Horseneck Half Marathon

I had a great time at the 2023 Horseneck Half Marathon, beating my goal of 1:37:30 and finishing in the top 20!

My plan was to run a 7:27 pace to put me in at my time goal, but also knew that was somewhat conservative and I could push on the back end of the race. The first 2 miles out of the Horseneck parking lot were relatively flat as we got to Drift Rd. There were some soft rolling hills where pace dropped to 7:45 on the uphills and then picked up to 7:15 and 7:00 on the downhills. People started getting aggressive on the downhills - passing me - but I stuck with my consistent pace.

After turning on Hixbridge, Rd, the rolling hills continued and those who were aggressive on the downhills started struggling on the ups - and I passed them back, on the way to the turn onto Horseneck Rd. at mile 6. The next 4 miles were relatively flat and running with 3 others, I was able to up my pace to consistently under 7:20. We dropped one of the group about mile 8. At mile 10, with 3.1 (5k) to go, I knew the rest was downhill then flat along East and West Beach Rd., so I cranked up the pace to sub-7:00 and started passing quite a few people struggling against the wind with tired legs.

With the turn onto West Beach Rd. at 12 miles, I just put my head down and ground out the last 1.1 miles against a stiff headwind, keeping below 7:00 min/mi pace and finishing in 1:34:18.

Results.