My half marathon diary

[Hoosier Red]

Mike's Geist Half Diary:

Pre-race: Goal is to beat my last time of 3 hours 16 seconds.
Pre-Race: Meet up with Stephanie and Jessica, decide that it will be best to start out with them
to have a faster start. Will leave more time later for walking if necessary.
Pre-Race: Stephanie: So have you been training Mike?
Mike: Well I was doing better until about a month ago, but I haven't been able to do much recently
Jessica: Why? What came up?
Mike: Laziness pretty much.

Mile 1: Starting out with the 2 hour 30 minute pace. Plan on dropping back later.
Wish to drop back after about 25 seconds

Mile 2: Probably should have been in better shape. Drop off Stephanie and Jessicas pace. 1 1/2 miles is longer than
I expected to last.

Mile 3: Okay, going to be sick. Apparantly McDonald's and Mt. Dew are not the best pre race breakfast.

Mile 4: Everythings okay, plus I've only got what 9 more miles now. Really re-thinking the haven't
run in a month in order to save my legs plan now.

Mile 5: 1 hour 9 minutes. If I can invent a teleporter in the next 30 seconds, I may still win this thing.

Mile 6: No Teleporter.

Mile 6.5: Halfway there, the man on the side of the road assured me the second half is way easier.

Mile 8: (Top of evil hill) That last guy, yeah he lied.

Mile 9: Hey who put the ankle weights on me? If I ever catch that guy, well he'll be sorry. Of course if I could
catch anyone, I'd probably be a lot further now.

Mile 10.5(Old Stone and Oaklandon): Math Fail. It's now .6 miles to my house if I turn left, it's 2.6 miles to the
finish line if I go straight. I go straight.

Mile 11:Who knew that Clubber Lang's prediction would be so prescient?

Mile 12:Okay I'm now at 2 hours 48 minutes. If I can run this last mile in 12 minutes, I can make it under 3 hours.
Just have to pick up the pace, start running here.

Twenty steps later: Okay not so much then.

Mile 12.8: Seriously an incline on a bridge? Who does that? Did the build this just to be mean?

Mile 13.0: Must keep running, must not limp across the finish line, no really, must keep running,
like 10 more steps and....

Mile 13.1: DONE!

Post Race: OOOH cookies, bananas, water!
Post Race: Three steps up on the bus, 1, 2, OW! probably not the best sign when my legs give out.
Post Race: 3 hours 4 minutes
Post Race: Water-Beer-Burgers-Nap. That makes everything better.

[chicoruiz]

Congratulations... I ran the Geist half-marathon the first year they held it, and it's a toughie...just finishing it is an accomplishment. I doubt I'll ever be in good enough shape to do it again.

That hill at about the 8 1/2 mile mark is a killer.

[Hoosier Red]

Thanks Chico, I ran it the first year too. I'm really impressed with all the organization they put into running the event. It is a toughy as there are a lot of inclines which don't look like a big deal but they go on forever plus the two or three really nasty ones.

[Razor Shines]

Ooooh is that hill ever evil.

[Sea Ray]

Did you run the whole 13 miles or did you walk some of it?

[Hoosier Red]

Oh no, I walked a good portion of it. If I'd run, I would have finished much faster than 3 hours. (I hope)

[bucksfan2]

Nice job Hoosier. I have run quite a few half marathons. I like them much more than the full marathon. It is funny what goes through you head while you are running the race.

[Sea Ray]

Oh no, I walked a good portion of it. If I'd run, I would have finished much faster than 3 hours. (I hope)

I've never run a half marathon so I don't know but how common is it that folks walk for part of it? I have a friend who keeps pushing me to do longer races and I am of the opinion that if I can't run the entire thing then I have no business doing it.

[Hoosier Red]

I've never run a half marathon so I don't know but how common is it that folks walk for part of it? I have a friend who keeps pushing me to do longer races and I am of the opinion that if I can't run the entire thing then I have no business doing it.

I think there's value in walking for parts of even longer races. I think a lot just depends on what you're looking to get out of it. I had run and walked this particular race once before, and early on in my training I had the idea to run the whole thing but I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen.

My guess is the vast majority of runners walk at least a portion of the race. Some of it goes into race strategy. But again it depends on what type of time you're shooting for.

[bucksfan2]

I've never run a half marathon so I don't know but how common is it that folks walk for part of it? I have a friend who keeps pushing me to do longer races and I am of the opinion that if I can't run the entire thing then I have no business doing it.

Its all about the training. You can train to run the whole thing, you can train to do it in walk intervals. I know some people who do something like this. They run for 10 minutes and then they walk for 2. In reality unless you an elite racer its all about meeting your own personal goals. If your goal is just to finish or finish under a certain time its all what you want to do.

When I run distance races I generally walk through the water stations. For the life of me I can run and drink at the same time. I usually end up coughing it up if I try to drink water while running. When I have run a marathon usually around the 20 mile mark I tend to break down and start to walk.