Hyannis Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

First off, let me say I think this was my best race yet. I was worried about how I went into it - starting late, no warm up, snowy conditions. Afterall, I lived one of my nightmares, which is getting to the starting line after everyone has already left. So I had to run around lots of peopleand along the grass a lot of the time to get up to a faster crowd. My goal for mile 1 was 9:20 to warm-up, then I wanted to go for sub 9's as long as I could. Well, I was so anxious after starting late and then running around people, my first mile wound up at 8:13. OOPS, time to settle down. So I really tried to settle in a little during mile 2, and felt good about that at 9:02. Then began my goal to do every subsequent mile at sub9 minute pace. I was feeling great, then at mile 8 I dipped above 9 minutes (9:12) and that was a much needed kick in the pants - I knew I was more than half way through so I continued to go for my goal of sub 9's to beat 2 hours. I had no brace on, only tape on my knee. Wore my Mizuno (less supportive shoes). Just felt amazing whole way through. Wore my race belt with 24 oz of gatorade endurance and 8 oz heed (minus the small bit Colin drank before we started the race :). I loved this decision, as I was using run/walk - I walked for 30 seconds every 10 minutes, and took those 30 second walks to drink 3-4 oz of liquid. Started with the gatorade and ended with Heed - still had some left at the end (of the Heed, the gatorade was gone). I didn't walk at minute 10, and I didn't walk at 1:50 - but walked every other time. The walks felt too close together when I got up to 1:20/1:30/1:40 - I felt like I was really on a roll and didn't want to walk - but I did it anyhow to recharge the battery. I was thrilled not to have to stop at the aid stations, I felt like they were spaced at odd intervals, and the gatorade was gone at the first one - so I was psyched with my decision to wear the belt.

The only potential thing was that my HR was low - I probably could have pushed harder. But I really had no way of knowing how well it was going to go - so I'm not even sure if I'd have changed that honestly. My average HR was only 164 which is smack in the middle of zone 3. My max only got to 182 and that was at the very tail end -

None really. Saw my brother at the end, tried to loop back to find him but was too late - learned afterwards he'd moved to try and come find me and we missed each other. Then walked back to the finish to find Colin and Chad. That was pretty much the cool down - walking. We went back to the car to get some more clothes on, headed back to look at results, and then hit the road.


I guess my brain was the only thing preventing me. I didn't want to go faster, I'd achieved the goal that I thought was only possible in the dreams - a serious reach goal since my fastest "half marathon" before this was 2:08.


I was really bummed at the lack of organization getting registered. The numbers were posted in a CORNER of the conference center - in tiny print - big log jam trying to read it. Then the porta potty line actually made us late - despite getting to the race site 45 minutes before the gun. Race organizers need to be ready if they have a registered field of 5000 runners. But I will say I loved the course. It wasn't a very nice day, so I didn't get to enjoy the scenery persay - but I bet it would have been amazing on a clear day. And the course with little rolling hills was really pleasantly easy. Loved that part.