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Buffalo Half Marathon -Pacer

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Location:

Buffalo,NY,

Member Since:

Aug 15, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Personal Bests
  • 1500m : 4:43 (May 2001)
  • 1 mile: 5:18 (August 2012) 
  • 5k: 17:39 (December 2003)
  • 8k: 30:02 (June 2003)
  • 10k: 37:21 (November 2003)
  • 15k : 59:48 (July 2012)
  • 10 miles: 62:39 (February 2002)
  • Half-Marathon (Covered Bridges): 1:23:29 (June 2002)
  • Marathon (Wineglass): 3:04:42 (Oct 2011)
  • Half Ironman (Tupper Lake): Swim 38:19, Bike 3:01:xx (with flat tyre change), Run 1:58:xx, Total time 5:44:44 (Jun 2004)

Short-Term Running Goals:

General Goals for 2013

  • Break 3 hours as Boston
  • Mile in 5:00
  • 5k in 17:30

Results and my 'A' Races for 2013 (Click for Race Report)

  • Y-10 10 Miler (February 9)
    • Goal: 63? (honestly, no idea)
    • DNS
  • Boston Marathon (April 15)
    • Goal: 2:57
    •  Time: 3:12:46
  • Springville Stampede (May 9)
    • Goal: 18:36
    • Time: 18:28
  • Chase Corporate Challenge 3.5 (June 6)
    • Goal: 20:30
    • Time: 20:30
  • Brian Moorman PUNT Foundation Blackbird 8K (June 19)
    • Goal: 30:00
    • Time: 30:03
  • Boilermaker 15k (July 14)
    • Goal 58:00
  • Mueller Mile (August)
    • Goal 5:00
  • Run into Buffalo 15k  (Sept 2)
    • Goal 57:30
  • Troy Turkey Trot 10k (Nov 28)
    • Goal 37:00

Long-Term Running Goals:

  1. Sub 3:00 Marathon
  2. 17:00 5k
  3. 1:20 Half-marathon

Personal:

Originally from the small town of Galway, NY (near Saratoga), I currently live in Buffalo, NY.  I'm a community pharmacist  I  graduated from the University of Buffalo School of Pharmacy with my pharmD in 2007 and my PhD in 2011. I'm married and have 2 dogs (Sadie, a lab, and Ralphie, a Eskie mix).  We enjoy anything outdoors from Backpacking and hiking to snowboarding.

my photojournal, and I will run

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Sadie's Lifetime Miles: 298.30
Ralphie's Lifetime Miles: 346.60
Race: Buffalo Half Marathon -Pacer (13 Miles) 01:44:53
Running MilesSwimming YardsBike Miles
15.000.000.00

Pacing the Buffalo Marathon!

TLDR: Well the local marathon and half  REALLY needed pacers so I volunteered I ended up taking the first half of the 3:30 Group (1:45 half) and I'm happy to report that my pacing duties went well. I hit the half right on the nose at 1:44:53.

Long story: I was a little late to the start, getting there about 20 minutes before the gun and I people starting to flock near me. Some nervous questions about even pacing and trading off to a different pacer at the half way point. Also got a couple suspicion looks (probably because I don't really look like I can run as well as I manage to).  And we were off.

The weather was suppose to be horrendous, 85 by 11am (race started at 7am) with full sun and humidity but it held out and was only 65 by the start and ever reached over 75.  The runners go SO lucky. 

Since the half and the full start and run the first half of the race together I had a very large group with me. My goal was to run even splits based on my chip time but because of the slow start and the crowded first and second water stop I was about 30 seconds slow overall at mile 3. I was totally not use to the crowds at the mid-pack.  It's tough pacing because if I was alone I'd drop that extra time in the next two miles but I couldn't here, if I did I would be destroying people and ruin races. I slower dropped the extra time over the next 7 and by mile 10 I was right on the nose. It was tough holding the pace at about 7:55-8:00. If I stopped paying attention or let it run down a hill I'd drop down to my regular 7:35 pace for a couple second before I caught myself.  Another thing I was ready for was that you can't totally rely on your GPS watch because you need to run based on the actual miles. Being in a kind of a crown I ended up running sloppy tangents threw my watches pass off by at least 5 seconds per mile. Something else I needed to account for when hitting the mile markers.

My little heart attack happened at the pacer exchange (20k mark), I also almost missed the second half pacer. We ran by the pick-up and I called out to the pacers but no one came. I started to get a little panicked but he saw me as the pack went by and luckily caught up.  I was contemplating in those seconds if I had it in me to do the full (I'd rather blow up than abandon them at half way).  I figure I could have done it but it would have been ugly do to my shorter training and the fact that my nutrition plan for the half was only a couple cups of water.  Luckily I didn't come to that.  As we approached the finish/full split I took my group to the finish and the rest of the pack continued on.

In the end it was totally fun and I'd love to do it again. It was great glancing over my shoulder and seeing a wave of people behind me. A lot of  people seemed very appreciative that I was there especially the newer runners which made me happy.  I got a bunch of thanks-yous from all different types of runners with different stories.  From the first timer to the guy that couldn't afford a GPS watch. Plus the best is that I have a nice race shirt with 'Pacer' across the shoulders, it looks pretty legit.

This was also my first year running the Buffalo Marathon and it was a very well run race with a nice course and great crowd support (including live bands).  The weather is always a little iffy at the end of May here but I'd totally consider racing it next year. 

Brooks Adrenaline Blue #2 Miles: 15.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments
From Benn Griffin on Thu, May 31, 2012 at 18:33:25 from 96.240.197.121

Can you be my pacer? Only problem is I run about a 3:30 HALF marathon :-p. Your group was lucky to have you as a pacer!

From Nate on Thu, May 31, 2012 at 19:00:36 from 67.252.184.93

Haha, I'll let you know when I'm pacing again! It was such a fun expirence and I'm glad that I was able to pull it off for all the runners relying on me

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