Given to Tri: Half Marathon

Race Report: 2025 Hole Half Marathon

2025-09-28T11:00:00-06:00

I was pretty bummed out when I had to pull out of the Hole Half Marathon at the last minute last year. It’s a fun fall race and a great way to close out my season before winter sets in, so I look forward to it every year, but with last year’s Fish Creek Fire sending the AQI into the stratosphere—235 on race day—I really had no choice but to skip it.

We’ve been much more fortunate this year with a low-key fire season and good air quality most of the summer. I was once again looking forward to completing this race—not just to close out my season properly this time, but because it’s also the first time I would finish all three of my local half marathons. It feels like a neat little personal milestone.

The Hole Half Marathon is the third and last half marathon of the year in Jackson Hole, after the Jackson Hole Half Marathon and the Grand Teton Half Marathon, both in the spring. It sits in the middle in terms of participation, with about twice as many runners as the former, but nowhere near as many as the latter. (It’s also run concurrently with the full Jackson Hole Marathon, which I’ve never done—maybe someday, though.)

The course is almost the reverse of the route for the Jackson Hole Half Marathon. It starts in the parking lot of the Presbyterian Church in Jackson, follows the community pathway across the Snake River for a quick loop to Wilson around the Stilson Lot, and then continues north on the pathway along the Moose-Wilson Road towards the finish line in the lawn of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Teton Village. It starts mostly flat, but the last 12 km are at a mild grade, ending at 1,930 m with a total elevation gain of about 90 m. It’s a beautiful route, with gorgeous views of the mountains most of the way, and the fall foliage and crisp fall weather add to the beauty of the landscape.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

With fire season finally over, the AQI wasn’t a concern at all this time—it was firmly in the “good” range on race day. As is typical for this time of year, the day started chilly, with a barely-above-freezing temperature of 1°C shortly before the 9:00 AM start. With clear blue skies and the sun shining brightly, I expected it to warm up quickly, so I didn’t bring too many layers. In previous years I’ve made the mistake of wearing heavy tops and long running tights and ended up overheating. This time I wore a lighter-weight Tracksmith long-sleeve top and half tights. It was the right decision; I was a little cold at the start but perfectly comfortable towards the end.

After last week’s result at Ironman 70.3 Washington Tri-Cities, where I finished the run within five minutes of my personal best in an open half marathon, I wanted to try for another PR to truly close out the year on a high note. I gave myself a very aggressive—and probably unrealistic—goal of 1:35:00 and set it up using the PacePro feature on my Garmin watch (I had never used this feature before, so I was curious to see how it worked). It gave me a target pace of 4:30/km, which seemed tough, but worth a shot. At the Jackson Hole Half Marathon back in May, I felt like I was underfueled towards the end; this time I planned to fuel my effort with a Maurten 160 bar before the start of the race and three Maurten 100 gels spaced about 25 minutes apart, with the last one caffeinated for a little boost at the tail end of the race. This race is cupless, but I didn’t want to slow down at the aid stations or carry a bottle, so I didn’t worry about hydration.

Kate dropped me off at the Presbyterian Church at 8:30 AM. This gave me just enough time to get my bib, do a quick warmup, and use the porta-potties before the start. I placed myself near the front, and hit the ground running as soon as the gun went off. I did my best to follow the pace guidance from my watch, but admittedly let the race adrenaline get the best of me; the first couple of kilometers were a little faster than I intended, and certainly near my limit. The PacePro feature worked well, though—it gives you a special data page on the watch with the current target pace, current pace, and how far ahead or behind you are from the desired finish time. It also provides alerts whenever the target pace changes. I’m not sure if I can use this in triathlon mode, but it’d be convenient if so.

