Race Report: Hyannis Half Marathon

SUMMARY

·                     Date: Sunday, Feb 27, 2011, 10:00am start

·                     Location: Hyannis, MA

·                     Conditions: 36F, little to no wind, snowing and wet ground

·                     Distance: Half Marathon / 13.1 mile race (mostly flat, some gradual uphill sections)

·                     Finish time: 1:33:43

·                     Average pace: 7:09 / mile (even pacing throughout)

·                     Overall Finish: 185th out of 2,684 total runners

·                     Age Group: 51st out of 319 runners in the M30-39 Age Group

PRE-RACE

Had whole grain pasta and Masoor Dal (lentils) for dinner the night before. Didn’t sleep too well – got only 4 hours of Zzzzz, ah well. Arose at 6am, had some more lentils for breakfast which totally hit the spot. Finished getting ready and stepped outside to this view of my block:

Morning snow on Marlborough Street, Boston, MA

It had snowed overnight and continued through the morning, just a couple inches, nothing too much. Picked up friends James and Alison and headed down to the Cape noshing on a PowerBar and sipping Gatorade. Arrived with enough time to pick up my race packet, shake Dick Hoyt’s hand at the race expo, relax for a bit and then warm up. Saw a few friends before the start of the run: Jess, Nancy, Rich, Eric, Martin and others.

THE RACE

Could have warmed up more, but could get away with that in a race this distance. It was still snowing at the start – big, light fluffy flakes in my eyes, on my nose, coming down at a fair clip while standing in the starting corral. I wore shorts, t-shirt, gloves and a headband. Ran the race in new, barely broken in Asics Gel Hyper Speed 4s (only put six miles on them prior to this race), low cut SmartWool socks and also wore my heart rate monitor. Turned on the GPS at the start, but made sure to hit my stopwatch to get splits every mile. Started out feeling well through the first mile and kept trying to convince myself to take it a bit slower and easy, but I just couldn’t resist racing it outright. Worked hard through the run, but remember smiling a lot and having fun too. A couple pics and a mile-by-mile account:

Snowing during the early miles. Me in the center with the headband, armband and knee strap.

Close-up of prior picture. Mid-stride.

Cruising with a good sized pack of runners.

Close-up of the prior picture. Definitely making an effort as you can see on my face.

Mile 1: Snow falling, feeling pretty good through this first mile.
Mile 2: Debating how hard I should run this race.
Mile 3: Warmed up and settling into a pace. First views of the vast ocean.
Mile 4: It’s cold and wet out there. Lots of puddles, toes are soggy.
Mile 5: Stopped snowing. The 10k runners peeled off for their finish opening up the course. Grabbed a couple sips of Gatorade.
Mile 6: At this point, I’ve decided to keep this pace and see how fast I can run.
Mile 7: More beachfront and ocean views.
Mile 8: Felt like molasses going up a long, gradual uphill section, didn’t pass anyone, but no one passed me either. Took the first and only of the three GU gels that I carried with me. Washed it down with a couple sips of water.
Mile 9: Came upon Brian from triathlon shop Fast Splits. Shocked to see him since he’s super fast, but this was just a training run for him, so he was just cruising through the race. After sharing a chuckle over him accidentally kicking a fallen tree branch into the back of my legs, he passed me back and went on ahead to finish.
Mile 10: Got a “Stylish Nilesh” shout-out from TMIRCEr Andy as he was in the zone passing by me. Crossed paths with him once more further down the stretch.
Mile 11: Commiserated with a fellow runner as I saw him shaking his hands out as he ran. We both had the same experience at the prior water stop: “spilled more Gatorade on my gloves than got in my mouth.”
Mile 12: Hands and feet are pretty cold, sense the finish line and start to speed up.
Mile 13: Pushed the pace even more through this last mile.
Mile 13.1: Final surge to the finish line, passed a couple people. Heart rate jumped up to 190 beats per minute. Crossed the finish line, saw my buddy James (who ran the 10k) and quickly got inside to warm up and stretch my very tight left calf muscle.

Here are mile splits (clocked on my stopwatch) and average heart rate info:

Happy to see my mile splits were relatively even throughout the run.

See Feb 27th on Endomondo for workout summary.

POST RACE PARTY AND RESULTS

Nice post race party. Swapped stories with fellow runners and ate lots of warm, hearty Minestrone soup, a couple bananas and some other snacks. Left calf and achilles tendon got very tight, so worked at them a little bit to keep them loose.

Finish time (13.1 miles): 1:33:43 (pace: 7:09/mile)
Finish place (overall): 185th out of 2,684 runners
Finish place (age group, M30-39): 51st out of 319 runners

Happy with this race as a checkpoint for a possible spring marathon...

[Race photos credit to Ted Tyler/Coolrunning.com.]