East Bay Half Marathon

GF and I went on vacation to Boston and the Cape Cod area a few weeks ago.  We had a blast!  There was so much to do as we took in the beaches, Fenway Park, a whale watch, and the historic sites.  Naturally, I had a half marathon, #48 for me, on the docket right after we got there.  We stayed a few nights near Providence so I could run the East Bay Half Marathon in East Providence, RI.  This counts as my thirteenth state in which I've ran a half or full marathon.  My performance was lackluster, though I would have been thrilled with the time last year.  I've had an issue in my left hip that may or may not stem from my IT band issue a few years back.  You remember, the one I didn't give much time at all to heal?  Yeah, that one.

Miles 1-5: We started off from Pierce Field in East Providence and ran through some residential areas.  It was nothing too scenic but it was a lovely day.  It was starting to heat up earlier than I'm used to.  I started off at a conservative pace that I just couldn't quite beat and ran most of the race with or near the same fellow runners.  I really liked the size of the race (286) as there was no congestion yet I was never running alone.  The first five was mostly straight as we made our way south along the Narragansett Bay before turning around and heading back north.  We didn't really have much view of the water during this first section.  Here are my first five splits: 1 (7:46), 2 (8:24), 3 (7:52), 4 (7:40), 5 (8:02).  The splits aren't bad by any means, but I really was all over the map with my times.

Miles 6-10:  We meandered through some more residential areas during miles 6 and 7.  I was simply trying to hold on to my pace as my legs were feeling dead.  I went back and forth with a group of ten runners or so.  I'd pass, then walk for a bit, they'd pass, then I'd catch back up.  It went like that for quite some time as I simply could not get into a groove.  We finally made our way to the bike path and were rewarded with views of the Narragansett Bay and downtown Providence further to the north.  This was what I was looking forward to and it didn't disappoint.  Here are the second five splits: 6 (7:51), 7 (7:55), 8 (8:33), 9 (8:15), 10 (7:47).  Again, these splits aren't bad just inconsistent.

Miles 11-13.2: I was wildly inconsistent during the final portion of the race.  Miles 11 and 12 felt horrible and I just wanted to be done.  We continued heading north near a small park and then turned around to head back south to Pierce Stadium.  This was actually quite hilly.  I was really struggling and walked a good portion of mile 12 as the 9:02 split shows.  Once we were done with the hill, we headed east back to the finish.  We finished with a 3/4 lap on the track which I always enjoy.  I also get to see GF doing a celebratory dance at the finish.  Here are the last few splits: 11 (8:05), 12 (9:02), 13 (7:30), 13.2 (1:15).  My final time was a respectable 1:45:56, good enough for 45/286 overall.  This was my slowest time of the year by almost six minutes, but I was simply happy to hang in there and run a respectable pace.

Training has been slow and inconsistent ever since this race.  I'm trying to start slow and build up but 8:00/mile has been my normal training pace all year.  It's tough to change that.  The next race should be a fun one and will count as number 49 for me.  I'll hit big #50 in Akron at the end of September.

Next race: Yolo Family of Races Half Marathon- Greenville, OH

Great Mohican 19k...err...17k

I ran a terrific race at the Great Mohican 17k at nearby Pleasant Hill Lake a few weeks ago and still have not posted my race report.  The race was fun, but there were definitely some big areas in which the experience could improve.  I had signed up for the 19k but road construction forced the organizers to make it a 17k.  No big deal as that was out of their hands.  However, the race was so small it was kind of weird.  The main events were the triathlon and duathlon, which had 22 and 2 participants, respectively.  The 19k had only 7 participants.  There's quite a running community in the Mansfield and Wooster areas, so it seems like some better advertising would help. 

My main problem with this race were the water stops was that there was only one water stop.  Seriously.  A ten and a half mile race in early August had only one water stop.  I was going to bring a water bottle with me but the organizers said there were two stops.  The only one I saw was at the 3 1/2 mile mark, leaving 7 miles without any water.  I made it, but I do wonder how the others in this race fared.

We headed out from the beach area to start the race and I settled into an easy pace.  My main goal was to run a nice, easy pace and use it as training for the upcoming East Bay Half Marathon.  I tucked in behind the two lead runners for the first couple miles, as we wound our way away from the park and onto some country roads.  The hills were simple rollers at this point.  I decided to make a move and humor myself by taking the lead early on.  I was on my own from then on.

