New Bedford Half Marathon Race Report

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I posted! It seems like between two ski trips, work, and suffering a minor injury, I just haven't had time to post. I've noticed that I tend to slack off posting when I get injured and I don't run as much. On the flip side, blogging when I'm injured also helps because it gives me valuable learning experiences when I'm recovering from an injury. I'm going to put in a separate post on my injury status; this post will focus on my race report from the New Bedford Half Marathon.

The New Bedford Half Marathon is a classic half marathon traditionally used as a tune up race for Boston. With four weeks left to go before Hopkinton, it draws a lot of top notch talent from around the New England area to this old whaling town. It is by no means an easy course, but it's become an annual pilgrimmage (1:15 hr drive) for me to battle winds and hills in preparation for Boston.

I came into the race with very low expectations having only run about 20 miles in the last two weeks. In fact, I debated skipping out on this race to let my left shin tendon heal up. However, by Saturday evening, I was running pain free again and decided to give it a go. Since I was likely going to be out of shape, I decided I would be happy with anything sub-1:30.

My wife gave me a lift down, and we found a decent parking spot close to the Athlete's village/school. I picked up my number and then unexpectedly ran into a couple of friends I didn't know were running the race. By the time I had put on my running gear, there was only 15 min left to go before the race. Despite the windy conditions, I left the jacket in my bag and set out for a quick warm-up jog to the port-a-johns. I bumped into a clubmate in line. Since I didn't want a repeat of last year (imagine the shear panic of hearing the starting gun as you're emerge from the port-a-john), I decided to go directly to the start line instead of warming up some more. The first two miles would have to serve as my warm-up. I located some other clubmates and decided I would pace together with another fellow, Paul, who had a similar time goal.

The first mile was pretty comfortable and I spent much of it chatting with Paul and seeing other club member race by. I was surprised to hit the 1st split in 6:42. There was a pretty good headwind during this portion of the race, but with all the runners still bundled together, it was easy to find a place to hide. I hit the 2nd mile also in 6:42; meanwhile, Paul began to pull away. I was still feeling pretty loose and having finally fixed my heart rate monitor, which kept slipping down, I was ready for the first set of hills. The hills were tough, and I thought for sure that tackling these hills was going to come back and haunt me later in the race. I kept up pretty respectable splits for miles 3&4 (6:54, 6:59), and I was looking forward to coasting for a couple easy miles. Paul was out of view and I was sure I wasn't going to catch him. My arch-nemesis, a female runner from the Sommervile Road Runners (arch nemesis in the sense that she always seems to beat me by a couple seconds at the tape), came cruising by after mile 4, which caused me to pick up the pace a little. I spent most of mile 5 (6:29) recovering from the hills and I was sure I was going to hit the wall after mile 10 because I just wasn't in shape. Last year, I felt very comfortable at this point. There was a couple bursts of cross-wind over this stretch, as well as in mile 6. By mile 6 (6:37), I was feeling much better and gaining some confidence. The next two miles were much faster then expected (6:21, 6:18), but I had to remind myself that these were mostly downhill.

At mile 7.5 or so, the course takes a right turn and follows a circumfrential route around a peninsula. You usually get a decent tailwind on the way out to the peninsula, but you're greeted by a brutal headwind on the way back. I started looking for runners to pace with so I could get a little windshield on the way back. I remember picking up the effort here not because I felt good, but because I needed to find wind shelter. My heart rate started climbing about 5 bpm and I was sure that I was going to die in the last three miles. As expected, after crossing the 9 mile marker (6:42), the winds came. It's not so much wind gusts, but rather constant wall of wind. I don't remember how I held my pace because I was putting in a lot more effort. I kept telling myself that if I made it back to the city proper, I would be able to pull it in to the finish. This part was particularly tough because the pack was really strung out and it was hard to find any runners to hide behind. Most runners were fading at this point; every time I thought I found someone to pace with, they would start falling back. I remember seeing Paul just after crossing the 10 mile marker (6:32) and I think it gave me a target to work towards. I said some words of encouragement to him, and he said he was getting diaphragm cramps. Of course, he had done a brutal 23-miler last weekend, so the fact that he was racing was impressive enough! My HR was gradually creeping up, but I was surprised to find that I felt I could maintain the pace. I don't remember much of miles 11 & 12 (6:37, 6:45), other than I was concentrating hard on maintaining my cadence and mentally preparing for the last hill at mile 12. This last hill is not steep, but it never ends (at least while you're running it), and after battling headwinds for the last 3 miles, you really don't need another challenge! I was really hurting over on this last hill and with the headwind, it felt like I was running on a treadmill. The last 0.5 mile downhill was sweet relief. I started lengthening my stride and heard my wife cheering with about 100m to go. I was striding hard towards the finish line, eyes fixated on the official clock... 1:26:51...52... I knew I had made it in under 1:27. Watch time was 1:26:54.

So I somehow managed to run a PR by almost 2 minutes! I was still a bit shocked as I wandered around the finish line area. After seeing my splits up to mile 7&8, I thought for sure I wasn't going to have anything left, but I finished much stronger than last year. Here's my log entry from last year:

"Spent the first mile passing a lot of runners. Got into a groove as I hit the first hill at mile 2. Was pretty comfortable from then on until mile 8. Started to fatigue a bit as we made the turn onto the peninsula. Making the turn after mile 9, there was a constant 15-20 mph headwind that made keeping pace very difficult. Slowed considerable at mile 12 with the uphill and headwind towards the finish line. Able to finish strong."

Approximate splits: 7:09, 6:34, 6:43, 6:30, 6:40, 6:35, 6:35, 7:10, 6:30, 6:40, 6:50, 7:00, 6:51"

I can only think of two explanations. One, I'm still working from the base that I built during December and January and so I was in better shape than last year. Two, the last two weeks was more like a taper and so I was well rested going into the race. Last year, I ran a brutal workout the Wednesday before, so I probably wasn't recovered by race day. Regardless, I'll take the PR and hope that's a good indicator that I'm reasonably prepared for Boston. According to the McMillan calculator, it translates to a 3:03. Wow, that shower felt good afterwards... and the fish chowder really hit the spot.

Overall, there were some crazy fast times today. There's an abundance of distance talent in New England, and it's evident when you run a sub-1:27 and only come in 238/1827 runners. On a side and slightly annoying note, my race chip bugged out because when I checked the results this morning, my name was conspicuously absent. I wrote to the race director and they've now changed the results.... and gave me a 1:27:00... pissers.

Here are my numbers.... my HR was really cooking at the end:

1. 6:42 (175/207?)
2. 6:42 (no HR)
3. 6:54 (170/173)
4. 6:59 (173/179)
5. 6:29 (172/175)
6. 6:37 (171/173)
7. 6:21 (170/172)
8. 6:18 (174/176)
9. 6:42 (175/177)
10. 6:32 (175/178)
11. 6:37 (177/179)
12. 6:45 (179/180)
13. 6:38 (181/185)
0.1 0:40 (185/185)