Race Report Miami Half Marathon

As mentioned here before, this was my first half marathon (and race
report). I neglected to post my last few training weeks, but here it is:

Short Story:
Race: ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon
Date: January 29th, 2006
Weather: Temp 70F, Humidity 65%, Dew Point 50F, Wind 10-13 MPH ESE.
Result: Preliminary Chip Time 1:47:01. Had lots of fun and felt great
about the race.

Longer Story:
The race start time was at 6:00AM, just in front of the American
Airlines Arena. Since I live about 2.5 miles away, I woke up at 4:30,
had some PB&J sandwich with some coffee and left my house around 5:00AM.
Got on the MetroMover, which was completely full of runners and got off
2 blocks from the starting line at about 5:25. Most other runners had to
get off two stations earlier for bag check. However, I had nothing to
check. At the Arena, there were lots of portable toilets and the arena
was open so runners could use the restrooms there (which I did).

I proceeded with a very light warm up and some stretching, and pretty
much just stand around looking at everyone else play around with the
championchip, heart rate monitors, shoelaces, bib number, etc. I had
done all that at home, so I was just sipping some water I brought with
me. At around 5:45 I got in my assigned corral and ate one cliff shot
gel as planned.

After reading many race reports here, my plan for the race was: Don't
worry about time, worry about having a good race. I particularly wanted
to avoid starting out too fast and trying to pace myself so I would
still have something left at the end and negative split. (Part of the
plan was also to not try *anything* to eat or drink at the expo when
picking up the number. I accomplished that by thinking to myself: "No
seas Pendejo, no seas Pendejo").

With all that in mind, I ran the first mile with a close eye on my HRM
and kept my HR under control. I have a Polar RS200 with a foot pod that
also measures distance and pace. The error on those things is supposedly
5%. Mile marker 1 comes along and my watch only says 0.95 miles. OK.
Mile 2 comes along and my watch says 1.91. I then realize that my pace
is significantly faster than the watch says, so from now on I ignore the
distance and pace and just focus on keeping the heart rate under control.

The first three miles, the course takes you on the MacArthur Causeway,
with all the cruise ships in the port on the right and Palm and Star
Island on the left. The wind was blowing straight towards us, which made
it kind of difficult to get into a nice rhythm. Once on Miami Beach,
though, I found a pace I liked and pretty much tried to stick to that
until mile 8. At that time, the course enters the Venetian causeway on
its way back to Miami proper. I ate the other gel I brought with me.

The biggest crowd was assembled coming off the causeway and entering
Downtown (mile 10 marker). There were more people there than at the
finish line and were cheering loudly. I got caught up in the excitement
and my HR started going up, so I slowed down a bit. Once I hit mile 12
though, I started passing lots of people and was waiting for the split
between the marathon and half-marathon runners. Once I hit that, about
0.5 miles from the finish, I just gave it all I had and managed to
finish with a good sprint (and quite out of breath).

So, the preliminary results posted on the website show:
Chip Time: 1:47:01 (Gun time: 1:48:13)
10 K split: 51:21
Av. Pace: 8:10
Place: 54 out of 229 in Age group (25-29 yo)

I don't have splits at exactly the mile markers. My polar thinks I only
ran 12.53 miles, so I adjusted accordingly. PM = Polar Miles

PM Miles Time HR Pace HR%
1 1.05 9:10 152 8:46:04 80%
2 2.09 8:51 143 8:27:54 75%
3 3.14 8:38 154 8:15:28 81%
4 4.18 8:40 156 8:17:22 82%
5 5.23 8:41 157 8:18:20 82%
6 6.27 8:35 155 8:12:35 81%
7 7.32 8:38 156 8:15:28 82%
8 8.36 8:34 158 8:11:38 83%
9 9.41 8:31 157 8:08:46 82%
10 10.45 8:29 157 8:06:51 82%
11 11.50 8:02 159 7:41:02 83%
12 12.55 8:12 160 7:50:36 84%
12.53 13.10 3:57 180 7:07:43 94%
1:47:03

As expected the course was pretty flat. The temperature was a little
higher than I would have liked, but since I live in Miami I am used to
the conditions and they didn't bother me. Overall, I am pretty happy
with the race: I had no equipment issues, I stuck to my plan and didn't
do anything real stupid. I had some plantar pain for about 2 miles, but
it went away walking through a water station. So, smiles all around!

Thanks for reading!

--
Ylan

"The universe is not required to be in
perfect harmony with human ambition"
~ Carl Sagan
.

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