Baystate Half-Marathon 2:05

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Oct 222012
 

Gorgeous day for a race with wonderful crowds and mostly nice course. I do wish they had mile markers every mile as I got confused several times. I forgot to start my watch so I was at the mercy of course markings. Now, this may be considered flat by some people but it’s not smutty nose flat. God that one bridge in particular felt a little masochistic the second time around.

I started the day with intestinal distress and light nausea and almost didn’t get in the car to go. Sitting my car before the race my HR was up to 72, up about 12. During the race my HR remained high and I started to get what I call excessive heart rate nausea followed by the predictable chills. Basically I was headed into stupidville over-reaching territory. I massively pulled my pace back from 9:00 to 11:00 for the last 3 miles and walked the last water stops and then walked 2 times in the last mile. Ended up averaging 9:30 for the race.

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2012 Smuttynose Rockfest Half Marathon 2:02

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Sep 302012
 

Finished in 2:02, which is a personal best for me, 10 minutes faster than my previous best of 2:12:43 at Twin Lights Half in 2011. Still waiting for the official times to be posted but this should be within seconds of their number. This is the first race since my injury a year ago where I felt like a runner again. I guess the diagnoses of activity induced asthma was correct because using my new inhaler totally crushed the breathing problems I had 2 weeks ago at the Allstate Half Mary, even though the temperature and dew point were similar.

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Allstate Half Marathon for Autism

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Sep 162012
 

Perfect day for a race. Cool, sunny and with gorgeous views. I had a great long run last weekend and a great taper. Too bad this race turned into a total train wreck for me. Yes I finished (whoohoo) my first half marathon since I ruptured my Achilles tendon last year, so I need to hang on to that.

Course Map

But I really struggled through most of the race. The interesting thing is that my legs and body were strong the entire race, but after mile 4-5 or so I started having trouble catching my breath. By the end I could not even take a full deep breath without pain and that continued for over an hour after the race was over. Did I go out too fast in the beginning with cooler air? I just can’t explain it. Oh well, I have another half marathon in 2 weeks, so I better figure out what went wrong!

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