I raced the B&A Trail Half Marathon as my 11th half marathon and this race was my goal race for winter training. My goal was to run an average 8:30 pace and to set a new PR. This race is mostly on the B&A Trail, a rails-to-trail paved trail in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The race is about 45 minutes from my house and was logistically easy. You start and finish at Severna Park High School, so there is tons of free parking, and you can wait inside the school before the start of the race. Real bathrooms (and warmth!) for the win! I love small races like this – easy to navigate and the Annapolis Striders clearly know what they are doing. I highly recommend this race if you are looking for a nice trail, a lowkey race and a good chance at a PR or BQ (there is a full marathon as well). Read on for my race recap!
Miles 1-3 (8:24/8:43/8:31)
Pamela and I started off with a fun moment – our friend and Oiselle teammate Jackie was right by the start and hopped in with us to cheer us on during the first bit of the race. I then heard my name and looked and saw Colleen – another friend and Oiselle teammate there cheering with her husband Ian. While I knew Jackie was going to be there, Colleen wasn’t sure she could make it, so that was an awesome surprise. Pamela, Jackie and Colleen are among my fellow local team leads for Oiselle, and these ladies all walk the walk. They are so supportive and so wonderful and honestly it was so great to be able to share this race with them. We saw Jackie, Colleen and Ian again a bit before we hopped on to the B&A Trail, where we would spend most of the race. My plan was to start a bit slow and then settle in. Each time Pamela and I would see Jackie, Colleen and Ian we would speed up – we literally had to remind ourselves to not get overly excited since we saw them multiple times on the course!
Miles 4-6 (8:37/8:34/8:27)
By this time, we’d settled into a groove on the trail. I knew there would be our only turnaround on the course a bit after mile 6 and as we approached it, I started preparing because there was also a bit of an incline after the turnaround. As it turned out, the hill wasn’t bad at all and I focused on keeping even effort and we got up it in no problem.
Miles 7-10 (8:20/8:32/8:18/8:27)
I’ve said before that in a half marathon, miles 8-11 are always the hardest for me and I expected this to be true during B&A. However, having Pamela there just chatting away really helped me to be distracted from those rough miles and honestly, we sailed through these miles doing quite well on our pacing and in fact, before I knew it, we were hitting mile 11. I kept asking Pamela if I had the PR in the bag because I couldn’t do math and she assured me that I did. We had figured out that if we hit mile 10 right around 1:25, we’d be in really good shape. We hit mile 10 almost exactly at 1:25 and so I felt really great about that.
Miles 11-13.1 (8:07/8:15/8:05/6:22 [.1])
Once we reached mile 11, I realized that I was just about 17 minutes away from a new PR. I stopped talking and started working as hard as I could. We started passing people that had been just ahead of us all race long and Pamela noted that we were going to run a negative split (where you run the second half of the race faster than the first half), which was pretty freaking exciting! At this point, it was hard and I was tired, but knew I was about to reach my goal, which was an amazing feeling. I dug deep and ran as fast as I could over those last miles and was SO happy to hop off the trail and see the high school back in sight.
I stole the picture below from Colleen – such a great group of gals – including Meghan, a teammate who is a med student in upstate New York and placed 3rd in her age group with a blazing fast 1:33:10!! Plus our awesome cheer squad and my amazing pacer.
Official time: 1:50:21 – this was a PR of 2 minutes and 21 seconds. I still can’t believe it! I’m especially proud of the negative split that I ran. Mile two was my slowest (and in looking at the elevation, mile two was a long gradual incline) and mile 13 was my fastest! I am planning on a post digging into my running stats over the past year as I figure out what my goals will be for my next marathon so look out for that if you are a data nerd like I am. 🙂
I’m really excited about how this race played out. I’m actually racing the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler this upcoming weekend and I’m hoping to PR that distance as well. However, I’m now officially not on a training plan until June and that is so glorious!
I want to thank you all for your positive comments and support. I read each and every comment on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I see each like and I’m truly grateful for this community of support. You all are amazing!
Have you ever raced with a friend?
Way to go my friend! Had no doubt you would PR . Those last 3 miles – so awesome on the negative split too!! Congrats and see you soon 🙂 PS – looking fwd to reading your stats post.
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Thanks so much Jenny! See you soon 🙂
Good job! You are truly an inspiration!
Thank you!
I love this mile by mile recap! #datanerd
I also really enjoy racing with friends. Makes the experience that much more memorable!
Yes, it was wonderful to have Pamela by my side!
It was truly a blast and loved every step with you!
wow, what a great race! I am so happy for you! It is always an amazing feeling when you set a new PR. I hope you have a speedy recovery period this week before your next race and that you enjoy that one too!