The first half of the race went well, and I stuck pretty closely to my target paces, although I was actually ahead of my target finish for most of this time. However, once I rejoined the community pathway for the uphill portion of the race on the Moose-Wilson Road after looping around the Stilson Lot, I started feeling some pain in my right knee. It’s the same damn IT band pain I had a couple of years ago in St. George, which hadn’t recurred since then. It wasn’t bad enough to cause me to DNF or even slow down to a walk, but it was definitely painful enough that I couldn’t sustain the pace I had been running. By the end it had fallen closer to 5:00/km.

Roughly halfway through the race, in the Stilson Lot. Credit: Jackson Hole Marathon Races

Those remaining 8 km were uncomfortable as hell, and the last couple in particular felt interminable, but I managed to finish the race in 1:38:14, with a final pace of 4:40/km. I was 3rd out of 23 in the M40–49 division and 15th overall, out of 345. Not quite the personal best I was hoping for, but still my third-fastest half marathon to date—I’ll take it. My knee is a little sore, but I have plenty of time to nurse it back to health before my next race, whenever it may be.

And with that, this year’s race season is finally over. With four successful Ironman 70.3s and all three of the local half marathons done, it’s safe to say this has been my best season so far. But now it’s time to rest and relax, enjoy some fall bike rides and runs just for fun, and start dreaming of next year’s races. Onwards.

Race Report: 2025 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2025-06-09T08:00:00-06:00

Last year I surprised myself on the run at Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene—I came out of T2 like a bat out of hell and it ended up being my fastest run split in a 70.3 to date. There were probably multiple reasons for that, including the shortened swim, but I think one factor was the Grand Teton Half Marathon, which I had raced two weeks prior. That was also my fastest half marathon to date, and I suspect that strong run kicked my running fitness up a notch or two just in time for the race.

This season, I’m putting that hypothesis to the test by racing not one, but two half marathons before this year’s edition of Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene. The first one was the Jackson Hole Half Marathon two weeks ago, so without further ado, here’s a quick race report about the Grand Teton Half Marathon, my last running race before heading back to Idaho later this month.

With over 2,000 participants, the Grand Teton Half Marathon is the biggest of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole, and it’s become my favorite as well, with great organization, cool swag and medals, and a chill course with lovely views of the Tetons.

This year’s course was exactly the same as last year: It starts at the Stilson Lot next to Rendezvous Park, heading west toward Wilson on the Jackson Hole Community Pathway for about a kilometer and a half before looping back towards R Park. After crossing the pedestrian bridge over the Snake River, it continues along Wyoming Highway 22, then turns onto Spring Gulch Road around halfway, finishing at the Jackson Hole Golf Club. The first half of the route is fairly flat and on the Community Pathway; the second half is at a slight grade and on the road, but with cones and ample separation from car traffic, it never feels even remotely dangerous. The total elevation gain for the course is about 98 m, most of it on the second half, on Spring Gulch Road, which has an average grade of about 0.5% according to this Strava segment I created. I know a lot of people travel for this race, so it’s also worth mentioning that the average elevation at this race is 1,905 m—if you’re planning to do it, make sure you know how to prepare for racing at altitude.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

The parking situation for this race was more complicated than in previous years due to the ongoing construction of the new Stilson Transit Center near the start line, so I asked Kate to drop me off instead of taking one of the shuttles provided by the race. It was a brisk but beautiful 2.8°C morning, with clear blue skies that guaranteed gorgeous views of the mountains from Spring Gulch Road and at the finish line. I got there shortly before 6:00 AM and did a short warmup to shake off the cold before seeding myself near the front for the start.

I didn’t have specific time goals for this race; last year I finished fourth in the male masters category with a time of 1:37:09, so finishing faster than that was more of a stretch goal than anything else, although I did hope to get on the podium again. The past two times I’ve done this race, I’ve started too fast and then blown up a little bit towards the end, so I wanted to try to pace more evenly and finish stronger. I also wanted to see if tweaking my nutrition would help—last month at the Jackson Hole Half Marathon I felt like I could have used one more gel, so my nutrition for this race was a Maurten Gel 160 before the race start, another one about thirty-five minutes in, and a Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 about thirty minutes later, for a final caffeine boost. The aid stations, roughly every 5 km, had plenty of Honey Stinger gels and waffles, along with bananas and oranges, but as always, I prefer to use Maurten, since it’s what I’ve trained with and what they have at the Ironman aid stations. Train like you race, as they say, although in this case maybe it’s the other way around.

