Nike Half Marathon Report

Michelle -
Congratulations on running your 1st 1/2Marathon.
A well planned and executed run - and good to
come in well under your predicted time. Always
prefereble to surprise youself by running faster than
predicted...

Thanks for the detailed report.

Anthony.

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:09:31 -0700, Michelle <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I finished in 3:02:38

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! My granny in her walker passed you.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Anthony said:

Congratulations on running your 1st 1/2Marathon.

Thanks.

Quoted message said:

A well planned and executed run - and good to come in well under your
predicted time.

Plans are good, but there's the old military saying that battle plans
never survive contact with the enemy. It's good when a plan does hold
together, though.

Quoted message said:

Always prefereble to surprise youself by running faster than
predicted...

And that's for sure.

I wonder, though, if I had not stopped at that coat check, if I would
have done three hours. I suspect that I would have missed it by a few
seconds.

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

"Michelle" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

First of all, Charlie, you aren't a very good prognosticator. You
predicted I would finish in 3:20 to 3:30, remember?

I actually expected to finish in about 3:15, but I surprised myself by
doing even better than that.

I finished in 3:02:38
Overall: 7554 of 12222
Gender: 7199 of 11717
Age Group: 58 of 220
AG place: 3621
AG%: 47%

Good job Michelle. See, it didn't turn out to be all that risky after all.
As long as someone has done some consistent training, knows their body to a
certain extent, and is willing to bail out if necessary, why not push your
limits sometimes!

-Tony

In article <DGGTi.2111$f63.792@trndny03>,

Tony S. said:

Quoted message said:

Overall: 7554 of 12222
Gender: 7199 of 11717
Age Group: 58 of 220
AG place: 3621
AG%: 47%

Good job Michelle. See, it didn't turn out to be all that risky after
all. As long as someone has done some consistent training, knows
their body to a certain extent, and is willing to bail out if
necessary, why not push your limits sometimes!

Thanks Tony. Funny thing is that afterwards, I didn't feel as if I had
challenged myself enough; it seemed too easy. I know that part of the
reason for that was walking the hills, but I also know that if I had
tried to run any of the hills, I wouldn't have done nearly as well as I
did.

From a cardio and aerobic standpoint, I think I could have gone farther,
although I think I had pretty much reached the limits of my legs.
During the last three to five miles, I saw lots of people stopping to
stretch their legs, and thought about doing the same; my calfs
especially, hurt. But I knew that I had a chance of breaking three
hours, so I didn't stop. Also, I kept thinking of Ann Trason's comment
on pain, and she was right; it hurt only so much, and then didn't hurt
any more.

I do wonder, though, whether I would have done three hours or better had
I not stopped at that coat check.

By the way, exactly what does AG place mean? Also AG percentage?

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

Michelle said:

First of all, Charlie, you aren't a very good prognosticator. You
predicted I would finish in 3:20 to 3:30, remember?

I actually expected to finish in about 3:15, but I surprised myself by
doing even better than that.

I finished in 3:02:38
Overall: 7554 of 12222
Gender: 7199 of 11717
Age Group: 58 of 220
AG place: 3621
AG%: 47%

Those "of" numbers are those who finished; I have no idea of how many
people started but didn't finish. (There were 4689 marathoners who
finished, so the total number of finishers is 16,911. The estimated
number of registrants was 20,000, so that means almost 1,700 didn't
finish in the alloted time, but I don't know how many of them were in
the half marathon.)

Saturday, a friend drove me along most of the race course; I got out of
the car at the foot of the Fort Mason hill and walked to the top, where
she met me. This confirmed my decision to walk the hill during the race.
Driving the other hills likewise made me sure that walking them would be
the best thing to do. None of my training was on hills, there being none
of them anywhere near my house--and driving 45 minutes to run at 6 am
was not very appealing.

I had intended to walk up all the hills, which I did, and to walk
through the aid stations, which I didn't. I was able to grab the cups
and keep going without breaking stride. I took Gatorade at all the aid
stations except the first and last, and drank about 3/4 of the bottle of
NUUN that I had carried with me.

I was in the 12:00 to 14:59 min/mile corral, and placed myself at the
back of that pack. There was one corral behind us, for the 15+ minute
starters. In retrospect, I should have put myself in the middle of the
corral; during the first few miles, I was passing walkers all over the
place. In fact, throughout the race, very few people passed me (maybe
because not all that many started behind me), but I wound up passing a
lot of people, even when I was walking the hills.

