A nor'easter blew through our patch of Massachusetts this weekend, bringing heavy rain and some wind. Fortunately the rain hadn't begun by early Saturday. It was one of those eerily quiet pre-storm mornings, fully overcast but with an unusually high cloud deck. Somewhere up there were the storm's furious winds, but down in our valley it was calm, damp but rainless. Early morning sunlight shown horizontally beneath the clouds, giving the forest a faint blueish tint.
The run on the menu was another 14 miler, similar to last week, but adding one more mile to the tempo section. I could not get what felt like an accurate read on the gps watch, which I think could be explained by all the turbulent clouds between me and space. I didn't quibble about the 9:30s it claimed I was running, since I felt strong and I'm sure a little extra distance couldn't hurt.
I decided to pace the tempo section by feel: 28 minutes @ half-marathon pace. I noted landmarks as best as possible with the hope of reconstructing my route in google pedometer later to get accurate distance+time. Almost all the tempo was done on bike-trail, with just a little bit along roadway at finish.
SPLITS
- 0:00 START (est 2.5mi from roundabout. I passed a sign "2.4mi to roundabout" 56s in).
- 17:08 ROUNDABOUT
- 28:00 FINISH (1.56 mi from roundabout).
Distance from roundabout<->finish is pretty reliable, because both were easy landmarks. That works out to 6:51 pace on the first stretch of bike trail, and 6:58 pace on the 2nd stretch. I did start fading on that final section, which was mildly uphill compared to the mild downhill leading into the roundabout.
All in all a good effort, with no particular nagging pain. The tempos are certainly helped by all the nearby bike trail, which is very straight and flat (even that mild rise in the 2nd split above barely counts as anything). But the Newburyport is not reputed to be a very hilly half, so hopefully it's good race specific training.
