New Bedford 1/2 marathon

New Bedford ½ marathon – Well, I made the transition from snowshoe racing to road racing...but it wasn’t pretty.  I headed down to New Bedford for the 10^th time last weekend.  My goal was to help out the team and I guessed that I would be able to run around 1:18.  I hoped to run a little under 6:00 mile pace for my final race in the masters category.

 

I met up with Jim, Joe and Martin and we went out for a very easy 2 mile run.  I was a bit nervous about doing too much prior to the race.  My mileage has been good (right around 100 per week) but my average run is only 7 miles.  I was worried that I might run out of gas in the later miles.  My head was definitely not in the race as I was worrying about my sprained ankle and lack of “speed”.  I joined 2500 close friends at the starting line and clicked on my iPod shuffle as we hit the road.

 

I found Jim and Joe in the early going and stayed with them through the mile.  I felt okay but “flat”.  We started into the rolling hills and I thought ‘I’ll get to 3 miles then get rolling’.  It seemed like dozens of people went by me but I felt that the pace was as aggressive as I could handle.  It got warm (warm for a 30 degree day) when we turned the corner and had a tail wind.  I felt like I was sprinting running a 5:35 fifth mile.  I really haven’t got any turnover, racing at 10 minute miles on snowshoes doesn’t make you fast.

 

Looking ahead I could see Terry McNatt and I set catching him as a goal.  A gal from Somerville Road Runners (Kath Hardcastle) drifted by and I tried to latch on to her, she dragged me a little closer to the pack Terry was in.  Eventually I caught Terry and then saw a couple of CMS guys up ahead and set my sights on them.  I was still thinking “I’ll start to feel good soon” (I didn’t).  At the nine mile mark Craig Fram caught me and I tucked in behind him as we hit the wind.  Craig was pushing hard and I could see Martin not too far ahead.  We caught up to new teammate Derek Dorval and I was now thinking “hold on to these guys for another mile”, we stuck together through 11 and then Derek took off and Craig went as well.  We’d passed Martin and gapped Terry during those two miles.

 

Every once in a while someone would go sprinting by (Kevin Alliette, Jason Bui, Danny Ferreria, and many more), sometimes I tried to go but mostly they would be going way faster than I was going so that wasn’t an option.  As we hit the long hill near 12 miles I was caught by another gal and I tried to latch on to her.  I could see Craig up ahead and he kept looking back (not sure why he was doing that), I was more worried about Terry catching back up and I also was still trying to get back to Derek.  I wasn’t sure which guy I was on the team but I wanted to score so I kept working.  I didn’t close on Derek or Craig but I didn’t blow up either.  I rolled to the finish in 1:18:52 (6:01 pace) for my slowest New Bedford and my worst place ever in a race (152).  I’m most definitely getting old!

 

The masters team did well, placing 3^rd behind BAA and Whirlaway.  Next up in the Grand Prix will be the 5km championships on March 30^th.  That’ll be my first race in the senior category.

 

Splits: 

5:46
6:05	11:51
6:13	18:04
6:20	24:24
5:35	29:59
5:53	35:52
5:41	41:33
5:55	47:28
5:51	53:19
6:10	59:29
6:19	1:05:48
6:13	1:12:01
6:07	1:18:08
:44	1:18:52

 

45-49 top 10:

41	1:11:40	Gregory Picklesimer	47	SRR
70	1:13:53	Kent Lemme	47	GSH
72	1:13:57	Peter Hammer	47	BAA
75	1:14:14	Eric Williams	49	WRT
101	1:15:50	Wayne Levy	48	BAA
117	1:16:44	Joe Shairs	45	CMS
128	1:17:43	Brian Ruhm	48	GCS
152	1:18:52	Dave Dunham	49	CMS
156	1:19:01	Scott Anderson	49	WRT
158	1:19:03	Terry McNatt	49	CSU