Noo Beffuhd Half

As AG mentioned, I too ran the New Bedford Half. He had a great lead in about the history and feel of the race. Great post there, so I'll stick to my performance.

(Interesting that I wore a watch and was all about my splits. AG didn't and kicked butt while soaking in the entire experience and surroundings. Accessory-driven perceptions?)

Anyway, my goal was to run this at marathon pace (around 7:30) for the first 5 or so miles then slowly drop down to half-marathon pace (7:04, derived somehow from my marathon goal time). Since we're still a ways out from the actual marathon, this was less about the goal than it was about seeing how things felt. I was told to think of this as a training run with friends, support, adrenaline, etc. For me, the goal was there to structure the event and give me an overall approach.

The day before the race, I did a relaxed three miler with about five "striders" built in to stretch things out. Striders are new to me. They are essentially 30 second intervals in which you built up to a sprint over 10 seconds, hold it for 10 - 15, then slow back down over the remaining time. It was a low-key run, but I noticed that my left calf was tight. Not a great sign. I awoke on race day with more tightness, but hydrated up and departed for the race.

Unfortunately, the tightness never really went away during the race. It did loosen a bit, but I was always thinking about it, which hampered me some. Still, I was happy with my results until mile 12 and change, when the leg tightened considerably. Despite plenty of fuel left in the tank and no other muscle issues, I couldn't complete a full stride and had to limp in to the finish. Disappointing, but only because of the injury. Overall, I still did well (10 seconds off my PR) and am happy with the result (minus the last mile). Now the challenge is to get healthy quickly and without relapse. It will happen.

Anyway, enough talk. Here are the splits, which tell it all:
mile 1: 6:43 (adrenaline)
mile 2: 7:24
mile 3: 7:16
mile 4: 7:27
mile 5: 7:13
mile 6: 7:11
mile 7: 7:13
mile 8: 7:04
mile 9: 7:35
mile 10: 7:12
mile 11: 7:09
mile 12: 7:24
mile 13: 8:43
Total: 1:35:39

Off to the races. Looking forward to the next one.