Categories
Marathon Race

Race Report – Baystate Marathon

Well, my first marathon is over and here is how it went down. I ran with my friend Heidi and we got there plenty early for the start. Stretched a little, waited in the bathroom lines (Heidi had to go twice!!!) and finally seeded ourselves for the start of the race with about 5 minutes to the start. The weather was great, probably right around 50 at the start, clear sky and no wind.

The race plan as previously mentioned was to run 5 – 5 milers @ 7:20-7:30 pace and bring it home with a smile as Coach Braz said. Heidi was planning on doing a 3:20 or 3:25 race and I said why not just start with me and see how it goes. We don’t talk much when running but it is nice to have someone to run with and help pace with.

The race starts and we head out. It took us about a half mile to get to our pace because it was so crowded with the marathon and half-marathon starting at the same time. About 2 miles in though the half-marathon turns off so we started to get some spacing. Since Baystate is a two loop course we passed the 13.1 mile park on the first loop and I could remember thinking I’ll be looking forward to seeing that next time around. The first 5 miles went very smoothly and we averaged 7:22. We both took our gels just after mile 5 at the next water stop and kept going. Around mile 8 we cross the bridge in Tyngsboro to head back toward Lowell. From this point back to the bridge that we crossed to head back out for the second loop it feels like it is very flat to down hill.

At mile 10 we took our second Gel and were again averaging about 7:22 pace. We were both feeling pretty good. I was listening to Heidi breath and thinking she is having a great race and having no problem keeping this pace. We were drinking at each water stop, but for me I have a lot of trouble drinking and running. It is more of a gulp and splash. My inefficiency at drinking and running would come back to haunt me later.

Heading through mile 15 we passed the half way point and were just cruising along, another 5 miles down at 7:21 pace. Back at around mile 8 we realized that we were running with a guy who had his own personal water station biking along side him. The cool thing for us was that he was going our pace. We just figured let him pace us and fell in behind him. Once and a while we would take the lead when he was drinking or getting nutrition but he would eventually be up front again with his biking buddy riding along beside him.

Through mile 20 I was still feeling pretty good and I handed Heidi her last Gel and was planning to start to push a little harder. Heidi dropped back a little bit but not much. I was really just keeping pace with the guy running with his bike buddy. Again through mile 20 we had averaged 7:21 pace.

The next 5 miles is when disaster struck. My calves started twitching around mile 22 and became very bad at mile 23. Heidi who never dropped far back came running up next to me and we were running together again. Then around mile 24 I had to stop and stretch my calves. They were just so tight that I could hardly walk. I stretched them and started running and was ok for probably another half mile and then would have to repeat the stretching. This went on for the rest of the 5 miles. Finally in the middle of he last mile I had to stop for probably 30 seconds to loosen them up even more. At the water stops I would literally stop and just drink 3 or 4 cups of gatorade/water. It was too late though, I was dehydrated and couldn’t do anything about it at this point. I lost almost 2 minutes of time over the last mile.

Heidi was nice enough to slow down and run with me and keep encouraging me. It was a very tough last mile. I ended up running a 3:17:15 and missing qualifying for Boston by 2 minutes and 15 seconds.

Here is the tale of the tape on Garmin and Starva where you can see how things fell apart toward the end of mile 22.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/235722221 and http://app.strava.com/runs/25696376

Congratulations to Heidi on having a great race and Personal Best time. She could have easily been under 3:15 if she had not waited for me.

While it was discouraging to not meet my goal. I know that I am capable of running a 3:15 and just have to be more conscious of drinking through the water stops.

Categories
Race Triathlon

Race Report – Call To Honor

This race report is a little bit late, but hey, better late than never!  I have been doing this race for four years now. Each year I have managed to get a little bit faster. This was the first year though that I didn’t move up in the standings though. My times have gone from 55:45 to 52:28 to 51:18 to 49:06. I finally broke 50 minutes this year.

