New Bedford Half Marathon

 

New Bedford, MA

Sunday, March 17, 2024

First time ever running New Bedford Half.  Had originally considered racing both Shamrock Marathon this same date AND St Lawrence Marathon six weeks later.  Yeah, pretty foolhardy.  Hence the change to run NB Half as a tune-up FOR St Lawrence.

Signed up to run this just before price increased from $75 to $85 (and subsequently to $95).  I read a number of blog race reports from prior years; some mentioned wind and some didn't.  One mentioned she had a love-hate relationship with this race, partly because "it's always windy".  Of course wind is always a concern on races that have routes along the ocean.  And it would be this year.  Checking Strava race reports from last year, wind was reported as 16mph out of the West.  Maybe this year would be better?  No!  This year at race start wind was reported as 15mph out of the South.

One race report indicated that if you didn't get there by 90 minutes before race start, it would be tough to find parking.  OK, well that set the plan for me.  Got there just about 90 minutes before the start, parked for free in one of two designated city-owned parking garages, and it was just two blocks from the start/finish, and about 1/4 mile to the New Bedford YMCA for bib pickup.

Walking from parking garage on Elm St (middle of pic
between two historical buildings) to YMCA.  Neat cobblestone
street, but hopefully it's not on the race course.  It wasn't.

First stop.  Almost non-existent lines (at this point, at least)

Check-in was inside a gym at the Y, old-school style by first looking
up your bib number on a wall (kind of like years ago at Blessing)

Picked up my bib without issue, and came outside to have some drunk person stagger and throw up on the sidewalk right in front of me.  I'm guessing he's not running.

Tried and failed to find some of the Westerly area runners racing this today (Jeff V, Kate and Paul, Eileen) so just went on my own warm-up of about two miles.  Got back and changed into my singlet and racing shoes, and noticed the porta-potty line was at the back of the race queue and very long with about eight minutes to spare.  That wasn't going to work.  Saw other [male] runners going into a few pine trees up against a building.  Works for me!

Saw this house / pub along the route
during warm-up.  Kind of creepy.

Start to Mile 2:  The Tailwind

I've had horrific experiences at the start of big races where the start is corralled off (as this was on the sides) and you have to enter from the rear and mercilessly push your way forward.  Fortunately, even though there were over 1,800 starting in this race, you could enter the race line-up by crossing the starting line, so it was very easy for me to get in and be near the start.  I intentionally pushed myself back about ten rows, and as I later found out, this wasn't nearly far enough back, but hard to know where to seed yourself and I didn't want to be weaving around people in the first mile.

The downside to no corral for faster runners and allowing anyone to get on the starting line
is the guy in all black on far right swinging some type of plastic bag that we all had to weave
around.  Other than that, everyone seemed legit.

It took me five seconds from gun start to cross the line (it turned out most of my competitors finishing around me would take 12-15 seconds to reach the starting line, but obviously I didn't know that at the time).  So no issue at all with anyone in my way, except for the guy dressed in all black in above pic.

I held back my own pace as many rushed past me, feeling a little guilty that in retrospect I hadn't started further back.  Even with holding back, I was surprised when my first mile split came across as 5:48.  Oops.  I had been shooting loosely for 6-flat to low 6s (excepting the hilly miles), so while that was faster than I wanted or planned, I rationalized to myself that this wasn't terrible with the tailwind and slightly net downhill, but still needed to back off.

Mile 2 was a much more on-target split at 6:07, and then that was the end of anything on target for me.

My Strava map of the race route,
with my annotations on conditions this year

Miles 3-4:  The Hills

Hill climbs are clearly not my strength, and I repeatedly reminded myself of that fact as so many runners were passing me on the two ~100' hills in this section.  But I would be less than candid if I pretended it wasn't bothering me.  Dozens of runners passed me, and I didn't pass a single runner.  Until I passed one that was having some issue and resorted to walking up the hill.  Yeah, that doesn't count.  Just frustrating.  

What was more frustrating is that I could tell a number passing me were in my age group.  Can I catch them on the downhill?

