Now that I’ve gotten a bit of time to collect myself, here’s the race report from the Shape Up RI half-marathon that I ran Sunday morning. Continuing an on-going trend that seems to work well, here’s a summary of the race in bullet format for your enjoyment…

• Skipping straight to the good part…I finished the race in an efficient 1:53:13, which was a PR and faster than last year’s half-marathon by six minutes and 30 seconds! I finished in 600th place out of 2363 overall and 119 out of 227 in my division…not too shabby. My sister also finished her second half-marathon, so congratulations to her! Click here for the rest of the results.
• Because of the early start time of 8 AM, we drove up the day before to pick up our race packets…and it was a good thing we did. Sonya and I parked our car around 7:30 or so and by the time we got to the start line, we only had about 15 minutes to spare! Luckily I didn’t need to make one last bathroom break before the race, because the lines were about 30 deep and I probably would have started the race 20 minutes late if I tried to wait.
• This had to be the biggest race I’ve ever run, with about 5,000 combined runners at the start for the full marathon, half-marathon and 5k. Made for an interesting start, where runners were supposed to group according to their pace. I started around the 10 min/mile pace group just because it was so hard to move forward! Plus, I enjoy passing people the entire race…not getting passed
• The amount of people forced me to run the first couple of miles at a slower than usual pace, which was probably a good thing for a half-marathon. I started around a 9:00 min/mile pace, but increased speed the entire race and ran the last mile at a speedy 7:50 min/mile pace!
• At about mile two, the marathoners split off from us half-marathoners, which opened up the course a bit. This was the first time I’ve been a part of a race where racers of different distances broke up mid-race, but the organization was great and I’m pretty sure no one accidentally went the wrong way.
• As this was to be the longest run of my life in Vibram Five Fingers, I was worried a bit about how my feet would hold up, especially my PT tendon. However, they performed admirably and two days later…no foot pain! The most pain I’m noticing right now is in my quads and calves, which were pushed to the limits with all the uphills and downhills this course had to offer.
• Maybe I just prefer uphills and didn’t notice them as much, but it seemed as if we were always running downhill!
• I didn’t see any other runner wearing VFFs (or barefoot) during the race, but I heard some girls talking about a guy wearing them before I flew past them! The only comment I really remember them making was something like, “I’ll stick to my padding.” Whatever works! At the finish line I saw one other guy wearing VFFs, but I’m not sure how he did. One of my tweeps (@IronmanLongRunr) was wearing them for the full marathon and he apparently had a great race…always good to hear.
• I felt light-footed for most of the race until the last couple miles, where I sacrificed some form to get as much speed as possible out of my legs. No complaints though! I only needed one energy gel and a couple sips of water, even though the temperature was in the 70′s. Luckily the sun was kind enough to stay behind the clouds until I finished.
• A guy on the sideline shouted “Go barefoot guy!” which was cool…even if I wasn’t really barefoot. A number of runners asked me how I liked my VFFs during the race. I thought it was pretty obvious that I really enjoyed them since I was running a half-marathon in them, but humored them anyways.
• Coming into the finish chute, it felt like I was sprinting faster than ever. My Garmin says I was running at about a 4:30 min/mile pace for those couple hundred feet!
• After finishing the race I felt a lot better than I did in last year’s race. Not sure if it was the VFFs or the fact that the sun wasn’t shining as much, but either way, it allowed me to have the best race of my life. I’ve already signed up for the Fairfield Half-Marathon in June, so I’ll try to break the one hour, 50 minute mark there!
• Finally, wanted to say thanks to my awesome fiancée Sonya for her support during the race!

Overall, it was a great race! Having accomplished 13.1 mile in the Vibram’s and (knock on wood!) having no real injuries to show for it, especially my foot, has boosted my confidence and keeps my hopes for a full marathon in October alive and well!