Perfect weather for a race in early April. This race is one of my favorites. The start and finish is about 300 yards from the ferry as you leave the Island so there's no need for off-island transportation. It's also a very hilly course with some good competition; especialy in my age group. Twenty five of the top 35 runners were over the age of 40.
I was hoping to run 6:30's for this race. It doesn't seem to extreme of a goal unless one is familiar with the course. All up and down with nary a flat spot to speak of.
Although the hills aren't that long, they are steep. Having not been doing much in the way of hill training, I knew it would be a challenge. My first mile was right on track at 6:28 which was a hard mile as it's mostly uphill. That was followed up with a 6:02 as I took advantage of the following down hill. I tried to use the downhills tomy advantage in this race. In the past I've used them as a place to rest and recover but felt that if I ran them harder I could gain some time. It worked pretty well until later in the race when at mile 5 I crashed and burned a bit. I ran a 7:15 and was beginning to think of letting up completely. I hate when those thoughts start running htrough my head. Instead of giving in I set my sites on the runner in front of me and slowly reeled him in over the next 1/2 mile. I realized at this point that I was in the top 10- something I've always wanted to do at this race and there was no way I was going to fall back in the pack. I once again set my sites on the runner ahead of me. Every time I would close on his shoulder he would move back out to a 20 yard lead or so and then I'd try to get abck on his shoulder. Although I never quite caught him; using him helped me to push through to the end of the race.
My average pace for the race was 6:36; only a second off my percieved best possible goal. It was also almost a full 1.5 minutes under my previous P.R. for this course. I am very happy with my performance. With no immediate race in my future I'm looking forwards to doing some consistent and productive training. Hopefully it will help me get back some of my motivation that was lost after deciding against my spring marathon. | 