Half Marathon Name and Date
Community First Fox Cities Marathon 13.1 Mile Walk (competitive)
Sept. 20, 2009
My Finish Time
2:29:58
How Many Half Marathons I've Completed
This is my second.
How I Trained for the Half Marathon
I was usually only able to get in about 2 miles or so at noon at work, 5 days a week. I made up for the short distances by adding several hills and varying terrain. A couple days a week would add 2 miles of lawn mowing.
In addition, I did some strength and flexibility work.
I built my distance slowly on weekends, working up to 12 miles, 2 weeks before the event.
I then did 6.8mi the weekend before.
During that time I also fit in a couple of 10k races.
How I Did It
Had a horrible night's sleep at the hotel the night before, but awoke feeling fine and ready to go.
When I got on the bus, it was dark and about 38 degrees F.
It was crisp at the start and I had to keep moving before hand to keep warm.
Finally, the sun rose on what was to become a marvelous day.
I felt really fluid during my warmups. That gave me a good feeling.
The competitive walkers started 5 minutes after the runners and non-competitive walkers.
I started in the middle of the pack and watched the really fast walkers pull steadily away, even as we all began to pass the first of the slow runners and walkers.
Most of Appleton seems to be paved in concrete, which gave me concern. I ended up with few sore muscles, so my form must not have been too bad.
Did the first 4 miles at an 11-minute pace, then slowed up considerably. A tall fellow who was a very strong walker (but had a "forced march" form caught up to me at about mile 5.
We walked together for a while, before I tripped and rolled on uneven pavement.
Got up quickly and continued, but Harley was by then several yards ahead, where he'd remain for most of the rest of the race.
Around mile 10 I started to pick up the pace and started reeling in Harley and passing some of the folks who had lead me most of the race.
I cruised by Harley at about mile 11 and passed the last 2 leaders that I was going to catch.
After 12 miles I didn't have any sprint left, but hung on at a steady pace for 2nd in my age group, with Harley about 1/2 a minute behind.
Other than a couple of minor calf cramps in the food line and some road rash, I made it intact in 2:29:58.
Beat my spring 1/2 time by 6 minutes!
Lessons learned
- Don't just hit the food line, stretch-out immediately afterward.
- Remain focused: not paying attention to the surface caused me a tumble.
- Really think the week of quercetin (1500mg/day) pre-race and the Hornet Juice gave me a boost later in the race.
- Working up to near-distance in training slowly and then reducing the workout to allow for recovery before race day worked well.
- I recommend mid-foot strike (chi-walking, etc.) heartily.