The Swim

The swim is a short quarter mile swim. The water was around 72 and I wore a wetsuit. I learned from last year that the time to take off a wetsuit is less than the time it takes to swim without a wetsuit. I felt pretty good about my swim and was 6th out of the water and first in my wave.

The Bike

The bike is a 10 mile loop through Boxford, for the most part it is pretty flat. There are a couple of rolling hills in the beginning and the end, but nothing major. My bike time was a little bit faster than last year and if I hadn’t run 16 miles the day before I probably would have been able to push harder. It’s not that my legs were tired so much, but they just felt a little heavy. At 20.96 mph I was little off what I have been doing for my last two races where I was at 21.59 and 21.40.

The Run

I felt good on the run and was about 20 seconds faster than last year. That doesn’t seem like much, but when the course is only 1.5 miles it become a little more significant. We had heavy rain the night before the race and the gravel road was a little more “gravelly” than usual and I had to be a bit more careful in some sections.

While I moved down to number 8 from number 7 last year. I’m happy that I improved my times. I’m looking forward to doing the race again next year. Congrats to Jan D. for being the first overall woman!

Categories
Race Swimming

Boston Light Swim

On August 18, 2012 at 7:00 am I jumped into the water to start what would be an 8 miles, 7 islands, 1 swim journey. Last fall Mike K. came up with the idea of some of the Stiles pond Scummers doing the Boston Light Swim as a relay. I thought it sounded like a pretty cool idea. Originally it was going to be Mike K., Erin C., Jan D. and myself. Jan bailed on us because the water was going to be too cold! Just kidding Jan! It turns out that it was the day her son was moving in at college and she obviously couldn’t miss out on that. Karen L. another one of the Stiles Scummers jumped at the chance to freeze in the cold waters of Boston Harbor and take Jan’s place.

There were all kinds of swimmers entered into the event. Some had gone to the Olympic trials, others had crossed the English Channel and there was even another team from Stiles pond!

The Boston Light Swim is a tide assisted swim and it is import to start on time. That meant getting down to Boston by 5:15 for check in and heading out 8 miles on our boat to the start at Little Brewster island where the Boston Light house is. The night before at the mandatory meeting we were warned that any lightening could end the event before it even starts and that storms would be moving through early in the morning. Everyone was hoping they would stay to the south of us. When I checked my phone just as we were heading out to the start the radar did not look good at all, showing heavy rain coming our way. Thankfully we were not seeing any lightening that would have cancelled the event.

On the way out to the start looking back toward Boston you could see the rain coming down. It wasn’t raining by us yet though, so that was good. On the way out we decided that I would go first because I was going to drive the boat while Mike was swimming and we would have Karen and Erin swim in between us to give us time to dry off a little bit and be ready to drive. On the way out Karen casually mentions that she doesn’t do well on boats and needs to get in the water soon!! Uh oh!! I offered to let Karen be the first in the water but she declined and said second would be good enough. I think that was a relief to Erin because it delayed her getting into the water.

Let’s talk about the water for a minute. We were told the night before that the water temperature had been between 68 and 73 all week. Yeah, sure it was, it just happened to drop 5 or 6 degrees in one night! The official temperature after the race was reported to be between 63-64 for the entire swim.

Ok, back to the boat and the start of the race. The other thing we agreed on before the start was that we were each going to do 10 minute shifts. Why? Because Joe said do 10 minute shifts, duh!!

7:00 AM – The horn blows! I jump into the water. My first thought is “bullshit, this water is not 68 degrees”. I start swimming and for the most part I’m trying to calm myself down because I feel like I’m flailing about because I’m cold. After about 5 minutes I start to feel better and finally slow myself down and get into a little bit of a rhythm. Then just as I was starting to feel pretty good I see Erin waving me in. My first turn is over. Great now I can get warm! In my head I was thinking I wish I could swim a little longer now that I’m cold and used to the water anyway. I make my way to the back of the boat grab the ladder and Karen jumps in.

