Mini Race Report - 3M HALF MARATHON

It was Mormor and my first time to run the 3M Half Marathon. This was our first race since Frankenthon (last October).

Overall I give the race a solid A.

Packet Pick-Up: A

Goodie Bag Stuff: A  (lots of 3M stuff like post-its and tape and glue but we also got a crap cookie and some yucky pretzels)

Technical Shirt: B  (not very cute)

Race Day Organization: A+

Course: A+

Water Stops: A

Crowd Participation: B

Post-Race Food: B

Post-Race Transportation: A

Mormor and I picked up our race packets on Saturday.  We were in and out in less than 15 minutes.

Thankfully, we received our shirt IN our race goodie bag (instead of waiting until the finish - I hate that).  The shirt isn't quite the message I want to project while running, but it's sufficient.  Here is Cub modeling the shirt.

We woke up 5 AM and were out the door by 5:35.  It was a chilly morning (around 39), so Mormor wore her bathrobe (she actually got a ton of compliments on the idea to wear a bathrobe) and planned to drop it once she warmed up.  Here she is modeling her outfit pre-race.

We made it to the start line around 6:15 and walked around trying to stay warm.  Here we are:

The race started right at 6:45 (I didn't even hear the start).  Mormor said that I should make my goal time something in the 2-teens.  My fastest half marathon time to-date was 2:23:43 (Austin Half - 2009) and I have been training pretty well, so I thought it was doable. 

The first 10 miles was relatively uneventful.  The course is mostly downhill, but not very scenic.  The first few miles of any race I have to concentrate on running my own race - I get passed -  ALOT.  I ate a Gu at mile 5 and was feeling great. I decided that if I was feeling good at mile 10, I would switch from listening to my book (Bill Bryson - At Home) to listening to music (I usually run faster when listening to music).  At mile 10, I ate another Gu and was feeling great. I switched to music and started to pick up my pace.  I started passing people (never mind that many of the people were walking). 

It's difficult to describe the feeling I get when listening to music while running in a race.  There's something kind of emotional that comes over me (always has).  It doesn't matter what song I'm listening to, I just smile and start to tear up a little.  I know, it's strange but it's happened to me in pretty much every race where I've listened to music.  

OK, back to the race. The last three miles, I felt fantastic and was running pretty speedily (for me).  I crossed the finish line at my iPod said 2:15:04 - whoppeee!! My official time was 2:14:59.  

My Garmin died a couple of months ago, so I've been using a free iPhone app.  It doesn't give me as much detailed as my Garmin, but it's good enough for right now.  It said that my average pace was 10:18 and that my fastest mile was 8:33 (that is very fast for me). 

I checked the official results and it said that my 10K time was 1:06:25, which means I negative split my race.

At the finish line, I waited for Mormor.  She was expecting to run it in about 3 hours because she hasn't been training as consistently.  She ended up running it in about 2:45 - which is right around average for her.  Great job - Mormor.

Mormor and I got a banana, took a picture and headed for the buses to take us back to the start line. It was a very organized process.

It was a fantastic race day! I will do this race again.