I’m happy to report that i’ve returned from Swanzey, NH and running the Swanzey Covered Bridges Half Marathon (SCBHM). As I thought, it rained, thankfully not for the whole time though, but enough to make it a mess to run in. My initial thought was that there were going to be downpours, and really, it only downpoured once during the run (but did shower and rain steady for a bit).
It was a decent course and well managed. The water stations were well staffed and placed, traffic control was decent, although I did see a few dangerous situations with runners on both sides of the street with traffic coming. I think if the rules were laid out that everybody stays to their left or right, it could be safer … The people were real nice in New Hampshire, including the fire people at the BBQ afterward, good food. Theres nothing like a long run, then a BBQ.
Regardless, I almost broke my PR time from Allentown, however I feel if it wasn’t raining (which wasn’t anybodys fault), I could’ve broke it. I think I was carrying a few extra pounds of water by the time I was done, but I did finish in 1:49:26, missing my PR by less than a minute, here are my split times, with some details on it .. I finished in 117th place …
Mile 1 – 7:37 – Ran this way too fast, just the excitement I guess. I realized it though and did adjust
Mile 2 – 8:29 – Ran this mile pretty good, we entered the abandoned rail-bed, which was rough to run on in the rain, plus it was quite narrow.
Mile 3 – 7:59 – still on the rail-bed, heading for the road. got off my pace though
Mile 4 – 7:57 – Still off my pace, I was wearing myself out, I did realize it, and slowed my pace
Mile 5 – 8:16 – a better mile
Mile 6 – 8:26
Mile 7 – 8:46 – The last mile featured a decent hill, hence the slowness, I also had to stop and tie my shoe-lace!
Mile 8 – 8:31 – great mile
Mile 9 – 8:23 – great mile, getting tired
Mile 10 – 8:35 – good pace
Mile 11 – 8:26 – good pace, see a trend here?
Mile 12 – 8:48 – big hill at the end here
Mile 13 – 9:01 (includes the .1)
Things I enjoyed in this race, were the people, they really were a great bunch of happy runners … you couldn’t ask for more. I ran beside a cool woman who insisted on constantly spitting over and over again. Here I was again looking at a decent looking, middle-class woman who spits … cool. I also got the experience of seeing someone run the half-marathon with NO SHOES ON. Whats with that? This course must have been rough for him (since about 2 miles were on rails to trails). I also saw part of a tree fall down, right on the road, as I passed down, it was frightening! I also had to STOP and TIE MY SHOE just after mile 7, I lost a few seconds there. This never happened before ……… I made my usual character judgements of who was good, and who wasn’t, who was smart and who wasn’t (i just have to remember too-much-cotton-soaking-wet-can’t-keep-my-pace-boy …. nuff said.
I did learn some things in this race, and i’ll write it now to look back on prior to running Steamtown …. RUN THE PACE I TRAINED FOR, according to the above splits, I ran it faster than I wanted to, and I was dying by mile 11. If I’m going to finish the marathon, I have to keep my pace of just over 9:00/mile to stay in the race. I worked on not getting caught up in being passed by others .. hey, we’re all there for a different reason. I’m there to finish the marathon, I have to remember that, I don’t care what place, how fast, etc…. just finish it. I also looked at too many people who were running above their ability. I don’t want to be one of them that goes above my ability … for example, there was a dude in mile 3 who was racing me, and all out of breath and everything, why? I mean, with 10 miles to go, if you’re out of breath, you need to adjust. These are the priceless lessons that I learned.
Anyway, the next race is Steamtown…. I’ve done the training races now, I think my mind is set. My body is a little sore, the back pain went away, and my right groin is a little sore again …. we’ll see what this week holds as I have 2 more 20+ milers left in training…