I’m pretty much freezing and shivering uncontrollably, not a big surprise really, but I thought after only 10 minutes in the water I wouldn’t have been that cold. I throw my sweatshirt on and wrap my large beach towel around me and continue to shiver. Mike is up next so while he gets ready I take over steering the boat. Erin looks at me and asks how was it, I lie and tell her it isn’t too bad. She knows I’m lying because I’m still shivering like crazy. Ten minutes later Erin is in for her first swim and to finish off our first rotation through the line up. In 40 minutes we manage to swim almost 2 miles! With the tide rising we were really moving as the race director had predicted we all would.

The water was relatively calm for an ocean swim and the rain that was on the radar never really showed up out in the harbor. The second rotation through was probably the roughest water we saw with a little bit of chop and the wind blowing the boat around a little bit.

We went through the rotation one more time and all decided that on our next time in we would go for 15 minutes at a time instead of 10. Actually my first 3 swims were 10 minutes and Karen was the first to start the 15 minute turn. At the pace we were going it looked like we would all swim only 4 times each.

As we closed in on the finish Erin would be bringing us in to the finish line. So as we got closer to the beach Karen and I jumped in to join Erin and finish together. Unfortunately Mike had to dock the boat and couldn’t swim in with us. Our official time was 3:13:24.

We ended up being the third team to finish. The first team was the other team from Stiles, finishing about 6 minutes in front of us. We gave them a pretty good run for the first half of the race, but as we passed under the bridge by Long Island they just pulled away.

Here is the path we swam http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212317250

I had a good time and I would definitely do the Boston Light Swim again. Probably only as a relay because I don’t think I could last for 8 miles in the cold water and this year was considered warm! Thank you to Mike, Erin and Karen for including me on their team. It was definitely a great experience!

Categories
Race Running

Yankee Homecoming 10 miler – Race Report

I’ve only done the Newburyport Yankee Homecoming race a couple of times before this and have watched a few other years. Every year it seems that the weather is hot and humid for this race. Usually one of the hottest nights of the summer. This year though, the forecast was for 75 and a cloudy skies. Sounds like perfect running weather to me, at least compared to what you usually get.

Having done this race a couple of times before I knew that the second half of the race is the hardest part. There are a couple of hills that can eat you up if you start out too fast in the first few miles. My strategy was to do the first couple of miles as a warm up, pick up the pace to 7:20-7:30 for the next 3 and then let it out for the last 5 and see what I had.

Now what actually happened. I ran with Heidi, she forgot her watch and asked if she could run with me and I would pace her. Sure, no problem. Well, no problem for her, but for me it was a problem because it is tough to hold her back, she likes to go out fast!! Our first mile? 7:23. Yeah, that is close to 8. What about the next mile? How about 7:15! Those would be the slowest miles we did. At mile 5 we start up the hill and I notice that Heidi is falling back a bit and I ask her if how she is. She replies with “Just go”. I’m not ready to really go anywhere, so I just hold the pace going up the hill, right at 7:14. From here I know there is only one more hill at mile 7 so I start to pick up the pace and see how I feel. Mile 6 7:10 and I feel pretty good, not breathing too hard and feel comfortable. Picking up the pace a little more during mile 7 and I see I’m at 6:50 at the base of the hill. I finished up the mile at 6:57, but the hill has taken quite a bit out of me. I probably should have backed off just a little more. Next 2 miles are almost identical 6:56 and 6:57. The last mile I push with whatever I have left, which isn’t much and manage a 6:39 pace.

I was pretty happy with how the race turned out, even though I started a little faster than I planned. Official time was 1:11:28 for 7:09 pace. There is no starting mat so I lost about 15 seconds by starting back too far. It is good to know that I can start that quickly and still feel comfortable enough to run 7:10-7:15 5 to 6 miles into the race and feel like I could hold quite a bit longer.

