minutes to get there.

Had to figure out where the gear drop was. Saw Eileen from the Salt Creek Tri Club. Also saw our friends Lisa and Craig. Didn't manage to link up with Alaina, Ryan, or Kelly though. Bummer.

Decided to go with 2 short sleeve shirts, rather than the single sleeveless top I was planning due to the cold. Shot down a gel with about 15 min to go. Headed out for a bit of a warmup. Did a couple minutes of zone1, since I was pretty warmed up from the walk over. Threw down a couple strides, and then it was time to line up.
Run
  • 1h 35m 15s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 07m 16s  min/mile
Comments:

Since the marathon and 1/2 marathon started at the same time and ran together through the first 11 miles, I took advantage of the 3:10 pace group and lined up with them at the start. I wanted to try to knock off a sub-1:35 so I pushed a little bit ahead of them and from there on just tried to keep them about 15-30 seconds back. I did this pretty well. They caught me back at one point at an aid stop when I fumbled a water bottle handup while trying to get down a gel. I throw down a minute of faster pace and got back out in front.

Running with the pace group chasing definitely propelled me to my goal. When I turned off at the 11 mile mark though, I no longer had other people around to pace off, so my pace slipped a teeny bit. Still plugged away, though I was starting to hurt at this point. 2 miles to go and I was at about 1:19 race time. Awesome, that's right about where I wanted to be.

Coming down the last stretch to the stadium it was pretty packed with spectators and people cheering. It was great. The crowd helped me motivate myself to put in a good finish kick, clocking my fastest split of the race. It hurt, but it hurt so good, and I was already starting to ride the endorphin rush of achieving a solid PR of several minutes. We came down the little ramp into the stadium and I was flying. I passed a few people in the last stretch here coming into the stadium and along the edge of the field. I was on a mission to finish as hard as I could. Rounded the last corner and put my head down and gave it all I had for the 50 yards.

Crossed the line moving pretty good, and was okay for a few seconds, then the race caught up with me, and I was feeling it. Ooof!

My first goal was to knock off my 1:38 1/2 PR. I was pretty sure that was doable. My other goal was run the half at or slightly under the pace I need to run to BQ. I succeeded on both accounts. :)
What would you do differently?:

Hmmm, find a way to keep pushing harder for that 15 seconds, and get under 1:35.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around the field quite a bit, eventually lined up by the tunnel exit to look for other people I knew coming into the finish and cheer for them. :)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Nothing, maybe a bit of mental toughness to push a teeny bit harder.

Event comments:

This was very well run for the innagural edition.

Only a few minor things that could have been better, but all the big important stuff was extremely well done. And the volunteer support was amazing! What a turnout all along the course, not just in the parts that passed through campus, but all along the neighborhoods we ran through were people out lining the streets and cheering.

Definitely a Class A race and one that I want to come back and race again!




Last updated: 2009-03-24 12:00 AM
Running
01:35:15 | 13.1 miles | 07m 16s  min/mile
Age Group: 18/226
Overall: 153/3582
Performance: Good
Lap Data Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed AHR MHR 1 07m 14s 1.00 miles 07m 14s /mile 156 166 2 07m 12s 1.00 miles 07m 12s /mile 163 167 3 07m 15s 1.00 miles 07m 15s /mile 164 166 4 07m 04s 1.00 miles 07m 04s /mile 165 167 5 07m 08s 1.00 miles 07m 08s /mile 165 168 6 07m 15s 1.00 miles 07m 15s /mile 166 168 7 07m 12s 1.00 miles 07m 12s /mile 166 167 8 07m 11s 1.00 miles 07m 11s /mile 163 167 9 07m 09s 1.00 miles 07m 09s /mile 163 166 10 07m 15s 1.00 miles 07m 15s /mile 164 167 11 07m 26s 1.00 miles 07m 26s /mile 164 166 12 07m 27s 1.00 miles 07m 27s /mile 162 164 13 07m 19s 1.00 miles 07m 19s /mile 164 167 14 01m 22s 0.20 miles 06m 52s /mile 169 171
Course: A scenic course that starts near Memorial Stadium, heads north along 1st through campus, hangs a right on Green St for a bit, and then winds it's way through campus some more. Out through a little park southwest of campus and then made it's way back north and return along Green St. The marathon course kept going west, but the 1/2 course turned south and headed back to the Stadium for the finish.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
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