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Earth Day Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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St. Cloud, MN
United States
70F / 21C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 31m 41s
Overall Rank = 75/1348
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 10/106
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 7am. I ate some oatmeal squares cereal, drank gatorade, and a vanilla bean GU.
Event warmup:

I met my friend, Mike, at 8:15 at the race site. We ran a warm-up, talked race strategy, and did our stretching.
Run
  • 1h 31m 41s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 06m  min/mile
Comments:

The plan was for Mike and I to run together. We both had the same goal of 1:30. We picked a great starting position. Not too far in the front that we would be passed, and not too far back. We survived the first mile of adrenaline and paced ourselves appropriately. The crowd began to thin out by mile 2. After running a few miles, I was very excited about our pacing. The question was if I was going to be able to maintain the pace the whole way. At mile 5, Mike told me to go ahead. I declined, stating that I would go ahead near the end if I still was feeling good. At the 10k mark, my time was as good as the 10k I ran 2 years ago. Shortly after 10k was a longer uphill. Mike really pushed the uphill, and I dropped about 10 yards behind him. I caught back up on the flats, but it was obvious that Mike was now feeling good. I told him to go if he wanted. He took off on a long straight-away. I was able to watch him slowly pick off other runners. I held pace for another mile or two, and then my legs started to get real heavy. I remember thinking at mile 11 that I only needed to do was a "normal" 2-mile run to break 1:30, but I had a feeling that it wasn't going to happen. Just before mile 12, I wanted to stop running in the worst way. I decided that if I walked for 15 seconds, I might be able to actually run better the rest of the way. I walked a little bit, and then started running again. I simply gutted out the last mile and was very happy to be done!
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. I was happy with my pacing and effort. Overall, very pleased with the run. My thinking is that I was in perfect shape for a 10-mile! I just needed more endurance.
Post race
Warm down:

Enjoyed the post-race food/drink and did some stretching. I didn't run at all, and probably should have.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Not sure if it limited, but I had "fasted" for Good Friday the day before. Also, spent quite a bit of time on my feet the night before with the kids at the festival and 5k that my wife ran.

Event comments:

Unbelievable organization! Tons of volunteers. Good spectator support. Lots of water/gatorade stops (I can't drink when I run, though).




Last updated: 2006-03-13 12:00 AM
Running
01:31:41 | 13.1 miles | 06m  min/mile
Age Group: 10/106
Overall: 75/1348
Performance: Good
mile splits: 7:01, 6:54, 6:51, 6:51, 6:49, 6:44 (a downhill), 6:59 (an uphill), 6:53, 6:48, 6:48, 7:13, 7:32, 8:13 (1.1 mile)
Course: Great course! There really is only one section that is bad. Most of the course hits the best areas of town and campus. Great use of running close to the Mississippi River. The last 2 miles are on an old railroad bed turned asphalt trail.
Keeping cool Average Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
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

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2006-04-18 9:12 AM

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