2015 New Bedford Half Marathon

Four races in four weeks! Wow! That's the most racing I have done in quite some time. I'm starting to enjoy this again. This weekend was the New Bedford Half Marathon, the second race in the New England Grand Prix series. I had given up my goal of PRing here after looking at my race performances and training but I was still hoping to beat last year's race time of 1:17:57.

At the start of the race, I aligned myself around runners I hoped I could run with. The race started off okay but I could tell immediately that I should have warmed up more as my breathing was more ragged than it should have been. Jim Pawlicki passed me at mile 3 and I hoped to hang but that only lasted a few steps before letting him go. I ran solo for a few miles before getting passed by Tim Snow. For those of you not in the triathlon scene, Tim, a former pro-triathlete, is a strong runner and I jumped in behind him. We started picking up the pace a little and picking off runners.

Just like last year, I started warming up and tossed my gloves to my parents who were cheering around mile 6.

Note: This might be the last picture you see of me with a beard. Tim's comment around mile 7 asking me how old I was plus my friend's daughter's comments earlier that weekend are to blame.

Photo courtesy of Richie Blake

First to Rich's daughter Anna comment. While over his house with Kendra, I went to the bathroom. While I was gone, Anna asks Kendra:  Where'd your daddy go? In regard to me! Kendra, who I am training to qualify for the Boston Marathon, is THREE months younger than me!

Then at mile 7, Tim asked how old I was. 32 I replied, to which he responded: Oh my god you look so much older than that. I mean, errr, I just thought you were older.

And out come the clippers.

Anyway back to the race. Tim and I ran together until mile 10 where the wind picked up and so did his pace. We passed through 10 in 59:05 which was 10 seconds faster than last year's time. Unfortunately, unlike last year where I held strong, I fell apart running 2 of my slowest miles of the day. I pulled myself together for the last mile, but still came up about 11 seconds short of beating last year's time.

But the weekend was not a tragedy! I finally made it to the Whaling Museum where I learned(and likely already) forgot a lot about whales, whaling and ships. For instance, did you know that a blue whale's(which happens to be the largest animal in the world) throat is only about the size of a basketball. Jonah wouldn't have had to worry about getting swallowed by one of those suckers.

Also, in addition to the old favorite of Antonio's which we did for lunch, we found a great Portuguese restuarant in Tiverton, RI for dinner. Where I ate copious amounts of delicious food.

While not the race I was hoping for, it wasn't a disaster and the weekend was a fun one.

Up Next:
Ironman South Africa March 29th(Amber)
St. Louis Marathon April 11th(Danny)