New Bedford Half Marathon
Details:
Race website
Signup: $60 early bird, $70 through January, $75 late without USATF discount code
Finishers: about 2,300
Start time: 11am (!)
Day-of bib pickup: yes
Food: clam chowder and fish sandwiches (hello, New England seaside town!)
Parking: street, ample
Swag: bling, long-sleeved tech shirt (as usual I fell victim to the 'size S' trap: is it unisex? is it women's? I took a gamble. It was unisex. Now it's a nightshirt.)
Short version:
It was windy, I mean WINDY. I came in eight seconds behind my PR in some pretty ugly conditions.
Net Time: 1:56:29
Pace: 8:54
Long version:
When we left off, I was trying to decide whether to run New Bedford with my running group. This race was part of the USATF NE Grand Prix series, and apparently is part of the Grand Prix almost every year? A week and a half before the race, there were two other women running, so I figured I'd do it to make up the numbers for a women's team. Fortunately we ended up with five women running (four of whom are faster than I am!) and came in 17th out of 34 teams!
I carpooled with teammates to the race, leaving Mr GCA and D-money at home on their usual Sunday swim lesson-playtime-lunch-and-nap schedule. The weather was close to freezing, overcast and windy. I decided on full tights and a long-sleeved shirt under my t-shirt and was pretty glad of it, despite being a card-carrying member of Overheaters Anonymous.
Bib pickup and bag drop were at the local YMCA, and we even got to use the locker rooms - a big plus! We huddled in there till ten minutes before race start, then I inserted myself at the front of the 9:00-mile-pace corral. (Do you seed yourself by starting pace, or by the overall pace you're aiming for? I know mine aren't really too different, so I don't care and it all evens out eventually. Plus if I get a little stuck behind other runners, hey, it keeps me from going out too fast.)
Miles 1-9 were a normal sort of blustery, and I managed to hold the paces I’d hit in training. Hills for the first three miles, nothing massive. I spotted a great ('great'?) sign at mile 6: "YOU'RE ALMOST THERE #altfacts"... to which I shouted, "Worst protest sign ever!"
 |
| Definitely pre-gale, probably around mile 7, still going strong. |
Then we hit the Mile 9 marker and rounded a corner onto the oceanfront…where gale-force winds awaited.
For the next two miles I felt like I was running in place. Or perhaps backwards. Then backwards, while trying to scale a hill. You get the…er…drift. I glanced at my watch. 10:00 miles. At mile 12 I thought to myself, “YOU’VE COME TOO FAR TO WALK NOW”.
My teammate E was doing this half as part of a training run for a spring marathon. I thought I'd passed her and lost her at mile 6. At mile 12, as I was slogging up the last hill, I heard her voice over my right shoulder, chipper as ever. "Hey, how's it going?" And she zipped past me and trotted off! The last quarter mile, mercifully, was all downhill. I finished eight seconds away from my half PR, totally spent, and straggled off to the pub where my teammates were waiting with food and beer.
I honestly had no expectations for this half except ‘do my best’, and that’s what it turned out to be. My gut feeling was right about being able to match my previous PR, and in fact until mile 9 I was on track to finish in the low 1:50s, so things are looking pretty good for the Providence Half in May. In a sense it was totally refreshing to have signed up so late – I basically had no time to be anxious about racing, and it was really just a fun Sunday out with the CR team. I'm so impressed with all the spectators and volunteers who turned out in that weather to make their lovely hometown half what it is!
