Kicking Off 2022

Well, its official 2022 race season is underway. As has been my tradition for the last 5 years (excluding 2021 when it was canceled) I have started my years at the Hyannis Marathon/Half-Marathon/10k. Having done my first to ever marathons at this race it holds a special place in my heart and is always a great early season event to get the race legs going. This year I was just doing the half-marathon as a ramp-up to Boston and to gauge where my fitness is at after a long winter.

Weather at this race is always a toss-up – on my previous 3 times running it, I have gotten monsooned on twice and gotten near perfect running weather the other (50, sunny, no wind). This year was a little in between, temps were in the mid-30s with a persistent 15-20mph headwind for the first 7-8 miles that just sucked the energy out of you.

So on to the race. Trying to stay warm I waited until the last second to hurry out to the start line. This proved to be a mistake as I got stuck in the back with the 7:30min/mile pace group and found myself weaving in and out of people for the first half-mile. After that, it opened up (attendance was down about 50% this year to 500 half-marathoners) and I found myself mostly pacing with the 10k runners for the first few miles. When they turned off I was all on my own from there and never saw another runner until the half and 10k courses met back up with 2 miles to go. The wind was brutal along the coast it just felt like I was dragging a bag of sand behind me, but I did my best to keep my head down and arms in to be as small of a target as possible. Fuel wise I took absolutely nothing – seriously not a gel, not even a sip of water at the aid stations.

Overall I felt strong throughout the race although I definitely back off on the second half with no one around to really push me and realize that with the wind this was not a PR kind of day. I even for once casually jog/walked across the finish line rather than sprinting to the finish. To be honest, I was expecting to be somewhere in the top 10 overall and assumed that there was a breakaway group out front, so I was shocked when Amanda told me that she thought I was 2nd of the half-marathoners.

While I was a couple of minutes behind my PR (set on this course in perfect weather in 2020), Amanda was right and I finished 2nd/412. *Well behind the winner and over a minute ahead of third*.

Great confidence boost heading into the season and as I count down to Boston … 45 days…