I had a witty title all made up, and a theme to go with it, but I forgot them both. Such is life at my advanced age, and that sums up the way my running races have been going too. There's a reason awards get segregated by age (and they do this from the time you're 3 years old, so get used to it). I am getting slower, or so it seems. That's a lot of weak verbs and we're only four sentences into this. Told you my writing sucks lately too.
Most of you know that I'm not really a runner. I ride bikes, and have raced them for almost 25 years, which also happens to be almost half my life. Running is another story. For the record, I was not an athlete from the time I finished Little League until I started bike racing twelve years or so later. I recall the first few winters that I was a serious rider, those being 86-87 and 87-88 as being pretty rough, sort of like this one. I didn't own a lot of riding clothes or a trainer, and there were no fancy lights for night riding. So I tried running, as what the hell, I was already doing "cyclocross" that first winter up at the BRC training series. I recall doing laps at Field's Park in Brockton with Robin, who I'd met at the old Hojo's Wednesday night training rides. And my calves would get sore, my knees would get sore, everything would hurt. I was already used to doing rides of a couple of hours, without too many ill effects, so being brutalized by less than an hour of running made the activity just seem so damaging. As soon as the roads cleared and the days lengthened I'd get back on the bike and forget running.
Every fall, or almost every fall, I'd do cross and dabble in running again, but never really got past the DOMS that came with it. I wasn't consistent enough. Cross was beating the shit out of my body too, and I was never totally free of nagging injury to begin with. Of course I tried to "cross train" too, because we were athletes, right? Around '90 I moved from lifting weights in my basement to working out at a local gym. Exercise science wasn't quite what it is today, but I did OK in retrospect, following advice from the old Eddie B book as well as other sources. Now I wish that I knew then what I know now, and maybe better understood my natural asymmetry and other physical issues, and maybe I could have prevented more injuries. But that's another story, this is about running. Some people from the gym were going to do a 4 mile running race in Canton, and talked Rob (by now my wife) and I into signing up. This would be my first running race. It was in March, and I think. My time was 34 or 35 minutes. And afterward I could not walk for days...
But now I knew what running races were all about. In the years that followed my consistency got much better. While seeking some professional help for riding/cx related back pain I got my first "hands on" experience with modern physiatry, where I was told my body's musculature was totally imbalanced and that I "had no hamstrings nor back muscles." Starting to address these problems suddenly made me able to run without pain, and I raced more, until 95 when I finally had my left knee cleaned up (torn meniscus). After that I got cautious, and was afraid to run at all. I stopped racing bikes too, as I was going to UMass Lowell at night. I got fat, gaining forty pounds before reversing the trend. By now I was 36. I had the other knee scoped sometime in there too. By 2002 I was laid off from my job, weighed over 200 pounds, and was in the homestretch with school, so I was going nearly full time. The job market sucked. I had a lot of time on my hands. Knowing my severance would run out eventually, and the uncertainty that goes with that kept me from riding my bike as much as I could have. Bike racing is expensive too. So to fill up my idle days I started walking my neighbor's two year old Golden Retriever.
Young dogs have energy, and North Easton is a great town for walking. I was still fat and needed the exercise, and I had all day. After a while we were going out for almost three hours some days. And of course, with young dogs walks turn into runs at some point. Since Murray was not my dog, he wasn't always available, I resorted to walking and running by myself sometimes. All the walking had given me a "base" of sorts, and I wasn't riding all that much either, which probably helped my recovery. All of a sudden, for the first time in my life, I was running consistently (and by that I mean maybe 3x/week) and not getting injured from it. Not big miles, but enough to compete in 5 milers and 10ks. Of course, during this time I found a job, finished school, lost thirty pounds, and started racing bikes again, roughly in that order.
