I always say I’m going to be brief but end up writing way too much for anyone to be interested in reading. So I’ll get straight to the point, here are the official results: 1:37:56, 13.01 mi (7:32 min/mile). Placing: AG 107/1071, overall 688/18,072. If you look at the splits graph below and the following milestone split, you can tell what type of race it was: 5K 21:47 (7:01), 10K 44:36 (7:11), 10 mi 1:14:07 (7:24), 13.01 1:37:56 (7:32). As always, I can’t complain with the overall results, it just hurt like heck running it, for a number of reasons. So if anything, this can be a post about how NOT to run a race!
- Rest – I usually try to get to bed around 10 pm the night before a race, especially if it’sa longer race like a half or full. Unfortunately, I was in LA that Saturday and was still on the road around 10pm. I didn’t get home until 11:30ish, but since I was so tired during the day, I took a nap during the drive home. The problem I have with naps is that I usually can’t fall back asleep later that evening, which is what happened. I was basically lying in bed for most of the night and then had to get up at 4am to take a coaster shuttle to the race.
- Hydrate – The reason I was in LA was to celebrate my two nephew’s birthday parties. They didn’t necessarily have race-focused snacks either. It was mostly fried foods, candy, soda, etc. In addition to that, I didn’t really start drinking any water until 5/6pm, which I will regret on race day. I was very dehydrated during the race, having multiple drinks at each station and wanting more! I can assume the dehydration was the cause of my cramps as well.
- Pace – As you can see on the split graph below, I started off way too fast. Again, my fault for trying to run with the other (faster) runners in corral 1. Instead of the negative (or at least even) splits that most runners strive for, I actually hit positive splits! I’m honestly surprised some of my later miles were not slower than they actually were, I felt super sluggish!
- Train – I don’t think I did that bad of a job training for this race (although there definitely could have been room for improvement. I was able to get a few long runs in before this race, including a 10-miler. I was also running at least 3-4 times a week, although nothing remotely close to the pace I tried to run during this half.
The one benefit for starting in corral 1 was being able to see Olympic runners Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi doing strides and starting the race right in front of us. Deena was really awesome, she kept waving to all the runners behind her and even ran along and gave high fives to some of the runners in our corral (before the race, of course). Meb and Deena ran quite well, placing 4th and 9th overall, in their respective genders.
Here are some race photos too:
