Great Bay 1/2 marathon

I don’t have much to say about the Great Bay ½ marathon.  I wasn’t sure how hard I wanted to run this considering it is not a “PR course”.  I also didn’t want to fall apart over the last 4 or 5 miles like I did at New Bedford.  My goal was to run somewhere between a race and a hard workout.

I met up with Double-J and Goupil and we did a nice easy 3 mile warm-up.  Jim sprinted for the Durham town line (and the Newmarket town line on the way back) getting no response from me or Jeff.  I felt a bit sluggish and was a little worried about my calf which had been feeling great up until Thursday when I had a couple of twinges.  I ran another ¾ mile in my racing flats but chose to not do any strides.  I figured I’d have plenty of time to loosen up during the race.

I went out conservatively and found myself around 20^th place in the early going.  The first 2+ miles has the half-marathon and the 5k running together so it was a little difficult to judge who was doing which race.  I missed the mile marker and was running a bit too relaxed as I hit 2 miles in 13:27.  I was hoping to run around 6:00 pace so I was already nearly 30 seconds behind pace.  I picked it up and on the straighter parts of the road I could see a line of guys in front of me.  I was in no rush but I wanted to finish in the top 10 (I was 18^th at three miles).

The course was interesting with lots of little ups/downs, there was very little flat ground but no killer hills either.  I upped the tempo but still tried to keep it right around 6:00’s.  Figuring if I felt good I could always pick it up in the last 3 or 4 miles.  By 9 miles I’d moved into the top 10 and I started thinking about pushing it.  I could see Brian Ruhm up ahead (40 seconds at 9 miles) and thought if I could run 10 seconds a mile faster than him I might have a shot before the finish.

After 10 miles I saw JJ in the lead on his way out of the keyhole section of the course.  He was running strongly on his way to a win.  I started closing on Ruhm as he caught Craig Widness.  They were both masters (40+) so I really wanted to get them.  I caught Widness on the final tough little hill before heading into downtown Newmarket.  Ruhm was only 5 seconds ahead, but he started to kick (and my calf was feeling “funny”) so there was no way I’d catch him.

I was pleased with the time (1:18:15) and especially pleased with how good I felt throughout the race.  I grabbed some water and headed out for another 3.5 miles so that I’d get a rare 20 mile day.  The biggest surprise of the day was the depth of the master’s field.  Six of the top eight were masters including teammate Jason Porter who was master’s champ in third place overall.

Great Bay Half Marathon

Newmarket, NH, 4/7/2012

   1   1/73          M3034  JIM JOHNSON                 34M  1451 Madison NH               1:14:17.8  5:39 1:14:17.9

   2   1/40          M0124  TIM MALLARD                 22M   805 Durham NH                 1:15:05.3  5:43 1:15:05.7

   3   1/101        M4044  JASON PORTER              42M  1057 Bedford NH                1:17:00.3  5:52 1:17:01.7

   4   2/101        M4044  RICH SMITH                   42M  1227 Enfield NH                  1:17:49.3  5:55 1:17:50.2

   5   1/85          M4549  BRIAN RUHM                  46M  1135 Nashua NH                 1:18:05.8  5:57 1:18:06.3

   6   2/85          M4549  DAVE DUNHAM               48M   354 Bradford MA               1:18:14.6  5:57 1:18:15.4

   7   3/101        M4044  CRAIG WIDNESS             41M  1387 Manchester NH           1:18:22.6  5:58 1:18:24.1

   8   3/85          M4549  CHRISTOPHER SMITH     46M  1219 Woburn MA               1:20:10.5  6:06 1:20:11.4

   9   1/85          M3539  VINNY JOHNSON             36M   656 North Berwick ME        1:20:24.1  6:07 1:20:24.1

  10   2/85         M3539  LARS SAUVOLA              37M  1160 Rindge NH                 1:21:37.1  6:13 1:21:39.7

1222 finishers

Mile      Split     Running time  

1          6:13      6:13      Estimated

2          6:14      12:27   

3          5:58      18:25   

4          6:04      24:29   

5          5:59      30:28   

6          6:07      36:35   

7          5:55      42:30   

8          5:57      48:27   

9          5:48      54:15   

10         6:00      1:00:15

11         5:45      1:06:00

12         5:58      1:11:58

13.1      6:17      1:18:15 (5:43)