Miles 5-9:  Holy Wind

When we turned at the top of the hill, the good news was the hill climb was over and we'd even have a net downhill for the next three consecutive miles.  Great, this is to my advantage.  But wait, we've turned into a headwind.  Of course I knew it was coming.  But I just didn't realize how much I'd struggle.  The masses that were passing me on the hill now slowed to a trickle, but I wasn't exactly making progress against those that had gone by me.

The absolute worst was Mile 9, where we along the water where the wind was just whipping off of it into our faces.  Struggle city for me as once again many runners were now passing me again, and my pace dropped off all the way to 6:56.  Ouch.

Miles 10-Finish:  Nothing Left

We turned out of the wind at the end of Mile 9, and my mind went to the similarities of Newport Half 2022, where the wind was also out of SW at even slightly stronger 17mph.  I struggled into the wind there also, but the final three wind-aided miles there were all sub-6.

Unfortunately the course layout along the ocean and the final three miles wind-aided heading north to the finish is where the similarities between the two races end.  I pushed really hard in the final miles at New Bedford, especially when I saw older runners (my age and plus) coming up on me, but in those final four miles, I couldn't even break 6:20 in a single mile.  And that's wind-aided.  That was one of my biggest frustrations about my own performance.

Final result:  Gun 1:23:40, chip 1:23:35, 266th overall of 1,829 finishers, 10th of 174 in M50-59 Age Group.  Results here.

I was surprised that in a race of this size just over an hour from my home, I never saw a single runner that I knew before or after the race.  (Exception:  watching Paul and Kate J finish, but I couldn't find them afterwards).  Not a reflection on the race of course, but just surprising.  Heading in the opposite direction (west) from home for 1 hour to New Haven, I probably encounter 30 runners I know (and same before I even ran for the Mohegan Striders).

What went well:

• Registration:  easy.  (Although I prefer RunSignup to Race Roster)
• Parking:  FREE, easy, and very close to start/finish.
• Packet pickup:  Simple and quick.
• Race start:  punctual.
• Race course marshals:  virtually impossible to go off course.
• Race course traffic:  non-existent.  Streets were either closed entirely, or at least closed in runners' direction of travel lanes.
• Race shirt:  I'd wear it.  Solid black with a single sponsor on back.
• Finishing:  Similar to Blessing, your name and town are announced as you finish.

What could have gone better:

• Porta-jons at start/finish:  Would have been nice to have some out in front of start line instead of using bushes just before race.
• Race website:  Could be better organized, and provide more information on food at YMCA, age groups, any award ceremony?, course elevation profile, link to last year's results, etc.  Clicking on "Race Details" gives you results for 2022 only (update:  they finally added a tab "2024 Results")
• Food at finish line:  bottled water (not good for the environment) and sliced oranges (no complaints there).  That's it for a half-marathon?  I found out later after I left that there was "bagged food" available 1/4 mile away at the YMCA, but there is zero mention of this on their website, FB, or the one communication e-mail sent pre-race.
• Results:  Not available until an hour after I crossed the finish line, and at that, difficult to find.
• Hills:  This is just a subjective comment of course, but I'm not a fan of the hills at Miles 3, 4, and 13, each about 100' gain.
• 10K split:  This is just plain false.  Reminds me of the Providence Marathon half split year, which wasn't even close to accurate, since it was placed in the wrong spot on course.  I suspect the same here:

  

  36:23 (5:52 pace) - sounds pretty impressive for me in the middle of a HM.  Not even close.
  My Strava post shows me at 39:01 (6:16 pace)
  ---
  I'm not sure what state "RH" is (highlighted).  I'll let that one go,
  but not the 10K split.

  
  

Bib and medal are fine.  Nice to have personalized bib.

Overall I was disappointed with my own race.  I didn't sulk or throw a temper tantrum, but I had just expected to both run faster (maybe 1:21:xx) and place better.  Yes, it was windy, but it was windy for everyone else too, and it was even windier at Newport where I ran 1:19:46.  I take a modicum of relief when I look at the M60-69 (where I'll be in four months) and see I would've won that outright.  Moving on.  This was a tune-up race, after all.