New Bedford Half Marathon 2015 Race Report

Man, did I over estimate my fitness or what...Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with the result of the race, but I grossly misjudged where I am at. I thought I could flirt with 1:16:low, but I'm simply not there yet. I suppose it's better to find that out now, so I can begin to more accurately target my marathon paced runs.

Pre-race rituals went well. A couple miles jogging, minimal drills, and a handful of strides. Normally, I'm not big on the national anthem before every single race, but New Bedford gets a big crowd and lots of runners so it makes sense. This time around, it was especially cool. The singer stumbled over the words early on and the crowd picked up the slack and sang to the finish.

Once the gun went off, I had a clear path and didn't need to weave through any crowds.  I went through the first mile in 5:48 feeling pretty comfortable.  The next three miles were decidedly slower as I struggled with the hills.  I was really hoping that I would be comfortably hitting 6 minute miles through this section of the course, but that simply felt too fast.

Around the 5 mile mark, I thought I heard some familiar breathing, but as I turned to look - I didn't see anyone.  Right around 10k though, Terry pulled up beside me chugging along comfortably.

One thing I don't like about races in the USATF-NE Grand Prix series is that I don't have that sense of competitiveness that I feel during the Pub Series. If I'm running alongside someone I don't know, I'm not thinking, "oh, I better stick with him other wise I'll come in 150th instead of 149th..." BUT, when Terry came cruising by, that knocked me out of my funk. I immediately thought, "crap, Terry was biding his time all ski-season building up strength and now he wants to put me in the hurt locker!!"

For a little while I was behind Terry and the group he was running with.  Once we hit a good stretch of road to accelerate on, I started to increase the pace a bit and see where I was at. From then on, I decided to just keep looking forward and putting in the effort I thought I could maintain to the finish.

Turning onto Cove Road, I was pleasantly surprised that the wind wasn't so bad. Unfortunately, that was short lived. Right around the 10th or 11th mile, the wind was relentless.  I tried to draft off some runners, but it seemed that I was able to maintain my pace while they were fading.

Once we started back inland, the wind seemed to stay strong, and the hills started to arrive.  I was able to see a good handful of runners I recognized a good chunk of distance ahead of me and I used them as a goal to reach/pass them in the final miles.

During the final brutal hill, I was fairly vocal runner - grunting with each step. My hip flexors and left hamstring felt pretty bunk, but I was digging deep and passing a lot of runners.  I felt a sense of relief when I crested that final hill and set my sights on some runners that I hoped to catch in time for the final straight.

Photo Courtesy of Thomas Cole on Facebook

Once I turned onto the straight, I knew it was a greater distance than it looked and I steadily increased my pace. I caught up to a Western Mass Distance Project runner with a good chunk of pavement to go and he and I battled it out to the finish (passing a few runners en route). Unfortunately, I was too cooked to go to my toes and he edged me at the line. Oh well.

0:05:48

0:06:04

0:06:13

0:06:17

0:06:00

0:05:57

0:05:50

0:05:49

0:05:58

0:05:59

0:06:11

0:06:00

0:06:00

0:00:39

1:18:46

A new PR by 2 minutes and 18 seconds. I also passed the 10 mile mark in under an hour, so that was nice. Beat my brand new 10 mile PR only three weeks after setting it.

Results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/15/ma/Mar15_38thAn_set1.shtml