Manchester By-the-Sea Half Marathon

OVERALL RACE RESULTS

On September 15th, I ran another half marathon in Manchester, MA.   The weather was perfect again last weekend!  It turned out to be another *real close* time difference at the finish -- with only a second to spare between me and another New England 65+ runner, Stephen Schlicting -- pictured below in red.  My friend Donna finished with another win in her age group. We had fun sharing about the friendly battle after we crossed the finish line mats.  Here are some pictures of the 9/15 race. 

Our friend,  Jimmy Walsh, #5001 in light blue, volunteered and also ran this race.

 

 

Jimmy, Donna and Stephen Schlicting (in red)

 

 

This first image of the Male results shows just how close Stephen and I were at the finish  I tried to catch him in an all out sprint, but didn't quite do it.  Also a NE-65+runner, Stephen showed his strength and endurance for sure!  Donna, Stephen and I all crossed the finish line mats with amazingly close times!  Congrats to us all!!  I place 2nd in my AG with a time of 2:08:38.  My pace was 9:50 / mile.  Note: Due to "Chip Time" vs. "Gun Time" differences in this race, (I will avoid the explanations here) Stephen captured first place out of 4 in his AG.  I came in 2nd out of the 4 in our M70-99 AG

 

Above, we see Donna's finishing time stats for her AG. She placed first out of 2 with a time of 2:08:37.  Her pace was 9:50 / mile for the 13.1 miles.

 

This image is of me #5553 and Stephen Schlicting #5440 near the finish of the race.  (Donna is out of view to the right.) For the last mile we were exchanging leads until, at about mile 13 (with 0.1 mile to go) Stephen sustained a winning sprint -- which I could not match.  While this was occurring I did not actually know he was the man I was supposed to "beat" to maintain a first place finish,  All was in good fun though.  We enjoyed meeting up and sharing our well-earned  awards together afterwords.  Donna, Stephen and I really had a great time in all respects! 

 

 

Here we see Donna crossing the mats in winning time -- always with her happy smile! Stephen can be seen to the left -- crossing just ahead of me, pictured in the middle-rear.

 

Here we see Donna with her happy smile!! When runners (fast ones) run well, SOMETIMES they float!  Check this out!  Yup, she's floating!  The cool thing about this picture is that you would never know she's pushing the peddle to the metal right here!

 

This is a "finishing" picture of us after being presented with our "hardware."  Let's see ... another half marathon in the making for Sunday, September 22, 2024?  We have signed up for "The Tache Wicked Half Marathon in Salem, MA.  The weather is expected to be cool, cloudy and a bit breezy.  I will be taking this one slow due to a short-lived (we hope) head and chest cold I've had for a few day earlier in the week.  The wind is not something Donna likes (as she is light and it's sometimes hard to compete with it!).  It's an early race, too. How does 7:00 am grab you? Ouch!!