The course wasn't too scenic and it was constant up-down, up-down.  Seriously, these hills were killers.  The only race I have done with tougher hills was last year's Mad Half Marathon in Vermont.  This one was constant hills.  The worst part was that I had to fly downhill each time as many of the hills were so steep you couldn't go down at an easy pace.  I walked up many of them and flew down the other side which kept my time respectable.  I was hovering around 8-9 minutes per mile.  I don't have exact splits for this race.

We made a long loop on country roads before making our way back to State Route 95, taking us back to the lake.  I kept looking behind me but couldn't see anyone.  I really eased off the gas over the last two miles as I knew I had the win and wanted to save my legs.  I spotted ever encouraging GF at the finish and high-fived her on the way in.  My finishing time was 1:20:20 which isn't far off of my normal half marathon pace.  The downhills really helped me gain time because I walked A TON in this one.  This counted as my fifth road race victory and I did get a very nice personalized plaque for my efforts. GF and I were able to take a dip in the lake after the race.  That helped my legs immensely!  Next on the docket is state number 13.

Next race: East Bay Half Marathon- East Providence, RI

Shawshank Hustle 7k

GF's plantar fasciitis has improved dramatically the past few weeks, so we went forward with our plan to run the Shawshank Hustle 7k last weekend.  This is the longest race GF has ever competed in and she did a great job despite the numerous snags of this one.

I'm usually pretty forgiving of first year races.  This one had way too many snags for me to consider giving it another shot.  There was way too much confusion about the race distance.  It was listed as a 7k for the longest time, then it was listed as a 4 miler, then I saw stuff listing it as a 7k again.  Seriously.  If you visit the website now (after the race!) it's listed as a 4 miler.  Then there was the busing situation.  Good grief.  We got to the pick-up site, which was about two miles away, with over an hour to spare.  Should be plenty of time, right?  Wrong.  They had a few buses available and we waited for over an hour.  They even moved the start back to 9:00 from 8:30 and there were still people waiting to be bused.  Plus, it was so packed at the reformatory that you could hardly move, making the first mile of the race a total cluster.  The race was capped at 3000 and I'm honestly not sure if the organizers visited the site beforehand to see if it could accommodate that number.  Getting a bus on the way back took another 45 minutes or so.  I've been checking the event Facebook page and people are saying everyone should have been there earlier.  I don't like waiting around for 2-3 hours before a race.  One hour should be plenty of time.  Finally, the water stops.  The first one was around 2 miles into the race.  The second was a half mile after that.  And that was it.  That's dangerous for folks on a hot day in July.  I get this was more of a "theme" race with with the Shawshank theme but it was poorly organized.

Now, the race itself.  The start was a cluster with an uphill right out of the gate.  We then turned toward Mansfield and made our way downtown.  We had a few nice downhills early on and GF did some light jogging during these sections.  She actually wasn't far off her usual pace for the first two miles.  Her plantar felt good for the first few miles, too.  We turned again onto Main Street and made our way south into downtown.  If you know downtown Mansfield, you know this is a huge uphill and it was quite a battle. I grabbed GF a water at the top of the hill and checked how she was doing.  So far, so good.  I could tell she was having a fun time. 

We hit the turnaround and got the nice downhill after all that uphill.  GF was still looking good as we hit the second water station.  She did start to feel the plantar a little bit on the downhill which didn't surprise us.  The varied terrain probably helped her out but a steep downhill wasn't the best thing for her.  We made our way back out of town and I requested regular progress reports.  We turned back toward the reformatory for the last big hill and GF certainly felt this one.  I kept reminding her that this was the last hill left and that she had this one in the bag.  After turning and heading back toward the reformatory, she wanted to try to jog the rest of the way to the finish.  I grabbed her hand (just in case) and we ran to the finish.  For her longest race ever, GF finished in 1:19:07.  She was 1373/1695 overall for the women's division, plus she beat a hundred or so of the guys.  Her pace actually wasn't far off her 5k effort.

I'm extremely proud of how well GF did at this race after battling plantar for well over a month.  She's turned the corner and we're looking at scheduling her a 5k in September or October.  Next up for me is an odd distance that I actually completed this morning.

Next race: Great Mohican 17k- Perrysville, OH