Here is the Garmin history http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205247981

Categories
Race Triathlon

Appleman Triathlon – Race Report

I recently did the Appleman Sprint Triathlon in Littleton, MA. This was the first time I had ever done this event and it is in it’s ninth year. The race is very popular and sells out usually before I think about signing up. This year though, one of the residents is a friend of mine and asked me to come out and do it with him. Ted is a selectman in the town, so it was good for him to get out and support the local race. There was another politician in the race as well, some guy named Scott Brown. This is the second weekend in a row that I have been racing with the US Senator for Massachussetts. I think he is stalking me!!

The Swim

The swim was a half mile clock-wise swim. I thought the water temp was well over 78 degrees, but with F.I.R.M. racing I guess wetsuits are always legal. I made the decision that I wasn’t going to wear my wetsuit, the water was just way too warm. Doing that I was giving up some time to everyone wearing it, but it just seemed like I would over heat in it. My stratgey for the swim was to start out in front and race hard for the first buoy and then relax the rest of the way in. It really wasn’t that great of a strategy, the water was too warm to push hard in the swim. Also by starting in the front I had idiots that thought they were just going to jump on me and swim over me, that never works. Unfortunately when they attempted it I think they ripped of my timing chip. More to come on the timing chip. No official time for the swim, but according to my Garmin split it was 14:47. Pretty slow.

The Bike

The bike course is ten miles and not technical, but does have some short little hills in that keep you honest.  I felt like I was riding pretty well and passing quite a few people on the bike. I had no idea how many of my age group were in front of me though. I managed to average 21.3 mph, one of my fastest bike splits for a race.

The Run

The run course was not what I had expected. Kelly had mentioned that it was a trail run. I figured that meant it was on a gravel or dirt road. Oh no! This was like climbing a mountain, hopping over rocks and roots trail run. The run was tough and it was hot. At least for me it was.  My split for the run was 23:34. Just under 8 minute miles, most times I would be upset with this time, but considering all the climbing and hills I was ok with it.

Timing Chip

I never realized once during the race that my timing chip was gone. It had to have come off in the water, because I didn’t have a split for the swim. I crossed the finish line and they asked to remove my chip and I put my foot out and it was gone!! At the finish line there is a guy who is recording everyone that crosses so you do get an official time. Of course I go try to find my time and my name doesn’t appear anywhere on the results sheet. I end up having to go to race officials and  giving them my time off of my watch. I even was able to give them the splits. I guess the guy at the finish line doesn’t report in his results until the last racer has finished and that is why I didn’t see my name.

Finish

I was 29th overall in the race and 3rd in my age group.  It’s nice that I’m finally finishing up near the top of my age group. Hopefully I can keep improving and start finishing higher up overall as well.

Categories
Race

Nubble Light Challege – Race Report

The Nubble light Challenge is a open water swim in the ocean off of the coast of Maine. It starts on Long Sands beach and ends on Short Sands beach going around the peninsula through “The Gut” where the Nubble Light house sits. Total distance is estimated at about 2.4 miles and the water temperatures vary between mid 50s and low 60s.

This years race started at 9am so that the tide would be high enough for us to swim between the light house and main land without running aground. Mike and I arrived at the race around 7:15 and headed down to the beach to sign in and get ready. That took all of about 10 minutes so we had plenty of time to stand around and contemplate just how cold the water was and wonder if I was actually going to make it.

Some of the guys we know from Stiles were there getting ready as well. Chuck was opting for no wetsuit. My thought was good for you, I would be committing suicide attempting it without a wetsuit. I think only a total of 13 people opted for the non-wetsuit category of the 140 something people that entered.

About 10 minutes before the race started Mike and I headed down into the water. Just in time for them to announce, “All Swimmers out of the water”, so they could brief us on rules and safety. I managed to get in up to my waist. My feet immediately hurt and I thought to myself this is Stiles October water. They were reporting temps of between 60-62, it felt colder, yes, I’m a wimp. The rules that were announced were, stay to right of buoys and swim between Light House and Main land. DO NOT swim around like that guy Joe something did the first year.