Thanks – had an easy run yesterday and today and already feeling better!
What a wonderful race experience. Not only did you have fun but you also hit a new PR! You had a really strong training cycle and it shows! Congrats 🙂
Thanks Kimberly. It was a great race and a great day!
Woohoo! Great job on your race! Congrats on that new PR. I ran a half marathon last year with a friend and I was a bit bummed when she had headphones on, so we really didn’t talk. It’s funny though because it’s the same thing I have done to my husband when he paces me at the marathon, and I know how it feels!! I can’t blame her – I do like my music during a race.
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Ah, that is a bummer. I don’t run with headphones and I’d be actually really surprised if a friend asked me to run and then put on headphones, lol. How could we talk?? 🙂
Congratulations, Courtney!! What a fantastic job! You worked so hard and nailed it! It must feel great to PR – I look forward to seeing what happens next! I hope you have a great time at the Cherry Blossom Run!
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Thanks Janelle – I’m excited about this weekend’s race!
Congrats on your PR! And mile 13 as your fastest – Awesome!
I tend to run races by myself but meet up with friends after that have also ran which is fun! But, last year my brother-in-law was visiting us in Alaska (my daughter was getting married) and he signed up, last minute, for Skinny Raven Half Marathon and ran that with me. That was pretty fun!
I’ve enjoyed following your training cycle, Courtney. Congratulations again on a fabulous race and impressive PR! I’ve run many races (especially marathons) with friends, but when I ‘m racing with a time goal, I tend to run alone. Have fun at the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler! I set my 10-Miler PR on that course way back in 1998! I bet they’ve changed the course many times over the years since then. Ha!
Debbie @ Deb Runs recently posted…Race Linkup: March 2017 Edition
Oh wow – I bet the course has changed a bit 🙂 I loved racing with my fast friend 🙂
You worked hard for this and I am beyond happy for you!!! Yes!! I love how much fun you had with friends too, that is always the best! I feel your excitment and loved reading your recap!! Huge, huge congrats friend!!! xoxox
Thank you so much!! I did have lots of fun 🙂
Yay, congrats!! Awesome job on the negative split and PR!!
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Thanks Sherry! It was a good day 🙂
I’m so thrilled that you had a nice way to distract yourself, mentally, from the toughest miles of the race; it sounds like this helped your body do just what it needed to do, without overthinking it (something I have trouble with often). I think small-ish, local races are just the best for great race days; not that these days don’t happen in other places, but it’s so nice to have the comforts of a smaller, well-organized event. This sounds like such a good one (note to self)! And, last but not least, CONGRATULATIONS!!! Man, I knew you were ready to kill it; I’m so glad you did. WHAT A DAY! I hope you’re still celebrating, Courtney!
Thank you so much Tara. It’s been fun to take this journey and I’m so grateful to friends like you for the support. I do think you’d actually really like this race…just saying 🙂
What an awesome race! And a super speedy pace. Well-earned!!! You worked for it.
Congrats on your PR. You trained hard so you deserved it. Sounds like a fun race too.
Congrats on a great race! It has been so fun to follow you over the past few years and see your hard work paying off. As for the marathon, I’ll be the one to put it out there here – a sub-4 is definitely in the cards for you! You clearly have the fitness and ability to do it, but on top of that, you have the focus and the drive to train for it. Can’t wait to follow your next training cycle.
congrats on your new PR!!! I am also running the Cherry Blossom 10 miler this weekend! Here is my race recap for anyone who hasn’t run it before: https://cuckoolemon.com/2016/04/03/recap-cherry-blossom-ten-miler/
I’m just thrilled for you, Courtney! You were flying by the end! It’s been so fun seeing all your hard work pay off race after race.
I’m really looking forward to your stats post! I’ve been doing a lot of data analysis with my own stats lately as I prepare for my next training cycle and it’s so interesting to me (but I’m a nerd haha),
Huge, huge kudos and congrats, my friend. You prove that hard work pays off in the end. And look at that beautiful negative split, with that super-fast mile 13! Just awesome and very inspiring!
What awesome pacing and negative splits!! What’s your goal for Cherry Blossom? What corral are you in? I’d love to run with you!
My goal is just to PR (which would be sub 1:30 – I ran 10 in 1:25 at B&A but I anticipate going a touch slower on Sunday). I think I’m in the blue corral? I think?? lol
Hooray!! So proud of you! This sounds like SUCH a great time.
Thanks friend – it was really really fun!!
That’s wonderful Courtney!! You worked really hard and two PRs back-to-back is your prize. Congrats on an amazing race. Bask in that glory!! I hope to do CUCB one day! Only heard great things about it.
Congratulations Courtney! You are a true example of hard work really pays off!
Congratulations on the race and PR!
Thank you!