Red, White and Boom!

My first half marathon at the Red, White and Boom Twin Cities Half Marathon was overall a good challenge, a fun race and a good experience.

I ran 1:37:18, 7:25 per mile. I was 103 out of 2376 as this was the first running event for Twin Cities in Motion. (TC Marathon parent.) I was 86 of 1049 among males and 19 of 158 for males 25-29 years.

I was doing pretty well through 7 complete miles and okay through 8 miles. I salvaged miles 9 and 10 doing a 7:05 and 7:19, but then the wheels came off in miles 11,12,13. I ran 7:53, 8:35 and 8:34 for the final three miles. It was bad.

Weather was also an interesting factor. When Katy and I got there it was warm, humid and cloudy with a chance of rain after 8am. Well, that chance grew and between miles 3 and 4 it started raining and then it poured until about mile 7.5 before slowing down for a few miles and then picking back up for a couple of miles. The rain was so hard many steps were completely underwater and that made my socks and shoes giving me bruised toes and blisters because of all of the slipping and sliding my feet were doing in the shoes.

I will do another, hopefully with a training partner and a race partner and more of a training plan.

Here are the results from the mtecresults.com.

Location	Race Time	Time of Day	Overall Place	Division Place	Sex Place
Time	1:37:18	8:07:01	103/2376	19/158	86/1049
10 Mile	1:11:20	7:41:03	67/2355	11/158	60/1042
GunStart	00:00	6:29:39
ChipStart	0:06	6:29:44	76/2376	11/158	67/1049

Before the race, about 78 degrees with above 65% humidity, if memory serves me correct.













This is on St. Anthony Main, one-tenth of a mile into the race. I was doing okay at that point.













This is back on St. Anthony Main, going the opposite direction towards the finish.







































I ditched my shirt with Nick and Becca at mile 7.5 or so because it was so heavy. My shorts are still quite wet too even though it wasn't raining at the finish.













At the finish just across the street from the restaurants and facing the Mississippi River.













We walked to the Stone Arch Bridge after because it was trying to get sunny and I could walk just a little bit. I though we could get some good pictures but it stayed cloudy.

Upcoming Races:
August 1 Sunday Twins Territory 4K in Minneapolis. It starts downtown, runs by the Guthrie Theater, the Mill City Museum and finishes in front of Target Field.

October 3 Sunday Twin Cities 10 Mile (Hopefully, it's a lottery so I just have to hope I get in.)