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My latest adventure, on June 25, 2006, was the Fairfield Half Marathon, in Fairfield CT. My two goals for this race were to finish in two hours, and to run "negative splits", meaning the
second half of the race would be faster than the first half. In my marathons, at least, I always slowed down considerably
in the second half. While this was obviously a much shorter distance, I wanted to get used to pacing myself well so
that I could remain strong throughout.
I do think I was going at a good speed up the hills. I was sweating a lot, but I felt pretty good. Unfortunatley,
there was no indication of the halfway point, so I really don't know what my time was when I reached it. I was a little
over an hour, but I don't know exactly how much. Probably it was about 1:02 or 1:03. I knew that I'd have to run
faster in the second half to break 2:00, but I didn't know how much faster.
Sure enough, I finished at 2:02:34. I missed my goal, but not by much. I'll take it. Maybe I can blame
those two and half minutes on the hills and humidity. Heck, I blamed two minutes in the New Jersey Marathon on the sun
and the temperature, so why can't I blame the conditions here as well? Hah. I guess I'm getting good at blaming
other people/things for missing my goals. But hey, since I'm missing by so little, it's not worth getting upset over
it. And besides, I'm fairly certain that I did succeed in the negative splits goal (although I can't prove it).
And I have the hills to THANK for that.
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There has been a lot of rain in this area lately, and there is more rain predicted for the next few days. But the
morning of the race was basically rain-free. And it wasn't terribly hot. But wow, it was humid. I was sweating
pretty good after only about a mile. And nobody had told me that the race course was so hilly! I was figuring
"This is by the beach, so it's gotta be nice and flat". Well, no. The start/end was at the beach, but it ran inland
and got very hilly very quickly. So between the hills and the humidity, it wasn't an easy start.
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Thankfully, because the first half was mostly uphill, the second half was mostly downhill. That made things much
more pleasant, and I really think I felt stronger in the second half than in the first. But I could tell that I wasn't
gaining enough time to make in under 2:00. Around the 10-mile mark, I officially decided to myself that I wouldn't make
2:00, but that I wouldn't be far behind. I was guessing 2:02. It wasn't much, but I knew it was too much to make
up. So I didn't kill myself to try and erase those two minutes.
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All in all, I'm pleased with the day. I felt good, and I had fun. I am very happy that my wife and my parents
came out to cheer me on, and that they were willing to sit around and be bored for the 2:02 that it took me to run.
I really appreciate the support that they show me in my hobby. It would be much less fun if I had to do this without
their support...
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