2018 New Bedford 1/2 Marathon

First race in the USATF-NE GP happened.  That’s about all I have to say about it!  Overall, the conditions were pretty good.  It was cold at the start, but felt warm in the back stretch.  The wind was typical New Bedford wind.  It sucked, but it was WAYYY worse last year.

I went in thinking I could run sub 5:50 pace, but it was evident early that I was not running as comfortable as I would have liked.

Miles 1 thru 4 I started well, not getting pulled out too fast and didn’t attack the hills, just got through them.  I was 543-555-605-608.  I was really surprised with miles 3 and 4.  I thought they would be slightly faster.

After 4, you have the fast section of NB.  I still didn’t feel overly comfortable.  I thought it should feel a bit easier than the effort I was putting out.  But, I was able to get into somewhat of a groove and finally felt like I was at least giving it an honest effort.  I was 535-540-532-553-545-554 through 10 miles in 58:12 or so.  I was happy with the 10 mile split, but I definitely had to work way to hard for that time.

Now the fun begins…9 to 10 was already windy and you have to fight it through 11 and then on and off all the way up the hill through about 20k.

The mile 11 mark was put in the wrong spot, but I was 1215 10 to 12 and then 603 for 13. 

Official finishing time of 1:17:19, a tad faster than last year, but still shit slow.

With my lack of any real work outs, I am not overly surprised that the pace felt like it did, I have OK general fitness right now, but I really did not do my self any favors over the last month with neglecting the longer work outs.  I blame the cold and snow.  Yup…that’s what it was.

New GP race is in 2 weeks.  Not much time to help the fitness, but I will give it a whirl!

2018 Old Mountain Trail 5k

Old Mountain Field is a deceiving place. You would never think that these fun little trails are back in this small area. I was pleasantly surprised the first year I ran the race in 2012 and every year has been a little different, between course changes and weather.

December 2012 - 3rd place – 18:57 Fast dry year

January 2014 - 1st place – 23:32 Snow year

December 2014 - 3rd place – 19:08 unmemorable year

December 2015 - 6th place 21:34 Hungover year, TNT Christmas Party the night before.

February 2017 Did Not Run

I felt pretty good going into this race. My training has been uneventful, but consistent. No work outs to speak of, a few solid long runs and a few shorter races.

If I were Eric Lonergan, I would take out every one of these trail races the way he took this one out. FAST. This certainly made me suck wind early, but I said fuck it and went with it. Eric and Greg had a good gap pretty early and I followed Brightman. After about a mile I went by Steve and felt like Greg was coming back a bit, but I think it was just the twisty nature of the course that made him feel closer than he was. I still felt pretty good as we started through the “swamp area” it is twisty and not much of a defined trail. I never felt over my head and was making good progress and then BAM I went down. It was a solid fall but I was up pretty quick, but it definitely took my legs away from me, it took a while to get going again. Once I did I was quickly caught by Garvin and Ronald McTall guy. We headed towards the rock bridge creek crossing, where we were met by the same stupid guy with his two dogs off leash on trail. It was a good thing they were off leash, but this was the second time in the race that these dogs brought us to a crawl, I had to put my hands on the dogs and move them out of the way; fun times. After that we started uphill downhill flat hill who the hell remembers and Garvin and Mr. McTall man went by me. Garvin was passed shortly after. We hit the faster, wider trails on the course and the slick bridges. My new Inov-8s that seemed so sticky and grippy on the ice were basically, as Garvin put it, like roller skates on the bridges. I slid right off one of them. Out onto the field before re-entering the woods, Galoob was yelling at us. I was being caught by Old Man Brightman and Jonny was within distance. There is a hard left-hand turn when re-entering the woods and of course I slipped there too and we head back up the next to lastish hill and that’s when I was just fucking done. Brightman went by me after the stairs and I stayed close, but I was gassed, nothing left.

February 2018 - 6th place 20:18 Wet and muddy year

We did a group cool-down with the WTAC guys and headed over to The Mews. We had a pretty solid Turtle group, plus Brightman and Leslie OD. After that some of us headed up to Proclamation Ale
Company and one thing led to another and it was 7:30pm. A fun Saturday I would say.