El Dorado Half Marathon - April 1, 2023

One of my top priorities after moving to Wichita, Kansas, from New Jersey was to find a marathon in a neighboring state.  And halfway through marathon training in Hal Higdon's Intermediate II program, the instruction is to run a half-marathon.  For that, I found a race in nearby El Dorado, a cute little town that we had visited when Gloria and I came to check out the area in 2021.

On the evening before the race, I went to El Dorado to pick up my packet and bib and to drive the course; or at least as much of it as possible, as some of it was on a trail in El Dorado State Park.  In addition, I used the course map to write down every turn, just in case things were not marked well.

I felt pretty confident on race day.  I had no plans for a PR or anything too crazy, but a solid sub-7-minute pace was definitely on the agenda.  There were 70 half-marathon runners (as well as 37 5K runners), so I planted myself in the front, expecting to end up behind most of the people around me but at least going out strong before settling into my pace.  

We started on Third Avenue near the train station and then proceeded North on Main Street to 12th Avenue and I hit a 6:38 for the first mile.  Excellent!  I could even slow down a bit, right?

Oh, you know me.  Off the road and onto the trail leading to the park I did another 6:38, putting myself in the top 10. Some turns along the path led me over the small river and into the park proper with a 6:27 third mile and a 6:38 fourth mile.  The fifth mile brought me to a road beside the lake and a legitimate hill.

A hill!  Here in Kansas!  It had been months since I had run on hills - something I had left behind in New Jersey - and here I was running up a 100-foot incline.  Back in Jersey, that was something I could do with no problem, and maybe I could have mustered up the muscle memory to do it here in Kansas.  But there is one thing in the Midwest that I had not gotten used to yet - the constant, relentless wind.

My fifth mile was 6:59.  Continuing up the hill, I hit a 7:17 for mile six.  A turn onto Myers Road to head out of the park (with a beautiful vista of all the nothingness that I love about Kansas) kept the wind and the hill coming, giving me a 7:16 seventh mile.  

Finally turning onto Main Street after a descent and a 7:02 eighth mile, though I had briefly gotten myself into third place, I had now secured a spot in fourth.  But more importantly, it was time to do some math.  With a 54:59 elapsed time, I suddenly felt like just finishing with a sub-7 pace (which would put me at a 1:31:33 finish time) was not enough.  I wanted to finish in less than 90 minutes.  That meant I had 35 minutes to run 5.1 miles.  

Every mile had to be several seconds under seven minutes and the flat straightaway in mile nine gave me the chance to kick it back into gear.  Catching up to the third place runner, 20-year-old Paul Cornwell, I made up some time with a 6:34 as I told him, "I'm not trying to make a move to pass you," because I knew damn well I could not, "I just want to get in under 90 minutes."

I had about 28 minutes to go four miles, so all I needed to do was keep them at sub-7.  We turned onto McCollum road and did a bunch of turns throughout the residential neighborhood.  I clocked a 6:53 for mile 10 and 6:50 for mile 11.  Paul was long gone ahead of me, but keeping up with a guy half my age was not the goal.

Turning off of Country Club Road onto 12th Avenue with a 12th mile of 6:46, I got back on Main Street, pushing with all my might to get that sub-90 finish with time to spare.  I hit mile 13 with another 6:46 and an elapsed time of 1:28:50, leaving me well over a minute to do the final tenth of a mile.  I turned the corner onto Third Avenue and finished with a final time of 1:29:19 (6:48 pace) and a fourth place overall finish.

Photo by Brandi Lake

It was my first public half-marathon since 2017 and my fastest half-marathon since 2018.  I won my age group and I met some great Kansans and a Coloradan.  Sure, there are no more PRs, but there are some amazing things that can still happen for me at races.  I am excited to see where that takes me in my new home state.

Photos by Daniel Galioto

Visit eldoradohalf.com for the full results and lots of photos.

Baker's Dozen Half Marathon - Montclair, NJ - Aug. 8, 2020

The pandemic has not, and will not deter me from my usual training cycles, and if that means all of my races are going to be my myself, then so be it.  It was never supposed to be about competing against other people or winning age group medals anyway.  Admittedly, it had been getting like that in recent years, with my ego running away with itself sometimes.  But in the end, it has always about me and the clock - setting personal records and training to perform at my best on race day.

Now, with my days of PRs behind me and speedwork becoming more difficult as I navigate the back half of my 40s, racing for the hell of it has never been more important.  I cannot say I get much joy out of short races anymore, but the challenge of marathons is as alluring as ever. 

So I continue with my marathon training schedule, and doing so (using Hal Higdon's Intermediate Marathon training program this time) requires running a half-marathon halfway through the 18-week program. 

Rather than try to find another new course, I decided to take another stab at the Baker's Dozen in Montclair, NJ.  I had specifically trained for that race a couple of months earlier and had a tough time with it - partially because it was a warm day, but mostly because I have been burning out in the speed department as I get older. 

This time, I would have more fun with it.  It was, after all, just a stepping stone in my marathon training program rather than the endgame of weeks of training.  Plus, I knew the course a lot better, so that helped me gauge when to push and when to conserve.

My first two miles, along Forest, Claremont, and North and South Mountain avenues, were almost exactly the same as six weeks before, with a 7:11 and a 6:50 (as compared to 7:10 and 6:49).  I strategically took the loop around Eagle Rock Way and Stonebridge Road a little more slowly (7:09, as opposed to 6:49 in June), and thought I was doing the same for the fourth mile up South Mountain Avenue (7:10, though I did a 7:09 last time).

