Race Information

• Name: Pelham Half Marathon
• Date: November 25, 2023
• Distance: 13.1 (actually 13.2) miles
• Elevation Gain: 579 feet
• Location: Pelham, NY
• Website: pelhamhalf.org
• Time: 1:53 (8:37/mile)

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Sub 2	Yes
B	Sub 9 min/mile pace	Yes

Splits

Mile	Time
1	8:37
2	8:55
3	8:26
4	8:31
5	8:44
6	8:43
7	8:41
8	8:37
9	8:29
10	8:37
11	8:43
12	8:26
13	8:34
14	8:11 pace

51:58 for first 6 miles, 51:33 for second 6 miles (I guess that’s negative splits…)

Background

I started running in 2018 at the age of 28 with the Zombies, Run couch to 5k program, then “graduated” to the regular Zombies, Run app. When Covid hit, me and a couple others decided to sign up and start training for a half marathon that was supposed to be in September 2020. That got canceled, but we still ran the distance together. My time was 2:04.

Since then I have been inconsistently running, but this past summer my wife and I decided to sign up for the Long Island State Parks summer run series to get back into it. The series consists of mostly 5ks with a few longer runs and a horrible 1 mile beach run where half of it is on loose sand. After that I decided to sign up for the Pelham Half since it’s local, fit with my training schedule and seemed like a good first official half.

Training

I decided to use the 12 week Hal Higdon novice 2 plan, which is mostly about mileage. On a typical week I would run 3-5 miles Monday-Wednesday and then do my long run on Friday. I also rock climbed in the gym and occasionally outside around 3 days per week. I fortunately didn’t get sick or hurt, so I completed every training run.

The plan calls for a 5k race in week 6 and a 10k race in week 9. I didn’t sign up for actual races, but I did try to run at a 5/10k race pace. I ended up setting my PR in the 5k at a 7:58/mile pace and a PR in the 10k at a 8:44/mile pace. At this point I was pretty confident in the sub 2 hour half marathon goal.

A big motivation for training was weight loss. I’m a 5’10” male who was pushing 190 lbs and I was pretty down about it. My main source of fun is rock climbing, which is easier when you aren’t gaining weight. Also buying bigger pants sucks. So while training I also decided to focus on losing weight with a target weight of 165 lbs. I used the MyFitnessPal app to track my calories and lost 25 pounds over 4 months! I am now the lightest I’ve been since college.

I didn’t drink a lot of alcohol to begin with, but I drink way less now (maybe 1 per week). The added benefit of this is that even drinking 2 beers has started giving me headaches over the last few years, so no more of those. I also don’t eat nearly as much dessert as I used to. But also, tracking calories trained me to learn how much food I actually need to be full, and to be okay with being hungry if I have an hour until my next meal. I wasn’t very religious about the tracker after the first 6 weeks or so because I knew in general how much I should be eating.

I noticed as training went on, my resting heart rate dropped into the low/mid 50’s and my running heart rate also dropped. I imagine this happened from a combination of getting in better shape, weight loss and the weather cooling down. It meant that I could run faster at a comfortable pace.

I enjoyed this training block, but got worried as the race got closer because my legs felt so dead. The taper corresponded with Thanksgiving week though, which was awesome. Built in carbo-loading plus my parents visiting meant it was easy to stop thinking about running so much.

Pre-race

I woke up at 5am, ate a bagel and a banana and my wife and I drove 1 hour to Pelham to pick up our bibs at 6:30. We met up with my cousin there, who signed up to run the corresponding 10k with my wife.

It was cold, with temps hovering right around freezing. I knew I’d warm up as the race went on so I went with a long sleeve tech shirt with a short sleeve shirt over it, a beanie, thin gloves and shorts. I’m terrible about stretching and warming up, so I just jumped around a bit to get hyped. It was a fairly small race (361 finishers), so I lined up close to the front.

Race

My plan was to start at an 8:55/mile pace and drop down to 8:45/mile as the race went on if my body let me. Apparently the stars aligned because mile 2 was the only one where I hit 8:55 and the rest of the miles were below 8:45.

I used my Apple watch to monitor my pace and realized after mile 1 I was a little too fast so I slowed down in mile 2 to what I wanted. But that felt slow and I was having fun running with the group I was in, so I decided to go a little faster. I figured I could always back off later if I needed to.

I took off the gloves and hat around mile 3. If I was still too warm I’d pull up my sleeves and put them back down when I got cold again.

Around mile 4 I started to get a small cramp which never happened during training, but it went away as I ran through it.

By mile 10 I started feeling my left hamstring, which had been nagging me a bit in training, but just ran through it. By mile 11 my hips were sore.

The course was really fun. It was hilly but not soul-crushing. Mile 12 was gently downhill and I felt like I would be able to finish strong.

The last half mile began with a hill and I thought they were going to be cruel and make the finish completely uphill. But the final 0.2 miles were actually downhill! My wife and cousin found two separate spots to cheer for me near the end, which gave me a huge boost. When I saw the finish as I crested the hill I got surprisingly emotional as I realized I had done it. I realized I still had energy and sprinted across the finish line, almost barrelling over the person trying to hand me my finisher’s medal.

I ended up squeezing into the top half of finishers for my age group and my gender, which I am thrilled by. During the summer races I was consistently between the second and bottom third.

Post-race

We picked up our bags, took some pictures and walked to a nearby diner for some food. My friend made an impromptu trip to visit us so we met up with him and hung out, then I collapsed on the couch. My legs were sore for about 4 days afterwards. My first run back was yesterday. It was an easy 4 miles and felt great. I signed up for my next half in April. It’s called the Baker’s Dozen half and is put on by a Donut shop. It’s a (mild) trail half that runs around where we like to go climbing, so I can’t wait!

Made with a new race report generator created by /u/herumph.