A Good Race, But 2:00 Hour Time Remains A Goal

The Short Story
With a relatively flat course before me and a plan to finish in 2 hours, I executed for 10/13 of the race, but again hit a wall at the end.
Worst moment of the race: When a fellow racer pulled up to me sometime after mile 10 and said “I’ve been trying [...]

The Hilliest Half Marathon I Never (officially) Ran

The Short Story
I wasn’t expecting much in today’s Manchester City Half Marathon because I hadn’t trained much (only once!) since my last race about 3 weeks ago and because the course elevation map showed me this was a very hilly course.
Unfortunately, I got what I expected: 2:15 minutes (per my Garmin), which considering how [...]

Lowest time this year at the Lowell Half

The Short Story
Taking last week’s lessons into this race and knowing that this was a much flatter course than the BAA’s, I anticipated a new course record, and perhaps even a new personal record. Halfway into the race, I even thought I might finish in 2:00:00 or less.
I was partly right in that [...]

Personal Course Record set at the BAA Half

The short story
The hours leading up to the race were warmer than usual (in the mid 60’s during the early morning hours), but the temperature kept dropping throughout the race into the high 50’s which made the race comfortable.
I finished in 2:04 and a few seconds by progressively ratcheting up my pace from 10:00 on [...]

Which trial is best in Salem? The Wicked Half

The town better known for the witchcraft trials of 1692 hosted 400 runners the weekend of October 1 during its inaugural “Wicked Half Marathon” and I was there. The weather was beautiful as was the course but, alas, I was not able to work any magic.
The race started at 7:00 AM and the check-in [...]

A Pause for Recovery

It was a tough call but I decided to not run today’s “Run to the Rock” in Plymouth. The decision was simply made because after last week’s run, I developed two very big blisters (the size of silver dollars), and in my haste to heal for this week’s run, I popped the biggest [...]

The Swanzey Covered Bridges Half: Elijah’s Race

If you Google Elijah Barrett, you’ll find a number of individuals with this name:
1. the second principal of Maryland State Normal School (now Towson University), who lived in the late 1800’s,
2. Various authors who may or may not be the same person
3. An exceptional athlete from the Monadnock region of New [...]

The CHaD’s “Outrun the Sun” renamed: “Outrun the Weather”

When I made the list of ten races I’d run this year, I worked hard to space them out so I wouldn’t have to run too many in close succession. The most challenging part of doing this was finding races in the summer, because most races take part in the spring or fall. I managed [...]

A Hot Time in the Big Town

In almost every way, the New York Half Marathon lived up to the hype it created. The field of runners was massive (10,000 ran), the crowds cheered en-masse, even the skyscrapers seemed to demand the best from us. But most importanly, a new course record was set. No, it wasn’t my record….I [...]

New York City Half TODAY!

New York City, 4:30 AM
I’ve not blogged in a while and I had a few moments to kill this morning, so I thought I’d post a few words while my family slept sound to the humming of the hotel air conditioner.
At around 5:00 AM, I will take the elevator down to the lobby, walk [...]