Maine Coast Half Marathon

So Blogger has done me a massive disservice today (well more like a minor inconvenience, but still...). After approximately an hour and a half of typing a masterpiece of a blog post, it somehow all managed to be erased. Apparently auto save even failed me this time and a lot of time and effort were lost. A year ago I would have just gone ahead and retyped all of it. I'd go in to great detail about the six weeks I lost to a calf and achilles injury. I'd go on and on about how I rehabbed and the doubts I had about my season during that layoff. I would have rambled about how great Shawn Crotto is and how his massage work saved my season. And I would have told you all about how I developed my race plan for this event given the challenges I faced in the lead up to it.

But now this guy is in my life and he's more important than my retelling that story...

So let me dive right in.

I showed up on race day with loosely constructed plan to run 6:20/mi for the first 7 and then see where my body took me between there and the finish. I doubted the finishing time would be impressive, but I just wanted a solid result given that I'd missed so much training.

Getting the Garmin 220 all set before the starting gun - which turned out to be a conch shell

Mile 1 went exactly to plan. One guy took off from the start, but a solid little pack formed behind him  and ran 6:19 for mile one. With temps in the high 40s and no wind, the running felt easy. I hadn't felt very good during my pre race warm up, but I seemed to be gliding along early in the race and felt I might have to get a bit more aggressive than planned. Now, this is not something I'd typically advise. Mile 1 of a 13 mile race is not really the time to start tossing a plan out the window and coming up with one on the fly.

Leading the chase pack at mile 1

My little pack thinned out a bit by mile 2, but I had relinquished my spot as it's leader. I was fine with running a bit harder than planned, but did the smart thing and tucked in the group to conserve a bit of energy. We ended up with a 6:10 mile, though it was almost entirely downhill. 

I swear, I eventually found my way into the slipstream and picked up a bit of a draft

The Maine Coast course is amazing. It starts and finishes at the University of New England and takes runners along the coast of Biddeford Pool. While I wasn't doing too much looking around, it was hard to ignore the surrounding views. As we cruised along the coastline, two half runners and a relay participant broke from the pack and I made the decision not to go with them. It was my attempt at being smart. I'd already crumpled up my plan and was going a bit heavier on the gas than anticipated. Following moves at mile 3 didn't seem like the place to push my luck. 

I'm REALLY bad at running behind people. As you can see, I've managed to find my way back to the front

Miles 4-8 were pretty uneventful. I was just cruising along at what felt like a natural pace. When I attempted to PR last fall at Newburyport, the pace never felt comfortable. I was never able to settle in and just get through a few minutes without needing to adjust the pace. That wasn't the case last week. for miles 3-7 I ran 6:17, 6:10, 6:11, 6:15, 6:14, 6:13. One other guy - the one in the Tufts singlet - and I had shed everyone else by this point and were running in 4th and 5th place. As I found out, he was a former collegiate runner at Tufts. He was a cool guy and we ran a lot of miles together. However, around mile 9 I was feeling much better than he was and I decided to see just how fast I could finish. 

About 9 miles in and really starting to feel good.

I went through miles 9 and 10 in 6:10 and 6:08 respectively. Somewhere during that stretch I realized I didn't quite have the top end speed I was looking for. That came as no surprise given the challenges that preceded the race. Without having done any speed work and doing a lot of sower miles in training I just didn't have that next gear though my lungs and head were certainly willing to go faster. Still, I managed to run 6:06, 6:04, 6:06 for the final 3 miles and finished in forth place overall in a time of 1:21:11. 

Still running strong around mile 11 or 12

I was both happy with and a bit surprised by my performance. Doubt certainly existed heading into this race and I wasn't sure what I would be able to produce. Having set a PR by over a minute, I am more encouraged than ever about my upcoming season (and the years to come). My run is really starting to develop and I can't wait to see where it takes me both in road racing and triathlon.

Feeling as good as one can in the late stages of 13 mile footrace

Finishing my first race as a dad!

I was really impressed with the Maine Coast Half and will certainly be back in the future. It was a no hassle event with an awesome course. If you're looking for a solid half or full marathon, this race is worth considering.

One last Kellan picture as photos of him are much cuter than photos of me.

Thank you, as always, for reading!