Race Report - The Sun Half Marathon (Read 491 times)

Race report The Sun Half Marathon, Lowell Massachusetts http://www.baystatemarathon.com/ This was my first half marathon. I have only been running for a little over 5 months so my goal was to just finish. The morning of the race I woke up early, 5:30 am. so I could have breakfast and get up there and get a good parking spot for the 8:30am start. The temps were in the mid 30’s, very chilly. I got a great parking spot about 50 yard from the start line. I went to the nearby arena where everyone was gathering to wait, stretch and just keep warm. I headed to the start line with 15 minutes to go and ate a power bar. It was still very chilly. Good for running bad for waiting. I took off my warm up pants and jacket put them in my bag and gave them to the bag check. The finish line was ½ mile away so the bag check was great. I lined up about mid pack. I knew I was going to get past by a lot of people but I would just stay to the right and try to keep my own pace. I went out with 10 min/mi in my head. I kept thinking “just have fun and finish the race”. After the first mile I was much warmer and pick up the pace slightly. I felt great till somewhere around mile 5. I got that low blood sugar icky feeling. It scared me, how could I finish if I felt like crap already? I downed a GU and as I looked ahead there was a water station, what timing. I ended up drinking Gatorade the rest of the race. I had one more GU and some sport beans for fuel. After mile 10 my foot pod crapped the bed. This upset me but I tried to not worry about it and finish the last 3 miles. I still felt great the last few miles. My legs were getting a little sore but I knew I could make it. With a mile to go I was passing other runners! I kept looking ahead to find my next victim and picked them off. The finish was in a baseball stadium after you cross a 120 year old steel bridge. I enter the stadium and tried to give it all I had. Looping the out field with the finish line down the first base line. I ran as hard as I could passing 2 girls and a guy with 50 feet to go. I passed the finish line and was handed a bottle of water, wrapped with a space blanket and a had a medal hung around my neck. A volunteer even took the chip off my shoe and tied my laces back. Nice! My goal was just to finish but in my mind I thought I could finish around 2:15:00. My official chip time was 2:08:18. This was the greatest run I had ever had! I was a little sore yesterday but I feel fine today. I feel like I could go for a run but I will force my self to take a rest day. Next year I will definitely be doing the full marathon. Here's the numbers... Date: 10/19/2008 8:30 AM Type: Race Course: The Sun Half Marathon Distance: 13.1 miles Duration: 2:08:18 Pace: 9:48 / mile Shoe: New Balance 858 Weight: 172 lb Heart Rate: Average: 159 / Max: 181 Misc: Quality: 7/10, Effort: 8/10 Field Placement: 704 / 987 (71.3%) Age group: 40 – 19 Group Placement: 98 / 108 (90.7%) Weather: 38° F, Sunny Event URL: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/ma/Oct19_20thAn_set5.shtml Notes: Marathon Field 1,500 Half Marathon Field 1,000 Bib #2722 Statistics: Calories: 1704 VO2 Max: 33.6 (split times) mile - Pace - Avg HR 1 - 10:06 - 158 2 - 9:47 - 151 3 - 9:37 - 154 4 - 9:39 - 155 5 - 9:51 - 154 6 - 9:49 - 153 7 - 9:41 - 157 8 - 9:37 - 160 9 - 9:38 - 159 10 - 9:32 - 164 10-13.1 - 9:55 - 169 (foot pod crapped out)

Fantastic job! Great race report - five months? Amazing. dari

Wow, great job especially finishing much faster than you expected. It can be tough when something out of the oridinary happens (foot pod shutting down) and I think you did a great job of not letting it bother you.

Congrats, Dave - that's amazing that you accomplished that in just 5 months! WTG!!!

Fantastic job! Great race report - five months? Amazing.

Congrats, Dave - that's amazing that you accomplished that in just 5 months! WTG!!!

Thanks! Yup I started on 5/10/2008, so it was 5 months and a little over a week. My first run was 1.85 miles on a treadmill it took me 30 minutes (16:13 pace). I was 25 lbs heavier and I felt like I was gonna die on that run. I've come a long way but Im only half way there