Race: Big Lake Half Marathon
Location: Alton, New Hampshire
Race Goal: 7:30 pace (1:38:20)
Report: This is the race I had been training for since
starting to run again 7 months ago. The field was limited to
1200 for race quality purposes since it is a fairly small
area. The race was chip timed. Start was pretty well
controlled and nobody seemed to be to out of position pace
wise. Wanted to start slow and I actually did for a change
with the first mile being a 7:52. Second mile came in at
7:23 so I was pretty much on schedule. Miles three thru six
are a gradual uphill and were 7:33,
6:51, 7:32 and 7:30 respectively. Everybody seemed to think
the mile mark was wrong on mile four so those times may be
slightly off. I was feeling pretty good at this point,
although at mile five I got a bolder of a rock in my shoe
which I first stopped to try to get out but it fell down
further and I wasn't going to take my shoe off in the
middle of a race. Back to the race, mile seven was
downhill and was
6:1. Mile eight was relatively flat and came in at 7:23.
Mile nine has a pretty good hill which I was hoping
with the hill training I've been doing would be easy,
but I lost some time and ended up with a
7:05 mile. From here on in the course is what I would call
flat to slightly rolling. I had hoped I would be able to
pick up a little and come in under the 7:30 pace goal.
Mile ten was fine and was 7:26 but then I hit a rough
spot at mile eleven with a 7:55 and the 7:30 pace goal
went out the window. I got it back a little the last 2.1
miles with a 7:49, a 7:28 and a :45 last tenth for a
finishing time of
7:1:1 (1:1:39 chip time) and 7:32 pace.
Splits:
8) 7:52
9) 7:23
10) 7:33
11) 6:51
12) 7:32
13) 7:30
14) 7:08
15) 7:23
16) 8:05
17) 7:26
18) 7:55
19) 7:49
20) 7:28 .1) :45 Finish: 1:38:44 (171st out of 1,080
finishers)
Notes: I guess I'm happy with the race. I tend to be a
little critical and 7:32 vs. 7:30 is a big difference to me,
but if I hadn't had a bad mile eleven I would have made my
goal. They had car-boom gel at the halfway point which in
hindsight I should have tried out on a training run, because
it did not go down well at all. I'm also not drinking enough
and I'm thinking about wearing my water bottle next time so
I don't have to worry about hitting all the water stops. One
last thing, my superfeet inserts saved the day for me. When
I got home I found the rock that had got in my shoe earlier.
I was flat on one side and pointy on the other and as luck
would have it the pointy side impaled itself into the
superfoot so it was smooth on my foot.
Now I have a month before fall marathon training starts. I
need a 3:20 to qualify for Boston and If this race is any
indication, I need to improve allot to meet that goal. I
think I need to train for a 3:15 so I'll have a cushion
since I seem to have some bad patches at the end of a race.
Mark