Notes
1:51:59 – 321 off 2035, 204-634 men, 15 of 84 in age group
Well organized and a great race, and apparently 2035 people ran it. Not sure how that’s possible. Parked at Wells HS and then walked to the JR high to pick up the bus to get to the start at Wells Beach. Took forever to go 3 miles because of the traffic on rte 1. Then stood in line for 20 minutes waiting for the porta porty. No issue because the race started 10 minutes late. No hat, gloves, or long sleeves, It was mid 40s or so but really didn’t any of it. Gun goes off and I try to settle into an easy 830ish pace down Atlantic ave. Feel pretty good. No tightness. No niggles. Stomach is fine. No need to pee. All good. First mile 8:23. My goal was to run the first 3 miles between 2530 and 26. Obviously a little ahead of that but no problem. Miles keep ticking away and everything is easy. I try to pull back several times but just rolling along. Not easy but not hard. Run the first 3 in about 25. Feel good. Not worried and felt like 1:50:00 was realistic. I notice I am just a little bit ahead of the mile markers which is working out fine. At the 3 mile sign I am at 3.04 so figuring I’ll be right around 13.2 at the finish. Before the pedestrian bridge at Moody Beach, I catch the 1:50 pacers around the 4 mile mark. A little chit chatty and then decide to pass them around the 5 mile mark on rte 1. This is where you hit the connection streets back to the beach. Run a bit, and then back to rte 1. The roads heading east to the beach are slightly downhill and I take advantage. 6-9 goes smooth. Feeling decent and actually feel like I am racing finally. Temps are still good. Cloudy and no real wind at all. Perfect. Throughout mile 10 I don’t look at the watch all and hit 830 which was a slower than I wanted at that point. But no worries. Figuring 27:30ish to get in 3.2 miles shouldn’t be a big deal. The slight hill up to rte1 on Mile Road slows me down a little and I get sluggish on mile 11 and 12. At the mile 11 marker I am 11.05 and just under 1:31:00 and the 2.2 it will take to get to sub 1:50:00 seems very realistic and I relax. But when I hit the 12 mile marker I am suddenly way behind. Not sure how the watch got so far ahead but now there is no way I am making it. After the 13 mile marker heading to Wells Harbor even getting to the dirt parking lot feels very long and the finish line seems even longer. All in all felt good and like I raced which was fun. The aftermath of half is so much less than a full and seems like a much easier way to race. Some good takeaways today and this was fun. The 20 minute drive home was nice.