Mary Shepherd ran the Phoenix Half Marathon and finished with a time of 2:42:10.
This was the inaugural race for the Phoenix Marathon. The course was maybe a slight net uphill according the Garmin, but the uphill around mile 10 was a challenge for many–I passed many walkers. For me, I did not run the pace I would have liked to have run, but I ran a very consistent pace, and given my struggles with nutrition twice earlier this year, that is a definite win. According to Garmin, the first two miles were a slight uphill, but I did not notice this, followed by a basically flat section and a slight downhill section. Mile 5 into 6 was a slight uphill, then flat again. This was run on city streets and some portions on a canal path. Then, it was a slight downhill for a couple of miles before the LONG and obvious uphill that stretched more than a mile. The legs were tired so when the downhill started it was a challenge to keep the legs going, but I did. The last mile was sort of an out and back (turn 180 degrees) about 1/2 mile each way before turning into the finish area. I ran the entire run with 50/20 intervals, always able to run, if slowly, the 50 second run. Once I could see the finish line, I ran through a walk interval to finish as strong as I could. I had been following an older male runner for about 5 miles and in the last 1/4 mile I passed him for good. It was a hard race, but for me the win was feeling essentially good through out the entire 13.1 miles. Besides the finishing time, I was 4th in my age group (F70-74) out of 15. (927 of 1335 females and 1902 of 2535 total half marathoners) There was 12 minutes separating me and 1st place, but 14 minutes separating me and 5th place.
Marc Marinaccio ran a 5 Mile Tune Up race and finished this distance in the time of 43:32.
Great race, felt really good the whole way! The splits aren’t accurate because I accidentally hit the button on my watch way short of the 3 mile marker, and it’s also really hilly at the end, which slowed me down a bit. I definitely could have kept the pace for another mile or two, but not much more than that. Still slower than where I was a year ago, but overall I’m happy with my progress since coming back from injury. Looking forward to starting marathon training in the new year!
Travis Dowell ran the Rockin Reindeer 10K and completed this race event in the time of 1:01:49.
This was the first time I raced on this paved course, which went out with most of the 373 feet of elevation gain and an underpass and overpass (mile 2) for 3.1 miles and then came back with elevation loss and the same overpass and underpass on mile 5. Garmin had the same elapsed time as the official time, but measured 6.22 miles with a pace of 9:56, while the official pace for 6.2 miles was 9:57, both of which are faster than the 5K race pace of 9:59 last month on a flatter, but crowded course with 722 runners versus only 92 10Kers today. We did share the course with 5K runners and 1 mile walkers starting slightly later than the 10Kers. I did some passing and got passed a few times, but on the way back, the order was relatively fixed with a male 35 year old runner/walker who was passing me the whole way when running and then I passed him when walking. He finished 16 seconds ahead of me. I was 38th of the 92 10Kers top 41%), 23rd of 42 males (top 55%), and 1st place of the 70+ age group which had two other runners, a 71 year old who finished 48th and a 76 year old who finished 76th. Overall a great result today and better than I expected.
Harry Blake ran the Victoia Pak 10k with a finishing time of 37:46. This was a PR by 1 minute 26 seconds!
A PR but not quite as fast as I was hoping – legs felt tired from the beginning. Think a combination of christmas/work/life just tired me out ahead of the race and my legs were not sufficiently recovered. But still in good shape and looking forward to longer races in 2026!
