This was my second “away” race and even though it was only 1.5 hours away from Philly, I elected to get a hotel room so I wouldn’t have to drive on raceday morning. It turned out that Kat, a wonderful girl I met in 2007 at a Runners World FE dinner (FE=forum encounter, where you meet a forumite in the flesh) was also doing the race, so we decided to room together. This ended up being a major highlight of the weekend.

Saturday
We met up at 1pm, had our Expo perusing, went for lunch and as we were walking back to the hotel, found ourselves in the thick of the Saturday kids races. It was adorable, loads of kids divided by age-groups running their hearts out. I got all teary-eyed, comparing my own upbringing (completely devoid of sports) wondering “what if”, then we saw a little blind racing girl being guided to the finish which put us both in tears. Race nerves, hormones and the promise of youth, what a emotional combination.

Next we went to hear Bart Yasso talk about the course which turns out to be more rolling than I’d thought and is also on cinder trails for a few miles, so more potential slowdowns.   C’est la vie.

We go back to the room to rest for a bit before the pasta dinner, then Kat remembers the Kentucky Derby is about to start. Kat’s an avid horsewoman who teaches riding at a boarding school, so it was huge fun to have the kookiness of the Derby explained to me and what a race! The horse that won was a 50-1 longshot bought for $9500 and the jockey looked like a homeless guy.  They came out of nowhere to win by 7 lengths.  Perfect pre-race pump up!

Next was the pasta dinner, which was sadly without any vestige of meat (oh, how I longed for a lone meatball) but the speakers were great.  Amby Burfoot, editor of Runners World was there, which was special since the RW forums have been an integral part of my running from the get-go.  Then Bart Yasso gave an amazing slide presentation of all these insanely exotic races he’s run, from Kenya to India to the Antarctic and more (OMG, Badwater!).  So inspiring.

Meanwhile, our table mates gave us their interpretation of the course we’d be running.  More “oh yeah, there are hills in this race…”  Oh well.

We get to bed at a decent hour though whoever was in the room before us had the alarm set for 12am so it went off at midnight.  Damn.  Back to sleep and hazy dreams until 5:45.  Breakfast, a bus ride, some waiting around and it’s time to line up.

The Race

Kat and I hug and go to our respective start spots.  I line up midway between the 1:30 and 1:40 pacers.

While I’m waiting there, I see Amby Burfoot right in front of me, so I tap him on the shoulder and introduce myself as a RW forum freak.  He was incredibly sweet and friendly and when I tell him of my forum addiction, he pulls over another fellow racer, Mark Remy, the Online Editor of RW.  It was such a pleasure to chat with these guys, explain that I was here rooming with another forumite and what an impact RW online has been for me.  Honestly, it’s because of RW that I’m racing at all, so I am truly grateful.

Gun goes off and it’s a downhill start but my first mile is a slow 7:24 because I wasn’t warmed up (I skipped warmup because I’d gotten a heel bruise 3 days prior I didn’t want to aggravate).

I was wearing my HR monitor and while one half of me knows I shouldn’t have looked at it during the race, the other half thought it’d be useful, and that’s the half that won.  So the next miles were faster than planned because my HR was surprisingly low for the pace (83%). 7:04, 7:02, 7:08.  My goal was to keep the effort level even and flow with the course.  The next miles were  7:16,  7:14.  At the out-and-back, Kat sees me and calls out, looking strong.

Halfway through that last mile came the trails and rollers.  I’m slowing down, it’s feeling tough but my HR is staying steady and lowish still at 83%.  I’m unhappy about the splits but feel like I’m running a difficult effort and can’t afford to push it harder, plus I’m uber-aware of the hills coming up at 9 and 11 and the last evil one to the track for the finale.  7:16, 7:21, 7:32, 7:35, 7:23, 7:29.

Mile 13 I’m back on pace with a 7:13 and as I run up the last hill onto the track, I’m totally wiped.  On the track, however, I see females in front of me: must kill females in front of me.  I dig deep as I can and pull out a fast finish.  Last .13 was a 6:18 pace.  I was heaving for about 10 minutes afterwards and a guy I’d been racing with for the last couple miles complimented me on the kick.  As mentioned yesterday, final time 1:35:42.

It started to rain so I got a spaceblanket and cheered Kat’s finish.  She had a great race, though tinged with a sciatica bout on some of the hilly bits, poor thing.

We get food then look at the results – 14th female, first in my AG…I’m getting a prize!  Turns out to be my first Masters award (2nd place) netting me a statue and a check.  I realized yesterday that they gave me the wrong check though, I got a 3rd place check for $100 and it’s supposed to be $150, so that’s even better (provided it gets squared away).

Kat and I went back to the hotel for a shower (late checkout was 3pm, Holiday Inn rocks) and then to a restaurant for a final farewell drink where we decided we are great roomies and must find another traveling race to do together in the future.

Final Thoughts

About my finish time, I won’t lie, I was somewhat disappointed, fully expecting a sub 1:34.  But then, I expected a flatter course so I really can’t complain.  It’s all gravy at this point and good things will come, I just need to be patient (not my strong suit).

I can’t help but wonder if I was stupid using the HR monitor.  I truly can’t imagine having run a harder effort but it is disconcerting to see I averaged 85% and only peaked at 92% at the very end.  I won’t wear it at the Philly Distance Run in September but I’m glad I have the data.

I carried my small 12oz handheld so I didn’t have to stop at any stops, it also held the gel I ate at mile 8. Twas extremely convenient and I was relieved my crisis of “Do I take the bottle or leave it?” turned out to be a successful decision.

Future Thoughts

As of today, I have 6 months and 19 days before the Philly Marathon.  3:1x, here I come.

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