Personal Bragging: My 50th Half-Marathon

[Rain Man]

Last Saturday's race (in 42 degree temps in the rain, I might add) was my 50th half-marathon since I started my hobby in June of 2009.

My vital statistics are:

Completed races in 12 states so far (AK, HI, CA, NV, UT, WY, CO, TX, LA, FL, OH, and WI)

Median pace = 10:15 per mile
Median pace in flat, sea level races =9:37 per mile
Fastest pace = 9:04 per mile (Beaumont, TX - flat and sea level)
Slowest pace = 29:36 per mile (Pike's Peak Ascent - 7,800 foot climb from 6,300 ft to 14,100 ft and I was not good at it.)

14 have been at elevations between sea level and 3,000 feet (Median pace = 9:52)
21 have been at elevations of 3,000 to 6,000 feet (Median pace = 10:06)
9 have been at elevations of 6,000 to 9,000 feet (Median pace = 11:08)
9 have been at elevations of 9,000 feet or higher (Median pace = 15:29)

26 have been more or less flat with total hills < 300 ft (Median pace = 9:50). Three were net downhill.
12 have had moderate hills with total hills of 301-1,000 ft (Median pace = 10:43)
6 have had strong hills with total hills of 1,001-2,500 ft (Median pace = 12:10)
9 have had major hills with total hills of 2,500 ft or more (Median pace = 15:29)

The 9 with major hills are the same 9 that were over 9,000 feet in elevation.

3 races were run in the rain and 1 in snow.

I've only fallen once, and it wasn't in the rain or snow. (Tripped on a trail rock.)

24 were primarily on pavement or asphalt
6 were primarily on dirt roads
20 were primarily on trails

I've gone the wrong way on trails 4 times but only twice did it for more than 30 seconds. The worst mistake added 3/4 of a mile.

I've also had 2 10-mile races and a 10K in there, so that's 53 races in 54 months.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

Ran the St. Augustine Half last weekend and finished with my slowest time ever (by 20+ minutes) at 2:33. Poor training, IT band + shin splint issues, and hot weather contributed. I think my last mile was like 15 mins.

I have a 5K in 3 weeks and then a break until the Shamrock Half next March. Hopefully will be in better shape by then!

Yeah, that seems well off your pace to say the least.

I've been focusing most of my training on gaining fat, so I've been slow, too. I ran a race last weekend in pretty much perfect conditions, and I ran my worst time ever in a sea level race. It was 10 minutes slower than a nearly identical race that I ran a year ago, which makes me wince.

I did, however, mark off my 28th state with a race. Onward and upward.

[kepp]

I'm sidelined for the time being. I took a fall a few months back on a slick trail and injured my knee. I tried to give it time to heal on its own thinking I may have just tweaked it, but it wasn't happening. I had an MRI on it last week and they found a meniscus tear. My surgery is next Tuesday and I'll be on crutches for 6 weeks or so. I'm hoping to come back close to 100%.

[KranzDictum]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Last Saturday's race (in 42 degree temps in the rain, I might add) was my 50th half-marathon since I started my hobby in June of 2009.

My vital statistics are:

Completed races in 12 states so far (AK, HI, CA, NV, UT, WY, CO, TX, LA, FL, OH, and WI)

That is awesome! Congrats!

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by kepp

I'm sidelined for the time being. I took a fall a few months back on a slick trail and injured my knee. I tried to give it time to heal on its own thinking I may have just tweaked it, but it wasn't happening. I had an MRI on it last week and they found a meniscus tear. My surgery is next Tuesday and I'll be on crutches for 6 weeks or so. I'm hoping to come back close to 100%.

Dang, sorry to hear. That's a risk of being fast, I guess. I hope you get back on the trails as soon as possible.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KranzDictum

That is awesome! Congrats!

Thanks! I continue my quest, and I'm now at 95 half-marathons in 28 states. I'm making slow but steady progress, averaging 3 to 4 new states per year.

[Rain Man]

If anyone is interested, one of my more unique races this year was the Monument Valley half marathon in Arizona. Since it's a trail race and there's lots of sand, I decided not to run it for a time and instead I took my phone and stopped for a photo on every mile. I don't think I ever posted these.

First off, here's the course. Starting from where I was standing, we ran down to that big tower in the middle, ran around it, and came back to a spot about a half-mile to my left. Then we went back out and ran around that really big mesa on the left of the photo and came back to where I was standing. What you're seeing is all Arizona, but the far side of the Mesa is Utah.

[Rain Man]

This is about 2 miles into the race, on the far side of the tower.

[Rain Man]

This is around Mile 5. The towers are all a fair bit lower than the starting line, so you descend into a trough and then climb back out. This is on the climb out. You can see the trail on the left and a wormhole to another dimension up in the sky.

[Rain Man]

Once you got past Mile 5, you'd climbed up to the bottom of the big mesa, and then you had to circle it. To get a picture of the scale, look for the little tiny runners on the edge of the dropoff.

[Rain Man]

It took about three miles to get around to the back side of the mesa, and there were no signs of human presence back there. This is around Mile 8.

[Rain Man]

Mile 9 flattened out and had great scenery, but you were in a trough and had to climb back out.

[19now11]

i run when chased by dogs...

[Rain Man]

The last three miles back to the finish line had lots of small hills, and pretty deep sand. This part was pretty tough with the sand. My knees felt bad for about a week after this race.

[Marcellus]

Great pics Rainman, I couldn't imagine dealing with that deep sand.

It looked awesome though.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Great pics Rainman, I couldn't imagine dealing with that deep sand.

It looked awesome though.

It looks like he ran this race on Mars. Well, except for the people and the vegetation.