The race started at 6:30 AM on the spot, and even though my goal was to not start too hard, it quickly became obvious I didn’t have much of a choice—I just didn’t feel strong at all. Maybe it was poor sleep or accumulated fatigue from my previous workouts, but some days you just ain’t got it, and that’s the exact thought that crossed my mind almost as soon as I started: “Nope, I ain’t got it today.” Oh, well. Still, I did my best to hang on and managed to hold an uncomfortable pace of 4:30/km through the first half of the race, until the turn on Spring Gulch Road, where I expected to slow down a bit due to the slight grade. Right after the turn I started feeling some pain in my left calf, but I dug deep—I didn’t want to let my pace get slower than 5:00/km. It was a struggle and I got passed by a few people, but despite the niggling pain in my calf, my pace for the second half of the race was a steady 4:47/km. I think the second gel helped; at least I didn’t feel myself fading towards the end, like I did two weeks ago.

Almost there. Credit: MarathonFoto

I crossed the finish line in 1:37:49, just forty seconds slower than last year. I got third place in the male masters category and twenty-second overall, out of 2,166 finishers, so even though I was slower than last year, I moved up a spot on the podium. Considering I wasn’t firing on all cylinders, I’ll take that as a win.

After sticking around for the awards ceremony and collecting my medal—in an all-Wyoming podium for my category, interestingly—I rewarded myself with breakfast and pastries from my favorite bakery in town, the biggest upside of racing at home.

And with that, it’s almost time to start my taper for Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene, where I’ll find out if doubling up on these half marathons was a brilliant strategy or a stupid, reckless idea. Stay tuned!

Race Report: 2025 Jackson Hole Half Marathon

2025-05-25T14:30:00-06:00

This will be a short one: I just raced this year’s edition of the Jackson Hole Half Marathon, the first of the three half marathons organized in Jackson Hole every year (the other two being the Grand Teton Half Marathon in June and the Hole Half in September).

Of these three half marathons, this one is usually the smallest, with only 166 runners this year—less than a tenth of the size of the much-bigger Grand Teton Half Marathon. And yet, for some reason it feels like the most competitive of the three—I’ve podiumed at the Grand Teton Half Marathon every time I’ve done it, but have never come even remotely close at this race (I’m not sure why this is, but I suspect this one is simply composed mostly of locals who are acclimated to the altitude). In any case, this race always feels deceivingly challenging, although I planned to take it easy, and run it at a conservative pace in place of my weekly long run in my training plan.

The route for this race starts just outside Teton Village and heads south on the Moose-Wilson Road towards Wilson. After crossing the pedestrian bridge over the Snake River, it continues on the community pathway along Wyoming Highway 22. Then, it takes the Tribal Trail Road, loops around Colter Elementary School, and continues on the pathway along Flat Creek and Russ Garaman Park (one of my favorite places to run in Jackson) before heading on Snow King Avenue towards the finish line at Phil Baux Park, at the base of the Snow King Mountain Resort. It’s a very pleasant route, mostly downhill until the last 4 km, with just 67 m of elevation gain. They also had aid stations stocked with water and Gatorade roughly every 5 km. You won’t get much of a view, though—you’re running away from the Tetons the entire time.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

Kate dropped me off at the start line in the Teton Village at around 6:40 AM, twenty minutes before the start of the race. It was a chilly 2.2°C, but with much-welcome clear skies after a couple weeks of almost non-stop rain and storms, so I spent a few minutes warming up with some leg swings and light jogging, and ate a Maurten Gel 160 before getting in line for the start. It wasn’t very crowded, given the small size of the field, so I put myself near the front, even though, again, my plan was to take it easy and treat this as my long run for the week.

