On Sunday I ran the New Bedford Half Marathon with a few of my BMC teammates. I met up with Janette on my way to pick up my bib number and was happy to have found her. We lined up at the start together with about 2000 other runners and prepared to set out on what we kept referring to as a "training race." We knew that we couldn't go out too hard this week because we have our final long run just 6 days later......21 miles! Janette had her Garmin GPS watch so she monitored our pace. My only goal was to break 2 hours, which would mean running about 9:05 min/miles.
The course was fairly nice with rolling hills that took us out along Buzzard's Bay. Unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy the surroundings too much because I was too busy fighting the insanely strong wind that seemed to follow us everywhere we went!! There were lots of families out cheering for us and the police men directing the course always had a word of encouragement for us as we passed. We met up with Kevin, another TEAM BMC member, at about the 6 mile mark and ran with him for a while. According to Janette's watch, we were moving at a really good pace, faster than we had planned, but we felt good so we continued on. At about the 11 mile mark we ran into Steph pushing hard too. We pushed up the last hill at mile 12 and headed toward the finish line. Surprisingly, Janette and I both had enough energy to sprint out that last 250 yards!
We crossed the finish line in 1:49:35!!! I couldn't believe it.....that's a whole 19 minutes faster than my last half marathon that I ran in September!!! We averaged 8:22 min/miles which is a lot faster than I thought I could run! It was great to see Steph come in soon after us and Kevin right after her both looking strong......all 4 of us finished within 60 seconds of each other!
It felt so good to race and to run it at such a fast pace for me. I know I can't keep up that pace for another 13.1 miles, but it makes me wonder just how fast I could become if I was actually consistent about speed training......I guess that's what the next race is for :)
The course was fairly nice with rolling hills that took us out along Buzzard's Bay. Unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy the surroundings too much because I was too busy fighting the insanely strong wind that seemed to follow us everywhere we went!! There were lots of families out cheering for us and the police men directing the course always had a word of encouragement for us as we passed. We met up with Kevin, another TEAM BMC member, at about the 6 mile mark and ran with him for a while. According to Janette's watch, we were moving at a really good pace, faster than we had planned, but we felt good so we continued on. At about the 11 mile mark we ran into Steph pushing hard too. We pushed up the last hill at mile 12 and headed toward the finish line. Surprisingly, Janette and I both had enough energy to sprint out that last 250 yards!
We crossed the finish line in 1:49:35!!! I couldn't believe it.....that's a whole 19 minutes faster than my last half marathon that I ran in September!!! We averaged 8:22 min/miles which is a lot faster than I thought I could run! It was great to see Steph come in soon after us and Kevin right after her both looking strong......all 4 of us finished within 60 seconds of each other!
It felt so good to race and to run it at such a fast pace for me. I know I can't keep up that pace for another 13.1 miles, but it makes me wonder just how fast I could become if I was actually consistent about speed training......I guess that's what the next race is for :)
2 comments:
We are going to do an 8:00/mile marathon one day!
Whoa! We look so cold! : )
Post a Comment