Rhinebeck Half Marathon, Sept 26, 2026 — Nor'easter, Injury

Prefer to watch this one? Here's the race recap on YouTube: Rhinebeck Half Marathon 2026

Strategy

In four weeks I'll be running the New York City Marathon for charity, raising funds for the Chase Michael Anthony Kowalski Foundation (CMAK), and Rhinebeck was a test race, not a goal race. Three things I wanted to check: how my left calf and hamstring would hold up, I picked up an acute strain from cramping in the water at S.O.S. Triathlon in late August and recovery had been slower than I wanted, how my power-based running strategy would translate to a hillier course, and how my new race shoes, New Balance XC-L6, would perform under real pressure since my right foot is sensitive to fit and these weren't quite 100% dialed in yet. I built my power targets off my Long Island Half Marathon training file: 280 watts for the first 5 miles, 290 for the second 5, a step down on the mile 10 to 11 hill, then 310 for the final 2 miles, aiming for a similar time to Long Island despite Rhinebeck being a hillier course. I wasn't chasing a PR, if it happened, it happened, the real goal was testing the system.

Race Experience

Race morning brought the nor'easter everyone feared: 30-35 mph wind with gusts to 55, plus rain, bad enough that other regional races, including the Half Ironman Jones Beach, were canceled outright. I decided not to check my watch and ring for data all morning and just went by feel, which told me I was recovered and ready. The rain held off until the start, then opened up hard right as the gun went off. Early adrenaline had me pushing 290 watts when my target was 278-283, so I deliberately slowed myself down with nasal breathing to settle into the planned 280 for the first 5 miles.

The rain stopped around mile 3. Miles 5 through 8 went as planned, I pushed into 285-290 territory, running a negative split and catching runners who'd gone out too hot. Then mile 8-9 hit, climbing back toward the start, and I felt the calf and hamstring discomfort spike into real pain, more than I'd ever raced through before. I had a choice: back off to a light jog and protect the leg, or find a way to cope with the pain and keep moving without doing more damage a month out from a marathon.

I remembered a technique from my massage therapist, Sundar, breathing intentionally into an area of pain during deep tissue work, and started using a 4-by-4 breathing pattern through the nose to manage it. My pace dropped, closing that second 5-mile segment at 287 instead of climbing toward 290 as planned. The final 5K had another hill between miles 10 and 11, and my power sagged to 275 there, a real drop from 285, but I held off forcing it out of fear of doing real damage. Over the last 2 miles I tested how much I could still push and, with the breathing technique still running, found my way back to 281 watts by the finish.

Outcome

I finished with about a 3-minute overall time loss from the pain in that final stretch, landing at a 7:45/mile pace, just 4 seconds slower per mile than my prior half marathon despite the conditions and the injury. Still: 2nd in my age group, 27th overall. In normal shape, this likely would have been a PR. The moment I stopped running and let my focus off the breathing exercise, the pain hit immediately, I couldn't walk without limping.

Lessons Learned

• There's no good or bad decision in the moment, a decision is a decision, the real value is in what it teaches you. Pushing through that pain taught me I can manage real in-race pain by directing my focus and breathing into it, something I'd never had to do before.

• Fast recovery is a skill of its own: steam room, massage gun and ice cycling for two days, then acupuncture with dry needling that released tension I didn't know was that deep, three days later I was back to roughly my pre-race condition.

• Knowing when not to race is as important as knowing how to push through one. With a marathon a month out, I made the call to skip an upcoming Duathlon I'd planned on, since I know once I'm in race mode I can't hold back, and forcing it now would risk a real setback.

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