My commute doesn't pass by lighthouses but don't let that stop you from enjoying these images. Actually they're not from my daily commute, but instead my weekly mid-day soiree from the home office in Canton up to see the boss woman in the 'ham. Not to be judgmental, but WTF is up with this guy? An true entrepreneur I guess. I haven't followed the link...
Here we have construction photos of the world's largest bike rack. There's a much longer story to this that I don't have time for right now. Instead, a quick race report.
Sunday I did the Discover Assonet 5k in, you guessed it, Assonet Ma. Since I was unable/unwilling to head up to Vermont for the weekend to play cx with all the big girls and boys, this was my substitute. To conserve funds and all that, Saturday I just stayed home and went for a bike ride in the morning. As luck would have it, ten minutes from home I ran into the semi-retired local pro, who was out spinning the Vegas out of his legs in prep for the evening Mayor's Cup pro crit in downtown Boston. We rode together for an hour and then I bid farewell to do another few hours on my own. Going through Foxboro I came out into the biggest hybrid gumby jamboree I'd ever witnessed. Apparently the 25 mile version of the Rodman Ride for Kids was just starting, and I was like, get me out of here, fast. I ended up doing the Tower Hill loop and staying out for nearly four hours, which was one more than I'd planned. Whatever.
On to phase two of my race prep, which was sitting around the Oktoberfest fire until 1 am making sure the kegs were empty. I got home at 2:30. At least the race did not start until noon, but I barely made it anyway after seriously contemplating bagging out. My cx bike is in dire need of some TLC before my season debut at Gloucester Saturday, and that would have been a good excuse to stay home (BTW, the work never did get done. I think I need to put a mechanic on retainer). Back to the race. Of course it was raining, but warm. An OK day for running, and shitty for riding, thus I stuck with the plan as appropriate punishment for Saturday night. The course is USATF certified, but that's about the only good thing I can say about it. Assonet is a very nice town, a typical SE Mass swamp yankee hamlet. 99% of the roads down there are lovely, lightly traveled lanes among farms and woods, with a scattering of new development. The other 1% is the suburban requisite highway underpass and adjacent strip, made up of things like CVS, Dunkin Donuts, and Mobil stations. And guess where they had the race? Did I mention it was an out and back? Seriously.
The headquaters was at St. Bernard's Parish. Luckily I'm immature enough to not be able to stop laughing about that even today, so the trip was not a total loss. They had 150 runners registered but I guess a lot were no-shows as only about half that are listed in the results. We started on a narrow road across from the church, sprinting for about 200 yards before weaving through the stopped traffic out onto Main Street. As you can see in the photo, I did not even line up in the front row (I am in the middle behind the guy with the black and white shirt). Ben Ndaya was a lock to win this thing and the $100 first prize before we even took one step, and I sure as hell wasn't going to get in his way. My running has been coming along this year, but I don't do any speedwork, and in my condition had no idea what pace I'd be running, or even if I'd end up walking.
Out on Main about ten runners sprinted away, trying to stay in Ben's wake. Good luck dudes. I was marking Julie Spolidoro and her scary abs. When I was running well last year, she was only a little bit faster than me, but she has a perfect sense of pace, always negative splitting. But the other two women contenders present were on her shoulders, and it seemed so slow to me... I wanted to test myself and see what I could run, and my feeble brain decided that Spolidoro was just watching the other two, not trying to run a good time. So I passed them. The first mile came up at six flat. Could be worse, but I was pretty sure right then and there that I could say goodbye to any chance of negative splitting. The second mile went under the highway before turning up a small hill. A few of the early rabbits had already faded back and I followed them to the turnaround, where Julie passed me. On the downhill she pulled away but I tried to follow and passed the three guys, two of whom looked like they might be in my age group. 6:05 for the second mile. Not horrible, but I was hurting. The homestretch was back through "the strip" and I can't say I felt safe with traffic turning and entering. There were a lot of puddles. In last half mile they had cones marking a narrow lane for us, but it was fifty percent filled with water and the road was lined with parking lots anyway.
The third mile was marked and I split this one in 6:06 but Joann Matthews and one of the dudes I'd passed earlier came blowing by me in a kick finish. Turned out he was over 50 anyway. I crossed in 18:54 with one guy from my age group ahead of me. So there you have it. Not a bad test. This race is surely a skip in the future, unless they change the course or if you have an honest crack at the top three cash. I went home, caught up on sleep, and did not work on my bike. Thanks for reading.
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