After that it was time to start, off goes Mike and the first wave. I’m in the next wave and the only person I know is Chuck. I know he is faster than me but he is not wearing a wetsuit so I figure I could probably keep up. Hmm, maybe I’ll let him pace me… Well, race starts, Chuck runs into the ocean and stops, he has problems with his ankle strap with the chip. Well, there goes that plan, so I just head out into the swell. Water doesn’t feel too bad and the more I swim the more comfortable I feel. There are kayakers all around us so I don’t really bother to sight much. It took me a while to get used to the rolling ocean, there wasn’t any chop so I was able to breath either side without a problem. The first 3rd of the race out toward the Nubble Light went pretty smoothly.

The next 3rd of the race? Well, that was the point in the race when I thought to myself, “Why am I doing this?” Heading between the Light House and land I needed to do a lot more sighting and was a bit rougher. I was ok with that, but then the water started getting really cold. Ice cream headache cold to be exact. I was glad at that point that I had gone with two caps. My feet and hand both went numb. I took a few breaths to my left and there is some guy swimming without a wetsuit. You know he was cold.. Hey, wait a minute!! It’s Chuck! Great, my pacer caught up with me, so I started swimming next to him for a while. Then poor Chuck had more ankle strap issues, but he was my general area for a while as we went finished up going through the Gut.

The next 3rd of the race was just heading into the beach to the finish. At this point I was ready to be done. I was cold and the excitement of doing the ocean swim had worn off. I could finally see the beach, still a long way off, but still, the finish was in sight. Chuck passed me at this point and I was kind of disgusted with myself. I’m in a wetsuit and I can’t even keep up with a guy not in one. WTF!!!!  I felt like I was swimming pretty sloppy at this point, so I tried to relax and just concentrate on form. When I did that, it actually helped and I caught back up with him. Of course, he probably had more ankle strap issues, but in my mind I was swimming better. Whatever it takes to get to the finish! Finally make it into shore. Kelly and the kids are there along with our friend Julie cheering me to finish. Mike is there as well of course, because he finished 11 minutes ahead of me. Yes, that’s right ELEVEN minutes. I need a swim coach! Congrats Mike on a great swim!

When I signed up I had hoped to do the swim in 1:05. I figured I had done the Ironman swim in 1:04 of the same distance. However, swimming in the ocean and swimming in a lake are very different experiences. I’m looking forward to going back next year and improving my time.

My GPS from race: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/199139365

Results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/12/me/Jul14_Nubble_set1.shtml

Categories
Race Triathlon

Mill City Triathlon – Race Report

This past weekend I did my first Olympic distance triathlon in almost 10 years. Not sure why I haven’t done more of them, I have done plenty of sprints and a couple of half Ironman distance events.

This was the first time I have ever done a triathlon where a sitting US Senator was also competing. Yup, that’s right US Senator Scott Brown was competing in the Sprint Tri. I had a chance to speak with Senator Brown after the race, he was very approachable and friendly. While I didn’t talk politics with him it was fun chatting about the race.

The Swim

The swim was in the Merrimac River. I’ve only done one other triathlon with a river swim and that was in the Hudson River. The current in the Merrimac was much less forceful than that of the Hudson. The reported water temp was 76 degrees and wetsuits were considered legal for this race. The water felt much warmer than 76 and I felt like I was over heating. I wish that this had either been a non-wetsuit event or that I had a sleeveless wetsuit. My swim was ok, I was 12th overall out of the water, not sure where I placed in my age group out of the swim. My friend Mike whooped me by almost 5 minutes. I really need to work on my swim, that is way too much time to give up on one leg.

The Bike

The bike was a pretty fast and flat course, 2 loops of about 12.5 miles. This was the first race that I averaged over 21 mph. My Garmin reported that I averaged 21.7 mph, so I was pretty happy with my ride. My legs felt good throughout the ride and I never felt like I was pushing too hard. Even on the slight inclines I kept my power numbers under control. The back half of the loop was very fast, it seemed like the last 4 miles in I was cruising around 24/25 mph, the averages were a little bit lower when I looked, but still was a lot of fun riding like that.

