Run to Win

This race review was provided by my wife, Erin Moore.

The Maine Coast Half Marathon: 600 women and One Lucky Guy

The second annual running of the Maine Coast Half Marathon got under way at 9:00 this morning. The weather was perfect for running and overall the day was as enjoyable as it was challenging. However, this young race has considerable room for improvement. The race drew 601 finishers, 600 women… and One Lucky Guy.

The Course

This 13.1 mile course wound through the beautiful area of York Village and included picturesque landscapes, the sound of the waves hitting the sand and a not insignificant number of hills! The race began with a semi-circle around York High School, but once we turned out of the driveway, the rolling hills began to challenge runners right away. However, having trained for hills thanks to my husband choosing many of my training routes, I found the hills quite manageable.
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• This week last year, Scott and I began a new monthly series on alternate exercises. Scott’s introductory article was about walking your dog, which is good for both you and the pooch. Since last year I have started training with a few guys that have trained their dogs to run with them, and they’ll lope along beside us for 18 to 20 miles with no problems.
• In running news, there was a story about a couple of runners with autism who get so excited about racing that they can’t be told they are running until the morning of the race. The biggest difficulties are finding guides who can keep up with them, reigning them in since they have no concept of whether they are running 1 mile or 10 kilometers, and getting them to stop after they cross the finish line.
• The Maine Coast Half Marathon was announced, a women only event with a twist. There was a lottery to be the “One Lucky Guy” who got to run the race with all of the women, with the proceeds from the lottery going towards a scholarship to a local runner graduating from York High.
• This week two years ago was a busy one:
  • Marathoning was foremost on my mind. I discussed how there are three ways to recover from a marathon as well as pointing out a few extra marathon recovery tips. In a slightly more whimsical fashion, I refuted the idea that running a marathon is tougher than giving birth.
  • In the hardware department, I considered buying some Vitruvian Running Shoes, which are mail order only. They have a really good return policy and the owner is very helpful and personable.
  • A great way to see how well your training is going is to measure your resting heart rate and to track it over time.
  • I wrote about Sunday runs, explained a friend’s theory about how running on a team is like being in World Ware II.

The New Bedford Half Marathon in Massachusetts was this morning. It is the first of seven races in the USATF New England grand prix racing series. The temperature was in the high 30s with some strong wind but not as strong as in years past. It was much stronger at 9:30 in the morning than it was at race time.

The course is pretty flat, with some hills in the first few miles and one decent sized hill over the last mile of the race. There are 4 or 5 miles of (mostly) gentle downgrade in the middle of the course. Those miles correspond with when the wind is at your back, but it comes straight into your face from mile 9 through most of the rest of the run.

There were 1666 runners this year. Derese Deniboba won with a time of 66:29, almost 2 minutes ahead of New Balance Boston’s Ryan Carrara.

Ethan Hemphill led the Dirigo runners, outsprinting a few competitors to finish 11^th in 69:45. I rounded out the scoring for our team as the 5^th man in 76:31.

Heidi Westerling led the women’s race, finishing 65^th overall and winning with a time of 74:30. She passed me about 4 or 5 miles into the race. Molly Taber came through in 5^th for the women with a time of 77:16 for her warmup for the Olympic Trials in April. She ran the majority of the middle miles with me, but decided not to let me break the wind for her in the back stretch and fell back a little.

The Boston Athletic Association dominated in the team race, winning the men’s race with a combined time of 5:47:57 and the women’s race in 3:49:47. Scores are the aggregate time of the first 5 runners on a team for the men’s race and the first 3 runners on a team for the women’s race. The men’s team won by about 9 minutes and the women’s team won by about 5 minutes.

Dirigo finished 5^th overall, following the Merrimack Valley Striders by only 30 seconds. Our combined time was 6:02:28.

