With State 9 in the books, it feels good. I hadn’t had a race since April. First there was coaching, then school started, and coaching started up again. I had to find the weekends I didn’t have class and then make sure I didn’t have coaching before I could make any arrangements for my next race. It was my original goal to get the entire New England region completed but it appears it may be a challenge with the limited number of weekends I have off.
But this was great. I got to run in one of the best running cities in America. The race is organized by the group that hosts the Boston Marathon in the early spring. And with not having class this weekend or a game to coach, I had to sign up and take advantage.
Expo Review:
There wasn’t much of an expo. We picked up our racing bibs and shirts at an Adidas Running Store. I am waiting for a race where there is going to be an actual expo again. The last one that actually had an expo was Baltimore and Philadelphia. This is just a bib pick-up more along the lines of West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire.
I did venture about the store but realized I don’t want to buy anything purely because it’s Adidas! I’m a Nike go through and through, even though I never may get sponsored by them.
What was cool was these elevation map showing the elevation of the Boston Marathon.
Sneaker Review:
I wore the Nike Vaporfly 4% NYC F4%K Yeah! Version. They’re awesome. Nike did release an update version with an all flyknit upper. They had released on Thursday and I was not able to get a pair right away.
They are now my racing shoe since I got lucky on getting a few of them. I don’t train in them. I don’t have the necessary means and would have no idea how to get more other than going through eBay. They are beyond light, a carbon fiber plate to help with push-off, and testing shows that they could potentially have you run 4% through testing, and made by one of my favorite brands in the world, I’ll sport these every race.
Course Review:
The course was certainly rolling hills. There were numerous hills throughout the course and none more annoyingly placed then right after Mile 11. The hills throughout were not steep but steady graded incline. The hills, by no means, were long but mentally it challenged me because of where they were at within the course, at the beginning, a few in the middle, and at the start of the last 3 miles.
For me it just goes to show that my training plan needed to implement more hills and challenging runs throughout my training plan. The course itself was awesome. It was really scenic and the support throughout the course was great.
The water stations were timely placed and there was one right at the top of hill at Mile 11. With water stations placed every 2 miles and a CLIFF Gel station at Mile 6.
The course overall was a nice course. With a mix of rolling hills and plenty of flat, it still provided me an opportunity to run a personal best.
Closing Thoughts:
I was happy to complete State 9 in my 50 Half-marathons bucket list tour. I didn’t hit my goal time though. The goal was to get between 1:20 – 1:25 for 13.1 but I ended up at 1:28:23 (6:45/mile). I was under an hour and thirty minutes but certainly did not do well on the second half of the course. I split too fast on my first 5 miles, where I came through at 32:07 (6:25/mile) and at the 10 mile mark, where I can through at 1:06:23 (6:38/mile). But what really did me in was the last 5K, which took me 22 minutes. But there were definitely numerous factors that I believe that contributed but something I thought I could naturally get through it.
It provided me a number of takeaways as I take on the next half-marathon later this year.
- Hill runs in training
- I felt the negativities of my diet over the last few weeks, I just didn’t feel as strong as I had thought I did. I believe part of it was my diet. It was not very clean.
- Lack of sleep. Since starting school and balancing multiple jobs, the inability to consistently sleep I think added up.
The weather was great for this race. It was warmer than what I thought it would be for October in Boston, Massachusetts. I would recommend this race for a half-marathon in Massachusetts. Boston is one the best running cities in America. There are certainly a lot of great races that are held throughout the year but what’s also really exciting for me is that this course is run by the same group that puts on the Boston Marathon every spring.
Everyone should do this race. It’s a fun race. And the runner’s gifts after the medal were awesome. You got a HUGE bag of chips, pancakes, wraps, gatorades, and more! There were even donuts at the end of the race! Apple Cinnamon Donuts! So the refreshments at the end of the race alone should have all of you sign up……But.
I am ready for State 10, bring it on! Announcement coming soon because I’m running it before the end of 2018.