That plan lasted approximately… three seconds after the race started. Maybe it was just the slight downhill grade of this portion of the race, or the rest day I took the day before, or maybe I was just being a competitive ass, but my legs felt good, and I quickly found myself at the front of the race—as far as I could tell, there were only about five people in front of me. Well, maybe this would be the day I would finally podium on this race, so I said fuck it, and went for it.

I went hard. My pace for the first 10 km or so was 4:24/km, slightly faster than my running threshold pace, according to Garmin Connect. I felt pretty great until then, but then quickly started to struggle—there are a couple of punchy climbs on the community pathway after crossing the WY-22 highway that knocked the wind out of me, and my pace started to slow down. I had a Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 at around the halfway point of the race, hoping to get a little boost. I wish I had timed it better; by the 16 km mark I was suffering again, and I was all out of gels. I could feel myself fading in the slight grade of the last 4 km and got passed by two or three people, but I gave it everything I had left in the last kilometer and crossed the finish line with an official time of 1:36:43, and a pace of 4:35/km.

It’s my fastest half marathon to date, but I was even more surprised when I looked at the results and found out that not only had I podiumed, I finished first in the M40–49 age group, and eighth overall. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Yee-haw.

Not gonna lie, this feels pretty good. In 2017, I ran the Army Ten-Miler in DC, one of my first races, and at the time, my longest one. It was awful—it took me 2:16 to finish, and I probably walked half of it. Today, I got a PR in the ten-mile distance of 1:11:48; it’s wild to me that I’ve shaved over an hour off of that time since then. I’m getting older now and I’ve had some setbacks with my running training this year, so it’s very heartening to think that… maybe my fastest days aren’t behind me just yet.

Well, I had to skip the Hole Half

2024-09-28T10:00:00-06:00

I look forward to this race every year—a chill fall half marathon at the base of the Tetons is usually a great way to close out my season before winter sets in, but at this moment the AQI in Jackson Hole is 235, firmly in the “very unhealthy” range. Instead, I’m reading a study on the impact of air pollution on running performance to reassure myself I made the right decision.

Race Report: 2024 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2024-06-15T08:00:00-06:00

A couple weeks ago I raced the Grand Teton Half Marathon, the first of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole this year. I wasn’t planning on writing a race report for it because it was a quick and uneventful race, but since I didn’t get to write one for Ironman 70.3 Boulder, which I had to skip due to COVID, I might as well do it.

I ran this race last year for the first time and it quickly became my favorite of the local half marathons, not just because it’s the most well-organized and has the most scenic route, but also because I unexpectedly podiumed last year, so of course I wanted to race it again.

This year’s course was basically the same as in previous years, with the slight difference that the first couple of kilometers are now on the new pathway along Highway 22 instead of running on the shoulder of the road, a much welcome improvement. From there, the course rejoins the existing pathway in Wilson before heading back to Jackson over the pedestrian bridge over the Snake River, and then turning north on Spring Gulch Road, where you get to enjoy scenic views of the Teton Range all the way to the finish line at the Jackson Hole Golf Course. This final stretch of the race is on the road, but there’s not a lot of traffic and runners are given plenty of space from cars with traffic cones so it didn’t felt particularly dangerous. The total elevation gain for the course is about 100 m, most of it after the halfway point, once you turn onto Spring Gulch Road.

See this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

On race morning I got up at 3:00 AM after a terrible night of sleep, which was convenient, since parking at the start line at the Stilson Lot closed at 5:00 AM and I didn’t want to take a shuttle. I arrived there shortly before parking closed, which left me with an hour and a half of waiting before the start of the race. At 6:00 AM I gave up on trying to get some more sleep in my car and figured it might be a better use of my time to stretch and do a thorough warm up—the weather was much better than last year, with clear skies and gorgeous views of the mountains, but it was freezing, at -1°C, which made me wish I had worn warmer gear.