The strategy was to conserve for the steep uphill on Claremont Avenue in the fifth mile.  I did that mile also on par with last time (7:53 vs. 7:54), but this time I did not expend as much energy and that made a big difference in the rest of the race.  So instead of already feeling fatigued in the sixth and seventh miles on the rolling hills of Highland Avenue, I felt strong as I hit a 7:12 and 7:05 (where I did 7:23 and 7:08 last time).  In the next few miles along Upper and North Mountain avenues, I tried to keep status quo (7:17, 7:35, 7:26 and 7:23) averaging one second faster in these miles as I did in June; but once again, I did not feel like I needed to push nearly as hard to get there.

Even on the seven-turn twister of mile 12, I kept it relatively steady with a 7:32 (7:34 last time) but did not have (or feel the need for) quite the closing kick as I did six weeks prior, tackling the last mile at 7:24 (7:14 in June).  Still, with a finish time of 1:35:52, I somehow managed to best my previous Baker's Dozen time by 17 seconds, making it my third slowest half-marathon ever, but somehow a little more satisfying now that I have accepted that my speed game is a thing of the past.  

This attitude took me through my triumphant double sub-four-hour marathon weekend earlier this year, which now seems like a lifetime ago on a different planet.  As long as this weird new world continues to change everything we do and the way we do it, my races will continue to be less formal and more personal; and I am heading into my first marathon of the COVID era with that approach.

Baker's Dozen Half Marathon - Montclair, NJ - June 28, 2020

When this race was introduced in 2017, I could not help but wonder if a bunch of Phish fans were behind its nomenclature.  After all, Phish's guaranteed-to-be-epic 13-night run of the same name had been announced in January of that year.  Then along comes this race in the spring in Montclair - a town sure to have its fair share of phans, as evidenced when the Trey Anastasio Band played at the Wellmont Theater in 2011 and 2013.  Coincidence?

Since I never got around to running the actual race (usually in March), this year's circumstances seemed like a good opportunity to finally give the course a whirl.

Having lived in neighboring Little Falls for eight years, I know a lot of the roads in Montclair, so much of the course was on familiar ground.  The race starts and ends at the Montclair Bread Company on Forest Avenue, in the eastern side of town, but this race hits just about every area except the northeast and southeast corners. 

(Race map: https://certifiedroadraces.com/certificate/?type=l&id=NJ17550JHP)

I had written out turn-by-turn directions to take with me, which was especially helpful in the early miles.  After turning off of Forest Avenue to head west on Claremont, there was already a bit of an incline.  I took it in stride, not letting out too much effort, and hit a 7:10 for the first mile after turning left on North Mountain Avenue and crossing Bloomfield Avenue (the main drag through downtown) to continue on South Mountain Avenue.  I can imagine that the locals, especially those in cars, are probably not too fond of this crossing on the actual race days.

Training had gotten pretty bad over the past couple of weeks, especially with speed work.  Tempo runs got slower and more painful; track intervals were more labored.  But as I hoofed it down South Mountain for the second mile (6:49) things started to feel like they were going to be OK.  With a loop around the southeastern section of town, along Eagle Rock Way and Stonebridge Road, my third mile stayed strong with a 6:46, but that would be the last sub-7 mile of this race.

Retracing the path back up South Mountain and crossing Bloomfield again, I could feel the slowdown  in the fourth mile (7:09), but the worst was to come when I turned left on Claremont Avenue and climbed a 115-foot incline.  I had to take the steep hill as gingerly as possible because I knew it would knock me out beyond recovery if I did not.  So after turning onto Highland Avenue, mile five ended up being 7:54, my slowest of any half-marathon ever.

The next two miles on the rolling hills going northbound on Highland Avenue (7:23 and 7:08) were followed by a right turn on Mt. Hebron and two miles southbound on Upper Mountain Avenue (7:16 and 7:29) and a left turn on Claremont to zig the zag northbound on North Mountain Avenue for another two miles (7:28 and 7:30).

During these miles, I could not help but think about how, a year and a half ago, these splits would have been slow for a marathon, let alone a half.  How had things gotten so slow, so quickly?

Worse, a nagging pain in what I assume was my piriformis muscle (deep in my right buttock) - something with which I had suffered a few years ago - started creeping in.  All I could hope to do was maintain the pace as best as I could through the twisty-turny next mile (7:34) along Parkside, Oakcroft, Brookfield, Edgemont, Parkway, Valley and Vera.  That was a lot of turns and the paper on which I wrote the street names was rapidly turning to soaked shreds in my hand due to my profuse sweating.  It was probably more than 80 degrees by this point.

I managed to push it to 7:14 for one last mile along Midland, Chestnut, N. Fullerton, and the home stretch from Rand to Forest, finishing the race near where it started with a final time of 1:36:09, my slowest half-marathon by more than five minutes (I ran a 1:30:40 at Seaside Heights in 2008).

The year 2020 is long going to be remembered as a dividing line in a lot of ways.  In addition to life in a pre-COVID and post-COVID world, for me personally, it is the year I ceased to be a "fast" runner for my age and bumped down to "average".  My goal is to learn to live with that, without beating myself up.