It's Official - Mercedes Half Marathon Results

This past weekend we headed to Birmingham so that I could run the Mercedes 1/2 Marathon with my father-in-law Don. The weather in Birmingham was absolutely beautiful all weekend. We started the weekend with a relaxing trip to the zoo with Jack and family. Paige will post more pictures on that later.

The race started at 7:03 AM on a chilly Sunday morning and wound through downtown Birmingham and then out to the edge of Homewood and Mountain Brook before turning back downtown. I set a goal of somewhere between 2:35:00 and 2:45:00. I wasn't sure if I would even make it through the whole race running since my training was interrupted in January but I wanted to finish even if I had to walk it. The weather was perfect for a long run. It was an ideal 45 degrees for the rest of the day. The first 6 miles were really not that bad. I was able to almost match my last 10k time of 1:00:54 (helped by the fact that Paige and Jack were waiting on us at mile 8). I really enjoyed seeing Birmingham and running through parts I haven't ever been to before. The spectators were out in full force: kids were holding signs and dogs were longing to be running with us. Don stayed with me most of the way but with his ok I ran ahead just after mile 9 and was able to put about 10 minutes between us by hustling to the finish line.

After I was sure that I could finish without slowing to a walk, my goal became finishing before the winner of the full marathon finished. As the sirens of the pace cars began to wail in the background the 1/2 marathoners that were around me began to stampede toward the finish line as they too wanted to beat the winner of the full. The full marathon winner, David Cheruiyot, posted a gun time of 2:23:25 at a 5:29 pace. A man named Bobby Holley represented Corinth well with a Male Masters 2nd place full marathon finish with a gun time of 3:01:41 at a 6:57 pace. Another local runner John "Big Foot" Aikin from Florence, AL (Male 55 59 Group) posted a gun time of 3:30:35 with a 8:03 pace. Upon taking the podium to accept a prize, Big Foot told the crowd that he wanted to dedicate this victory to his parole officer!

I can't say that I am ready to run a full marathon or if I will ever want to but I really enjoyed the half. I have come a long way since I started running in September. At first I struggled to make it to the end of the block. It feels really good to know that I have completed the 13.1 milestone. It is estimated that about 650,000 out of 301 Million people in this country will complete one this year. A group I am happy to join.

Name: John Frame
Age: 29
Town: Corinth, MS
Division Place: 144 of 167
Overall Place: 1997 out of about 3000
Sex Place: 1155
6.2mi Rank: 149
6.2mi Time: 1:05:12
6.2mi Pace: 10:31
13.1mi Time: 2:21:33
13.1mi Pace: 10:49

Name: Don Williams
Age: 57
Town: Mobile, AL
Division Place: 63 of 80
Overall Place: 2281 out of about 3000
Sex Place: 1248
6.2 Rank: 54
6.2 Time: 1:05:14
6.2 Pace: 10:32
13.1 Time: 2:31:28
13.1 Pace: 11:34