I'm not going to try to describe the beautiful views we had of the city,
bay, and ocean; if you have been to San Francisco, you know them, and if
you haven't, mere words can't do them justice.

So, here is a mile-by-mile description of my experience.

The first mile was all on a gentle downhill, from 80 feet to 20 feet,
going from Union Square through downtown San Francisco; it was very
surreal, running in the middle of the street with the Sun poking itself
over the buildings to the East. I knew that I had to start slowly or I
would definitely run out of steam before I finished.
I did that mile in 14:44, which is about where I wanted to be.

The second and third miles were along the Embarcadero, continuing the
gentle downhill (20 feet to 10 feet). I had forgotten to take a
throwaway shirt with me, so I had planned to just tie my long-sleeve
technical tee around my waist when it got too warm to wear it. There was
a coat check station at mile 2.5, which I had planned to bypass because
I didn't want to take the time from the run; however, as I approached
it, I could see that it took only ten seconds or so for people to go
through it, so I changed my mind. Unfortunately, a lens popped out of my
eyeglasses as I was taking the tee off, so I had to find it and put it
back in the frame. I'm not sure how much time I lost with that, but it
didn't seem all that much.
My times for these two miles were 14:21 and 14:25 respectively.

The Fort Mason hill started at the three mile point, and as planned I
walked up the hill, and ran down it. The entire hill, up and down, was
about 3/4 mile. At about the fourth mile, a woman pulled up next to me
and said "I've been following you from the start and I just wanted to
say that watching you from behind you, you look terrific!" I thanked her
and then she said, "You look fabulous." I told her that was the nicest
thing anyone said to me all year. She then dropped back behind me again.
I finished the fourth mile in 13:43, even with walking up the hill.

My 5K chip time was 45:36--not my fastest 5K, but then again, this
wasn't a 5K race.

Miles 5 and 6 were fairly level, and my times were 13:03 and 12:56.

A long 1 1/4 hill, going from 25 feet to 135 feet, started at mile 6. I
walked up this hill.
My time for this 7th mile was 15:51

My 10K chip time was 1:27:24.

Mile 7 started with the last quarter mile of the uphill, and then there
was a 3/4 mile downhill to 135 feet at about mile 8.
My time for the 8th mile was 12:03.

My 15K chip time was 2:12:52

Miles 9 and 10 were uphill to about 9/34, cresting at 225 feet, and then
starting down. I also walked up this hill.
My times were 14:39 and 14:10.

The 11th mile was all downhill.
My time was 12:10

The 12th mile was the last uphill; we split from the marathon runners at
about mile 11 3/4. I ran/walked this hill, but it took me 14:48.

After we split from the marathon course, we ran past the Golden Gate
Park stables and soccer field, and rejoined the marathon course. I
finished the thirteenth mile in 12:09.

If I had not stopped at the coat check, I might have come in at 3 hours.
Next time I'll know better

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

Congrats, may it be the first of many.

Michelle said:

First of all, Charlie, you aren't a very good prognosticator. You
predicted I would finish in 3:20 to 3:30, remember?

I actually expected to finish in about 3:15, but I surprised myself by
doing even better than that.

I finished in 3:02:38
Overall: 7554 of 12222
Gender: 7199 of 11717
Age Group: 58 of 220
AG place: 3621
AG%: 47%

Those "of" numbers are those who finished; I have no idea of how many
people started but didn't finish. (There were 4689 marathoners who
finished, so the total number of finishers is 16,911. The estimated
number of registrants was 20,000, so that means almost 1,700 didn't
finish in the alloted time, but I don't know how many of them were in
the half marathon.)

Saturday, a friend drove me along most of the race course; I got out of
the car at the foot of the Fort Mason hill and walked to the top, where
she met me. This confirmed my decision to walk the hill during the race.
Driving the other hills likewise made me sure that walking them would be
the best thing to do. None of my training was on hills, there being none
of them anywhere near my house--and driving 45 minutes to run at 6 am
was not very appealing.

I had intended to walk up all the hills, which I did, and to walk
through the aid stations, which I didn't. I was able to grab the cups
and keep going without breaking stride. I took Gatorade at all the aid
stations except the first and last, and drank about 3/4 of the bottle of
NUUN that I had carried with me.

I was in the 12:00 to 14:59 min/mile corral, and placed myself at the
back of that pack. There was one corral behind us, for the 15+ minute
starters. In retrospect, I should have put myself in the middle of the
corral; during the first few miles, I was passing walkers all over the
place. In fact, throughout the race, very few people passed me (maybe
because not all that many started behind me), but I wound up passing a
lot of people, even when I was walking the hills.

