Hyannis Half Marathon Race Report

Sunday’s race went as well as it possibly could.

Matt Fanning joined Elizabeth, Raleigh, and me on the drive down to Hyannis, and we arrived about two hours prior to the start.  Arriving early worked out well as we were able to get our numbers and everything else taken care of before the crowd began to arrive.  We were also able to get a parking spot that was nearly ON the starting line so we could stay out of the cold wind and stay warm.

Fanning and I had the same goal prior to the race of aiming to come in under 1:30:00.  We planned on a 7:00 to 7:15 first mile and a second mile that was a few seconds faster - and that would allow us to avoid the typical sprint out of the gate.  Based on our splits we did a good job of sticking with the plan.

We were both feeling very comfortable for the first few miles, but miles 4-8 we were running into a constant strong headwind.

Having someone to maintain pace with was really important for me up to that point.  It’s easy to go out too fast, and then easy to not realize your pace when running into a headwind.  The Garmin is nice, but I don’t enjoy looking down at the pace/distance too frequently.

Once we turned away from Craigville Beach and out of the wind tunnel, we were able to settle into a solid but not too uncomfortable pace of about 6:40.  I’m curious to look at Fanning’s final few miles, because I felt like I was going at a solid clip, but he was able to finish very strong from roughly mile 11 onward.

I zoned out a bit during that time to ignore an untied shoelace and some heartburn, and was able to finish the last quarter mile with a solid kick.  I passed about four people during that time, which, while somewhat pointless - it feels good to finish running like a bat out of hell.

Official time: 1:29:29.  Total distance according to the Garmin was 13.25 – so that makes it a 6:45 unofficial pace.  Good run!

Splits:

1	0:07:04
2	0:06:56
3	0:06:46
4	0:06:48
5	0:06:48
6	0:06:56
7	0:06:47
8	0:06:55
9	0:06:43
10	0:06:37
11	0:06:34
12	0:06:39
13	0:06:45
0.25	0:01:11

Full results:

http://coolrunning.com/results/12/ma/Feb26_Hyanni_set6.shtml