Run for the Hills Recap

Whew. It was sticky today.

I'm pretty please with my results (see post below) and this race was the perfect first race back in New England. The race was broken up into a 5k and 10k with 52 participants in each category. This is the first year this race has been held, so that's a pretty decent turn out. I actually just found out about the race this past Monday when I was trolling around on Trail Runner Magazine's website. The course was a classic New England rooty/rocky singletrack trail in the woods; a 3.1 mile loop. So the 5k racers did one loop while us 10k'ers did a double. The day was sticky from the get go. I went out to walk my dogs at 6:00 this morning and while it wasn't too hot yet, the air was thick. By the 9am start time the clouds had burned off and it was well into the upper 80's with soupy conditions. The heat doesn't bother me too much, but the humidity does make it harder to breathe deeply so that slowed me down a little.

The first lap was classic for me. I started off a bit too quick, which provided separation from the pack but I had to force myself into a steady pace rather than spend all my energy in the first loop of the run. It's easy to start worrying about who's around you and not letting other runners pass you and trying to chase down those in front of you. But in a race like this that's silly because you don't know who's doing the 5k v. the 10k so you could run down someone who's going super fast, and as you set out to start your second loop you realize that he/she has stopped because they're only doing the 5k! So mentally I tried to get into a rhythm and not think too much about who was around me.

I finished my first loop in 20:37, which was mainly a product of my quick start. I was happy with that because I knew that unless I bonked under the heat or I hurt myself I should definitely finish in under 50 minutes. I kept up my pace through the second loop. The most techy sections of the trail were mostly within mile 2, with lots of mud (it rained last night) rocks, roots a big blow down and some short uphills. I started notice the toll that the heat was taking on a few of the uphills when I didn't seem to have the seem pop in my legs that I had during the first loop. Between miles 2 and 3 I started to catch a few folks and I had to resist the urge to attack the remainder of the course. One other race and I stayed with each other until just before the mile 3 marker when I left what I had been saving on the trail and took off toward the finish where Carli and Lily were there waiting for me.

A few variables to consider: Although running is my strong suit, my last 3 months in Colorado I pretty much exclusively mountain biked. I was at my peak for running last fall, but then through a bad winter cold/flu season I backed off, had to miss an adventure race in April due to a lingering chest problem, than the last event in CO before moving back east was the aforementioned 24 Hours of Erock mountain bike race so I pretty much stopped running altogether and focused on the bike. After that I didn't do much of anyting for a couple of weeks to deal with the actual move and than once we got here at the end of June, I started trail running again. So, basically what that long-winded diatribe was meant to spell out is that I'm still finding my running legs a bit. With that in mind and with how I performed during the first loop I'm feeling that I can definitely run a sub-40 minute 10k. Time to start working on some hills and getting some speed work in.

I'm encouraged with how I ran today and starting to look towards the next race, either 10.5 miler in Oxford, MA or an 12.5k in Hanover, NH. The 12.5k is put on by Xterra (there's an Xterra triathlon the same day) so the competition will be much more intense, so the 10.5 miler may be a better option, but we'll see. Either way, I'm psyched to be back on track and racing. Today was a lot fun and I can't wait to get back out there!

-ct