I'm not going to try to describe the beautiful views we had of the city,
bay, and ocean; if you have been to San Francisco, you know them, and if
you haven't, mere words can't do them justice.

So, here is a mile-by-mile description of my experience.

The first mile was all on a gentle downhill, from 80 feet to 20 feet,
going from Union Square through downtown San Francisco; it was very
surreal, running in the middle of the street with the Sun poking itself
over the buildings to the East. I knew that I had to start slowly or I
would definitely run out of steam before I finished.
I did that mile in 14:44, which is about where I wanted to be.

The second and third miles were along the Embarcadero, continuing the
gentle downhill (20 feet to 10 feet). I had forgotten to take a
throwaway shirt with me, so I had planned to just tie my long-sleeve
technical tee around my waist when it got too warm to wear it. There was
a coat check station at mile 2.5, which I had planned to bypass because
I didn't want to take the time from the run; however, as I approached
it, I could see that it took only ten seconds or so for people to go
through it, so I changed my mind. Unfortunately, a lens popped out of my
eyeglasses as I was taking the tee off, so I had to find it and put it
back in the frame. I'm not sure how much time I lost with that, but it
didn't seem all that much.
My times for these two miles were 14:21 and 14:25 respectively.

The Fort Mason hill started at the three mile point, and as planned I
walked up the hill, and ran down it. The entire hill, up and down, was
about 3/4 mile. At about the fourth mile, a woman pulled up next to me
and said "I've been following you from the start and I just wanted to
say that watching you from behind you, you look terrific!" I thanked her
and then she said, "You look fabulous." I told her that was the nicest
thing anyone said to me all year. She then dropped back behind me again.
I finished the fourth mile in 13:43, even with walking up the hill.

My 5K chip time was 45:36--not my fastest 5K, but then again, this
wasn't a 5K race.

Miles 5 and 6 were fairly level, and my times were 13:03 and 12:56.

A long 1 1/4 hill, going from 25 feet to 135 feet, started at mile 6. I
walked up this hill.
My time for this 7th mile was 15:51

My 10K chip time was 1:27:24.

Mile 7 started with the last quarter mile of the uphill, and then there
was a 3/4 mile downhill to 135 feet at about mile 8.
My time for the 8th mile was 12:03.

My 15K chip time was 2:12:52

Miles 9 and 10 were uphill to about 9/34, cresting at 225 feet, and then
starting down. I also walked up this hill.
My times were 14:39 and 14:10.

The 11th mile was all downhill.
My time was 12:10

The 12th mile was the last uphill; we split from the marathon runners at
about mile 11 3/4. I ran/walked this hill, but it took me 14:48.

After we split from the marathon course, we ran past the Golden Gate
Park stables and soccer field, and rejoined the marathon course. I
finished the thirteenth mile in 12:09.

If I had not stopped at the coat check, I might have come in at 3 hours.
Next time I'll know better

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

Michelle: Good job. So how are you feeling today? My worst day is
always the 2d day after the race. Going down steps: ow, ow, ow, ow!

Nice work, and a good report. What an accomplishment.

brianj

In article <[email hidden]>,

brianj said:

Michelle: Good job. So how are you feeling today? My worst day is
always the 2d day after the race. Going down steps: ow, ow, ow, ow!

Yes, going down stairs was a pain--literally. I'm feeling better today,
and will be taking a short recovery run soon.

Quoted message said:

Nice work, and a good report. What an accomplishment.

Thanks.

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

Michelle said:

[snip]

If I had not stopped at the coat check, I might have come in at 3 hours.
Next time I'll know better

Maybe the little break at the coat check let you go a little faster at
some other point. You'll never know until the next one.

Congrats Michelle. Great training, great planning, and great racing,
plus a great report. Fantastic job!

Michelle said:

By the way, exactly what does AG place mean? Also AG percentage?

Conceptually, think of AG% as world record time for your age group divided by
your time. AG place is determined by AG%.

To be more precise, AG% is given as WR time / ( your time * AG_factor )

where the AG_factors are based on a table of correction factors , one for each
distance that are derived from age group world records. There is some interpolating
and smoothing done to take into account that theer isn't a record for each year,
and some distances have soft records because they aren't raced frequently.

Cheers,
--
Elflord

Tony S. said:

"Michelle" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

First of all, Charlie, you aren't a very good prognosticator. You
predicted I would finish in 3:20 to 3:30, remember?

