Country Music 1/2 Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Nashville, Tennessee
United States
Elite Racing
85F / 29C
Sunny
Total Time = 7h 40m
Overall Rank = 13444/22749
Age Group = F 45-49
Age Group Rank = 402/1155
Pre-race routine:

I slept like crap last night. I went to bed at 9:00 but woke up and 10:30 and 12:30. I finally got up and went to sleep on the couch. I slept pretty good there and got up at 3:15 to get ready. Had a bagel with PB&J and a banana. Picked up Devon and headed to downtown Nashville. Planned on getting there by 5:00 as the shuttles only ran until 6:00. Made it just in time as the traffic built up quickly behind us. Got on the shuttle and was thrown around for a few miles. Arrived at the starting area and went straight to the bathroom line. After that was taken care of, we headed toward our corral area. We had plenty of time so we just sat down and waited for a bit. We decided to hit the porta-john again about 6:15. The wait was now 30 minutes. We stretched a bit in line and then entered our corral.
Event warmup:

There was not much of an opportunity for a true warm-up. Just too many people.
Run
  • 2h 38m 38s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 12m 07s  min/mile
Comments:

We started out a little faster than we probably should have but it felt good at the time and the crowd carried us. After 2 miles we settled into a comfortable pace. There were so many great things to see along the route that we were pretty distracted from the heat for a good while. We walked through a couple of water station, but stayed pretty consistant through mile 10. The GU gel I had taken at mile 9 was weighing pretty heavy in my stomach at that point. I told Devon I really needed to walk now so if she wanted to keep going, I would see her at the end. I walked a bit, found a porta-john, then ran some more. I had really wanted to finish this in under 2:30 so when I saw the 2:30 pacer, I picked it up and tried to stay with the him for a while. The heat was so intense that I had to slow down to a walk after a mile of this. At mile 12, there was an drink station and I decided to drink some Cytomax. I did not drink anything other than water until this point because I had not trained with anything other than GU. That was the best Cytomax I ever had. It was ICED! I don't know if it had ice at other stations but if it did, I really missed out. I ran the last mile across the river and my Garmin said I was at mile 13. The crowd was pretty thick at this point and they were telling everyone there was only 2/10 of a mile yet. That messed with my head some and I had to walk a bit. I turned the corner and saw the finish line and picked it up to finish with a run.

Lap 1 10:30
Lap 2 10:25
Lap 3 11:06
Lap 4 12:02
Lap 5 12:20
Lap 6 11:04
Lap 7 12:02
Lap 8 11:44
Lap 9 12:18
Lap 10 11:57
Lap 11 14:55
Lap 12 12:22
Lap 13 13:13
Lap 14 11:19






What would you do differently?:

I don't think the fast start affected me that much, I think it was good that I put in a heavy effort before it got too hot or my time would have been more than it was.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked through the huge crowd of other runners trying to exit.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

The HEAT.

Event comments:

The heat was huge factor. The hottest of the 10 years this race was ran. Event management stepped up and increased the drink stations to make sure everyone had a safe day.

I did find that either they didn't plan parking properly or people were just stupid. Many folks were parked illegally, some even on the entrance ramp to the interstate. The cops were rapidly writing tickets and towing cars.


Profile Album


Last updated: 2009-04-24 12:00 AM
Running
02:38:38 | 13.1 miles | 12m 07s  min/mile
Age Group: 402/1155
Overall: 13444/22749
Performance: Average
Course:
Keeping cool Below average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
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