Racing Until My Legs Fall Off

Since a few important meetings for Columbus Day were canceled, I opted to take the day as PTO and turn the New England Worlds weekend into a long one. And that meant one extra day to race.

It used to be that as the leaves started to turn here in Boston, I began to get more excited as my goal races came up on the horizon. At the time, those races were the Bench & Run (love that one!), Tufts 10k, BAA Half Marathon, Applefest, Baystate Marathon, NYC Marathon, Feaster Five, or Manchester on Thanksgiving. The list changed every year depending on whether I had aspirations of qualifying for Boston, trying to get a new half marathon PR or simply trying to work off all the apple pies I eat in the fall.

The list of races is so different these days: Gloucester, Canton Cup, Northampton, Wrentham, Sterling. And I find myself so torn. I honestly miss running. But I love 'cross. ~sigh. And if this weekend is any indication, it's freaking hard to do both. (Unless you're Libby. Ah, to be 14 again. :) )But dammit - it was a three day weekend, and I was going to race all three days.

Gloucester Day 1
First up, was the New England Worlds (a.k.a. Gloucester GP). Stealing from Cathy's beautiful summary on the NEBC site, the course was as follows:

The course layout was the same as last year’s Gloucester races. Uphill pavement start onto a slightly downhill dirt section with some tight turns, onto the seawall where we picked up speed, up a rocky incline to a grassy section leading into the first small uphill of the course. From there, we continued in the grass into the barrier chicanes, and into a wicked fast downhill grass section, past the pit, and onto the second (and windy) seawall. A hard push sent us into some tight, twisty turns on the grass before dumping racers into the playground sand section, complete with a hairpin turn! Sprinting out of the sand brought everyone to the up/down twists of the final chicanes, before heading back onto the road.

Sunday’s weather was a repeat of Saturday – clear, sunny skies and warm temps.

Kudos to the course staff for the changes they made between Saturday’s races and Sunday. While the start of the race was the same, Sunday brought a huge, loose run-up off of the seawall from a 90 degree right hand turn! That run up hurt every time. From here, we rode past the upper playground, around a very loose (sandy, rocky) right hand turn, back onto the grass and into an off camber approach to the barriers. This new approach was rutted and bumpy, and required some good cornering skills. The seond half of the course, with a few changes to the grass chicane section and a different approach to the sand, remained pretty much the same as Saturday.

I had volunteered to work registration for Saturday so I arrived pretty early - so early, in fact, that I was lucky enough to witness a gorgeous sunrise. Working registration was fun - actually got to put some faces to some names in the mens fields which was great. Took off at 10am to my race prep and warm up.

Goals for the race: ride smoothly, save enough for the a good last lap and try to finish in the top 50% of riders. The race went pretty much according to plan. I had a third row start and passed quite a few riders up the hill before we hit the dirt. (Thanks to Cris for reminding me to start in the big ring. Felt like I had a rocket pushing me past many of the riders.) The sand pit was the low point in my race. In retrospect, I should have simply gotten off and ran but it just LOOKED so rideable. And it probably was if I had been TT-ing it out there. Whole different story with others in front of you. On the third lap, as I was running with the bike shouldered, I was passed by one of the juniors whose bike got tangled with mine. Took us a bit to get our bikes untangled. On the fourth (last lap), I was feeling like I had enough left to make a serious effort at passing a group of three riders in front of me. Unfortunately, I biffed it big time in the sand pit and lost enough time that I couldn't catch them. Geoff Martin even got a great shot of me sitting on my butt in the sand with the bike on top of me. ~sigh Still managed to have a great time.

Gloucester Day 2
Saturday night we had a small dinner party - not the best pre-race dinner especially considering the number of glasses of wine I consumed. But at least I didn't need to be up there at the crack of dawn Sunday morning. Walked the course with Janet and Kathy to check out the addition of the run-up and the other resulting course changes. Nice to have someone to talk over the course with and bounce ideas off of.