The Run

The run course was very hot with very little shade. I started out running at 7:45 pace and it felt like I was running a 9 minute pace. The first 2 miles had zero shade. The 3rd mile at least had some shade and part of the 4th. Then it was back to the hot sun. I did manage negative splits on the run with the last being at 7:05. My run has steadily improved this year and it is nice to actually feel like I’m running when I get off of the bike.

Next up, Nubble Light Challenge!!!!

Categories
Race

The Patriot Half – Race Report

I have to say that the day ended a lot better than it started. My friend Mike stops at the house at 4:15 am to pick me up. We load up the car and I put my bike on the back. We are ready to roll. We start heading down 95 and Mike looks in the rear view and says “What is going on with the bikes?” I look bike and my bike is flying along behind the car!!! Mike slows down and pulls over. Bad news, race wheel tire is shredded.

The bike rack has rubber straps that hold the bike in place while driving. The problem is that when you have race wheels that have a large surface area the wind catches them and lifts the bike up. When the bike gets lifted up the rubber straps can then come undone as I have learned from personal experience and doing a little search on the net. Fortunately we had some bungy cords and were able to strap the bike back on and be on our way again without having to worry about the flying up.

We finally get down to the race venue at just about 6 am. First thing I have to do is change out my wheels. Luckily I had brought along my other wheels. My thought there was that someone was going to need them and I didn’t feel like changing tires and tubes so I was just going to give them the whole wheel. Turns out it was me that needed them!! It took all of about 10 minutes to get the other wheels on and adjust the brakes. One thing that I did forget about though was that the cassette that I had on these wheels is setup for a hilly course and not the flat course we were riding. There were a few times I missed those in between gears that my 11-25 cassette has, as opposed to the 11-28. So, the bike is finally all squared away and we are setup in transition. Hopefully that would be the end of the problems for the day.

The Swim

The swim is a counter clockwise swim that works out nice as the sun is never an issue. The water temperature was reported to be 68 degrees, not bad at all with the wetsuit on. There was a little bit of a wind blowing in at us though and that caused the first leg of the swim to be a litte tough with the choppy water. I quickly moved out in front of the other 93 people in my wave and caught up to the wave that went off before me. I think I even saw Julie and Janet during the swim. Jan, on other hand, was far too fast and I wouldn’t have seen her even if she started in my wave. The swim took me 32:24, my goal was 30 minutes flat.

SWIM NOTE: My friend Mike K. tied for 3rd overall in the swim and probably would have won it outright if he started in an early wave and didn’t have to swim through 8 waves of yahoos….

The Bike

The bike ride for me was pretty much the same as last year as far as time. According to my Garmin I was at 20.5 mph for both loops of the bike. The first loop I was 20.6 and the second 20.5, probably a little less since the average was 20.5. I had hoped to go at least 21 mph, but without the Zipp wheels I probably lost about .5 mph. I’m ok with the ride, it was a bit more windy than last year but I was able to ride just a little bit faster and certainly did not push nearly as hard as last year. My goal, which I know was a stretch was to bike the course in 2:33:25, and I did it in 2:44:47. So I was way off on that. Still a lot of work to do on the bike. While my overall biking fitness has improved a lot from last year I still need to get stronger on the bike. A lot stronger.

BIKE NOTE: Didn’t see it happen, but Coach Bri went down pretty hard on the bike with about 18 miles to go. This probably has something to do with Mike and his bike rack. I’m not sure of the connection but there must be one!! Coach Bri is a little sore, but doing ok and his bike is already ready for the next ride.

The Run

Part of not killing myself on the bike was wanting to be able to run this year. I increased my fitness enough on the bike over the last year that I was able to put in the same bike time but still had legs left to run this year. My goal for the race was 1:47:00 or 8:10 pace. This is the only goal that I managed to accomplish I did the run in 1:45:59 for an 8:05 pace. My total time was 5:07:53, a new personal record. I had hoped to break 5 hours, but I can see I still have some work to do to get there. I felt my nutrtion was pretty good and I didn’t have any cramping problems. Even though I didn’t cramp I still feel like I need to hydrate better.

