Will Sanders came through with a big time race at the Hartford Pilgrim Middletown Half Marathon on Sunday, setting a new course record of 1:07:23 on his way to his third consecutive victory. But it was this that really caught our attention:
Incredible 3-peat event win and course record set by Will Sanders in 1:07:23 #MiddletownHalf pic.twitter.com/QpUavRr7BV
— HMF Events (@RunHMF) April 24, 2016
Will just keeps rolling right along in 2016. He already has wins at the 5 College Realtors 10 Miler and the New Bedford Half Marathon. We reached out to him after he was done celebrating to find out a little more on how things have been going since his last time on the Level:
What keeps bringing you back to this race?
First off, it’s so close to home its a no brainer. But really for this year and next it’s the USATF-CT half marathon championship, so I have to represent soundRUNNER.
How big of a challenge is it to run out front, uncontested, like that?
I’m used to running some races uncontested. The nice thing about this one is you do get to pass the field on a couple of stretches so you get motivated by the crowd.
The big year continues for you. Have you done anything different to help yourself keep this momentum going?
I’m probably in the best shape of my career right now. The biggest change i’ve made has been running with a GPS watch. It’s sorta forced me to push some of my longer runs and lately my long runs are low 6 minute pace or in the case of last week sub 6.
I’ve also gotten into the habit of rolling out 5 or six nights a week in addition to my post race/workout routine. It’d be kinda weird to walk into bar trivia night with my foam roller or Roll Recovery R8 so I end up missing a night here and there.
I’m still making some tweaks to my training plan, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. So i must be doing something right.
Will you be back next year to try to lower that course record?
I’ll more than likely be back since it is a grand prix race. Not sure if I’ll try and go for the record again, but who knows. I wanted to just run 5:15s and obviously that didn’t happen. It also depends on the weather. So as long as I’m healthy I’ll be back.
