Monday, June 7, 2010

Dexter Ann Arbor Half Marathon Results & Review

Yesterday, my dad and I ran the Dexter - Ann Arbor half marathon. I was unsure how the weather was going to hold up for us. The night before mother nature released some wicked weather on us. I was woken twice by high winds, pouring rain and tornado sirens. My dad had it even worse. His town was hit by a tornado...twice! So needless to say, we were both pretty darn tired Sunday morning. My friend Kristy was running the 10K so she was at my house at 6am. We made the drive to Ann Arbor, parked and waited for my dad. He met us at the parking structure around 7am. I wished Kristy good luck and dad and I headed to the bus lines. We were to be bussed out to Dexter and the course takes you back to downtown Ann Arbor near the U of M campus. The start time was moved up from 8:30am to 8:15am and then back to 9am. There was a tree across one of the roads that needed to be removed before we started. At 9am we were finally off. I fell into a comfortable pace with my dad and enjoyed most of the course. There were a few decent climbs and some nice down hills where I could pick up speed. I felt good through out the entire race except for the last 2 miles. Mile 12 I was really pushing myself along, telling myself "you've made it this far, its only 2 miles". Mile 13 was the death of me. I was leaving all I had out on the road adn it still wasn't enough. A couple times my dad turned and said "come on" and I snapped back "I am. I am trying my hardest". LOL! My dads goal for me was to come in around 1:40. My previous half marathon PR was 1:46:25. We crossed the finish line at 1:40:47, which is a 7:42 pace!! I beat my previous PR by 5:48! My Garmin states that we finished in 1:40:47 but that the distance was 13.27, not 13.1 which would put my pace at 7:37. Of course, I am going with the official race results as my time.

I remember my dad saying to me while we waited at the start line "you'll be surprised at how good of shape you are in with all the winter training you put in". I told him "if I can finish in 1:40, this will be a big confidence booster". It is. But I am still disappointed in how the last couple miles beat me. I let the mental aspect of the pain/race get to me and it won. I really need to work on that!



Official Results-

Finish Time: 1:40:47
Pace: 7:42
Age Group Place: 12/181
Overall Place: 379/2397

4 comments:

  1. Steph- Congrats that is sooo awesome! I'm so glad you had such an excellent race you deserve it, way to go!

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  2. I just remembered that you are in MI. My hubby and I are going to Charlevoix for a marathon (well him I am running the half as a training run).

    Have you ever been to the area. We were told it is very pretty and Chris just wanted to do one for fun (and not such a big crowd).

    Good luck with Chi-town training you are going to rock that race.

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  3. Yes, that area is beautiful!! You and Chris are going to love it up there! Good Luck with your half!!

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