Hey, this is hard (huh-huh)

Saturday's weather was like a hurricane around here, with flash flooding all over the place as two inches of rain fell during the daytime. The town highway crew was out in the street all day shoveling the leaves out of the storm drains to keep my street passable. KL spent the day over at the cross course in nearby Canton, where World MTB Champion Allison Dunlap was hosting a clinic. Luckily, they were able to stage some of the drills in the parking garage, but she reported the NAV host club for Sunday's race was diligently setting up the course and making their best effort to clear and control the falling leaves. Well, they did a hell of a job, because when Sunday dawned crisp and clear, the newly reconfigured course was not only clear and fast, but miraculously the mud and puddles were minimal. I am not sure how this happened; I guess the extreme high winds that blew the storm out of town evaporated a lot of water while they were at it.

Of course, my day Sunday did not begin with the cross race. First up was my annual attempt at the Canton Fall Classic 10K, which this year fell on the same day as the cross race whose venue the run race passes. My race started before I even got to the race. The logistical challenge of getting my cross stuff to the course, as well as snagging a good parking place almost did me in. I packed up my bike and race kit, as well as KL's stuff and some food. KL would ride her bike over to get a warmup. I stopped at the run race headquarters, where a larger than usual turnout of 132 for the 5K, and 280 for the 10K had registration and parking extra chaotic. I was running late, but I picked up my number and proceeded to drive to the cross race, parking in a prime spot right next to Lynchie. By now it was about 8:45, and I was almost a mile from the 9 am start of the 10K. I pinned up and started jogging back up the road, making a pit stop in the bushes on the way. My jog turned to a full on run as panic set in when my watch showed 8:55. I trotted up to the waiting throng with about three minutes to spare, enough to get my HR under control, but not enough for any meaningful stretching. On the way back though, the headwind was unreal, gusting to well over 30 mph, so the start would not only be downhill, but also be tailwind. The backside of the loop though, well, that is mostly uphill, and...

I found my old Bike Link teammate Big Mig, who also was running. Lining up near the front, off we went, along with the 5K runners who would turn off onto their course after about 3/4 mile. I was about eight runners back as things sorted out. It was fast for me, but I knew if I wanted to run a PR, this had to hurt. One or two passed me as the course started downhill at 1/2 mile, then a few more. The first mile caller reported 5:44 as I passed. Hmmmmm. I knew there was no way I could run splits like that the entire distance, but since it was downhill with a tailwind I had to put time in the bank. Every time I checked the Polar it was in the high 160's or over 170, which is redzone, but I felt OK, so focusing on form, I soldiered on.

There was no marker for mile two, but I think it was at the water stop, which would have given me a split of around 6:05. The course meanders through a neighborhood before going up a 300 meter wall that leads to the next long downhill. Last year I blew by a lot of people on the wall, but this year I was already at my limit and didn't want to strain a quad. I was still in the top 15 at this point. Going by mile 3 the split was 18:30. The 6:10 pace would easily put me under 40, but the second part of the course is almost all uphill, and the wind would be an issue. Luckily the first section of road that takes you back up through millionaire's row is shrouded with trees and the wind was not too noticeable. I lost another spot or two and felt like dog meat. I knew I was slowing down. The 4th mile took 6:42. The fifth mile brought more uphill, although there was one downhill roller before it turned up a wind-exposed wall to finish it off. The stiff breeze was not hitting us head on however, and the final 1.2 miles would be run with a crosswind. I went by the watchholder and he called out 32:18. Mile 5 had taken 7:07, but now it was just a very gentle grade the rest of the way.

I did a lot of math in my head then next few minutes, realizing I could at least do a course record for me, maybe a 10K PR, and if I really humped it, 40 minutes was within reach. I was dyeing though, and one more runner came by at about a half mile to go, and he offered some encouragement. It flattens out at the last turn, but there is still a bit more from there. I gave it everything, but when I finally turned into the temple parking lot and the finish clock read 40:14, my heart sank. I ran it in, thinking I did a 40:24, which would at least be a 10K PR by two seconds, but later I found my official time was 40:27. I missed my spring Cohasset time by one second. For this course though, I took off about a minute from last year, and considering the wind and pine-cone littered streets this year, that is encouraging.

Cooling down afterwards, I also met up with Kent Landrum. Kent was one of the first bike racers I ever met when I started out twenty years ago. He used to captain the Boston Road Club cat 3 team, and was the ride leader of our old Wednesday night training ride in the Blue Hills. It was good to see him, and he ran a good race, finishing right near Big Mig in the 46 minute range.

On to the cross course. KL had ridden over and rolled alongside me as I walked back to the other venue. The wind was really howling now, and even though it was sunny and in the fifties, it felt chilly. I was pretty toasted and briefly thought about bagging out, but in the end I registered for the A masters and got dressed. I fitted my tubulars, as the course did not have many rocks or roots, consisting instead of mostly fast grass and pavement. The B masters was going on, so I dropped off my pit wheels and just barely had time to ride a preview lap as the finishers came across. Knowing I was cooked, I knew I'd be lining up at the back anyway. The A Masters field was smaller than usual, only 62 riders. At the start, I finally met and introduced myself to Murat, who was getting his feet wet in his first ever cross race.

The gun went off and I rolled out DFL, riding at a warmup pace. Spotting the next to last rider almost 50 meters by the first hurdle, I continued on, knowing a big bottleneck awaited at the end of the paved sidewalk through the woods. Sure enough, spying the total clusterphuck of tangled bikes and fuming tempers ahead, I actually had to slow myself down to let it clear so I could ride up the little hill. Once we got through there, things were strung out enough for real racing, and I tried to make an effort. My legs were toasted from the 10K though, and my general energy level wasn't exactly off the charts either. At the top of the "big" runup, all the other NEBloggercross suckage competition participants heckled me from the sidelines, assuring me that my last swinging dick field position would make me a lock for this week's top suckage points getter. I showed them though, passing two riders going around the running track, unleashing the kind of big-ring power these pantywastes can only dream about.

I made up a few more spots as one or two riders fell by the wayside with mechanicals. The friggin' barriers were more like 50cm high than 40, and both my calves would nearly sieze each time I made my lethargic leaps over them. Once I stumbled and nearly took one face first. Laps 2-5 were pretty uneventful though. Believe it or not, I kept up good intensity and my average HR for the race ended up at 166, about normal. I held my spot and finished five from last, doing my five laps in 50:08. Gewilli, take note that your time in the B Masters was 50 minutes flat, so you are just about as pathetic as I was, even without running a 10K prior to the cross. Thanks to the extended course which took even the leader almost 9 minutes/lap, I finished on the lead lap. The rest of the day was spent going on a cooldown ride with the Cronoman and heckling KL, Amanda, the Menkenator, and Jen in the woman's race. Big Mau kicked ass and won by a huge margin. Way to go Mau!

Last but not least, thanks to Todd C (as opposed to C Todd) and the entire NAV team for pulling this thing off. There wear a lot of dickheads warming up on the course during the women's race, and I wish the officials would get some balls and actually take some names and DQ these losers, but that won't happen. The barriers HAD to be way over height, but other than that the course was in amazingly good shape, and the new additions were excellent. They took out the sucky off camber section too, another plus. All in all an excellent race, and close to home too. Thanks for reading.