16 miles in 1:55:25 7:15 pace
Beautiful course with a lot of ups and downs. They claim it's not as tough as everyone says but I think they're wrong.
The course is a zero net gain as it starts and finishes in the same spot. The thing that makes it tough is that it never evens out. You're either going up; or down.
Race morning started at 5:00 a.m. Woke up and rushed around getting ready for the 6 o'clock boat. We reached the mainland a little late and grabbed the bus to the parking lot where our vehicle awaited. We left Falmouth a little after 7 and sped the 210 miles up to Derry, New Hampshire. Luckily there was very little traffic as we raced through Boston and ended up in Derry in record time. Park the truck and grab our second bus of the day to get to the race headquarters by 9:15 giving us plenty of time to warm up for the 10 o'clock start. Weather was probably about as good as you can expect this time of year. Temps were in the high 30's with little to no wind. The race was pushed back by 10 minutes to allow for late arrivals and yet we still managed to be late to the start.
As Pat and I walked up to the rear of the 800+ runners; we observed the leaders pulling away from the starting line. I guess we'd be weaving our way to start. The time reflected that with a chip time of 8:32 first mile. Sadly, the race didn't have a mat for the start so the posted times were all gun times. It cost me 1:10 just reaching the starting line but that will teach me to get to the start late. The first 4 miles were spent finding some space to move and hoping that I'd feel a little better. As I went down the hillls the space between the runners would increase and I would use gravity as an ally and pass a bunch of other runners. But once the terraine shifted back to uphills the gaps between bodies would shrink making it near impossible to pass.
At about 4 miles I decided to throw in a surge and see exactly how I was feeling. Between the crowding and late start I was averaging about 8:00's. My 5th mile was 6:54 folllowed by a couple 7:12's and then 2 7:03's. At the 1/2 way point my chip time was 58:35 for an average pace of 7:20. Most of the first half had been down hill so I knew that I was in for some seious payback in the second half. It came at just over 9 miles. You come up over a slight rise and take a sharp left hand turn and are faced with a "steep" hill of about 200 yards. It seemed like half the people around me started walking here. I kept running but wasn't going any faster than the walkers at first. That's when I put my head down, leaned way forwards and shortened up my stride. The next thing I knew I was starting to pass people again. For the next 3.5 miles the course continued to roll and climb with very little relief. I had my doubts about running a negative split but just focused on the here and now. A woman notifiedthe runners upon finally reaching the highest point on the course. I checked out the Garmin and realized that I had a great shot at breaking 2 hours. I just told myself- Only a 5 k to go. Looking up I picked out a shirt and decided I was going to catch that guy. It was the perfect jersey to chase. I spent the next 3 miles sowly reeling him in. Even though I never caught him, he dragged me along and we both managed to pass at least a dozen other runners.
As I came over the top of the final hill and took the turn for home I looked at the clock and realized that I had kicked some serious butt in the final 5k, averaging 6:46. I had indeed negative split the course. My final 8 miles were covered in 56:40 for a pace of 7:05 with all those uphills. I'm very satisfied with my performance, especialy feeling as uncertain as I have the last month or so.
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