Beach to Beacon 10K Race Report-- otherwise known as Mary has not PR’d in the 10K since 2006—and she still hasn’t.

I didn’t do much last week in terms of workouts. Jen and I decided I should bring down the volume slightly so I might have a shot at PRing at Beach To Beacon.

I wasn’t sure about this plan. I have Timberman in two short weeks, and my training volume has been quite astoundingly pathetic in training for it. To come down in volume (especially given my volume wasn’t especially high to start with) three weeks out didn’t seem right. But I did it anyway. My mojo was kinda in the toilet last week anyway, so it was actually pretty good timing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still excited for Timberman. I love that race—and Andy is racing too—and Ange and my friend Mel. That is tres fun.  Also, I reason I just did an IM seven weeks ago, and so I MUST have some residual endurance fitness from that.  

But then again…. I just do not feel ½ IM race sharp at all, so maybe it won’t be my best ½ ever.  

But then again…. maybe it will be a fantastic race. I’m just going to race my heart out as if I was right on target with my training, and we shall see what happens. I figure I’m not carrying a lot of fatigue, I know how to race a ½, I know the course at Timberman, and just seven weeks ago 112 miles didn’t seem so bad…

So I could have the race of my life.  Yep. That’s my take and I’m sticking to it!

But that’s way off topic.

Back to B2B 10k.

I didn’t have especially high hopes for this race, but I held on to the dream that I just might squeeze out a PR. I don’t often do 10ks, which is likely the reason my PR from the summer of 2006 still stands. 2006 was a great summer of racing for me. I hadn’t started triathlon at that point. Instead, I was totally geeked up about my running.  I had spent the last five years giving birth to children and I finally had my body back. I was training for the Clarence de Mar Marathon in September, and I raced every weekend that summer to prepare for it. Don’t let people tell you that too much racing will totally slaughter you. Okay, sometimes it might depending on what you are training for and what you are doing when you are NOT racing,…. BUT I raced every weekend that summer, I PR’d constantly, and then I qualified for Boston at Clarence… I’m just saying.

Anyway, I had a great race at Beach to Beacon that year and went 43:05. Since then I have only done a handful of 10ks, but I have yet to break that time. Saturday I came close—but not close enough. Still, I’m not that disappointed. I did two little 5Ks in the weeks prior to the race so I could try to get my race legs back. Both of those races were slooooowwwww for me—nearly a minute and a half of my 5K PR.  At B2B my 10K was faster than those two 5ks combined, so that’s a good thing. I can’t complain. IM to 10K is not exactly an easy transition…

I seem to be spending a great deal of time in prelude to this report. Maybe that’s because I don’t actually have that much to say about it.

It was perfect weather. My friends were there. I was rested and ready to race.

And of course,

It hurt.

It hurt a lot.

It hurt in that awful way that only 10Ks do.

The first mile was somewhat flattish. I was careful and only allowed myself to take it out five seconds faster than my goal pace. I saw Ange, Jeff, Tim, Mark, Mike, Bob and a QT2 shirt (Mark S) out ahead of me, but I didn’t try to catch them. I was being smart and good. (I’m usually neither, so this was quite an accomplishment…)

During the end of mile one a small group of men and women who had painted themselves blue began to run alongside me. They had contrived adult-sized white diapers that off-set their blue legs and chests, and they had little white beenie hats that looked like the tips of condoms. They lalala’d the Smurf song as they ran, and they and made cracks about that evil creature Gargamel.

Warning: Bitchy paragraph to follow…

I seriously, seriously wanted to vomit all over them. Their attire and singing could be the most annoying thing I have witnessed in a road race in my life. First, they looked positively stupid. WTF? Why Smurfs? What does that have to do with anything? Juggling? That’s kinda cool. Carrying a flag? Total respect. Wearing fatigues? God bless you. Dressed as a FUCKING SMURF? Get the fuck out of my way you imbecile!!

I do not appreciate people holding hands and skipping and lalala-ing as if they have all the energy in the world while I am sucking wind and desperately trying to keep my pace under 6:50. I know that road racing is supposed to be all good fun, but dressing like assholes and humming 1980s cartoon theme songs while others around you are seriously trying to race is incredibly, incredibly obnoxious, and I don’t care if I sound like a bitch in saying so.

So, in short, I was not a fan of the Smurfs. I thought they were freaking stupid in the 1980s, and I still think they are stupid. Humph. End of Bitch session.

Mile 2 was more pleasant than mile one, simply because I left the Smurfs in the dust. It was also nice because I saw my h.s. good friend Chris, who was cheering on the sidelines. Hi Chris! My friend Mark (S) passed me around that time, and it took me a second to figure out he must have made a porta potty stop, because he HAD been significantly ahead of me. He trotted off and I felt that annoyed envy I always feel when I’m literally killing myself and someone passes me as if they are just taking a leisurely Sunday jog. Sigh. He was the last familiar face I saw until the finish, which is odd since I knew probably half of the 5770 people racing.

Mile three was largely downhill and as a result I was able to run faster for the first 5K of this 10K than I had in both of my recent two 5ks. That was nice. But then the course started uphill. That wasn’t so nice. Miles 4 was rolling, and although I questioned whether I might die, I did hold my pace. If I could just hold steady through mile 5, I calculated, I would PR. I was there. 

I'm not sure how I manage to run with my eyes closed.

Alas, it was not to be. Mile 5 is a bear in B2B. It goes up a little. Then a little more up. Then a little more up. It really just goes up… and my pace slowed.  A lot. I passed a few girls during this time, so clearly I am not the only one who had a less than stellar mile 5. Still, it was a tad depressing to let go of my PR pace. As I rounded the bend into Fort Williams State Park I saw Alina and her kids cheering me on. That was a huge boost. Then I heard another voice say Mary Holt-Wilson. I’m not sure it who it was, but I think it was Kurt. So that was another boost. And then I was at mile 6…. FINALLLYYYY.

I ran the last .26 in 6:06 pace. I was hauling! This was primarily because I thought maybe if I could just sprint fast enough I would still PR… but I didn’t. I finished in 23:18—13 seconds off. Damn.

I think I spent the majority of this RR bitching about the Smurfs. Sorry about that.

In summary, I had a good race. I like the course (except for mile 5. Well, I even kinda like mile 5). I like that this race draws so many of my Maine friends, and I like that it is run in my hometown! I will PR on this course—someday.

I finished 11^th in my Ag out of 390—9^th if you take out the two pros my age. That made me feel pretty good and helped to mitigate the fact that I hadn’t PR’d. Ange was 3^rd AG—1^st without the pros, and ran a 40:40. HOLY SMOKING FAST. Congrats, Ange! My friends Tim, Mike, Jeff’s wife Leigh, and Jeff also PR’d, and Ange’s husband Mark went under 40. Yikes… My friends Carrie, Stacy and Erin ran EVEN THOUGH they just did Lake Placid, and Carrie finished like 6^th in our AG. Amazing.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to my dad. He ran the course in 55:15. He’ll be 70 in October. I think that is more impressive than any other performance of the day. Congrats, Dad!

Also, apologies again for not being up to date on all of your blogs. I am seriously internet challenged this summer. I had to write this post on Word, and then go to a Starbucks to upload it to Blogger!

See you in a few.