Sunday, November 4, I ran the Manchester City Half Marathon. This is the first non-Maine race I have run since starting this blog.
It was a very interesting race. I finished in 1:48:32 (8:17 pace), ten minutes slower than my last half marathon one month ago. It had more hills than the October race, I gained a few pounds since then, and have not run as much. However, I “sand-bagged” a lot of this race. I had a “good time” in the sense that it was fun, but I could have run faster.
Dad also ran this race. I started with Dad, and toyed with the idea of running the whole race with him. He encouraged me to run it on my own. I stayed with him for the first mile or so. We covered it in 9:36. Dad said his ultimate goal was two hours, and if the whole 13.1 miles were run at the pace we covered mile one, the time would be 2:05:45. Dad ended the race in 2:16:20 for a 10:25 pace.
The first mile was fun. Troy got a few nice pictures of Dad and me together. Hopefully I can get a couple and post them, or maybe Troy will post them on his VOX page – hint hint 🙂
I thought the rest of the race was fascinating. I arrived at mile two at 17:51, passing quite a few people. It took 8:15 to cover mile two. Most people were running around 9:00 minute miles over the first two. I seemed to cruise by people until mile six. Here are interesting numbers:
Mile, Time I covered it, Average pace of other runners at that point
1, 9:36, 9:36
2, 8:15, 8:56
3, 8:04, 8:38
4, 7:54, 8:27
5, 8:18, 8:25
6, 7:35, 8:17
7, 8:33, 8:19
8, 8:03, 8:17
9, 8:23, 8:18
10, 7:57, 8:16
11, 8:10, 8:15
12, 8:28, 8:16
13, 7:56, 8:15
Mile seven was the first mile I ran slower than others. I was passing people every mile except seven, nine, and twelve! I like my Garmin Forerunner 305 watch, and the information it provides.
My next race will not be until next year!
Mile 9:
Mile 10:
Finish:
Mainrun's Blog 