(Full Results)

The recap for what I wrote this week last year is a little late this week, but I decided that a weekend off now and again is a good thing and went down to Boston to visit the circus. There was a lot that happened this weekend, between the heat and debacle at Chicago to the Maine Marathon and Half Marathon. This week last year, there was also a lot of racing news…

• My favorite DIII college team was ranked 23^rd in the nation after RIT placed 2^nd at the Geneseo Invitational. Across the planet, there was the Phedippidations world-wide half-marathon, which is taking place this weekend this year. In local racing, there was also the Presidential Road Race in Kennebunkport and Craig’s Cup 5k cross country race.
• Speaking of the Craig’s Cup 5k and the World Wide Half, I used those races as preparation for the New York City Marathon to great effect. I began the day with a 5k cross country race, which I then ran home from. I guestimated where the half-marathon mark would be for the world wide half and ran a 16 mile cool down all told, which brought me to over 20 miles on the day. I think that this workout was one of the best ones that I had leading up to New York City before I began my taper.
• I explained the difference between active and passive rest and why it matters to your workouts. In a slightly more opinionated vein, I shared my thoughts on banditing races, and attempted to explain why I run.
• I discovered that RIT does not hold the transcontinental record for running from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It turns out that one of my current teammates ran the relay a couple of decades ago in a faster time. It is a moot point anyway; the Guinness Book of World Records thinks that the activity is too dangerous to encourage and no longer lists it. Because running for a couple of weeks is so much more dangerous then spending your life being so overweight that you can’t fit through your door to leave your room.
• This week two years ago, I shared a story about Bobby Martin, a legless football player that was ejected from a game for not wearing knee pads. I also shared some tips about working out in inclement weather.

Don’t forget that today is the final day to enter my contest for a gift card good for 180 mp3 downloads. You can enter simply by leaving a comment on the site; I will be choosing a winner by random drawing this evening.

Lisa Sabin is a personal trainer, and she hired me to write about her program over at Konamoxt where she is offering to train people online for free to get them ready for the Las Vegas Half Marathon.

By joining this introductory program you get access to exclusive features, personalized training and support, tons of useful articles and information to take your running to the next level, a pre-race party where you’ll meet fellow athletes, and membership in an active community of athletes who share your passion.

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The Maine Coast Half Marathon is a new race this September that only allows registration from women. Registration is capped at 1500 women and one man.

If you want to be well and truly girled, here’s the perfect opportunity. The first Maine Coast Half Marathon at York, scheduled for Sept. 23, is a women-only event. Except for one guy, to be chosen by random lottery, from among the base population who put up $10 each in hopes of being the Lucky One. (The money goes to a scholarship for a deserving runner graduating from York High.)
[...]
“We’ve had mixed reactions to the idea,” says race director/Loco owner Mike St. Laurent. “Some guys are all over it. Some don’t want to be beaten by all those women. But a half marathon in South Dakota asked for permission to use the idea, which I though was kinda nice.”

I think that this is a great idea. I am trying to talk my wife into running the race; if she does then I am going to register for the lottery. If I win the lottery, then I can run the race with her and spend a lot of time amongst all the ladies. If I don’t win the lottery (which I probably wouldn’t) then I can bring my camera and get some good race photos throughout the course. Now I just need to talk her into registering for the race…

(Sources: Maine Sunday Telegram - Loco Running)

Two years ago, I ran the Mystic Places Marathon. It was one of my favorite marathons that I have run to date, and I figured that I would run it again some day when I was closer to my goal of running one in all 50 states.

Last year, the Mystic Places Marathon was renamed to the Mystic Country Marathon and Niantic Bay Festival.

This year, they have cancelled the marathon. Rather than a marathon and 10 mile race offered in tandem that go throughout town and into many different neighborhoods, they are putting on a two loop half-marathon that stays within the park in conjunction with a 5k that also stays within the park.

Here is the email that I received from the race director:
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The Eastern States 20 Miler and half marathon was today. Temperatures were in the low to mid 40s with a slight but negligible headwind. Casey Carroll outsprinted Kibrom Temeslo over the last few miles to win in 1:54:51. Megah Doshi of the Greater Boston Track Club posted an impressive 12 minutes over 2^nd place to win the women’s division. Casey Moulton, who holds the 20 mile course record, won the half marathon in 1:07:57. Leslie Dillon won her first half-marathon in 1:26:48. There were 507 finishers in the 20 miler and 184 half-marathon finishers.

I really enjoyed this race. They do a lot of things right, despite a few difficulties here and there. The course has a few small hills early on and one late in the course, but it is basically flat the entire way. There are a few trestle bridges over the first few miles that are difficult to run across, and late in the race traffic is very close when crossing another bridge. Quite a bit of the course has a steep camber, but a few places have a bit of a shoulder that you can run on instead of the road.

The race has some amazing views along the way. A lot of the race goes through some neighborhoods, but there are plenty of ocean views as you get along. The entire race is along the coastline, the closer to Massachussetts that you get, the more ocean that you can see as you are running.
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