Fairfield Half Marathon Race Report

Today was the Fairfield Half Marathon in Fairfield (duh), CT. This race is billed as a challenging one - and from what I'm told by some veterans of the race - a HOT one. Today's race lived up to that description 100%.

Pre-Race
Based on the email from the race and stories from running friends about parking - I decided that I needed to get up and get going this morning. I was asleep last night by 9:45 easily (even asleep before my six year old) - so waking up at 5am today was not an issue. I even woke up before the alarm went off which I think made my wife happy. Cup of coffee (gotta wake up - and get things....well umm...moving), a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and a big glass of water. Since I had packed my bag the night before there was very little to do but just get my sleepy ass out the door. One good thing about being on the road (especially 95 in the New Haven area) at 5:45 am is there is NO traffic and if you have ever driven through New Haven 5:45am seems to be the only time EVER that this happens. Getting to Jennings Beach was very easy and even though I got the parking lot at 6:10am I was not alone. Seems like many people made the trip early to get the prime parking at the beach parking lot. I took advantage of the fact that I was early and went to the clean porta-potties (I wont go into the details of what went on in there). After I picked up my number/chip, and my tech shirt I went back to the car to wait. Then, what ended up being my 1st of many trips back, I headed to the porta-potty to pee. Seems like I had a case of nervous bladder - or - I was perfectly hydrated so anything I took in pushed that much out - not sure which, but I'm leaning towards nervous bladder. Although I had to keep going, I made sure to keep taking in fluids. (at Branford Road race last week - I was a slacker with fluid intake). Around 7:45 I went out for an easy mile warm up run along part of the course. I was going to meet up with Bob and other DailyMilers for a picture at 8am but once again - had to "go". The lines were really long at this point, but I was able to finish and get to the start with a few minutes to spare. I was able to find some Milford Road Runner friends at the start and lined up with them. (at this point I still have no pacing plan for the race - just wanted as even as possible). Temperature at this point is already 80 with humidity around 80% and no substantial clouds to speak of.

Race
Even though there were seperate starts for the men and the women - the start was very crowded. Since I had no real plan, I started pretty far back - and maybe a little too far as I had to do quite a bit of passing and jockying around people to find a spot to run in. I passed wisely and tried not to add too much distance by moving too much laterally. Right around a 1/2 mile in things eased up a bit and I was able to settle into a pace. I had yet to look at my Garmin as I was trying to let my body find the pace instead of me tinkering and searching for it based on what the Garmin said. As I came up to the 1st mile marker I felt I had a good pace going - just to the comfortable side of uncomortable. Garmin beeped exactly at the first mile mark - 8:03. Since I seemed to found a pace/effort that I was happy with I totally shut off my brain for most of the rest of the race. The only thing I tried to focus on were (in order) a) staying hydrated and cool b) my running form and c) the hills (and there were quite a few to think about). The first main hill came around mile three - as I came up to it I thought of The Running Laminator's post on how to run hills. It came in handy - thanks Lam! Since I skipped the first water station that was around mile 2 - I was sure to grab a sip of water at the stop after mile three. A lot of people were out with their hoses, fire trucks spraying water - and I definetly took advantage. Over the next few miles there were quite a few spectators cheering us on, and kids to give high fives to - which helped keep me moving along. Brain was still mostly shut off until somewhere between miles 7 and 8 (I think - it could have easily been mile 9) I could hear Hendrix's Foxy Lady. The band from last week's Branford race was at this one too - as I came by them they went into Purple Haze (same song I heard last week) - which really snapped me awake and I started to pick it up a little. There were two little smaller hills around mile 10 but they did their damage. Around mile 11 I slipped back into my "dead brain" running. Even though I was zoned out - I still had enough wits to keep getting water throughout the race - 1/2 the cup got drank, 1/2 got dumped on my head. I stayed in this fog right until the very end when I heard Betsy yell out my name. I was so happy to see a friendly face - then as I ran into the parking lot I was so happy to see the finish line. Got my finishers medal and started to stagger to get some water.

Post Race
I couldn't hang out long after the race today - my Dr. Wife had some expierements in the lab to attend to and science experiments do not care that I had a race today. So - I got my water, headed to the beach for something sweet to drink and something to eat. Headed back to the car - got changed into some dry clothes and headed back home. Recovery started at Archie Moore's with some fried mozarella, a Bar Burger (bacon and sauteed onions mmmmmm) and most importantly a Guinness.

Overall a really good time today, a well paced race by me (my first in a long time) and a great way to end the first six months of the year. Garmin did read 13.19 miles for today so I did do a little extra running at some point. Today was the ninth race of the year for me - last year I did a total of nine. I plan on resting tomorrow - and then start focusing on getting ready for Philadelphia Marathon training - which starts July 18th.

Garmin Stats:
Total disance: 13.19 miles
Total time: 1:46:28
Average pace: 8:04

Splits
8:03
7:44
8:00
7:53
8:15
8:18
8:31
7:50
8:03
8:10
8:14
8:00
7:54
1:27 (for .19 miles @ 7:31 pace)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/38343765