26th Annual SKUNK CABBAGE CLASSIC - RunHalf Marathon

I started off running with rstocks3, but faded after about 3/4 of a mile or so. I could feel the hamstring as I ran (early on), but it wasn't causing me any pain. The early miles were marred by ridiculous winds that definitely affected our speed, and made running a chore. This did help us out later, in the form of a tailwind, at times.

The course had rolling hills which wreaked havoc with my hamstring. During the flatter portions of the course, I had no issues, but had to make serious adjustments to my stride while running the hills. While going uphill I had to take really short strides to avoid hamstring discomfort. I would have really liked to attack the downhill portions of the course, but the hamstring was having none of that, and had to take shorter strides here as well. In spite of the wind and the hamstring, I could see that I was making good time, and my pace was surprisingly below an 8 minute pace.

Around mile 10, the rain started, and that in conjunction with the wind (which returned for the last 3 miles) made for less than confortable conditions. When I hit mile 12 at 1:27:30, a quick mental calculation told me that if I could do the last 2.1 miles in under 17:30, I'd break 1:45. Luckily this portion of the course was relatively flat, so I picked up the pace a bit and finished in 1:43:38. I was quite stunned to finish a half marathon at better than an 8 minute pace. My Garmin GPS mapped the course as 13.18 miles.

Not have a hamstring injury!

Walked back into the building with rstocks3, who had finshed about 5 minutes ahead of me. Grabbed a couple of cookies, but was annoyed to not find anything available to drink. The Finger Lakes School of Massage was offering free massages, so I partook; which seemed to help out the hamstring. Hung out with rstocks3 (Bob) after the race, and he offered to take a look at my woefully deficient swimming stroke. We are going to get together at one of the local high school's pool for an early morning session in the near future.


The strained right hamstring and the wind. The wind may have been a wash, as it did give us a decent tailwind at times. Actually, now that I think about it, running into that stiff headwind probably negated the benefit that the tailwind gave us. The hamstring negatively impacted the way that I ascended up and descended down the hills.


I wildly exceeded the goal that I had set for this race, and wonder what my time could have been if I was 100% healthy. Now hopefully my hamstring will cooperate and recuperate quickly.