(Half-)Marathon Man

Andy is happy. Very happy.

I ran (and finished) my first half-marathon today - Dallas Running Club's "The Half". The course started at the north end of White Rock Lake and wound through the scenic tree-lined Lakewood neighborhood on the west side of the lake, went over the bridge paralleling Garland Road by the dam, past the Dallas Arboretum and Winfrey Point to finish line at Norbuck Park.

I completed the 13.1 miles in 1:53:21, which is an 8:39/mile pace. I was 603rd out of 2,541 finishers overall and 80th out of 189 in the men's 35-39 age group. It feels good to be in the top 25% for my first half-marathon. Also, my 1:53:21 time was just one minute slower than I ran the 0.7 miles shorter Tour Des Fleurs 20K (12.4 miles in 1:52:19) about 6 weeks ago.

Jarrod and Derek also ran the half-marathon and finished in (sub-)10 min/mi average paces and Don ran the 5K (his first!).

The weather was very nice for running. It was a bit cool in the morning so we all had on long sleeved T-shirts and sweat shirts at the start. However, I warmed up rather quickly and shed my tee before Mile 2. But even by the end of the race it was only in the high 70s which made for almost perfect conditions.

I was actually very hungry before the race. I had eaten a Clif bar on the drive over, but I guess it wasn't enough. Luckily, Leah (our TNT Tri Coordinator) was manning the Team In Training tent at the race and had some bagels and pastries available for a quick noshing. So delicious ...

After a slow start due to a mob of people, I settled into a steady 8:15-8:30 pace. I was surprised and a little worried - my target was 8:45-9:00 - but I felt really good and decide to just go for it. I kept it up pretty well even in the hilly Lakewood neighborhoods, where I was running 7:30-7:45/mi down the hills. It wasn't until I went up the hill near Garland Road at Mile 7.5 when I started to "hit the wall" and my pace slowed appreciably. Luckily, the last five miles of the course just followed along White Rock Lake and was almost completely flat. So even though I was really drained I still kept a 9:15 pace until the finish line.

Here is the elevation chart of the course. You can see where the hills of the Lakewood area started around Mile 3.5 and the steep hill just before Mile 8 and the (relatively flat) remainder of the route on the east side of the lake.

MapMyRace has a good map and elevation chart of the course: http://www.mapmyrace.com/races/DRCHalf2007/

Here were my 5K splits:

• 5K split: 26:28 (8:26/mi pace)
• 10K split: 25:47 (8:15/mi pace)
• 15K split: 26:28 (8:27/mi pace)
• 20K split: 28:52 (9:13/mi pace)
• Finish 0.7 miles: 5:59 (8:38/mi pace)

I was happy that my overall pace was below my target, but I was lucky to have not dropped too much after starting off much too fast.

Here is a chart of my heart rate during the run. It was a pretty steady for the entire run, You can see where I took a longer break at the Mile 8.5 and 11.5 water stops with a push during the last 1.1 miles for a strong finish.

After the race, Derek, Jarrod, Don, and I grabbed burgers and bottled waters (Ozarka was a sponsor of the run) and also picked up some snacks and sodas from the Team In Training booth (being part of the team has its perks :-). We grabbed a picnic table under a shade tree and ate our lunch while reveling in our accomplishment.

Race results -
http://www.runontexas.com/Results/Fall2007/TheHalf2007/TheHalfMenu.htm