I seeded myself conservatively towards the back of the blue wave, behind the 1:50 pacer; while it was cool to podium last year, I didn’t want to overdo it or risk an injury, given that I had a 70.3 planned for the following week. Rather than target a specific pace or time, my plan was to simply run at a pace that felt comfortable, treat it as a my long run for the week, and see where that landed me.

To my surprise, when the race started at 6:32 AM, the pace that felt comfortable was… fast. I ran a pretty sluggish 6:54/km at Ironman 70.3 St. George last month and I’ve rarely run faster than 5:30/km in my training runs since then, so I really wasn’t expecting to run as fast as I did last year. I’m not sure if it was the race adrenaline or the fact that I was coming off of a recovery week in my training plan, but I was pretty surprised when I comfortably passed the 1:40 pacer a few minutes after starting the race, so I just kept going. I was holding a pace of 4:30/km through the first half of the race, although I knew I’d probably slow down a bit once I started going uphill on Spring Gulch Road.

Crossing the Gros Ventre river, a few minutes away from the finish line.

Sure enough, that was exactly what happened, and the last few kilometers were a real struggle, the kind where I start doing all kinds of mental math to bargain with myself, but at least the mountains were out and I enjoyed the view to distract myself from the suffering. At least I didn’t make the same mistake I made last year with my socks, and wore my normal Darn Tough running socks with my Hoka Rocket X 2 shoes, so I had no problems with chafing this time around (and the shoes may have contributed to my faster pace). The aid stations were pretty well stocked with Honey Stinger gels and waffles, bananas, and oranges, but I didn’t really need any fueling besides the Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 I ate right before the start, so I just skipped them all. (The chocolate milk at the finish line really hit the spot, though.)

I finished the race with a final time of 1:37:09.6, my fastest half marathon ever. My final pace was 4:36/km, and I finished 28th overall, out of 1,720 participants, and fourth male finisher in the masters category, with a shiny bronze medal to show for it. Not bad! I haven’t really put a ton of effort into my outdoor training runs so far this year since winter just barely ended, so it’s pleasing to see some progress in my running fitness nonetheless.

Gotta savor these small victories; this one almost makes up for missing my race in Boulder.

Race Report: 2023 Hole Half Marathon

2023-09-24T10:00:00-06:00

This year’s race season didn’t go the way I hoped at all. After a strong start at Ironman 70.3 St. George in June, I failed to finish Ironman Coeur d’Alene and had to drop out of the Echo Triathlon in July to deal with my knee pain. My make-up race, Ironman Canada, was canceled at the last minute due to the wildfires in British Columbia. After all that, I was looking forward to this year’s Hole Half Marathon, so I could at least get one more race in the books this year and finish the season on a high note. It went pretty well, so without further ado, here’s my last race report of the year.

Just before the finish line at Teton Village.

This summer in Jackson Hole has been the wettest in 25 years, with frequent storms and rainy spells, and this week was no exception. While race day wasn’t as cold as last year, I woke up to blustery, overcast weather with chilly 6°C temperatures and a light drizzle that made me want to stay in bed. Still, I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed and to the start line at the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole. By the time the race started, at 9:00 AM, the weather had begun to clear up, and it ended up being a lovely sunny day, albeit maybe a touch too warm for the long-sleeve shirt and long running tights I wore. The race was cupless, but I didn’t feel like carrying a bottle, so other than a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and a Maurten Caf 100 gel with a few gulps of water right before the start, I didn’t have any nutrition or hydration for the duration of the race. I targeted a pace of 5:00/km or faster, but my priority was to finish without injuring myself, so I planned to back off at the first sign of trouble.

