Life Of DUG: Trenton Half Marathon November 7th 2015 (4 for 4)

Yes, Heather and I have now done all four of the Trenton Half Marathons, 26 to go (in about 26 years you will figure out what that means). This years race was our slowest and fastest race to date.

How can that be, keep reading and you will find out. Since 2012 Heather and I have been running the Trenton Half Marathon. I know most of you are avid readers of LifeOfDUG, but if you happen to be a new reader, you might enjoy reading about our past Trenton Half Marathon races.

2012 2013 2014

How could we run our fastest and slowest race in the same race? First a recap of past years. Here are

our times.

2012 - 1:45:33 2013 - 1:52:44 2014 - 1:58:29

As you can see we had slowed by over 6 minutes each year. If we were going to keep this trend up we would be walking rather then running the Trenton Half Marathon. It was decided after the 2014 Trenton Half Marathon we would run 5 minutes faster each year until we got back to our 2012 time.

I know I still have not answered the question, Fastest and Slowest in the same race?

This year we ran on the A Love for Life Team. We had over 30 runners on our team many placing in

their age groups. One of the runners Tyler, who happens to be the son of Shriek and Elle had a goal of running at a pace of under 8:00 minute miles. Being 17 and on the cross country team, some might think that time was very doable, but remember Tyler had only run ten miles once (in his life) and that was the furthest he ever ran. 13.1 miles is another 30% further.

I know, I know, what about the fastest and slowest race? I am getting to that.

Heather has a lot on her plate and was not able to train as she had planned, as we got closer to race day she felt like she was going to hold us back. While the best part of running Trenton for me, is running with Heather, she said I was taking some of the enjoyment out of the race with the pressure to run faster without the time to train, so she pawned me off on Tyler. OK, OK, I am getting to that answer.

I asked Tyler if I could run with him and he reluctantly agreed, what 17 year old speedster, wants to run with some old man.

Mile 1 - 7:43
Mile 2 - 7:48
Mile 3 - 7:41
We were both felling fine, but I could tell, Tyler had plenty of gas left and I was close to max as far as speed was concerned
Mile 4 - 7:48
Mile 5 - 7:46
Mile 6 - 7:52
I was slowing Tyler down, so I pushed him to go ahead, which he did, but he stayed in eye sight. Mile 7 - 7:54
Mile 8 - 7:57
Slowly slowing down
Mile 9 - 8:13

The HILL - went for my last GU, as I pulled it out of my pocket I see Tyler and he says, "Can I have one of your GU's?" Of course I give him my last GU. That was the last I saw of my GU and of Tyler. Mile 10 - 8:01
Mile 11 - 7:59
Mile 12 - 8:00
Mile 13 - 8:02
Last .1 - 7:31 Pace
Total time 1:44:08 Almost a minute and 30 seconds faster then my fastest Trenton Half Marathon 4 years ago. Oh, and Tyler, he finished a good 4 minutes ahead of me. Making up all that time in the last 3 miles, like I said I was holding him back.

That is half the answer to the fastest slowest race.

Heather? She did great considering her training with a time of 2:00:10 about a minute and a half
slower then last year. Our slowest time. Thus the slowest and fastest race yet!

The good news we wanted to each take 5 minutes off last years time for a total of 10 minutes faster.

Last year we both did 1:58:29 x 2 = 3:56:58 This year I did 1:44:06 and Heather did 2:00:10 = 3:44:16, which means we took 12 minutes and 42 seconds off our 2014 time. Much better than our goal of 10 minutes.