I actually expected to finish in about 3:15, but I surprised myself by
doing even better than that.

I finished in 3:02:38
Overall: 7554 of 12222
Gender: 7199 of 11717
Age Group: 58 of 220
AG place: 3621
AG%: 47%

Good job Michelle. See, it didn't turn out to be all that risky after all.

Nothing ever turns out to be risky after-the-fact. Even Russian Roulette is
completely risk free after-the-fact (though not always in a good way!)

Quoted message said:

As long as someone has done some consistent training, knows their body to a
certain extent, and is willing to bail out if necessary, why not push your
limits sometimes!

I know it's supposed to be rhetorical, but the answer has been posted many times
over. Most of the comments about Michelle's training program were not really
about "pushing ones limits".

Cheers,
--
Elflord

In article <[email hidden]>, tfactor <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

If I had not stopped at the coat check, I might have come in at 3
hours. Next time I'll know better

Maybe the little break at the coat check let you go a little faster
at some other point. You'll never know until the next one.

You may have a point, but I don't think that was the case. But as you
say, I'll never know.

Quoted message said:

Congrats Michelle. Great training, great planning, and great racing,
plus a great report. Fantastic job!

Thanks.

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Elflord said:

Quoted message said:

As long as someone has done some consistent training, knows their
body to a certain extent, and is willing to bail out if necessary,
why not push your limits sometimes!

I know it's supposed to be rhetorical, but the answer has been posted
many times over. Most of the comments about Michelle's training
program were not really about "pushing ones limits".

True; I was not trying to push my limits. Especially not for my first
race at the distance. I ran conservatively, and still beat my most
optimistic expectations.

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Elflord said:

Quoted message said:

By the way, exactly what does AG place mean? Also AG percentage?

Conceptually, think of AG% as world record time for your age group
divided by your time. AG place is determined by AG%.

Thanks.

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

"Michelle" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

First of all, Charlie, you aren't a very good prognosticator. You
predicted I would finish in 3:20 to 3:30, remember?

So much for magnamity in victory ;-)

Quoted message said:

I actually expected to finish in about 3:15, but I surprised myself by
doing even better than that.

Congrats on exceeding your expectations by a lot. Looks like you've got
3:00 staring at you, as if you need more motivation...

Quoted message said:

I finished in 3:02:38
Overall: 7554 of 12222
Gender: 7199 of 11717
Age Group: 58 of 220

Great work finishing in the top 26% of your age group, great for a newbie.
How does that compare to your typical percentage in other races you've been
in?

Quoted message said:

AG place: 3621

This means that on an age-and-gender-adjusted basis (assuming everyone was
25 or so), you'd have finished thereabouts.

Quoted message said:

AG%: 47%

You ran 47% as fast as the world record for your age/gender. Some call this
the wava percentage.

In article <[email hidden]>,

D Stumpus said:

Quoted message said:

I finished in 3:02:38
Overall: 7554 of 12222
Gender: 7199 of 11717
Age Group: 58 of 220

Great work finishing in the top 26% of your age group, great for a
newbie. How does that compare to your typical percentage in other
races you've been in?

A hell of a lot better; In the four 5K races I ran over the Summer, I
came in last or next-to-last in age group (of about eight or nine,
depending on the race), and in the 10K I did about a month or so ago, I
came in dead last in the entire race (somewhere about 160 runners).

I would guess that most of the women in my age group who came in behind
me were walkers. If you consider that anyone who had a pace of 16
min/mile or slower was a walker, then I was 58 out of 90 runners.

By the way, the woman who finished 17th overall, 14th in gender, and
first in the 45-49 age group was Joan Benoit-Samuelson.

266 overall, 226 in gender, and 45th in the 35-39 age group was Brandi
Chastain.

Both of them move to their next age group next year.

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

"Michelle" wrote:
| I finished in 3:02:38
Congrats!
Next goal to get under 3 hours?

In article <[email hidden]>,

I2Run said:

"Michelle" wrote:
| I finished in 3:02:38
Congrats!

Thanks.

Quoted message said:

Next goal to get under 3 hours?

Of course. Next half will be an easier course, so that should be doable.

--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:09:31 -0700, Michelle <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I actually expected to finish in about 3:15, but I surprised myself by
doing even better than that.

Quoted message said:

Well congratulations on doing the half (your first right) and
exceeding your expectations for a time. That's always nice.

Frank