This year’s route was slightly different than in previous editions, replacing the loop on the side of WY-22 in Wilson with an out-and-back on Boyles Hill Road. I assume this change was made due to the ongoing construction work to replace the Snake River Bridge, but I hope they keep it for future races—it’s far, far better to run on this quiet, bucolic country road than on the shoulder of a busy highway with cars zooming by just inches away.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

After this out-and-back on the road, the route followed the Jackson Hole multi-use community pathway for the remainder of the race, with a slight elevation gain of 94 m and the finish line at the Teton Village. Almost immediately after joining the pathway, I had an altercation with a cyclist in a narrow section of the route; despite the pathway being packed with runners, this guy refused to yield to anybody and instead rudely cursed everyone out while riding through the crowd and almost crashed head-on into me. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only inconsiderate cyclist I saw during the race: shortly after the halfway point, another cyclist almost crashed into a pack of runners ahead of me while trying to pass them at high speed without announcing himself. A few miles later, I had a near miss with someone going at full-speed on an e-bike, despite me running all the way to the edge of the pathway. Incredibly, every driver with whom we had to share the road today was more patient and considerate than most cyclists I saw on the pathway—sometimes, it’s no wonder people hate us.

Thankfully, the rest of the race was uneventful, although I had to dig deep in the last few miles to hold my pace. I’ve cut back on my training since Ironman Canada was canceled and, in particular, reduced my running mileage to give my knee a break. I can tell I’ve lost some running fitness since then, but on the upside, my knee felt pretty good; it’s still not 100%, and I had some minor niggles here and there, but it feels much better than it did in St. George back in May. Despite that loss of fitness, I was able to finish the race in 1:46:10, with a pace of 5:02/km, not quite as fast as in the Grand Teton Half Marathon earlier this year and just shy of my target pace, but still over a minute faster than last year’s race, and my second-fastest half marathon ever. I even finished third in my age group. Not bad!

Despite my race season fizzling out this summer after only completing a single triathlon, I’m glad I did this race and managed to end the season on a higher note than I would have otherwise. Now it’s time to relax and enjoy the rest of the fall before kicking it back into high gear in January to prepare for next year’s races. With any luck, things will go better than this year.

Race Report: 2023 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2023-06-04T10:00:00-06:00

Recently, I’ve been debating if it’s worth it to keep writing race reports for running races because I’ve done a few now, running is not my specialty, and I simply treat them as part of my triathlon training. But this one is a little special because I podiumed for the first time in my life, so here it goes.

Just before the finish line. Credit: Grand Teton Half Marathon

After my painful run at St. George, I visited Dr. Bullington at Teton Orthopaedics to get my knee looked at, which thankfully revealed it wasn’t a serious issue, but a simple patellar tracking issue—a muscle imbalance between my quads and hamstring or possibly a tight IT band pulling my kneecap out of alignment. He said I wouldn’t cause any damage if I kept training but referred me to Peak Physical Therapy in Wilson to get started on some PT and get it resolved.

While I’ve been doing that, I’ve been taking it very easy on my runs, so my plan was to still do this race, but treat it as my long, easy run for the week. For the most part, I’ve been capping my runs at one hour out of an abundance of caution, but I did a 1:30 brick run the week of the race and the knee felt great, so I was optimistic I’d be able to run a half marathon without issues.

The Grand Teton Half Marathon is the largest, and in my opinion, the most well-organized of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole, with over 1,800 participants. The course starts at the Stilson Lot next to Rendezvous Park, heads towards Wilson for a couple of kilometers before heading back over the Snake River on the community pathway, and then turning on Spring Gulch Road about halfway through, where it’s mostly uphill until the finish line at the Jackson Hole Golf Club, with great views of the Tetons along the way (if they hadn’t been completely socked in, which they were on race day). The entire course is on paved paths and roads—although the photos on the website show a segment on gravel, that section of Spring Gulch Road is now paved.

The weather had been pretty wet in the couple of weeks leading up to the race, with storms almost every day, so unsurprisingly, it was chilly, drizzly, and overcast the morning of the race. Kate dropped me off at the Stilson Lot at about 5:30 AM, and I did a lot of stretching and warming up while I waited for the race to start at 6:30 AM. I got placed in the “blue wave” based on my expected sub-2 finishing time, and they had various pacers within that wave.

