Malden Half
Malden, MA - March 2019
Unpopular opinion: most fun running race I’ve ever done. Allow me to explain… the inaugural Malden Half’s race course was shot down by local officials, so they improvised a 5 loop course (of 2.5 mile loops) that started with a short out and back. I LOVE looped running courses. I didn’t officially begin running until the end of January 2019. Prior to that, each time I showed up at an SGR (BTT’s Sunday Group Runs) became the longest I had run to date. That same run also became my weekly mileage because my legs were generally too sore to do much in the following days. Given this, the way loops break down the mental component of racing initially appealed to me.
Over the winter, I hired a local triathlon coach to help me learn how to run and provide some structure to my training sessions. After a successful 6 week build up into Malden, we constructed a conservative race plan that had me opening at 7:25 pace and gradually walking it down to 7:00 pace. That plan quickly fell apart. Two of my teammates and I were last in line for the Port-O-Potties at the race start and we missed the start gun. Rather than fight through the crowd to the appropriate pace groups, we waited a couple of minutes at the start of the race before setting off. This plan proved perfect, as we avoided the early bottleneck that happens as people get moving and try to settle into a pace. It also meant that my own pace became rather sporadic, loosely mirroring a series of “openers” to warm-up my legs. Once we made it to the loop, I found some clean road and realized that I felt great. I spent the first two loops feeling smooth and fresh hovering around 7:05 pace. I gave a thumbs up to my coach after each lap and shouted some nonsense at him that there’s no way he understood. Heading into lap three, I dipped my pace just under the 7:00 mark and was met with a rush of nervous excitement as I head into the unknown. I was officially running longer and faster than I ever had before.
My initial decision to start late paid another dividend in the beginning of lap four. I was still working my way through the field at this point, which meant I still had the added motivation of chasing and passing people to keep my mind off of the work I was doing. I decided to drop my pace ten seconds each mile for the rest of the race. As I made my way into the final turn before the uphill finish, emotion overcame me as the immense progress I had made with running hit me for the first time. I hit the start of the finishing hill and kicked hard into a sprint finish.
