No So Sweet Sixteen

As advertised, today I did the Boston Prep 16 mile Road Race in scenic Derry, New Hampshire. I first heard of this race a few years ago, because I generally only run in the winter and the calendar is pretty sparsely populated, so you don't miss much. At the time I thought "Boston Prep" was just one more of the dozens of private schools for rich kids in the Granite State, because those things are sort of an industry up there. Last year though, Feltslave CXRacer informed me that this was a key preparation race for the Boston marathon, hence the name. Oh, duh.

This year, I queried Mr CX Racer, a resident of nearby Londonderry, about entering the race, and he assured me he would run it with me. He noted the hills were brutally hard, but I laughed it off, as running uphills never bothered me. Maybe he mentioned something about running down them too, but I guess I wasn't paying enough attention. More on this later... Anyhow, when registration opened up back in November, I was running pretty consistently and January was a long way off, so since I'd have plenty of time to build up to this mileage, I sent in my entry. The race fills up and I did not want to miss out. I reminded CX Racer, and the waffling began...

Fast forward to January, and it's been snowing fairly regularly around here, and your hero Solobreak hasn't exactly been logging tons of run miles. I like to run in the woods, but it's been all icy and slushy and snowy every weekend except for one, so outside of one good 14 miler, all I've really run are some races and lunch runs. CX Racer had gone into hiding somewhere deep in Sonoma Valley. No worries, I'll just do it alone for training.

Well, today was the day. On the drive up it started snowing, but nothing too serious, and a few degrees warmer and it would have been rain, so not bad on the temp end either. No wind to speak of, so a bonus there too. I get to Derry and there's an inch or so of new snow on the ground, a nuisance for sure, but the race is not in jeopardy or anything like that. Parking is not at registration, and they're running a shuttle bus, but I elect to run/walk the mile or so for a warmup. This was a good idea, because on the trip I realized I'd overdressed and was able to switch out a layer for something lighter while pinning up my number. The race started late too, because the whole shuttling thing got messed up when people started getting stuck in the unplowed parking lot and the bus couldn't get in or out.

At the start, I saw a guy in a Minuteman Road Club jacket, and I thought it might be GCDavid, but I don't know what he looks like. The guy on the blog is a smiling little blue toy train, and this guy had a homicidal race face on, so I kept my distance rather than risking an introduction. Turned out it really was him. Next time dude! He ran a good race too.

So the race starts and off we go. I don't know the area and never had a chance to get up there to drive the course, so it's all blind. The first five miles or so the roads were pretty snow-covered and the footing was definitely compromised. The first mile took me 7:34! After that things spread out a bit, but right away I felt like I was going way hard, yet wasn't going very fast. Just before hitting the 5 mile mat in 34:19, I saw a woman slip and bail on a corner. She was a trooper and got right up though. I still felt like shit. And there were 11 miles to go. Clearly I was perping an athletic crime for which I had not put in the requisite time. And then there were these friggin' downhills.

At least after the five mile mark there was usually a clean tire rut to run in, and the footing was not so bad. Some areas, notably the uphills, had an entire lane of clean pavement, which was nice. The falling snow had lightened up too, and I saw no more falling runners, although on one downhill I heard a big commotion behind me, so someone else might have ate it. This course had a lot of steep downhills. I never train on downhills at race pace, and it showed. I sucked. And I don't do my long runs or my hilly runs on pavement either. I was basically fucked. But that's ok, because I'm just training, right?

On the few flat spots with clean pavement, I felt pretty good. Soldiering on, I passed the 10 mile mat at 1:08:50 and over the course's longest uphill stretches into the half-mary mat at 1:31:04, barely maintaining a sub-7 pace. The wheels were already starting to come off the wagon. This was going to be the longest run of my life, and all of it on pavement, and I didn't feel so good. I tried to suck it up and run the last three miles fast, but at mile 14 my legs and feet shut down and about a half dozen runners went by me. At the one mile to go marker I realized that if I didn't suck it up and run harder I'd finish outside of the 7 minute pace 1:52 mark, but luckily the last mile was pretty much downhill and I made it to the end it with a 1:51:06 chip time.

It wasn't all bad. 44th overall, 9/126 on the age group. The schwag haul and post race feed were pretty nice too, all in all a good deal for $35, but Feltslave/CXracer may have made the right choice in sitting this one out. One thing is for sure, there is no effin way I could have run another 10.2 miles. If I ever do a marathon, I think I'm going to need to find one that's on dirt roads. Or at least dry pavement. My feet hurt. There you go, a classic #2, #9 excuse/race report combo. Thanks for reading.