Monday, March 18, 2013

New Bedford Half Marathon

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Despite a tough run on the roads, this was a fun day spent with a bunch of awesome people down in New Bedford, MA.

I don't have an awful lot to say about this one. I had a rough race. I can think of several ways I could have prepared better, but I didn't, and that's how it goes. I went into the race pretty optimistically. I'm generally fit right now, and based on the course profile I was thinking mid-5:20s could happen. I guess neglecting to run real workouts since the Jones 10 was just too risky. I kind of rested on the good work I did leading up to Jones and basically hoped for the best instead of preparing to run my best. This was not a great strategy, because that last 5k was slow and it hurt!!

I'll admit 72:54 isn't terrible. My previous best half marathon is ~ 77:45 (Ridgefiled Half, CT, 2009?). But, crawling in at 18:20 for the last 5k (and getting passed by about 20 people!) wasn't the finish I had envisioned. This was a good wake-up call and reminder that the consistent work you put in gets the results. Step off the gas pedal and you gradually lose fitness. And, sometimes for whatever reason you just have a tough race!

Luckily, you can't bonk in a downhill 5k in mid-June... right?

New Bedford GPS data here.


2 comments:

  1. Congrats on the p.r. I understand that you were hoping for a lot faster. It looks like you've got a ridiculously full schedule with teaching, coaching, working at Whirlaway, and trying to do quality training. I hope you can find balance so you can get your running in. Good luck, Scott!

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    1. Thanks Greg! Lots of career opportunities opening up and I'm probably taking on more than I would ideally. After this year I'm looking to simplify a bit. On the bright side, I've had a long healthy streak and 4 solid races on average. Thankful for what I have! We should do some training runs in Pisgah this summer. Looks like Alex will be home for a few months so there's potential for some sweet group runs too.

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