That was around 2003. Since that time I've been pretty steady with the running every winter, still generally letting it go in the summer. Each year I got more serious about it, pushing my start back toward August, keeping it up until June. Compared to the bike, where I sometimes take prizes in the Cat 3s and masters, I had never been the least bit competitive in running races. I was one of those guys who lined up in the back and finished in the middle with the weekend warriors who were just there for the t-shirts and post-race Devil Dogs. Consistent training and more racing made me faster though, and by 2007 or so I was in a quest to break 40 minutes in a 10k, which I succeeded at. By now I also had this blog, so you can follow the rest of the story in ridiculous detail if you want to read all 800+ entries. Suffice to say I'm still a bike racer, but I run a lot more, and got fast enough in 2008 to start finishing on the first page or two of the results at many smaller local races. I've also found new and interesting ways to get injured, with foot and hip issues being the most recent. But this year I'm training cautiously, as my 2009 and 2010 running seasons were both interrupted by physical maladies.
Bringing us (finally!) to Derry and the race report. Last fall I only did a few races, and my 10k times were a minute or two (or three) off my PRs from 2008. The last 10k I ran was the Topanga Turkey Trot X-Terra on Thanksgiving, where I won my age group, but which was so hilly and gnarly that the times are useless as an indicator of fitness. After that no racing until the Millenium Mile on New Year's Day. Normally I would run a five miler that weekend, but the scheduling did not work out. There is no Raynham 15k anymore either, so the Derry 16 would be my first race of any distance in quite a while. And did I mention this is the longest race I've ever done? This would be my third time. 2008 was run in heavy snow. 2009 I was injured. Last year I ran but was slower than 2008 when my hip got seriously cranky at the ten mile mark. I should have dropped out, but instead I soldiered on, died a thousand deaths, and fucked myself up enough that the issue cut my spring running season short, stopping me completely by March. But you read the blog, so you already know about all that right?
Of course, the weather this winter has -- sucked hairy balls. I'm not a big fan of running out between the snowbanks. And in December, the last time there was no snow cover here, I was taking a much needed break from everything. I got my weight up higher than it's been in four years. Not obese, but a good 4-5 kg more than my best racing weight. I'd run heavy all of 2010 as it was though, so really I only added 2-3 kg. I entered the BP16 as motivation to train. And then it snowed. And snowed. WTF? I had about a month to prepare, so I was going to need a long run every weekend. I still refuse to run on consecutive days, as that's a recipe for injury for me. So I'd do shorter days, hopefully hilly, during the week, and bag increasing mileage each weekend. That was the plan. Snow and ice f'd that up, at least for during the week. Blue Hills was out. So was running on the icy streets in the dark at 6 am. This all relegated me to the company gym and the treadmill. I think in the past five years I've run maybe two hours on a treadmill. I don't think it conditions your body for the pounding of running, and it's boring as hell. But I did it this year, and sort of got into it. Two nights a week for the past month anyway. That left the long runs. Somehow, despite the snows, I got them in, with a 10-11-13-14 mile progression over the past month. I'd run at Field's Park, which is semi-plowed and semi-closed to traffic most of the time, and one week resorted to driving to Plymouth to run in Myles Standish State Forest where there was less snow. Neither of these locations has much for hills, certainly nothing like the Derry course. And all these runs were done very slowly. I simply did not have time for more. So while I got in the required durations, my prep for the Prep 16 was far from ideal.
Anybody still reading? Now we're up to the day before the race. I had an appointment at Quad Cycles in Arlington, the bike shop sponsor of my new bike racing team (did I forget to mention that?) on Saturday. That wrapped up in the early afternoon, and being halfway to Derry, I headed up to pre-drive the course before hitting packet pickup at 4. Of course, I did not have a map, don't own a smartphone, don't believe in GPS, and didn't remember that much of it. I got the idea though; the roads were mostly clear. It was forecast to be bitter cold all weekend, but you could see melting in the spots where there were drifts, so I knew it would not be as bad as they said. After getting my number, I gave zencycle a call, meeting him at a nearby pub which happens to be a favorite of mine... Four pints of good brew and a plate of macaroni and cheese later, sabotaging my slim chance of being the least bit competitive was accomplished.
