At the start of the race my right shin was hurting pretty good, so I was not sure what the day would have in store for me. My goal was to run an 11:00 average pace for the first 10 miles, then see what I had left for the remaining 5k. Maintaining pace was not too bad, and once I was really warmed up (after 3-4 miles) my shin stopped hurting. Around mile 6 or 7 I started passing people who had gone out too fast and we're either walking or just shuffling along. It wasn't hot, so I made the mistake of not drinking enough until I got to around mile 9 or 10. I tried drinking more to "catch up" but that made my stomach churn so I slowed down my drinking. At mile 11 we hit a vicious headwind that lasted a 1/2 mile or so, and then around 11.5 my calves cramped up and started screaming at me. But by this time I had maintained my 11:00 pace the whole way, so I just "sucked it up" and plowed through the last 1.5 miles. During the last 1.5 miles I passed even more people, several of who commented on how "fresh" I still looked. But given that I finished 100 places from the end, at some point I must have been pretty far back!

Drink more evenly throughout the race, drinking at every mile marker. I had a hydration belt so I wouldn't be reliant on the aid stations, so I had no excuse for not drinking enough.

Walked around outside until my HR started coming down (I ran the last 1.5 miles pretty hard), then went inside and got in the food line. Took my plate of food and ate it while waiting for a massage. It was by far the best post-event massage I've ever had!


Lack of experience running, lack of mileage under my belt. Also playing volleyball the last two weeks put additional strain on my shins that I could have done without.


For my first attempt at a standalone 1/2 marathon, I was very pleased with my results. My goals (in order) were to (1) finish (2) run the whole way without walking and (3) maintain an 11:00 pace as far as I could. I achieved all three, so I'm pretty happy.