This past Sunday I ran my second half-marathon of the year and potentially my last race until A) my wedding later this month and B) the Amica Marathon in Newport in October! The race was the Stratton Faxon Fairfield Half-Marathon in Fairfield, CT and it was the second time I’d run the race. Last year when I ran the race it was my first half-marathon ever, so it was a bit intimidating. It didn’t help that the course is about 1/3 uphill, 1/3 downhill and 1/3 flat! This year though I was ready for the hills (at least mentally!)

Anyways, I don’t want to carry on too much, so here are the highlights from the race:

• Finished with a time of 1:53:42, which was just over six minutes faster than my time last year, but about a whole 29 seconds slower than my PR in Providence last month
• Ran the race in my Vibram Five Fingers Sprints, which have easily become my go-to minimalist “shoe” for running on pavement.
• As I mentioned previously, this course is VERY hilly. With a couple less feet of incline/decline, there’s no doubt in my mind I would have had a new half-marathon PR!
• I hadn’t run since the Tuesday before the race, which was a four mile run in my brand new pair of New Balance MT100′s that I bought as an alternate trail shoe. After the run on Tuesday (and after a TON of painting and yardwork at the new house) my foot was feeling a bit sore and I figured it would be better to rest it all the way until race day instead of testing it and re-injuring it before Sunday.
• The temperature at the start of the race was rapidly increasing, already reaching 75 F with 70% humidity, but luckily the cloud cover came by the midpoint in the race. Without those clouds, the end of the race could have been a little more interesting (assuming I didn’t drink enough fluids.) Being able to walk right into the ocean after the race was pretty nice though!
• There were a few musicians on the course and I have to admit, I got a huge boost of adrenaline from one band playing Jimi Hendrix! I don’t run with music anymore, but it’s not because I didn’t enjoy it. These bands (or boom boxes) definitely make the race more enjoyable if the right music is played!
• I obviously hadn’t done enough hill training before this race, because yesterday and today my calves and quads are super sore! I’m supposed to help move my fiancee’s furniture tonight as well, so that should be interesting. Going down stairs is the worst…but must have meant I was flying down the hills!

At this point I’m not sure I want to make the Fairfield Half-Marathon my annual race for the distance, so we’ll just have to play it ear next year to see which races end up on the schedule. I do prefer the small town-ness of the course over the big city-ness of Providence, so there’s a good possibility that you’ll see me there next year.