On Sunday I ran Falmouth in the Fall for the first time
since 2012 and had a blast!
I also ran a 7 mile PR, placed 2nd and won $50!
If you are not familiar with the race, it is the same 7 mile
course as the Falmouth Road Race.
Instead of the middle of August at 9am, Falmouth in the Fall is always
the first Sunday in November with a 1pm start time. Instead of 10,000 runners, the 2017 Falmouth
in the Fall results showed 469 finishers.
The race is super laid back—for a $20 entry fee and a self-addressed
stamped envelope, the race mails you your bib.
I was also sent a $40 Hanlons gift card as a random raffle winner. Pretty sweet.
I picked up my dad race morning and we headed to the finish
line. There we met up with some run club
friends (Stacey, Kyle, Jason and Jon) then caught the bus to the start
line. One of the highlights of the day
was waiting in line for the buses where we got to live stream Shalane Flanagan
winning the New York Marathon. It
definitely pumped me up and provided some extra race day motivation.
Lately I’ve only been running for fun—not worrying about
time or stressing over mileage so I had no idea what to expect when the gun
went off. My goal was to stay relaxed
but run “comfortably hard.” I did want to push myself to see where I was
at. I knew I could run 7:15-7:30 pace
and on a good day I was hoping to be closer to 7:00 pace.
Mile 1- 7:06
Mile 2- 6:52
Mile 3- 6:45
I felt really good during the first 3 miles of rolling
hills. By the mile and a half mark, I
was cruising alone in 2nd place. At that
point I could see the first female ahead of me—and she stayed about the same
distance away from me for the rest of the race.
Mile 4- 6:48
When we came out of the woods and turned onto Surf Drive, OH
MY GOD THE WIND. Total headwind. It felt like I was putting in way too much
effort with very little progress but I tucked in my head and kept pushing
forward.
Mile 5- 6:59
Mile 6- 6:47
Mile 7- 6:39
The rest of the race but I was definitely
working. I’m not quite sure I could have
ran any faster so I was happy with my effort.
I did not purposely slow down at any point or talk myself out of racing
which I have become so good at in recent years.
7 miles – 48:15
Average pace – 6:54
My dad had a pretty good race even though he wasn’t feeling
great.
I love Falmouth in the Fall!
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