In the tumult at the starting line, I got mixed up and accidentally seeded myself with the 1:40 pacer group, but rather than wait for the next group, I just went with it, even though it was slightly faster than my past half marathon paces. To my surprise, the 4:45/km pace felt great so… I sent it. I managed to hold that pace for most of the race with no pain or discomfort in my knee, only slowing down a little bit towards the second half of the race, since it was slightly uphill.

While my knee felt great the entire race, I did run into a few small issues. A few months ago I got a free sample of Compressport running socks, and liked them enough that I recently ordered a few pairs of the no-show version. They’ve been fine with my cycling shoes and the Hoka Clifton 8 running shoes I use on my treadmill, but I hadn’t tried them with the Hoka Carbon X 3 shoes I wear to run outside. Boy, was that a mistake. The shoes chafed right in my ankles badly enough that both shoes are now covered in blood. At least I didn’t find out in the middle of an Ironman.

Separately, I missed the fact that it was a cupless race, so I didn’t bring a bottle or a reusable cup, and as a result I didn’t have any hydration for the entire race. I had a Maurten 100 Caf gel right before the start and that was about it for nutrition. Thankfully, I didn’t need any more than that, although the aid stations were pretty well stocked with Honey Stinger gels and waffles, bananas, and oranges.

Despite those two minor mistakes, I was able to finish the race just fine. Per my GPS, the distance was slightly short of the 21.1 km of a half marathon, at 20.89 km, and I finished in 1:42:16, for a pace of 4:54/km. My official time and pace were 1:42:11.7 and 4:44/km. More importantly, I finished first in my age group (male 40-44), out of 51, and 45th overall, out of 1,858, so I managed to get on a podium for the first time in my life. Not bad!

Needless to say, I am beyond happy with this result, considering a year ago I had never done a half marathon, and a couple years ago I could barely run more than a minute without stopping. Can I do this again next weekend at the Jackson Hole Half Marathon? We’ll see.

Race Report: 2022 Hole Half Marathon

2022-09-24T17:00:00-06:00

This will likely be a short one: Today I raced the somewhat confusingly-named Hole Half Marathon, which is entirely unrelated to the Jackson Hole Half Marathon I did earlier in the summer. It went fine.

About halfway through the race. Credit: Jackson Hole Marathon Races

I went in without any goals other than get a good workout; my training plan had a 2:30 run today, and this seemed more fun than running that long. If anything, I just wanted to do my best and have some fun, and with that in mind, well, mission accomplished.

The race started at 9:00 AM from the Presbyterian Church in Jackson, and followed a route very similar to the other Jackson Hole Half Marathon, albeit in the opposite direction, ending in Teton Village, which meant a slight grade for most of the course. It was cold at the starting line, just shy above freezing, at 1°C, but as is normal this time of year, I expected it to warm up quite a bit, so I didn’t bring gloves or a lot of layers. The race was cupless this year, so I brought a bottle of Maurten Drink Mix 320 Caf 100; that was my only fuel and hydration for the entirety of the race (I also had a couple gels just in case, but didn’t use them).

The race course for the Hole Half.

After running through a few quiet neighborhood streets, we joined the full marathon course and headed towards Wilson on the community path. From there on, it was… completely uneventful, I really don’t have much of anything of note to write about. I kept a steady pace of around 5:00/km for most of the race, and had no issues, pain, or stitches at any point. Towards the last five kilometers or so, Ian, one of the marathon runners, tagged alongside me and helped me push my pace a little faster, which I appreciated. I ended up with a finish time of 1:47:28, slightly slower than my previous half marathon, but I’m confident I left nothing on the table so I’m feeling pretty good about it. I finished 4th in my age group and 20th overall, which was a definite improvement since last time.

