Gorges Half Marathon 2026
This was the culminating event for my first time working with a coach.
What a difference a year makes!
This year, Scott and I gave each other the gift of coaching. Our kids are both coached so why not us? A perfect gift - experiences are my favorite presents - no stuff to collect!
When I started working with Alex she knew I had several races lined up for the season. At our first meeting we selected the Gorges Half as the goal race. There would be four 5K races, 2 half marathons and the Seneca Seven relay before this day. They would all serve to help me along my journey. As Alex aptly said, each time you race you work a little harder than you would in a training run, so it is nice to have several races sprinkled into a training cycle.
External Motivation
The course for Gorges is mostly downhill. In fact, the only two hills in the race are in the first 4 miles of the course. Last year my goal was to avoid walking these hills. This year, I wished to run them confidently.
To add motivation, Scott and I decided to create 2 segments to help motivate our training on this course. Due to a change in the Black Diamond Trail, Ian changed the course slightly, eliminating the second hill, but I trained on it and benefitted from my segment.
One of the cool things about a segment is that it goes back in time after you create one. We made this segment in March of 2026, but I have data going all the way back to when I joined Strava. I love that my PR was this year and I was only 9 seconds off from it on race day. When I run the segment in training, I take a break at the top. Today, there was no such luxury!
Don’t try anything new on race day
For my birthday in April, my kids gave me a great Lulu running hydration vest. The race morning started with a cool 62 degrees but the humidity was 91% and the temperatures were expected to rise quickly. Both Scott and Elizabeth planned to run with a hand held water bottle. I returned from my warmup run dripping with sweat.I made the rash decision to try the vest. Time was tight, so I tore the tag off, quickly filled a bottle and tossed in some Honey Stinger chews. I congratulated myself on being open minded and ready to try something new.
Then, I set my watch for a 1:56 half marathon goal (a feature I’d never tried) and started to walk to the start line.
I started too fast
To hit a 1:56 half marathon, even splits are 8:50 per mile. My watch would let me know after each mile if I was above or below the pace goal and by how many cumulative seconds. It didn’t require me to set a pace and it wouldn’t beep at me each time I was too fast or too slow during each mile.
I got caught up in the energy of the first two miles with 8:17 and 8:15 paces respectively. They were downhill miles, but even so, I started too fast. Right before mile 3, the bottle I had shoved the water bottle in the pouch tumbled out onto the road. Right before a water station, all the spectators and volunteers watch it fall. Slowing to a walk, I tried to shove it back in to no avail. I succumbed to carrying the bottle for the next few miles. The positive side? It slowed me down and I was brought back to reality.
For the next several miles I switched the bottle back and forth between my hands. I considered tossing it on the course. Finally, with 5 miles to go, I saw one of my colleagues spectating. I took off the vest and threw it at her.
There’s more than one way to run a race
Last year I hadn’t trained very well. But, the temperature was a cool 57 degrees with 82% humidity. I caught an opportunity at mile 4 when I happened to run alongside one of 7th graders. We ran the rest of the race together. View my 2025 race report. Yet, while I had motivation to run happy and strong that day, it was a hard effort that I wasn’t really prepared for. I finished with a 1:57:53. Both Ananda and I were proud. It was his first half marathon and it brought me back in time to when Xander ran his first half, also in grade 7.
This year I was extremely well trained. My heart rate was more steady. I felt in control of my breathing. I didn’t need (or have) external motivation. I ran strong. My official result was 1:56:17.
I’ve been running a long time, and I understand there is a large difference in how I performed across the two years, yet still a difference of just over a minute seems so little. Alex mentioned the weather conditions and the stress that the heat and humidity add to our body.
Strava preserves the temperature and humidity I decided to put it into AI and see what it had to say about the comparison. The response?
The 1:56:17 is the superior performance. When adjusting for the higher heat/humidity and the natural aging effect, this race equates to a hypothetical 1:53:23 in ideal conditions, outperforming the previous year’s adjusted time of 1:55:09.
Here is more information about temperature/humidity
Year 1 (57°F, 82% Humidity): The perceived “feels-like” temperature is roughly 59°F. This is near-ideal for distance running, resulting in minimal weather-related slowdown.
Year 2 (61°F, 91% Humidity): The perceived “feels-like” temperature jumps to approximately 68°F, pushing into a zone where humidity begins to impede evaporative cooling, requiring more physiological effort.
Comparison: The second race was run in noticeably more taxing atmospheric conditions, meaning her raw time of 1:56:17 is much faster than the face value suggests.
Sometimes new works
When I first started working with Alex, we set this race as my goal race. She asked me my goal for the race and I said I’d like to break 2 hours. As you now know, I had done so the prior year, but it felt lucky and more like a fluke than something I’d tried to do. Still, when I narrowly pulled off a sub 2 in the Syracuse Half in March, she suggested I adjust this Gorges goal. I agreed.
Then, when I ran the Skunk Cabbage Half just a week later and struggled, I started to reconsider. I had barely gotten the sub 2 in Syracuse and there was a lot of crowd support. The Skunk course is lightly supported and Gorges is also light in spectators. What goal made sense? Also, I wanted to be somewhat divorced from a time goal, making sure to run comfortably and strong.
Still, the goal I most understand right now is time so I chose the time goal of 1:56 and entered it into my watch. Faster than I ran in Syracuse, but also realistic. A friend that I run with in winter speed workouts ran the Toronto Half marathon in 1:55 and some number of seconds just a month prior. I reasoned it was going to be warmer weather and I’m usually a little slower than her so I added a minute. The feature worked GREAT! Each mile I’d know how much under/over I was and I could adjust and be aware. It didn’t beep at me between these mile updates which I also appreciated.
Proud .. and next time
My official result was 1:56:17. Being so close to the goal time gives me some things to think about and to share. When I hit the last mile, my watch told me I was off pace by about 40 seconds. My first thought was “I won’t hit my goal” instead of “pick up the pace,” which would have been a more productive thought. When I ended up off pace by 17 seconds I rightly asked myself why I couldn’t have found a mere 17 seconds somehow, while also noting I did make up some time in that last mile.
Later, when sharing the watch feature with a friend we both remarked, “what if you had put in 1:55?”
Post race was fun as always and I left for home feeling proud of myself, grateful to Alex and her coaching, and hopeful as I head into the next training cycle. Read about Scott’s excellent race (and see some awesome race photos he is in) on his Gorges Half Marathon 2026 post.
13.1 mi in 1:56:17 // 250 of 775 overall, 9 of 59 age group, 8:53 pace // strava
Great tale and super finish time!