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Illinois Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Champaign, Illinois
United States
Illinois Marathon
68F / 20C
Overcast
Total Time = 2h 08m 57s
Overall Rank = 2101/5619
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 152/290
Pre-race routine:

First off.........I thought there were 9k for the 1/2 signed up. So I think there was a mixture of DNFs and no-shows? 90% humidity at racetime.

Woke up at 3:00 a.m. - had to drive to site, and wanted to make sure I was there early to enjoy the sites and sounds of race morning. Ate a bagel, pot of coffee, banana for breakfast - grabbed gear and hit the road!
Event warmup:

Got parked, hit the porta potty a few times and waited for my brother and his wife to get there. Had front row parking near the start line and porta potties - woo hoo! Brother got there - listened to announcers, visited, stretched........ran into a bunch of folks that wanted to talk about the Tremont Tri - how cool is that. Peeps from Canton, Bloomington, Danville, etc. Stretched some more - took a 1 mile warm-up job - man, I was feelin it this morning - everything felt good (too good apparently - more to come)
Run
  • 2h 08m 57s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 50s  min/mile
Comments:

Positives: I was certainly happy finishing under these conditions - I passed a many a folk who did not get the opportunity to finish today - it looked like a war zone from about 10 miles in. I was happy with how my knee responded - this was the true test today recovering from my IT Band injury late last year - and it responded well - no issues at all!! woo hoo! I had a blast running with my brother - he went out quick - caught him at mile 6.5 and slapped him on the ass and said - oh yeah, u finihsing this thing. We ran the rest together - kudos to him tho: First half mary - got me by :56 seconds. Says he will never do a full though? I don't understand? LMAO Negatives: Not a ton - just WAY too humid......I'm a sweater and the water not evaporating off my skins limited my ability to sweat, which I think led to a poor finish. Course not as flat as I thought it was gonna be - don't get me wrong, no hills by any stretch, but lots of 'slight' inclines that will grab you. Lots of winding through the park also - not a fan of that. Otherwise - very cool finish line too - inside Memorial Stadium at 50 yard line - pretty cool.
What would you do differently?:

Not go out so dang fast............I apparently thought I was gonna qualify for Boston today! 25:50 first 5k........just plain dumb right there. I did want a PR, but that is not the way to do it. LOL My intent was to stay with the 4 hour marathon pacer............ya, that went out the window at the .5 mile mark. It is funny: I just happened to see him around mile 10.........go figure!
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around, met up with my brother and his wife - they left - I grabbed some groceries and went to see if I could watch Patty finish. Go figure..................she was ALREADY done! WTF!!! Patty - you are AMAZING!! 2:25........r u crappin me - AWESOME. I gave her a hug and chatted for a few, and then off I went. Did some stretching before getting into the car.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Humidity...........I hope this just wasn't me. I thought it was nuts! The marathon winner came in at 2:30 and change - about 15-20 minutes off a typical pace, so that leads me to believe it wasn't just me. I also saw a few other T3ers and peeps I know doing the full while I was in traffic and they seemed to be struggling as well. It was a tough day fo sho!

Event comments:

This is definately a course I would want to tackle again - depending on when our 70.3 is next year, I may do the full here. A early 70.3 and I will do Chicago Mary instead. I think I could do 1:55 on this course on a decent day.




Last updated: 2009-11-06 12:00 AM
Running
02:08:57 | 13.1 miles | 09m 50s  min/mile
Age Group: 152/290
Overall: 2101/5619
Performance: Average
8:32, 8:40, 8:42,(this is when I think what a dumb ass I am) 9:04, 8:39, (thx for coming T3 - now I'm a bigger dumb ass! lol) 9:21, 9:39, 10:17, 9:42, (and we have the bricks folks - stack away!) 10:43, 10:29, 12:09, 10:52, 2:04. HR? Too dang high!
Course: Very cool course - mostly flat (not as flat as Indy - don't care what they say), a few false flats the second half of the run that felt like mountains around mile 10. Overall, I would give the course a B+/A- grade..........I enjoyed it - mix of city streets, park walk and bike paths. One positive - there was lots 'o shade on the course - certainly a + on a day like today.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %a LOT
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? No
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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2010-05-01 2:32 PM

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Subject: Illinois Half Marathon


2010-05-01 10:17 PM
in reply to: #2830397

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Subject: RE: Illinois Half Marathon

Nice job, specially with it being so muggy!  Nice race report too.

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