Baystate Half Marathon Race Report

BAYSTATE HALF MARATHON
(officially known as the Lowell Sun Half Marathon)

SUMMARY

·         Date - Time: Sunday, October 16, 2011 – 8:00am start

·         Location: Lowell, MA

·         Conditions: ~50F at the start, dry ground, some wind on the 2-loop course

·         Distance: Half Marathon / 13.1 mile race (mostly flat, but some small inclines over the bridges)

·         Finish time: 1:36:59

·         Average pace: 7:24 / mile

·         Overall place: 146 out of 1,591 runners

PRE-RACE

For dinner the night before, had my trademark Masoor Dal (lentil soup) along with veggies and soy milk. Ended up going out that night but came home ‘early’ and got to sleep by 1am. Awoke at 5:45am, ate more Masoor Dal and a banana washed down with a glass of Gatorade. Set out from Boston and arrived at the race site just minutes past 7:00am. Was able to park at the Tsongas Arena garage (for $5) right at the race site, so that worked out perfectly.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Anna, Nilesh, Betty before the race in the Tsongas Center

Met up with fellow City Sports run clubber friends Betty, Anna and Jan (Patrick was elsewhere) inside the warm Tsongas arena, used the facilities and attended to last minute pre-race details. Stepped back outside, dropped my bag at the bag check tent, warmed up by jogging and stretching before sliding in the starting corral with prolific marathoner Betty. (Betty’s race report.) Getting a little antsy in the starting corral, I started doing those short little hops that runners do when they wait at a traffic intersection not wanting to cool off too much. Given the packed corral, I landed one of my hops lightly on the toe of a guy standing behind me. Oops. I turned around and apologized profusely, he was fine so I joked: “That’s my strategy, take out the competition!” haha – that got a little laugh from those standing around us and hopefully diffused some pre-race nerves a bit.

THE RACE

Since I hadn’t raced a road race since June (battled injuries, etc.), I was hesitant to run this at first, but the team mentality swayed me. Three key goals:

1. Enjoy a nice outing with friends

ü  Got to run the entire half marathon with Betty, cheer on / provide race support for friends Anna (half marathon), Jan (full marathon) and Patrick (full marathon) and enjoy post-race time with everyone.
2. Run a pace between 7:15 to 7:27 min/mile (pace range for a potential future marathon)

ü  We averaged 7:24/mile – excellent!
3. Gain some information about my current fitness level.

ü  See further below for pacing and heart rate info…

The course was two-loops along the Merrimack River crossing at bridges close to downtown. Mostly flat, but a couple ‘inclines’ along the route, especially at one of the bridges. Kind of weak of me to even notice those inclines, clearly a result of running along the super-flat Charles River paths, time to vary up my routes and get some proper hills in… Crossroads Run anyone?

Both the full marathon and half marathon started at the same time, so got to see Patrick tucked in with the 3:05 pace group at the start. Betty and I continued on a fair pace for the first couple miles, I was happy to lock on to her pace throughout the run as she cruised the flats, glided through the water stops taking water without pause and powered up the inclines passing folks left and right. It was fun. We chatted a bit through the first loop of the course, and then kept conversation light on the second loop as our pace picked up. I tracked split times using my stopwatch and called them out as we hit each mile marker which seemed to work well for us both.

Betty and me about 3 miles into the run, rounding the corner and heading over the first bridge crossing the Merrimack River.

Mile-by-mile splits and average heart rate (HR) info below. The high HR (above 170) during the second half of the run indicates a solid effort to maintain this pace. I mean I felt relatively comfortable holding pace for 13.1 miles, but could I have maintained that for twice the distance? Not so sure, looks like I’ve got some training to do…

Nutrition/Hydration: Felt well hydrated at the start, carried a 12oz bottle of Gatorade and sipped it through 9 miles, then used the last two water stations – still looking back I could have drank more. Also around mile 7 ate two bites of a PowerBar stashed in my shorts pocket. Took a while to chew through it but it provided good nourishment, never felt hungry throughout the race.

By the way, while the course may be regarded as boring, and the foliage colors hadn’t kicked in yet, there was this rather dramatic view of the Merrimack River with the glistening sun bouncing off the rocks. I’m sure my HR dropped a few beats as this view induced a sense of calm and peacefulness for me. I took this shot from my bike after going back and cheering on Jan and Patrick doing the marathon.

Nice view of the Merrimack River from the race course.

POST-RACE

Finished with Betty – we were both really happy with our run performance. Went to pick up our bags and quickly changed into warm clothes, had some quick recovery protein, and stretched while cheering on several of Betty’s fellow Back on My Feet runners.

After cooling down, grabbed my bike from the car and rode the course backwards to support and cheer on Patrick and Jan running the full marathon. Encountered Patrick around mile 23 and then found Jan around mile 21. They both looked great. Headed back towards the finish line, ended up riding about 11 miles that day. Betty also ended up running in with Anna at the end of her half and then with Jan to bring him in the last couple miles of the marathon (I think she ended up covering 20+ miles total that day).

Got back with enough time to greet Patrick after an incredible debut marathon (3:00:50!) and then hi-five Jan through the last stretch of his run on his way to setting a marathon Personal Record (PR). We all enjoyed swapping stories while devouring the post-race food assortment: PBJ sandwiches, warm minestrone soup, bananas and salty potato chips.

Post-race celebration (l to r): Nilesh, Betty, Jan, Anna, Patrick

Had an occasion to attend later that afternoon and so was able to shower and change over at the UML Rec Center, which was very convenient.

OTHER NOTES

Race organization was great, from the race director promptly helping fix my registration mistake weeks before the race (oops, accidentally signed up for the full marathon), to the cheery volunteers when I went to pick up race bib numbers for the team on a rainy Friday, to the race day volunteers, many at the water stops dressed in lively costumes.

Had a fun pre-race dinner Friday night graciously hosted by Anna, who took extra care to make sure I had plenty of vegetarian options including tasty vegetarian (vegan) meatballs (brand: Nate’s) doused in her homemade sauce to go along with the pasta. Also enjoyed a couple special bottles of wine that night.

Great carbo-loading pasta+ dinner at Anna's in preparation for Sunday's Baystate Half & Full Marathon. The bottle on the right is a 1997 Villa Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva that I've been holding onto for 10+ years. Needed to let it breathe for a little while after uncorking, then it slowly found its flavor. The bottle on the left was a 2001 Villa Antinori Toscana Anna just happened to have, another fine Italian origin. Matching bottles, how about that!

Thanks for reading! Great team run, hi-five!