 posted Apr-02-2007 07:06 AM
   
I got up at 6:30 showered and dressed then went downstairs and had my routine pre-race breakfast of 2 cookies and cream pop tarts, a banana, a glass of OJ and a glass of chocolate milk.Once downstairs I logged onto the computer to check the news etc. Found that the temp was 25 degrees with very little wind (awesome) and the highs were expected to hit 51 so that should provide for a very good race time temp. Oh yeah almost forgot my fashion report: Boston 2006 running cap, sunglasses, Blue & White Adidas SS tech shirt, Blue Adidas running shorts, white socks, Aisics GT 2110 running shoes and my Garmin 305. I double checked my gear to make sure I had everything and headed out the door on my way to pick up a couple of friends at 7:45. I found that one of the guys backed out after figuring that he just didn’t have enough miles to do the half in 1:40 and he didn’t want to risk injury, so it ended up being Joel, Brian and I. Brian was going to head out and attempt a 1:30 and Joel was still going to go for his New York City qualifier so I would be pacing him. He is a very experienced runner but has been fighting an Achilles tendon injury for the better part of the last year. We arrived in Newmarket early enough to get a great parking spot at the finish quickly got our race packet that included a really nice tech shirt and the strangest looking timing chip I have seen to date and they even provided small wire ties to fasten the chips to your shoes (these ended up working quite well). We made small talk with a number of other runners and the race director as I discussed another new half marathon I had heard they were planning for September in York, ME. After that we went back to the car and then headed for a nice walk to the starting area to scope that out. At the start we found what would be our only real complaint about this race, they had posted signs for seeding purposes for 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 minute paces but the 7:00 was right at the start with only about 25 feet between it and the 8:00 which really should have been stretched out. Everything worked out in the end and this is really pretty minor considering everything. We ended up heading out for a nice l mile warm up at about 10:35 and finished up over near the start, (8:42). Then we headed out for any last minute adjustments and potty breaks and met each other at the start. The gun sounded at 11:01 and we were off, the start was a bit crowded and I found after the first half mile we were running near 6:30 pace so we reeled it in and ended up hitting the first mile marker at 6:56 Avg HR 145 Max HR 151. I found that the crowds thinned out pretty quickly and we didn’t have any trouble settling in. As we hit mile two in 7:13 Avg HR 151 Max HR 156 I tried to slow it down a bit more and I think we settled into a real nice pace at this point. Joel and I kept up a nice conversation during the run and I asked if he felt good enough to maintain this pace and he said we’ll see in a few miles! We hit mile three in 7:22 Avg HR 149 Max HR 152 and I really found that this pace was very easy for me. We had been passed by quite a few runners after that first mile and I had slowed down a bit, but I found that we were now starting to pass runners fairly regularly and weren’t being passed by many at all. These last couple of miles were on a nice dirt road (thank goodness that it wasn’t wet out, it would have been quite muddy). We hit mile four in 7:32 Avg HR 147 Max HR 151. To say that this course was hilly is I believe an understatement, definitely a challenging course with some very nice rolling hills. We cruised to mile five in 7:29 Avg HR 147 Max HR 153. At this point I was feeling very confident about my ability to carry this pace; Joel on the other hand wasn’t too sure. I think I had more confidence in his ability today than he did. We continued on at this pace through the next mile hitting mile six in 7:28 Avg HR 147 Max HR 153. As you can see I was maintaining a pretty steady heart rate (the max rates were achieved on those climbs up the hills I am sure). Okay we are better than halfway now and I am feeling great, I know that Joel is going pretty strong but not feeling as confident as I am and we discuss the hills which really haven’t had any impact on me to this point. We hit mile seven in 7:15 Avg HR 148 Max HR 152. From this point on I don’t think we were passed by anyone else and we began to pick off runners at a fairly consistent rate. I was really feeling strong and after hitting mile eight in 7:27 Avg HR 150 Max HR 153 I thought we could pick it up a bit and asked Joel how he felt about that and he said we could give it a try. As we continued to hit some pretty good hills Joel kept asking me “is this the last hill” heck I had no clue as I had never run the course before. But I kept trying to keep the positive attitude and telling him I thought this must be the last one as we approached the mile nine mile mark at 7:07 Avg HR 151 Max HR 156. The views through out a good portion of this part of the race were really nice, overlooking a good part of the scenic “Great Bay” of New Hampshire. We hit a spot somewhere in here where we saw the eventual winners heading in for the last couple of miles so I knew we were approaching a turn around somewhere up ahead. We hit the ten mile mark at 7:11 Avg HR 152 Max HR 154. We knew we should be seeing Brian pretty soon, and saw him as he cruised by looking pretty good on his effort for that 1:30. After that we saw that we were going to be making a loop through a pretty exclusive neighborhood. We hit mile eleven at 6:59 Avg HR 152 Max HR 156.
OK only a couple of more miles to go I told Joel that he could probably walk it in and get his NY qualifier at this point, no way he replied I’m fine. And we continued on as we passed more and more runners and hit the twelve mile marker at 7:07 Avg HR 155 Max HR 158. All right only 1.1 to go I said let’s get this thing done. We hit mile thirteen at 7:01 Avg HR 161 Max HR 164. With Joel asking several times how much further we had to go. I pushed it just at the finish and hit the last tenth in 2.22 (.35 according to Garmin) but I will take it! Avg HR 166 Max HR 171. So Gramin had me running 13.35 again I won;t quibble and am very happy with the results. Official results:
118/1237 OA 8/75 AG 1:36:36 (7:23) Me
119/1237 OA 2/26 AG 1:36:40 (7:23) Joel
56/1237 OA 12/100 AG 1:30:32 (6:55) Brian great run!
As I said to Joel several times during the run, I wish I could have been racing this one, it was a great course well suited for me with the hills and all. The top three in my AG were 1:21:56, 1:28:09, 1:29:39 (the second and third certainly within my reach). Overall a great course proving to be a good Boston warm up for me. This is a link to my motionbased log on this run. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=78807&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=2369802
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Bob
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Thanks for another perfect report and an inspiring race. I was starting to think your heart rate monitor was just stuck, with you talking about the hills and averaging the same heart rate anyway.
