Oops -- Training run turns into race

Short Version:  1:44:06 for my third half; a new PR by 46 seconds(oh so close to 1:43!)

• 920 runners; 92nd place overall
• 18th out of 86 in my Age Group(M 40-44)
• 436 male runners; 78th place for men
• 7:57 average pace per mile

Long Version:

Today was my third half marathon.  It was a great day.  Temps started in the low 40's and finished in the 50's.  It was also sunny with just a little bit of wind.  My running buddy and I got to the race at about 7:30am, exactly when the race said to be there.  We probably could have come a little later but we were there.  The race actually started just around the corner from where I used to work so I knew the area very well.  We walked around a little.  There were more than enough port-o-potties around the area and we didn't have to wait at all.  That's a first.

We waited in the car until a little after 8am and then went to look for the starting line.  They kind of had corrals(for each race, 5k walker, 5k runners, half under 2 hours, etc) but it was quite confusing.  It worked out in the end with everyone starting when they were supposed to.  My plan was to do this race as a training run.  I actually lined up with the 1:50 pacers and figured that would be a great pace to complete the half.  I went about two miles with the pacers and was really feeling quite good so I decided to speed things up.  By the time I got to mile 7, I figured, what the heck, I'll go for a PR since things were going so well.  Here's how my splits ended up:

Race time and Garmin time were exact!

As you can see above, I was following my plan and following the pacers and then BOOM, I had had enough of the slower pace and took off.  I was actually surprised that my splits were fairly even except for mile 12.  I don't know what it is with mile 12 but I always seem to slow down in that mile.  Also, at the last part of the race after mile 13, I slowed down a little since I was ready to puke and there was about 1,000 people at the end of the race.  That would have been quite embarrassing to puke in front of that many people so I slowed a little and caught my breath and that kept me from embarrassing myself.

One thing about this race, IT WAS FLAT!  And when I say flat, flat as a pancake.  Here is the elevation for the race.  I don't think you can get much flatter:

Flat!

Overall, it was a nice run except for two things.  First, the streets were not closed completely to traffic so you had to watch closely.  They had one lane closed and another open for cars.  There were tons of police though.  I think the entire Macomb County Police Department was out there so they certainly helped make it safe.  The other thing was I thought the run would have been more scenic - it was Ok.  Here is the map of the race from my Garmin.  As you can see, we ran through a Metro Park and that was a nice part of the run.  We also ran through part of a trail which was not really flat but sort of on an angle running which I did not like much but it was not too far:

Map of Race

Overall, a nice race and I would probably do it again considering it's only 20 minutes from my home.  It is nice having a race that close to your home.  This is my running buddy and I before the race.  This is the corral that I was talking about.  It was kind of different from other races I have ran but it ended up working out fine.

Here's a picture of the medal:

The race had water, orange slices(yum!), banana's and apples to eat at the end of the race.  They also had a band at the end of the race and a couple bands on the course including an Elvis impersonator which was nice.  While I did not use them much, it was nice that they had pacers out there for people looking to meet a certain time.  I know there are no pacers for my Full marathon next month but I wish there were to help keep me going.

Have a great day and......Keep Running!!!!!