On ZAP Endurance athletes Tristin Van Ord, Joe Stilin, Matt McClintock and training partner Pardon Ndhlovu are headed to Hardeeville, SC this Sunday for the Mortgage Network Half Marathon. The race is another elite-only field and will feature some great competition with 50 athletes in both the men’s and women’s fields. The men’s race will begin at 8:00am with the women to follow at 8:10am. Each athlete competing must provide a negative COVID-19 test result taken the week of the race in order to compete.
On the men’s side Matt and Joe will both be competing in their 2nd half marathons of the fall. Matt recently ran 1:03:45 to finish 13th at the Michigan Pro Half Marathon on October 28th. He has continued to train well since recovering from that race and is excited to finish his competitive year with another attempt at the distance. Matt’s lifetime best is 1:02:34 from the 2018 Houston Half Marathon.
Four weeks ago Joe jumped in the Escape the Notch Half Marathon and came away with the win in 1:04:12. He has another month of training under his belt and is looking forward to another racing opportunity in 2020. Joe has a career best of 1:03:35.
For Pardon this will be his first race since coming back from a stress fracture in his foot this summer. He has been training hard with the team and like many, is grateful for the opportunity to compete against a strong field. Pardon, a 2016 Olympian in the marathon, owns a lifetime best in the half marathon of 1:04:04. All three will be among the favorites in an impressive field that includes 15 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers as well as the 2018 NCAA 10,000m Champion, Ben Flanagan of Canada.
Tristin also competed at the Michigan Pro Half Marathon in October where she raced to a top 10 finish and personal best of 1:13:55. This weekend will be a little different as Tristin’s final race of the year will take place 2.5 weeks from now at The Marathon Project 26.2 where she will be looking to add a new marathon best to newly minted half marathon mark. For Tristin, this weekend’s half marathon will serve the dual purpose of being a race and a final specific long run before the marathon. Her goal is to run close to marathon pace for the majority of the race.
(Update: Due to a late hamstring injury Joe will not be racing this weekend.)
You can see the full entry list here and on race day you’ll be able to track live results here.