Race Report: OUC Half Marathon 2009

I finished my 3rd half marathon, in the rain, just 40 seconds slower than last year. Even though I did not meet my time goals or PR, I'm proud I put forth my best effort until the end and did not let the scary weather deter me from attempting this race. Most importantly, I didn't get hurt and thus I'm still on track for my target race, the Gasparilla Marathon on February 28th. I still cannot believe I've run 3 half marathons in the last 12 months, and will be running my first full marathon in less than 3 months. I can't wait! Before I delve into the full race report, below are my race stats.

Race Stats:

• Clock - 2:41:08 (2:41:49 in 2008)
• Chip - 2:39:36 (2:38:56 in 2008)
• AG - 160/182
• Gender - 881/1011
• Overall- 1900/2093
• Garmin - 13.25 miles in 2:39:40 @ 12:02

A lot of people I know also ran this race, including my Dad and Jason (this was Jason's first half marathon), and mom ran the 5k. Many of them met at our place since we live 2 blocks from the start. Because of the crappy weather, we stayed in my apartment until the last possible moment. Luckily, I was still able to find Carlie and Penny before the gun went off.

The weather turned out to be just about perfect for running. It was overcast, but warm enough for shorts. We got sporadic light drizzling starting around mile 3, but by then we were nice and warm so it was welcomed. Carlie and I were making good time and having a blast. We got to the halfway point in 1:15, on pace to meet my goal of a 2:30 finish, but it all went downhill from there.

I didn't bring my own water and my mouth felt really dry, so I ended up drinking way too much water at the mile 6 water stop as I washed down a gu. I had started out too fast, and I started to slow down and could not recover. I simply could not get my legs to go any faster and then I got a side stitch that lasted for 2 miles.

The side stitch eventually went away, but then it came back with a vengeance on the other side for the last mile. I tried to run through it, but it was so painful that I just wanted to curl up into a ball. I still kept running as much as possible, and would have finished in 2:35 were it not for the stitch. I still held hope that I could dig deep for a final sprint and at least PR by a few seconds. However, as I turned the corner for the home stretch, my calves and hamstrings cramped up and I could not speed up. I kept running as best I could and finally crossed the finish line completely spent. I still feel I ran a good race, and got a 10K PR, but will work hard after the marathon to improve my speed and run a sub-2:30 half marathon in 2010.

Mile Splits

mile 1 - 11:37
mile 2 - 11:49
mile 3 - 10:58
5k - 35:41 
mile 4 - 11:17
mile 5 - 11:20
mile 6 - 11:05
10K- 1:10:31 (this is 5 minutes faster than my 10K PR!)
Half Way - 1:15:09
mile 7 - 12:11
mile 8 - 11:40
mile 9 - 13:26
mile 10 - 12:35
mile 11 - 12:24
mile 12 - 13:15
mile 13 - 13:08
finish - 11:17 (.25 in 2:45)