On the equipment front, I swapped my Wahoo Rival watch and the Stryd pod for my Apple Watch for this race. For whatever reason, the Rival has become very unreliable lately, crashing frequently during workouts, sometimes randomly factory-resetting itself, and has stopped connecting to the Stryd pod altogether. Thankfully, the new running features in watchOS 9 meant I could just use my regular Apple Watch today, and it worked just fine. Its implementation of running power, in particular, seems to track very closely with Stryd’s, which helped me with pacing; I tried to stay between 230 W and 240 W for most of the race. It’s definitely good enough I don’t think I’ll keep using Stryd going forward (although I’ll need to replace the Wahoo; there’s no way I’m doing an Ironman with an Apple Watch).

Overall, this was a fun day; I got a pretty good workout and I’m feeling pretty good about my performance, considering I only started running consistently in March. Next up is my final race of the year, Ironman 70.3 Arizona. As of today, I’m feeling strong and ready to start tapering. I’m excited to see how I do in Tempe in a couple of weeks.

Race Report: 2022 Jackson Hole Half Marathon

2022-07-02T17:00:00-06:00

Today I raced in my second B race this year, the Jackson Hole Half Marathon, as part of my prep for Ironman 70.3 Arizona in October. I went in with a few goals:

Test my nutrition strategy.
Test how the pace suggested by Stryd felt.
See if I could actually pace myself properly.

Timewise, I didn’t have any specific goals. Anything under two hours would have been fine, with 1:45 as a stretch goal.

The race started at 8:00 AM on the dot on the bike path just north of Teton Village. I started way at the back because I was trying to stay socially distant, so I was stuck behind everybody for the first couple of kilometers, but after passing that initial group, I ran by myself most of the way. The course followed the multi-use pathway downhill until the Stilson Lot, then turned west towards Wilson for about a kilometer before turning around and heading through Rendezvous Park. After crossing the bridge over the Snake River, it continued on the pathway alongside highway 22 before turning on Tribal Trail Road towards the finish line at Colter Elementary. However, the course wasn’t exactly 21.1 km, with my GPS reporting 20.42 km.

For nutrition, I relied on Maurten gels since it’s what they provide on Ironman courses, using their recommended fueling guide for half marathons as a starting point. Instead of using their drink mix, I had a Maurten Caf gel 15 minutes before race start, then a regular gel at kilometers 5 and 10, and one more Maurten Caf at around kilometer 16 (which gave me a pretty good boost at the end, they’re really caffeinated). I started feeling some slight stomach cramps around kilometer 8, but they went away quickly after having some water at the aid stations. Other than that, I had no GI issues, and ended the race feeling strong.

The Stryd app suggested I hit a target power of 230 W for this race, with a projected time of around 1:51, and I did my best to hit that target. To help with that, I set up my watch to auto-lap every 1 km, and set the data fields to average 3-second power, heart rate, and average power and pace for the entire workout and for the current lap; that way I could shoot for target power for each lap and adjust on the next one if I missed it. In the end, I nailed it, ending up with an average power of exactly 230 W and a finishing time of 1:46:38. At my average pace of 5:13/km, it would have taken me about 1:50 to do the actual half marathon distance, almost spot on what Stryd predicted. It felt like the right amount of effort; I’m not sure I would have been able to sustain a faster pace. Good job, Stryd.

Me, arriving at the finish line. Credit: Jackson Hole Half Marathon

With that total time of 1:46:38, I finished 8th in my age group (male 30-39) and 26th overall.

Although I didn’t hit my stretch goal, I’m pretty happy with this result, considering it’s my first half marathon ever, and also because check out how cool the finisher medal is:

As for my initial goals:

I seem to be able to easily stomach multiple Maurten gels without any GI issues. They're… not cheap, but they’re worth it.
Stryd’s suggested pace seems to work very well. I’m not sure if I’d have been able to hit that pace after the swim and bike legs, though, so I’ll probably need to account for that for Arizona.
My pacing strategy worked, I was able to hit my targets perfectly. Can I do the same for the bike?

Next up, let’s see if I can shave off a few minutes from my run at the Hole Half in September, my last race before heading to Arizona.