No Broken Records at Newport Liberty Waterfront Half Marathon

Having dropped my race times from 1:45 to 1:35: to 1:33 in my last several half marathons, I suppose I have been getting luck and spoiled. In reality, no one can PR ("personal record") every race, and this race was the one that brought home that hard truth for me. A final time of 1:36:12 (averaging 7:21/mile) ranks this time squarely in the middle of all the half marathons I have ever run. Four have been faster, and four have been slower. The downside is even back in 2010, when I was still a running neophyte, I raced a time faster than 1:36.

On the bright side, it was a beautiful sunny day, with the temperature hovering around 65 degrees--nearly perfect running conditions, at least for me. Plus, the race began a 20-minute walk from my apartment, which meant that I didn't have to get up until the luxurious hour of 7am. (Unlike most races, where I oftentimes have to be out the door by 5am.)

The field size was pretty perfect, as well: about 2,500 runners ran, and while the course narrowed severely in several places, I was able to chalk those instances up to training for the NYC Marathon in November, where the field size is 45,000, and I'll be running toe-to-heel in a mass of runners for the entire race.

Between miles 2 and 4, I paced off of a girl with long red hair wearing teal shorts. I thought she was going to take off ahead of me . . . but then I passed her. Around mile 5, a tall, sweaty, overly tan old man wearing a white sweatband and a yellow singlet elbowed past me. He was running at a pretty fast clip, so I ran on his heels for about three miles, until I passed him, as well.

Near mile 8 I got to high-five two little girls, at mile 11 I high-fived R___ (who very sweetly came out to cheer me on), and when I finished the race, I stood by a spectator wielding a megaphone and cheered my head off when I saw my friend T___ charging toward the finish line.

All in all, not a bad morning. Not a bad way to check off one more training run, either. Only six weeks left until the final goal: the NYC Marathon.

Results from this race:

Race Length	Finishing Time	Average Pace	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Group Place (F25-29)
13.1 miles	1:36:12	7:21/mile	272/2,639	36/1,143	12/290