Monday, March 18, 2019

New Bedford half-marathon


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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