Interesting race to say the least. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to see the thermometer sitting at 4 degrees. So much for hoping the weather man was wrong. Jumped in the shower to wake up and ate a bowl of oatmeal and a banana to fuel up. Then it was off to the boat for the trip to the mainland. The 45 minute boat ride was followed by a 2 hour drive north of the border to Derry New Hampshire and the start of the race. Pat, Larry and I kept our eyes on the temps as we drove north and kept cringing as the temps continued to drop. We got down to about 4 below before the sun came up and temps started creeping back up. By the time we got to the starting line it had gone up to 14 degrees and I put freezing to death off my list of fears for the day.
I ended up wearing a long sleeve tech shirt with a short sleeve over that and a wind shell to finish off my top. The bottom of my outfit was just my new tights. Topped off the whole thing with a hat and gloves and for the first time I wore a neck scarf. The outfit was pretty on for the conditions. The only problem I had was with my hanbds so I need to find a better solution, maybe mitten types as gloves with fingers cause me to lose feeling in the fingers.
Now to the race itself. I ran this race last year when I felt I was in much better shape and I took a completely different approach than this year. In 2010 I went out nice and easy with the idea of negative splits ans that's exactly what I did. averaging 7:25 for the first half and finishing with a 7:15 pace. Tough to do as this course is especialy hilly over the miles of 9 to 13. This year my goal coming in was to run 7:30's for as long as I could and hopefully get under 2 hour for the day.
Unlike last year where I was late to the start and lost a minute, this year I was on time and managed to get within 15 seconds of the starting line. The first mile has a 200 foot elevation rise which you barely notice with the crowd and adrenaline. I came through in 7:42 with a bit of weaving and was feeling good. The next mile was 6:58 and pretty effortless which surprised me after Fridays temp run. At this point I gave myself permission to just run like I was feeling. The next 2 miles were both around 7 flat before another 300 foot rise brought me back to a 7:45. Still feeling good but I know the second half is going to be rough. I just let myself relax ovwer the next few until mile 9 when the hills began. They didn't let up until 12.5. You end up with a net 400+ rise consisting of a lot of up and downs and a couple of really steep spots where the majority of the field comes to a walk. I stayed moving throughout the entire race and managed to move by a couple people on the steep sections. My splits for 9-11 were right below the 8 minute pace and I was definetly struggling at this point. With 3 to go I was thinking about letting up and coasting in at 8's which would have given me my 2 hour race but I decided, as is my personality to go for it. I increased my effort and felt and heard my left foot slapping the ground a little more than I would have liked so I backed off a little to try and minumize any potential injury. I have to remember the prize is Boston, not today's race. My last threee were at 7's so I was thrilled.
Extremely cold by the end so instead of jogging back and encouraging the other runners, like I would usually do, I headed into the gym to warm up and get some dry clothes on. My final time was a surprise as it was only about 30 seconds slower that last year. Considering my milage I'm extremely happy. I think the thing that excites me more than anything is that I ran a different kind of race today and didn't crash and burn. Some thing to think about as Boston approaches.
Final splits are as follows.
7:42
6:58
6:52
7:09
7:45
6:52
7:03
7:08
7:18
7:57
7:56
7:51
7:17
7:03
6:54
6:56
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