Back in April I ran my first half marathon. I live blogged it with twitter and twitpic as many of you may have followed along. Here is the archived race report dredged up from the dregs of internet history (had to grab my back tweets from twitter history, maybe you just want a local backup of your last 3200 tweets, I used dacort’s easy one liner unix command).

NOMing on oatmeal. berlin half marathon in T minus three hours. #bhm 7:08 AM Apr 5th from web

cold and drizzly out there, packing extra dry clothes for the finish line. #bhm 7:41 AM Apr 5th from twidroid

mixed powdered sport drink, packed running gloves and dry layerz, ziploc baggies for my mobile devices, #bhm here i come. 8:36 AM Apr 5th from twidroid

berlin is quite empty as usual, despite the 24,000 runners expected at the #bhm, only a smattering on tram/ubahn in fhain. 8:44 AM Apr 5th from twidroid

http://twitpic.com/2uwo5 – i can haz race number #bhm 9:03 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2uxr2 – Inline skate lining up #bhm 9:43 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2uxzf – Sun coming out 4 inline skaters #bhm 9:53 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

a bit of sun. i’ve warmed up and started stretching. considering just taking e70? or maybe just g1? arg gadget decisions! #bhm

yep just going to run with e70, means i may not see your tweets while i run, but i can one hand type and photoblog better #bhm 10:08 AM Apr 5th from twidroid

http://twitpic.com/2uyhm – pretzels + runners: berliner halbmarathon #bhm 10:16 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

ok headed for starting line, i’m in group D. live blogged half marathon here we go! #bhm 10:27 AM Apr 5th from twidroid

http://twitpic.com/2uyuj – Making our way to starting line #bhm 10:33 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

Aaand we’re off! Helicopters overhead, little breeze, smiling people. #bhm 10:46 AM Apr 5th from mobile web

http://twitpic.com/2uzcc – Slow start is slow 😉 #bhm 10:56 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2uzlm – Brandenbrgr tor #bhm 11:07 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2uzmx – Me #bhm 11:09 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

Rainbow pace flag, runner humor #bhm 11:09 AM Apr 5th from mobile web

http://twitpic.com/2uzs8 – Ski hat ftw #bhm 11:15 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2uzwl – Engel + ich #bhm 11:21 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2uzxy – 05042009(013) 11:23 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

Mile 2.6 feeling great #bhm 11:24 AM Apr 5th from mobile web

http://twitpic.com/2v0b6 – #bhm 11:41 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2v0fn – Paar aus berlin #bhm 11:48 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2v0k9 – Video guy from honow #bhm 11:54 AM Apr 5th from TwitPic

Thx for all cheers!1! Mile 5.6 #bhm 11:54 AM Apr 5th from mobile web

http://twitpic.com/2v0zd – 11 ! #bhm 12:14 PM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2v109 – Nice guy from potsdam #bhm 12:15 PM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2v19g – Zoo #bhm 12:27 PM Apr 5th from TwitPic

Mile 9! Woot! #bhm 12:28 PM Apr 5th from mobile web

M 10 km 15 ouch feet #bhm 12:40 PM Apr 5th from mobile web

http://twitpic.com/2v1sz – #bhm 12:51 PM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2v26j – #bhm 1:08 PM Apr 5th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2v2kz – I finished my 1st half! 2h39 #bhm 1:27 PM Apr 5th from TwitPic

My official net time was 02:28:06 which is great considering how ill I had been the three months before the race thus cutting into my training. I truly focused on slowing down at the beginning, enjoying the run, and talking to some fellow racers as I liveblogged. Having my friends cheer me on via @replies on twitter was definitely a motivation. I will sign up for a marathon in june or july of 2010, and hopefully run another half during my training. Here is my shot at the finish, with the non-adjusted time:

If I liveblog another race, here is what I would want to have:

• a more waterproof mobile device
• number pad typing much easier than full keyboard typing while running
• voice to text would be ideal
• gps coordinates added to each post
• auto distance from gps calculated with splits would be awesome