Bay Breeze Half Marathon Race Report

Around mile 10

Brazen Racing's Bay Breeze Half Marathon (a very well organized event).  Not a whole lot to write.  The course is flat (apx 150 ft climb!), runs along the bay in San Leandro and is a pure out and back on 75% gravel, 25% pavement.  Just 6 days after racing the American River 50k, I was on another (FASTER) start line again.

I opted at the last minute to wear my new Pearl Izumi Streaks and was pleased with them for the most part, though I ended up with several painful blisters under the balls of my feet (the last 4 miles were good ultra pain training).  It's not the fault of the shoes but rather mine for not snugging up the laces before the start; they were flopping around like house slippers.

600 or so of us got underway at 8am and I settled into 3rd, keeping the lead guy about 30 feet in front of me.  He looked really smooth and comfy for the first two miles, so I had no intention of racing him but instead just maintain my goal pace of 6:13 for as long as possible.  I hit the first mile right on 6:13, the second at 6:19, and figured I'd be slowing off the pace throughout the race until slogging the last mile in 8:00 pace.  I passed the second guy just as we crossed the two mile mark, then caught and passed the lead guy at 2.25 miles.  He didn't seem to latch on when I passed and I didn't really increase speed much.  When I noticed he dropped back anyway, I picked it up a bit to get back under 6:13 effort.  When I hit the turnaround and saw I only had a 27 second lead I turned it on a bit more, running mile 7 in 5:55 to give me a little more cushion.  The rest of the race I mostly focused on holding a decent stride and form and holding a sub 6:13 avg pace.  I finished up 1st in 1:21:02 for a 6:11 average pace, which surprises me a bit since I do most of my training at 7-8 min pace and thought for certain my head would pop if I tried to run low 6s for 13 miles. I just got lucky this time.  Results here

Garmin Data:


I talked with Sam from Brazen Racing for a bit, then headed out to nurse my hideous blisters that basically crippled me for the entire day yesterday too.

Notes:
1. Need to drop around 3 pounds before the season really gets underway (somehow without giving up Monster burgers and sweet potato fries).
2. Enjoyed running in light shoes and didn't really notice the lack of cushion.
3. It would be amazing if Inside Trail had 1,700 participants at an event some day.