Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Ooh trail race! Really close by (30 minutes up 93 without traffic, or when I looked yesterday evening: "1:12 with traffic") so I met Alex at the BU Bridge (she crossed to Cambridge; I was waiting in Boston) and bopped on to Storrow and on to 93 and whee, there in a jiffy. The race was delayed from early April when the course was still covered in snow. No word if running out on the river would have been allowed.

It was cool-bordering-on-cold and clammy at the start, but not bad for a run. I felt very sluggish on the run out and back for the warm-up. We went slow with a couple pick-ups on the way back (hello 6:30 pace) and then got ready to start.

And trail race! The RD was hilarious, kind of like Andy Milne in enthusiasm but with a thick Boston accent. He was yelling things like "47 minutes to the start"; it's great to have someone with such unbridled enthusiasm. As this is the USATF New England trail running championships, he said "we made some course changes, but as always the course is certified as about ten miles" and "the first water stop is at mile 2.74, then there's one at the turn around at, what, let's say 4.99, and on the way back at 2.75 or whatever I said before." Lots of chuckles.

Then they said go and I was lined up way too far back and the whole course jammed in to the trail and hole shot! People ran in to each other. I burned way too many matches the first mile to pass people, and despite the jogging for the first couple of minutes ran a 7 minute split. Then there was a little hill, then a bigger hill, and I was with a smaller pack, with Stas just ahead, and then we went up the power lines hill. All of a sudden we went from nice rolling trail running hills to oh jesus wasn't Seven Sisters last weekend? But it was done and we went to the turn around and I had a glass of water.

By this point Stas had run ahead down a hill with a woman trailing him, and I was running about even with another woman. We went over the big hill with relative ease and most people yielding and then down. She seemed to run downhills like me, picking not flying, but we got to one with good footing and a run out and I took big leaps and whee put 15 seconds on her. There were a couple more hills and then it was flat.

I was running alone now, but I kept thinking she was right behind me although I never heard footsteps on bridges or saw her on tangents. I was feeling rather lethargic and managed a couple miles in the 7:30 range until finally hitting the real flats and deciding to try to outrun whatever may have been bhind me (my own breath, probably). I did this, and caught the woman in front of me, and almost Stas, and then finished. It was a bit warmer and sunny, but not hot, and we ate some food and went home.

Even after depositing Alex and picking up Russo's I was home by 1. Success!