On race day, I took f-ing up to a new level by getting there absolutely last minute. There were a lot of clothing decisions to make and I hadn't packed anything, had to eat, etc. You know me. I slid sideways into the satellite parking lot and jumped on one of the last shuttles at 9:35. Start was at 10. But I had my number and chip already. First person I saw at the school was Iron Mary, I think scoping out the snowbank for a place to pee before chickening out and bitching about the line for the ladies room. Guess she'll never make it as a bike racer. I got dressed and jogged to the start, lining up well back from the front. Only about 700 of the 900 registered showed up I guess. And it was not that cold. I wore wool tights over wicking briefs. On top I had a PI base layer, then a Hasyun wool base layer, a cycling jersey (for the pockets) and a windbreaker. I used a hat plus an earband, and two pair of gloves, one super heavy. That proved to be my only real mistake.
The start was slow as the road is narrow and had a lot of snow pack, but it opened up onto a dry road after a few minutes. I did not feel good. Right away my hands were too warm, something I did not expect. My legs felt tight as hell. So I ran slowly. The first mile was 7:55. Every mile is marked at this race, but with the snowbanks I think they may have had some issues spotting their markers for some of them. Hard to tell because the course is so up-and-down that your splits end up all over the place. The race is unique though as they have timing mats at 5, 10, and 13.1 miles. These were accurately placed I'm sure. It's a very cool feature, and for the $40 entry fee you also get a long sleeve technical base layer, a nylon "backpack" thing, a couple of energy bars, and post-race pizza, chili, etc. Pretty good deal for 16 miles.
Miles 2-4 are mostly downhill, but mile 5 is the steepest climb on the course I think. People all talk about the hills at the end, but this one is harder. I was running sort of by heart rate, trying to maintain 7:30 (slow, I know, but I told you I was not prepared, and I was deathly fearful of falling apart at the end again). I was on track nicely, but with my HR up around 140, pretty high for such a slow pace. Last year my HR was super low all year, but lately it seems to have rebounded a bit. Maybe I really needed that break. Anyhow, on the big climb it was in the 150's, above my normal OBLA number, and higher than I wanted it to go this early. So I backed off. People passed me. Mile 5 took 8:07 and I hit the mat at 37:46, a few seconds/mile behind a two hour pace.
I had to take off my outer gloves too. I had flasks of water in my pockets and I drank some. There is a lot of downhill in the middle of the race, and I got right back on pace, hitting the halfway mark at 59:41. The tenth mile has a pretty good climb in it, and I ran this in a big group, getting there at 1:14:51, still nearly exactly 7:30 pace. Here I started to feel pretty good. The next mile is mostly down, leading into Warner Hill. The location within the race is what makes this so feared, as it's just a long stairstep and really not that steep. Suddenly I was free from the group of ten or so I'd been with for the past four miles, and I moved through traffic all the way to the top. Being within 45 minutes of the finish, I could now disregard HR and run at threshold if my legs would allow it, which they did. According to the markers, I ran the uphill 12th in 7:49. I got to the 13th in 7:17 or something like that, crossing the half-mary mat at 1:38:07, still right on 7:30 pace.
Now we were on the flat to downhill final three miles, where I completely fell apart last year. My legs were fine. So I ran. Mile 14 was around 7 minutes. The mile 15 marker came up in 6:08, so that one had to be in the wrong spot. In contrast to last year, when it felt like I was running backward, nobody had passed me in the final six miles this time. I got to the finish and ended up sprinting to come in under 1:58, officially at 1:57:57, 7:23 pace. I'd run the last three miles averaging 6:52. I was all proud of myself until I realized this was still almost four minutes slower than last year's debacle, and over six slower than my course best (in the friggin' snow) from 2008. But it still felt good to finish strong, and the detailed results with splits show me as one of the few who got faster and moved up.
Obviously, I went out too conservatively, but since I never do this, and was taking this as training, it was the right thing to do. I was not prepared to "race" 16 miles, and I knew it. Other than some expected soreness, I seem to have weathered this one pretty easily, and expect to bounce back. It's good to have this out of the way. I need to decide on goals for the rest of the spring, but I can do whatever I want now. Next up is the Paddy Kelly 5 miler in Brockton on February 13. That will provide a good benchmark for tempo (if the snow stays away long enough for us to actually train). After that I'll probably do the Foxboro 10 on Feb 20, but I'm considering finding a half to try again instead. And of course at some point I need to start riding my bike. We'll see. Reading this must have felt like running 16 miles to you. Thanks for reading.
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