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Mercedes Half-Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Birmingham, Alabama
United States
Birmingham Marathon, Inc.
35F / 2C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 41m 3s
Overall Rank = 225/1572
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 40/279
Event warmup:

Got out there somewhat late. Raced in to try and meet BamaDC and LostSheep at the designated location and couldn't find them. Bummer.

Ran around a bit to warm up, nothing specific.

Run
  • 1h 41m 3s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 07m 43s  min/mile
Comments:

This was my first shot at a race of this length. I struggled through mile 1 - then again 7:10 was too fast (woops). I throttled back after seeing the mile 1 time. Settled in at 7:35 or so for the next few miles and felt reasonably good. At mile 5 the grade turned up somewhat and my times slowed a bit. Legs really started burning and never really felt all that great for the rest of the race. At mile 6-8 the road really turned up. Pretty happy with staying under 8:00 miles here. Miles 9 and 10 bounced around with another decent size hill.

Mile 10 was mercifully downhill for the most part, though I was starting to tire pretty bad and started to slow down. At mile 11 I hit a wall. Pretty much the same wall that I have hit in training more than a couple times. Mile 11 was brutal and I was ready to be wheeled off the course. Once I hit mile 12 and knew the end was close I managed to speed up somewhat. Not much - my calves and hamstrings were screaming. Mile 12 had a couple devilish little rises that make the ending hurt pretty good. Sprinted in the last bit.

In every other run I've done I have been able to bring it home strong. Not today. I faded pretty good down the stretch. 1:40 (my goal) was in sight and I faded right out of that. Next year, I guess. Still, this is quite a hilly course. On a flat course I would have hit sub 1:40 pretty readily.

Interestingly, despite the added hills (total of 1100 vertical feet of climbing) I clocked in a 7:43 pace on this 13.1 - pretty much the same as the 10 miler a few weeks ago (7:42 pace) on a much flatter course. The effort was there, just sadly not during the last few miles when I needed the strength to bring it in with style and crack 1:40.

Overall I can't be too upset with this. In the last year I've dropped 45 lbs. and only bee running for ~8 months (from scratch). In that light, this is a reasonable performance. But still, couldn't I have found 4 bloody seconds somewhere on the course?

Splits:

Mile 1: 7:10
Mile 2: 7:33
Mile 3: 7:34
Mile 4: 7:32
Mile 5: 7:50
Mile 6: 7:47
Mile 7: 7:56
Mile 8: 7:59
Mile 9: 7:40
Mile 10: 7:48
Mile 11: 7:49
Mile 12: 8:05
Mile 13: 7:48
Last .1: 0:33

1st Half: 49:41
2nd Half: 51:22
What would you do differently?:

Maybe take some nutrition at mile 6 or so to help with the mile 11 bonk.
Post race
Warm down:

Died at the finish line. Got my medal and finisher's shirt.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of long runs. I could have been significantly faster given more training - particularly longer runs and long tempo type runs.

Lose some weight. I should have been racing at 167 or so and started the race at 173. The weight was a product of being under the weather and not training much last week.



Event comments:

From mile 3 on the mile markers were off pretty bad. They had my 10k time at 45:20. Hah! I wish.




Last updated: 2009-12-09 12:00 AM
Running
01:41:03 | 13.1 miles | 07m 43s  min/mile
Age Group: 40/279
Overall: 225/1572
Performance: Good
Course: Flat through mile 5. Mildly up mile 5-6. Mile 6-8 strongly up +200 feet or so. Bounced around through mile 10 then back down.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

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2010-02-14 5:53 PM

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Master
2372
20001001001002525
Subject: Mercedes Half-Marathon


2010-02-14 7:18 PM
in reply to: #2672705

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Master
2301
2000100100100
Rogersville, Alabama
Subject: RE: Mercedes Half-Marathon
Great Race!  That downhill at mile 10 is rough on the Quads.  I'm just happy we didn't have to run up that hill.
2010-02-15 10:17 AM
in reply to: #2672705

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Master
2327
200010010010025
North Alabama
Subject: RE: Mercedes Half-Marathon
Very nice run you had there, especially for 8mo training!

And yes, the mile markers were off by as much as .25mi starting around mile 7. My 10k time was 59:00 which was on mark, but after that, the wheels started coming loose.

Hey, you did it! Congrats. And you were smokin too!

Note to self: lose the weight!

And yes, right around mile 10-11, the downhills take their toll!
2010-02-15 6:39 PM
in reply to: #2673440

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Master
2372
20001001001002525
Subject: RE: Mercedes Half-Marathon
LostSheep - 2010-02-15 10:17 AM

And yes, right around mile 10-11, the downhills take their toll!


I was pretty much dead there.  I usually chew up the downhills.  Yesterday the uphills were pretty good.  The downhills would have been a lot better if they were at mile 4 instead of 10. LOL
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