Pair of 7's.

Sunday I went to the Westford Road Race to run the 10k. They had a 5k too, and last year it must have been part of a team series or something, because everyone ran that rather than the 10. This year that was not the case. I went because these were certified courses, and I wanted a benchmark at this distance to see where I stood. With the JP bike race in my legs from Saturday, and the beginnings of what seems like sickness in my throat, I headed up in the drizzle. This was an afternoon race, never easy for me with running. I ate earlier and packed just bottles of gatorade and water along with some Clif Blocks. Then I forgot the bag it was all in, so I had nothing for pre-race. Dohhh.

Things took another turn for the worse when I got off the highway in Westford only to find the road into the town center was a significant hill. Where I live in southeastern MA, things are pretty flat. Not in Westford. I guess they have apple orchards there for a reason. The town is hilly. I have no time to drive the course or anything like that though, so I'm winging it. I found an empty bottle in the car and filled it from a bubbler at the school, and picked up my number. The guy who ended up winning the 10k was parked next to me. He was the leanest looking dude I've ever seen in my life. I know that dark skin highlights muscle definition, and this guy looked Kenyan or something, but his legs were more sinewy than any human being I ever imagined. Just unbelievable.

There was not a huge field. My plan was to go out conservative and run a 6:10 pace for the first three miles, then try to negative split. The first mile was slightly uphill. About ten runners went out ahead of me. I stuck to my plan. We get to the mile one marker, which was in the town center, near the finish, and my watch says 4:50. Obviously the marker was set in the wrong place. Then the road starts going downhill. A lot. As it turned out, before I hit the (correctly set) mile two marker at 11:53, we had descended almost 300 feet. Uh-oh. I'm doing the math in my head, but I have to throw my plan out the window. Even though I'm running faster than I wanted to go out, it's not only too late to do anything about it, but with such a big elevation loss, the 6:10 plan was useless.

The third mile was sort of flat, and it took 6:07 for an interim split of 18 flat. Now my thoughts are less on the runners ahead and behind me and more on wondering just how and when we were going to gain all that elevation back. As it turned out, the ascent was pretty gradual and steady. Mile four took me 6:18. Mile five took even longer, 6:30. So much for negative splits. I did pass a few runners however, and nobody passed me, so I think it was the course and not my pacing that caused the issue. The last 1.2 miles also were mostly uphill, and I ran them at a 6:23 pace to finish up in a disappointing 38:27, 7th overall, same as at Jiminy Peak. I should not complain, as I have not run trained hardly at all the past two weeks, and the course was by no means a speedfest. I can't tell from the winner's time, as he obviously just ran as fast as he needed to in order to pick up the $150 first prize. They guy's car was a hurtin' old Escort, so I know what he was at this race for...

Today I feel pretty sick. I was hoping to get my training back on track this week, since a favorable change in the weather looks to be in progress. I haven't run worth shit. I only rode my bike a few hours last week, and for that matter I'm pretty down on hours for the year too. Spring lulls are typical for me, but this year I was hoping to fight it off. So it's time to regroup. Not before having a little fun though... Thanks for reading.