Knock Down, Drag Out – Final Week Total 42
January 25, 2009
They were not kidding when they said it was a tough course. After reading all the reviews that I did about the Boston Prep 16 Miler up in Derry, the most accurate descriptor might have been the one that poked fun of the label “moderately challenging.” Having run the Cape Ann 25K, I’d be willing to put money on the 16 Miler as the tougher of the two races (not even taking the weather into consideration). It was totally gorgeous and I am totally beat up, but better for it.
I picked up a new running friend, Alex, who didn’t have a number, but chose to run it bandit, from her apartment at about 8:30 for the 10AM start, and drove the hour up to the race. I drank a bit more than I had intended to last night at David Dahl’s party and even though I alternated two bottles of water for every bottle of beer, I had that sluggish feeling that one gets when drinking only a bit too much. In this case, that “bit” was a shot of Patron tequila. Oops. anyway, the added amount of water also meant that I woke up every 2 hours having to use the bathroom. Needless to say, the pre-race sleep wasn’t the best, but I found comfort in the fact that it’s sleep two night before that is most important.
The drive up confirmed that we lucked out with the weather. Though it started at about 15 degrees, it got up above 20 and wind wasn’t much of an issue. Parking, because we had arrived within 30 minutes of the race start, was a bit packed, but one of the officials told us to park in a handicap spot, and we ran in to stretch, pick up my number and get ourselves ready. While we were driving around the lots, I attempted to bring my car up a steep path that was clearly made for walking, and realizing that I wasn’t going to make it, I tried to back up gracefully, but ended up sliding down. Right before we made contact with it I say to Alex, “I’m can’t stop the car. We’re going to hit that car,” quite calmly. She replied, “We are?” Oops! I feel really bad.
Alex and I split up while I was rushing to get my number, but we were able to meet each other again while walking to the start. Granted, I didn’t really have a good idea of what was going on, but as we were heading over to the starting line, everybody was jogging, and I wondered if we had somehow missed the start. We hadn’t – the start was actually around the corner with some horse stables on one side and a small white house on the other.
When the gun (was there a gun, I forget) went off, the goings started slow, as the approximately 800 runners were all packed in the front. I ran with Alex for the first two or three miles then slowly pulled away. Our first mile was an 8:45, which I didn’t mind too much because I knew I was slowed down a bit. I wanted to hit about 8:10 through the first half and slowly bring down my split while keeping in mind that the biggest hills were in the second half. Though it felt loose and smooth, we hit the second mile at a 7:29 and I started to think to myself that I had to ease up. I was anxious about the hills and didn’t want to over exert myself. When I clocked a 7:16 at the third mile, I started to worry, and reformulated my game plan by dividing the course into 4 separate sections, each 4 miles long. From the splits throughout, this plan ended up working much better, as I was able to keep up fairly well and ran each successive 4-mile sections faster, with the caveat of the crazy hills being throughout the third section. After I hit the half-marathon point (which they conveniently marked for us) I focused on trying to pass as many people as I could, while being deliberate about it so that they wouldn’t come back and pass me.
By mile 14 the next runner I had in my sights was a woman who I thought I would catch in 5 minutes. She put on a fight though, and while we passed other runners, I stayed about 5 seconds behind her until the very end. The last half mile is downhill, until you make a turn right before the finish. Runners sprint up about a hundred meters, make a turn into the parking lot and finish about 50 feet in. I made up a lot of ground on the downhill, held myself behind a runner who was sporting the official race top and matched his stride as we came up to the turn onto the 100 meter sprint. I realized that, because it was a main road, officials had coned off a chute for runners to go through, and I waited to be polite and let my impromptu running partner go ahead if he wanted to. When I realized he wasn’t making a move, I extended my stride to get there before him so I wouldn’t have to make the (slightly) wider turn. I saw the crest of the last hill, and the woman I had been chasing for the past two miles. I estimated how far it was to the top, and started hauling after her. When we turned into the parking lot, she was still ahead of me, but she seemed winded from the hike up, and kicked it in even more. I debated what I could say to her that wouldn’t sound condescending, but realized I had nothing, so I just extended my stride and passed her and another runner in the last 50 feet. Here are my splits:
- 8:45.9
- 7:29.8
- 7:16.5
- 7:32.6
- 7:39.3
- 7:12.4
- 7:50.7
- 7:30.4
- 8:16.4
- 8:14.4
- 8:03.5
- 8:21.2
- 7:40.8
- 7:21.6
- 7:41.2
- 6:54.4
The official results had be at 2:04:13, an average pace of 7:45.8, but my watch clocked me at 2:03:51, an average pace of 7:44.4. I was 151st overall and 24th of 40 in my age group. Alex finished only a minute and a half or so behind me, in something like 2:05:13, and would have been 9th in her age group had she had a number. I don’t know where the 22 second time difference comes from, so I’ve decided that I’m going to trust my watch and go with the latter time. Obviously, this is a bit faster than long run pace, but it’s encouraging that I was able to do such a tough course in nearly the same pace as the 16 miles I did a few weeks ago.
I’ve realized that I’m a pretty good climber and descender on these runs, as I was able to make up a lot of ground on fellow runners during the hills, and passed the most people by just keeping my head down and making sure my cadence was consistent. I pulled in a group of three or four runners who had been ahead of me for most of the race when the largest hill came upon us at mile 10 or 11. At first, I stayed with them to hide behind them in case of wind, but when I realized they were slowing down, I kept my head down, started talking to myself (at least one of the runners looked at me oddly while I did this) and imagined, again, that I was running with John and Marie up heartbreak. It’s funny the games you play in your mind. I also reasoned that the 300 foot rise would mean about 600 steps or so, so I started counting my steps during each hill. Needless to say, this one was about mental strength, so I’m glad that I seem to be making some progress in that department.
Finally, I want to say that the race was organized really well. I probably could have used another water stop (I think there were 4 in all), because I feel a little dehydrated now, and I wish the parking situation was better, but overall it was great. I wish there was a way to get clean afterward, but I settled for using some Nathan Brand Power Shower Body Wipes (which are just baby wipes but, oddly, smaller – wouldn’t adults need a bigger size?) that I picked up from CitySports yesterday while I was getting GU. The post race spread was amazing – I had awesome chicken soup, a hummus and tabouli wrap and some fruit (there was also pizza, but wtf?) – and the official race shirt is a nice color blue, long sleeve and zips up to a mock turtle neck (I’ll excuse the silly graphic on the back). If I’m in the area I’d probably do the race again, but would be just as anxious about the weather before hand. Here are the official results (with an extra 22 seconds added).
Official Race Shirt
Upcoming Schedule
03. Week Ending Feb 01 (37-41)
M: Intervals easy / TU: 3 easy / W: 5 easy / TH: 6 @ RP + warm up/ F: off / Sa: 14 @ LP1 / Su: 3 easy
