the first two miles of the run were pretty crowded on these small farm paths. Several spots were really, really muddy, so everybody had to cram together to avoid it. After the first couple of miles, everything opened up nicely and was clear and dry. I kept looking at my Garmin thinking something had to be wrong because I was flying (by my standards) through this run...my first half marathon. I lasted through this pace (sub 9:00 mile) through mile 9 and then began to slow down on the way back while running into the wind. All along the course the had posted the mile markers and by my Garmin they were making the course short. By mile 12 the course was 0.4 miles short of a true half marathon, so I turned around and ran 0.2 miles in the opposite direction and then turned around and headed for home. When I crossed the finish line, the Garmin said 13.08 miles...close enough. So, by adding about 4 minutes to my run time, I dropped about 30 spots in overall rankings, but at least I finished a true half marathon. I suppose I would have been about #180/521 had I not added the extra distance to my run. Overall, I was very happy to have averaged less than a 9 mm over the whole run.

Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed AHR MHR
1 08m 50s 1.00 miles 08m 50s /mile 166 177
2 08m 27s 1.00 miles 08m 27s /mile 179 182
3 08m 36s 1.00 miles 08m 36s /mile 182 186
4 08m 16s 1.00 miles 08m 16s /mile 183 186
5 08m 30s 1.00 miles 08m 30s /mile 185 186
6 08m 35s 1.00 miles 08m 35s /mile 184 186
7 08m 39s 1.00 miles 08m 39s /mile 186 189
8 08m 48s 1.00 miles 08m 48s /mile 185 187
9 08m 58s 1.00 miles 08m 58s /mile 184 186
10 09m 17s 1.00 miles 09m 17s /mile 184 186
11 09m 35s 1.00 miles 09m 35s /mile 184 186
12 09m 44s 1.00 miles 09m 44s /mile 183 186
13 09m 45s 1.00 miles 09m 45s /mile 184 186
14 01m 34s 0.12 miles 13m 28s /mile 178 186


A million things...none related to the run.

Nada. Got in the car and went home.


Didn't take any Gu with me after the first packet...probably a mistake. Drank some Powerade out on the course, but it was way, way too sweet and sticky. Stuck with water from that point forward. Didn't get but one run beyond 10 miles during training. The rest of the runs were 6 or 8 miles long, so the last 3 miles were a little bit of a struggle.


This is a charity half marathon/10k/2 mile run, so it's not a big deal that the course was a little short. The 10k course had to be altered at the last minute due to muddy trails and a few people got confused by that. It's for a great cause and was a fun course to run. Should have done the 10k with my wife though...jerk!