New Bedford Half Marathon (03/17/19): This was the
15th time I’ve run New Bedford but only the second time I went to
the line and did not “race” it. I strained my quad during the 5 mile race
last weekend and ran tentatively all week. I got checked out at Pinnacle
Physical Therapy on Friday and was advised to NOT race a half-marathon.
Good advice. The CMS squad only had 5 guys entered (and I was one of
those five) and you need 5 for a full team. I decided I’d go and run
through it at training pace since I’d want to put in my mileage anyway.
I met up with Dave La who was celebrating his 55th
birthday by aiming for a senior age group PR at the 13.1 mile distance.
Originally, I had hoped to run with Dave but now my goal was to run around
8-minute pace. We did a 2 mile warm-up and Al Bernier joined us for some
of it. After a quick change we headed to the start line. Dave went
to the proper area and I went off for another ¾ mile of jogging before tucking
in at the back of the field. I figured that’d help keep things from being
too fast. With 2,000 runners there would be a lot of people to pass.
A little after 11am the gun went off and it was interesting
at the back of the pack as everyone waited patiently to start walking
forward. I was even able to start slowly running by the time I reached
the line which took 2:41 to cross. The wind was blowing and it was about
40 degrees and sunny. Pretty decent conditions for a mid-March
race. I felt comfortable and mostly just concentrated on not running into
anyone. The streets were packed and I would have to jump onto the
sidewalks sometimes to stay out of trouble. I reached the mile in 7:17
and was surprised at how easy that was. The quad felt good. I
readjusted my goal to 7:20 pace and continued to run cautiously through the
masses. By the top of the hill at 3 miles I was right on 7:20 pace and it
was thinning out. I could now run without weaving. The Fast stretch
from 3-8 miles was enjoyable. I clicked off a couple of 7:10’s and a
couple of miles just a bit under 7. I could feel some tightness and mild
soreness in the quad at that speed and eased up a bit. I was passing less
people now as the pace I was running was nearing the pace of those around
me. The section along the ocean from 9-11 is always windy. It was
windy today but nothing too bad. I had miles of 7:08, 7:01, and 7:07
during that stretch. I felt pretty good as we got back into the city and
still picked off a few people over the final couple of miles.
On the final little downhill and the last .1 straight I
eased up a bit and about ½ dozen people went by. The only person to go by
at any other point during the race was a guy in the first mile and BAA’s 5th
man on the senior team who I caught at 6 (and again at 10). He went by me
a third time on the final straight. I wasn’t worried as I figured no one
out there started as far back as I did and for scoring purposes “net time” is
what counts.
Dave ended up running an excellent race and clocking a
1:26 as the 2nd man on our 50+ team (and he took 4th in
the 55-59 age group). I was 5th man for our squad which ended
up taking second place! I did a little checking and there were 2020 finishers
and I took 442nd place, so I passed about 1500 during the
race. A Personal Record (PR) for me!
7:17
7:21
7:20
7:10
7:10
6:58
6:58
7:17
7:08
7:01
7:07
7:08
7:10
1:04
1:34:09
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