Miami Half-Marathon Race Report

It’s been almost a week and a half since the Miami Half-Marathon, but if I had raced well, this would have probably been done last week, and in considerable detail. Sometimes you get to a race, and it’s just not your day. In Miami I was more nervous than I can remember being before a race, at least since high school. I could hardly sleep the night before and although I didn’t end up feeling tired during the race, I’m sure 2 hours of sleep didn’t help my case.


In a way, I had completely screwed myself over by running as fast as I did in Charleston two weeks prior. Am I really in 1:20 half-marathon shape? I happened to have a stellar race in Charleston, but if I had run 1:22 or even just under my former PR of 1:22:33, then I certainly wouldn’t have gone out as fast as I did here.


The weather was warm (70 degrees apparently) and humid (90%), but the humidity didn’t hit me until we were off and running. The start was complete chaos, and I ended up having to jump the fence to get into the seeded corral where I was supposed to be. On top of that, they then squeezed some “Race of the Americas” runners in with us… well, in front of us really which is rather an insult as our corral had to have run proven times to be there (i.e. my 28th overall 2:51:03 in the full a year ago). Finally, the organizers decided to let the elite athletes go 10 seconds before the rest of us, and had volunteers stopping us from running for that time.



I quickly set off at a comfortable pace and caught up to the lead women’s full marathon pack as we went up the only large bridge (hill) on the course. I decided to run with them and see how the pace went, I figured they’d be running low 6 minute miles and that would be perfect for me. My first mile was 5:54 but keeping in mind they probably had a 10 second head start if we kept running 6:04s that would be perfect! Mile 2 was a little under 6 again, and it seemed as though the pack was trying to shed some slower athletes. Just before we came to mile 4, I was cooked. The humidity hit me like a wall and I wouldn’t run another sub-7 minute mile until mile 13. The last 9 mile splits looked like I had a good easy run.

In the end, I ran 1:30:31, and have still never broken 1:30 for a half in Miami, despite having run two of them back-to-back in the full last year. Now it’s time to regroup, forget about my 1:20 PR, and focus on Boston. I’m sure a sub-1:20 half will find me when it wants to.

Upcoming Races:
Myrtle Beach Half (2/18)
2-20-2 Duathlon in Greenville (2/25)
Greenville Half (3/10)
Powerman Alabama (3/25)