Goals for race: place higher than the day before, deal with the sand pit better, smile on the run-up. :) Not sure if it was the fact that I had to host a dinner party Saturday night, ate too much, drank way too much wine, etc., etc, or the run-up from hell but Sunday's race felt a WHOLE lot harder. Again, had a third row start and got stuck behind a rider who couldn't clip in. Grrr..... Next, on the first little uphill grass section, I saw Libby and another rider down. (I heard later that the other rider had pretty much intentionally taken her out. So NOT cool.) Had to carefully maneuver around them. I tried to just settle in for the next few laps and sit on a wheel on the long, straight grassy sections, the road, etc. On the fourth lap, I decided that I really wanted to be ahead of the woman in front of me and made the whole goal of the lap to finish ahead of her. Went into the run-up together but I beat her to the top which give me a little bit of a spurt. Tried accelerating more coming out of each turn and transition in order to put a little more distance between us. Ended up finishing ahead of her by 15 sec or so.

All in all, I was pretty happy with the results. Next year, I need to finally reach my goal for being in the top 50% of the riders. Was almost there but not quite. The weather was spectacular, the cheering fans even more so. And I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out in the beer garden following Sunday's race.

Tufts 10k
Having not run a 10k in recent memory (a year? more?), I had no goals for this race other than to simply have fun. S had to attend the AAP conference which was being held in Boston this year and so had a room at the Copley Marriott. Playing tourist, I stayed there Sunday night, got up early and jogged over to the Common to number pickup. Loved being on the streets of Boston in the early morning. I sometimes forget just how beautiful this city is. Without the crowds and traffic and with the gorgeous weather, it was super relaxing to be out running down the middle of Comm Ave, across the Public Garden, etc.

Lined up for the start with 7,000 other women on Beacon St. Having done this race more times than I can remember, the course is burned into memory. Down the Beacon St. hill, right onto Charles St, up over the Longfellow Bridge, down onto Memorial Drive, past MIT up to the BU Bridge, back down Mem Drive past the Mass Ave bridge a ways, then another U-turn back to the Mass Ave bridge, down Mass Ave to a left on Comm Ave, right on Arlington, left on Boylston, then left to the finish line between the Public Garden and the Common.

I vowed before the start that I wouldn't look at my splits. After all, I knew Joannie would beat me again so what was the point? ;-) At the gun, we surged down Beacon St and then got all clumped up at the turn onto Charles. It wasn't until we headed under the Longfellow Bridge on Mem Drive about a mile into the race that I wasn't zigzagging my way through crowds and could run freely. As we were cruising up Mem Drive we saw the the leaders coming back at us on the other side (one of my favorite parts of doing this course) and I still marvel at how fast and effortless they look. Simply amazing.

As we turned onto the Mass Ave bridge, I felt a bit of a headwind and memories of running that bridge in all kinds of weather came flooding back. Training for Boston one January, we had winds on that bridge that were killer. Times like that it helps to have training partners and mine at the time was "B.A.A. Phil". A clydesdale runner, an in-shape, 6'6" 250lb guy that was great to tuck in behind in winds like that. He was my wind shield for 18 miles around the river that day.

The left turn onto Comm Ave always reminds me of the marathon course. One year, I met S on Heartbreak Hill to pace her the last 7 miles to the finish line. As we left Kenmore Square behind and crossed Mass Ave, I could tell she was ready to be done. I picked up the chatter, "Ok, we just crossed Mass Ave! Just have to go one block for the right onto Hereford! Come on! Almost there!" and then I panicked, thinking to myself, "the next right is Hereford, right? Crap! Hope I didn't just tell her the wrong thing!" The last thing you want to tell a marathon runner in the last mile is incorrect course stuff. But yeah, I was right. We turned onto Hereford, then I left her for the turn onto Boylston. No way I was running down that stretch - that's reserved for people who've earned the whole thing. Even the last turn in Central Park for the NYC Marathon can't compare to making that turn down Boylston. It is simultaneously the hugest rush and greatest relief.

As I nodded to the Hereford St. sign and continued down Comm Ave, I hit the mile to go marker for my race and started counting the blocks. It helps that the streets are alphabetical in the Back Bay, Gloucester, Fairfield, Exeter, Dartmouth, Clarendon.... As I turned down Charles St., I reminded myself that the finish line was still a quarter mile away and tried not to sprint it in too early. And there, waiting, since she beat me again by a good 15 min, was Joan Benoit. You start to understand just how old you are when you realize that all the young women in the race have no idea who that woman standing there congratulating runners is and you're heading over to shake her hand and perhaps get a picture with her.

And apparently, I was so swift crossing the finish line that S didn't see me. So no pic with Joanie. But we did have an awesome lunch on Charles St after the race. Felt great to have all three races of the weekend completed. I think I'm going to make it an annual event.