BostonBound59

Today we headed back out to the New Hampshire seacoast today for the third time since January 1 for the Great Bay Half Marathon in Newmarket. The weather was perfect at about 45 degrees with plenty of sun although it was a little windy. With Boston just two weeks away Cathy and I both used this as a final training run in excess of two hours (about 2 ½ to be exact). My training plan today called for 14-18 total miles so I did a three mile warm up in a residential subdivision near the start beginning about 25 minutes before the race so I could keep an eye on the back of the pack and hear the race starter and gun when it went off. I did not have a number today (a first since Boston 82 for me) so I wouldn’t be tempted to run faster than my planned training pace like I did last week (thank you Steve Piper). When the gun finally went off I had already run more than three miles and then started weaving from the very back of the pack through the parents with kids in strollers as well as the happy social runners and book groups who like to run 5-6 abreast as a singular moving (and chatting) roadblock. My plan was to run 8 minute pace the first 7 miles and then about 7:30 pace (which if I'm lucky will be my approx. marathon pace) the last 6.1 miles. With 1500 runners in this year’s 13.1 mile race (up from 1100 last year) along with another 230 in the 5k race (which started at the same time) it was very congested for the first couple of miles but after the three mile mark I was finally in a comfortable running stride and was running just under 8 minute pace. I ran for a while with Vickie Kalil from GDTC (one of our former Flash coaches) and a few others who were also doing Boston prep. The Great Bay course is incredibly beautiful with several awesome views out onto Great Bay as you head south on Bay Road. Great Bay is one of the east coast's most healthy and active saltwater estuaries. http://www.greatbay.org/ The early miles are on picturesque New England country dirt roads lined with stone walls. I finally caught up to the 8 minute pacing group and we stayed in a pack until we hit the 7 mile marker where I was about 7:52 mile pace through 7. The course was much hillier than I remembered from last year. I then picked it up slightly at the 7 mile mark and finished the last 6 miles right at 7:30 pace. The last few miles of the course involves an out and back loop on a peninsula on Cushing Road where you can see the other runners heading in the opposite direction which is fun and demoralizing at the same time. They even had a group of Belly Dancers to give us inspiration the last few miles.

After I came off the peninsula I reached the 12 mile mark and a group of my Flash team was working a water stop with Kate Collopy when they saw me and the three (Robbie, Alex and Dan) rushed at me each holding two cups of water. I didn’t want to play favorites and couldn’t possibly drink six cups of water at once so despite the 45 degree weather I stopped dead in my tracks, put my arms up in the air and told them to hit me….which they did most obligingly and I ran the last mile completely drenched from head to toe. I could hear them laughing and high fiving each other as I pulled away. The guy right next to me wasn't happy but it was still a great moment. I then ran another two miles after the race for 18 miles total. Cathy ran nearly the same workout but since she will likely be at least 10-15 minutes in front of me in Boston ran 1:34:12 which she said felt pretty easy. It was a great day for the Gate City Striders and I’ll copy and paste the Strider results here as soon as they are up on the Strider website.