Monson Half Marathon

Maybe just an off-season race for fun while he was visiting someone in the area.

It\'s one hell of a course. I\'ve run it and it\'s got some tough hills. Last couple miles are steady downhill that mashes the quads.

Jordan Jones

half-marathon pace, 5:19/mile

what kind of paces you think gabe tempos at?

there is a flotrack blog. the fall races are the half here, a turkey 5k, and the calfornia international marathon.

Hilly hilly hilly half marathon pace at 5:19 pace. Grain of salt.

Gabe's digest:

The winner was second at the half marathon in Manchester NH the week before. The women's winner also ran the Manchester half and won it. The guy in fourth also ran there last week, and the guy in sixth at 1:15 won the marathon in Manchester (and $1500) in 2:40. Yikes.

The Manchester course was hilly too, maybe not as hilly as this. Who runs two half-marys in back-to-back weeks?

The women's winner was Heidi Westerling, I want to say her last month has been a Half, marathon, half, half, that is crazy!

Distance Queen wrote:

The women's winner was Heidi Westerling, I want to say her last month has been a Half, marathon, half, half, that is crazy!

you're right, from the article linked on the front page, she's run

10/11 - half in Hartford

10/26 - marathon at Cape Cod

11/2 - half in Manchester

11/9 - half in Monson

65.5 miles of racing in a month. There has to be an easier way to make a few thousand bucks...

In case anyone's interested, I ran the race and can comment on the course.

There is steady (at times, steep) climing the first 8 miles. The total climb is just under 400', actually. For me personally, the 400' elevation loss condensed into 5 miles didn't let me regain the time lost on the climb. I was shredded from the climbing and unable to open up on the decent-- so it was a very slow course (at least for me). I'd estimate it's about 4 minutes slower than a really fast course. (Not well organized, either--one big potential turn wasn't marked, leaving me to yell back at spectators, asking where to go; and the race started 15 minutes late, as traffic pushed thru the starting line, while the cops stood there watching.)

I wouldn't put too much stock in the 6th place guy's performance, btw. I caught him around mile 7 and we ran together; I made a hard surge, and when I put some distance on him, I think he figured he was out of the money (top 5) and didn't mount much of an effort to catch me. And I'm sure he was leg tired from running a hilly 2:40 just 2 weeks ago. (As for me, I stopped caring once I saw that he had, too!)

funkbunker wrote:

I wouldn't put too much stock in the 6th place guy's performance, btw. I caught him around mile 7 and we ran together; I made a hard surge, and when I put some distance on him, I think he figured he was out of the money (top 5) and didn't mount much of an effort to catch me. And I'm sure he was leg tired from running a hilly 2:40 just 2 weeks ago. (As for me, I stopped caring once I saw that he had, too!)

That guy ran the hilly 2:40 a week ago, and a flat 2:38 at Bay State 2 weeks before that. He got in his month with 65.5 miles of racing like Westerling, only with a weekend off in there.

here is a "sighting" from a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.trackshark.com/photos/2008/08pac10xc.php

image 198

righto-- i'm saying he's probably considerably faster than this. He packed it in after I passed him, so don't judge him by this performance.

That's a hellishly tough way to make a living-- grinding out marathons and halfs for prize money.

But hell, I'd do it if my body held up. Beats 9-5.

She raced a 10k on 10/4 in Bristol NH. Finished @ 6 min pace.

Saw him the week previous at the HS XC Championship. He was limping so much it was painful to watch. I can't imagine him running a half-marathon one week later, much less a 1:09 for 6th.

Article about the Monson half with an interview from Jennings in the local running column: http://www.masslive.com/sports/index.ssf/2008/11/gabe_jennings_finds_monson_mem.html