The rest of the Sunday morning crew

The rest of training crew, with the exception of Coach Bri, had pretty good days as well.

Heidi M. doing her first ever half ironman distance event had what I thought was by far one of the most impressive times of the day at 5:14:22. Heidi pulled this off with barely any bike training and only a few open water swims. We expect her to quit her day job and turn pro soon!

Mike K. had a personal best of 5:24:46 and beat me in the bike leg. Now we know why my bike fell off the car!! All part of his master plan!

Jan D. also had a personal best of 5:35:11 and improved her time by half an hour. Improving both her bike and run times significantly.

Julie V. while about a minute slower overall at 5:40:17 improved her run this year by over 10 minutes. Now if we could just get her to swim a little more and stop hanging out in transition…..

Janet B. took first place in her age group while setting a personal record of 5:42:11 at the half ironman distance.

Brian B. needs to keep the rubber side down!!!!

Categories
Cycling Race Running Swimming Triathlon

Where did May go!!!!????

Ok, so it has been a while since I posted. The month of May has just flown by.

Twin Lights Half marathon

On the running front I did another half-marathon, the Twin Lights out in Gloucester, MA. It was a fun race that I did with a few friends. I had planned on just running along with easy with a friends son who was attempting his first half-marathon. I was told that we would probably do about 8 minute miles, and I thought great, no problem! We started out running the first mile in 8:07 and from there we just kept going faster. By the 10th mile we were doing 7 minute miles! I end up having a PR of 1:37:52!

http://app.strava.com/runs/8397150

Stiles Opening Day

Next up was opening day at Stiles Pond. Water temp was 64 degrees and no one was wearing a wetsuit, so I didn’t either. I made it to the GAP (about 3/4 of the way across) and realized that I was getting really cold. I did make it across and told the guys I was heading back, no chatting for me. On the way back I stayed closer to the shore than I normally do because I was getting so cold. When I hit the beach I was shivering uncontrollably. I still might be shivering now two weeks later!! That is by far the coldest I have ever been in the pond. Took at least 30 minutes before I stopped shivering.

Tour de Pepacton

This past weekend I signed up for a 60 mile ride around the Pepacton Reservoir. NY states largest reservoir. It turned out to be a beautiful day and a great ride. I was fortunate enough to get in the lead group of 7 or 8 guys and had a great time riding in the pace line. I think it would have been good to have a road bike rather than my tri bike, but it all worked out.

http://app.strava.com/rides/9473193

Coming up in June is the Patriot Half-Ironman!

Categories
Race

Great Bay Half-Marathon

This past weekend I went and did the Great Bay Half-Marathon. I think this is the 4th year in a row that I have done it. It is one very hilly course! Looking at the profile map can be very deceiving. When looking at it you think I just have to get mile 4.3 and it is bascially down hill!! WRONG. After that it is basically a series of up and down hills. Some of them very steep. There are very few places on the course where it is flat and you can just zone out and relax and run.

Great Bay Profile
Great Bay Profile

 

 

 

 

Like every year I was planning on running with my friend Ray and his buddy Pete. Pete wanted to start out at 7:45 and that sounded good to me. Unfortunately for Ray though he sustained a calf injury earlier in the week and it flared up on the run. I noticed he had a little limp going on early and then I guess at mile 4 he was toast. To his credit he gutted out the race and finished. Pete and I continued on at the 7:45 pace for about another mile or so and then I picked it up a bit on the next hill. Miles 7 and 8 were my fastest miles, one being 7:10 and another 7:15. Once I got to mile 9 I knew if I just held 7:30s I would be able to come in under 1:40 so I just concentrated on keeping a steady pace. Finished up at 1:39:19 7:33 pace. Pete finished right around 1:42 right on his 7:45 target pace.

Past Results

2012 – 1:39:19
2011 – 1:42:39
2010 – 1:42:30
2009 – 1:57:45

Weight: 156.5 lbs