Coach P vs 2010 Hyannis Half Marathon
Time for the first race of the year; it always comes before you are ready. You might recall my
2010 goals postwhere I set the bar pretty darn high for myself. I am not a fan of mediocre goals (I think they lead you to underachieve) and I personally don’t mind missing what I set out to achieve. Getting to where you actually planned to be isn’t as exciting as ending up somewhere else you didn’t expect — sometimes different is better than, well, better.
So I had set a goal of going sub-1:20 at the Hyannis Half this year, or 6:06 pace. I knew full well going into this weekend’s race that the goal was off the table, but I was still excited to take on my long-standing PR of 1:24:30 set in 2007 (6:26 pace). I figured it would be a good close fight. It was a perfect day (after a less-than-perfect-night), and there were plenty of Endurance Nation folks on the starting line to keep me motivated!
The start was pretty clean, and I got into a groove early. I was holding around 6:25s-6:30s and cruising through the well-sheltered first 4 miles. The winds picked up around mile 6 just as the race really thinned out. I hit halfway on pace for matching my previous year’s PR, so I was psyched. Right on cue, around mile 8 I started to feel good on the hills. I somehow managed to find my stride and dialed in a few 6:15s. At mile 10 I started to pick it up, running low 6:00/miles for the last 5k.
I got in a sprint race with a dude over the last 200m as he tried to set me up twice (!) before laying down a sprint. I followed and he eased up 5 feet from the line…I called it a tie. I took a look at my watch and was blown away: 1:23:03! Awesome! Good enough for 35th out of 3500+ on the day.
I hung around to watch some of my friends and teammates finish, and even Miss M putting in a great day with a 1:54!!! Then it was off to Dunkin’ Donuts for some coffee and then back to reality with the kids.
Sitting here now I am psyched with the achievement despite less than ideal training or preparation. Work simply works; there’s nothing like setting a massive PR on less than 8 hours a week of training. Now I just gotta recover in time to get back to work on Tuesday!
Thanks to everyone for your kind words (and tweets) of support — you all rock!
~ Patrick
Comments
Wow. Nicely done. And it is early yet.
Cheers!
cm
And BOOM goes the dynamite.
Great job Patrick! Only coffee at Dunkin Donuts?
How many lbs were you spotting your sprinter compadre?
Nice work, slim.
Dave
Nicely done Patrick!
Looks like you are setting yourself up nicely for the year. Great job sticking it out the last 5K.
Leading The EN Way, a book chapter maybe. Way to go !!
NICE Race!!
P
Nice work coach!!
Hey Patrick - I'm a little late to the game - have been off the grid for most of the winter, but want to chime in and say congrats on the PR! Sounds like you had one of those elusive perfect races - well-paced, everything feels good with a few miles left, and confidence to put down the hammer and get it done in the closing miles! Way to go!