So how did you do? Weather was almost perfect and the crowds were great - I made my goal - 1:28:12 and 2nd place 55 - 59 age group! :grin:
Congratulations mate, that's sensational! It did alright. 89.15min for 13.1 mi on my GPS, overall 90.33 for 13.3mi on the GPS. According to the "unofficial" race timing I ran a 90.33... sub 90 sounds so much better
When you get to the half way point of the half marathon, fill your water glass half full, and tell us what you are thinking at that moment...
Wow! Top 30 finish in your first half - congrats on an awesome time. Obviously you are not new to running.
Thanks guys! I hope to get better, but I honestly don't run to win competitions. It's just a fitness thing.
I was a bit skeptical about the 1:16 in your first half - that is like scoring 50 points in your first organized basketball game. But anyone running a 1:16 who is just running for fitness? Run Forrest run.
I am not skeptical of anyone's time in their first race. The winner of the Twin Cities marathon last October was running in his first race of that length and won comfortably. He was actually one of the favorites even though he had never raced that distance because he was a successful college runner at lesser distances.
For those of you who have run marathons... do you count your time from the STARTING line, or from the sound of the gun? It's a bit misleading to be at the pack and still be timed with the "official" finish line time, no? I am not saying "unfair", because you had better get there early if you want to cut some seconds off, but... misleading, yes or no?
I was "a bit" skeptical. But yes you are correct, it is definitely possible. But someone runs a 1:16 "just for fitness"? Sorry, not buying it. Guys running 1:16's eat, sleep and breath running and are competitive as hell. The guy in your example was a successful college runner .... Becky Wade, a Houston runner, won her first marathon last year, but she was also a successful college runner.
You have a chip which starts recording when you hit the starting line. In the last half marathon I ran, it took close to 7 minutes for me to get to the start from the time the gun sounded. My time reflected starting line to finish line.
Time from the gun is gun time. Time from when you cross the start line is chip time. Any time money or prestige is on the line, results are by gun time so you know exactly where the competition is. Other results are on chip time, so it lessens the problems of everyone crowding to the start line in the big races. In a race like the Houston marathon and the half, the elite runners get their own starting corrals.
I liked how they narrowed the chute just before the start. It made it more of a bottleneck, but once you got past it, you could actually hit the starting line running instead of it taking a while for the runners to decongest.
My next half, I am going to start closer to the front. I have been starting according to my pace, but then I spend a lot of energy early on getting around and through people for the first mile or two.
