Air Force Half Pacer Report

A direct copy of my pacer report for pacerjim@hotmail.com

I had a blast pacing today and had a great group! Please email pacer jim if you have any suggestions for me or just want to send positive feedback! Thanks to everyone who ran with me today, sorry I was off at the finish! My first finish over the pin :( 1:40:30

1. Your performance

A+ For enthusiasm, A for pacing, C for finish time. wore two pace bands to avoid a loss this time and wore two watches. I was set on keeping track of pace!

Very even effort day, I felt great and did a great job of encouraging runners throughout. I decided to wear the new garmin since we had been told markers were off here before. Typically the garmin gets behind so I figured I'd just keep an eye on it as an extra point of reference. First few miles seemed to line up pretty well. We were on pace until we hit the incline before mile one, as typical garmin pace was right on but we were about 10 seconds behind at the mile marker. I knew we would be slow but would make it up on the downhill that followed and we did. Very even effort all day, got a little behind on the hills and a little ahead on the downhills. I missed the 11 mile marker and so I never realized that mile 12 and 13 we were actually behind (since 11 was not actually 11, but closer to 10.9, and therefore neither were 12 or 13) when I thought we were ahead, this caused me to be 30 seconds over when I thought I was going to be 20 seconds under. Completely shocked when I looked at the clocks from a distance and realized I was over and had to look at the splits to figure out what the heck happened.

Splits for analysis as well as the garmin mileage for a point of reference. I believe the mileage as I probably added extra at aid stations and not running tangents early in the race and as you can see mile 11 and 12 were short, likely shorter than the Garmin indicated as I definitely was weaving at the aid station around 11.

Split (mile pace off, total pace off) garmin distance

1- 7:50.40 (+12, +12) 1.02
2- 7:23.45 (-14, +2) 1.00
3- 7:34.90 (-4, -2) 1.00
4- 7:45.08 (+7, +5) 1.00
5- 7:30.12 (-8, -3) 1.00
6- 7:46.85 (+8, +5) 1.01
7- 7:37.98 (0, +5) 0.99
8&9- 15:27.22 (+9, +14) 2.01
10- 7:33.23 (-5, +9) 1.00
11&12- 14:48.15 (-28, -19) 1.96
13- 7:38 (0, -19) 0.99
13.1- 1:35.55 (+50, +30) 0.22

garmins average pace was 7:36 so I thought I was good to go as it is usually about 2 seconds fast for me compared to the actual race pace.

2. Your group

I had a large group throughout the day, so large I had runners comment to me after that they decided to run ahead or behind because they felt too crowded. I had many PRs and quite a few runners go ahead at mile 12 (Thank goodness!) and earlier. I had a lot of first timers that came in ahead or close to me. One lady with headphones that ran right next to me through about mile 10 but lost her at the hill. Since I thought I was ahead at mile 12 around mile 12.5 I started running backwards and calling back to runners to reel me in and get under 1:40, I managed to get quite a few to go by me and two women who thanked me at the finish for it despite being a little over 1:40. Had I known I was over I obviously would have dialed it in and told everyone we needed to hammer, ideally I would have slowly got us back on from mile 11 when I should have known we were behind.

3. Suggestions for the marathon

Expo needs to be more streamlined. The way it was setup was forcing "cross traffic" Runners want to get their stuff, then peruse the expo. The way it was setup runners trying to get their stuff were walking against the flow of traffic of those heading back to check out the expo, felt very crowded.

Loved the outfits!

Fix mile marker 13. It shouldn't be too hard to measure .1 from the finish line backwards. I can understand other markers getting off, we are all only human, but .1 and .2 are very different at the finish.

4. Suggestions for the pace team

Better directions for getting around the base. Those of us that are navigationally challenged were a bit stressed getting lost and getting stuck n crazy traffic that could have been avoided.

Cell numbers on a list for everyone. would have helped with some of the last minute changes.

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