With the upcoming Vermont City Marathon, I felt getting a ½ marathon
under the belt would be a good idea. I like the idea of a sustained effort for
a good duration leading up to a marathon. I searched around the running
calendar and found the Quincy Half Marathon of which I always wanted to run but
had conflicts in the past. It sort of fell into my favor this year as the race
was to be held on March 10 but was postponed due to weather and safety concerns
from the town of Quincy. I reached out to Brett Rickenbach (WCRC) last week and
he was game for the effort as he too is running VCM. Thus, we headed down to
Quincy early Sunday morning. My mind was heavy as I was sore from some piriformis
issues and some previous day yard work.
I changed my racing plan from requesting for 6:00 pace per
mile to whatever the legs would provide without embarrassment. After a 1.6 mile
warm up and stretching I was on the starting line, front row, with Brett. I
followed Brett for 200m and settled next to him by our first of many turns
together on the course. My legs felt OK, not great. The temperature warranted a
singlet up top, Native glasses to ease the potential poke of sun which was
never seen. My red and white Invo8 233’s felt smooth. Thin ragged, throw away
gloves were worn for just three miles before coming off in time for a drink of
water from the friendly water stop on Wollaston Beach. I found it comforting to
run next to Brett. He was keeping track of Garmin mile splits vs actual course
mile markers. We were averaging a low six minute pace early on while there were
about 12 runners ahead of us. The miles went by fast mentally as I think we
took the pressure off and just did our thing letting those in front pull away
as they please. We dropped those on our heels just by our consistent pacing as
we toured through downtown Quincy thanking each police officer we ran by. They
were in full force to hold up several intersections of traffic to make way for
the runners. We rolled through 5 miles
around 30:38. We took turns on Newport Ave leading into the wind, allowing the
other to tuck in. Newport Ave turned out to be longer than it seemed on paper.
Next to Brett (1034) after the start at 8:00 Photo credit Gregg Derr, The Patriot Ledger |
Quincy Half Marathon results May 5, 2013
Patriot Ledger race article
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