Boston Prep 16 Miler Race Report

On Sunday morning I headed up to Derry, New Hampshire to race the Boston Prep 16 Miler.
I had planned to drive to the race with my friend Melissa. But then, just as I was leaving my house, Jordan called.

Jordan (oldest daughter), Andy (husband), Noah and Lara (middle and youngest) were in Salem (one hour away) at Jordan's swim meet at Salem State.
They had just arrived.
And Jordan realized she had forgotten both her warm-up suit and her racing suit at home.

AWESOME.

So, instead of driving with Melissa (sorry, Mel!) I drove solo to Woburn, half way between where we live and Salem, and met Andy to give him the suits. Jordan had a good meet, so I suppose I did the right thing. ;) But I was sad not to drive with Melissa, since one of the major reasons I signed up for the hell that is the Derry 16 Miler was so that I could socialize with my friends before and after the race!  I tried not too pout too much since Andy had the really raw deal: an all day swim meet (not that bad) with Noah and Lara in tow (ouch--bad). Andy has raced Derry before, so luckily he didn't look at as he had a totally raw deal. If asked to switch places he would have laughed.

Derry is a really, really hard race.

Here's what makes it hard:

It's always bitterly cold. (This year, for example, it was -5 with the wind chill.)
It's always really windy--as in arctic blasts in your face-- when you reach the tops of the hills.
The hill climbing is RIDICULOUSLY steep and some of the hills (like, umm, miles 11-12.5) go on for ever.
The competition is also ridiculously steep since only the tried and true, hard-core, totally bad ass runners do this race. It's not for the faint of heart, that is for sure.

I have not run longer than 15 miles (and I have only done that once) since IMLP in 2012. I knew I could pummel through the race anyway; the question really was at what point would I really start to fall apart. My guess was around 90  minutes, since that has been the distance of my longer runs in the last 1.5 years. I was right. Things got pretty ugly around the 11 mile mark.

But I am jumping ahead!

I arrived at the race, found my friends, and we proceeded to chat nervously about how many layers to wear and how much fuel to take in during the race.  I  especially fretted about whether to wear one layer of tights or two, and whether to wear a full hat or just a headband that kept my ears warm.
I finally decided on two layers of tights and a headband.
In retrospect the two layers of tights were smart, even though I HATE running in layers as it makes me feel like I can't move. The headband was the wrong call, though. I shoulda worn the full hat. It was that cold. By mile 5 my pony tail was frozen (from my sweat) and whipping back and forth in a solid mass of ice.

Here we are before the race. From left to right that's me, Maria, Kat, Jen, Robie, Jeff, and Melissa. Most of the people in this pictures kicked my ass.

Okay, so we jogged to the start and snaked our way toward the front of the pack. This race is actually pretty large. I think there were a little over 500 runners this year. That is not a huge race, of course, but that's a lot of people if you consider the difficulty of the course and the weather! That's 500 rather insane people.

More insane--and awesome--were the volunteers. If I felt frozen running the damn race, I can only imagine how cold those on the course marshaling and handing out water were. Thank you to the Derry Running Club and to the officers on the course! That's like angel material --standing and helping for hours in that kind of weather!

I felt pretty good starting the race. For the first 1/2 mile the crowd of runners in front of me prevented me from taking it out too fast. This is a good thing; I have trouble holding back at the start. I ran near to my friends for the first 2-3 miles, but I gradually lost them since they were all moving at a quicker pace than me. I decided to shoot for 8 minute pace. Again, given the hills, even an 8 minute pace was a bit aggressive for me! But I felt pretty good, if bulky from clothing, for the first 6-7 miles. I went easy up the hills and tried not to brake on the downhills too much in an effort to save my quads. I've noticed I am a far better, and more aggressive, descender than most people. I've also noticed my climbing is really weak compared to people who run my pace. So for most of this race I would lose my "crowd" of 8 minute milers and then on the downhills I would pass them all again. Over and over.

Mile 7 snuck up on me and when I saw it I thought! Awesome! Already mile 7! And then it hit me that I was not even half way there! I had a little panic/weepy moment right then. I felt okay, but I was already starting to fatigue a bit, and I still had 9 miles -- and with the worst of the hills to come.

I love this picture because it's silly, but also shows the actual elevation profile of the race. You can see that though you do some good climbing by mile 7, the really tough hill running comes at about miles 11-13.

I was on target to run about a 7:45 pace average by mile 11--and then, as I wrote earlier, things got kinda ugly. I really really slowed down going up that big ass, long hill (the one with the vulture at the top!). Also, the wind was against our faces at this point. I did have a few moments were I pondered whether I would actually make it to the end, and if I did, how ridiculously slow my time would be. Then I had that awful thought that you get when you are suffering in a race, and it occurs to you that the current race you are running is only a tiny fraction of what you expect yourself to do at IM in a few months.

That's never ever a good thought to have.

After the hills I pulled it together a bit, although I admit that I was getting passed more in the last three miles than I was passing. I made my goal to get back that 8 minute pace I had planned on. I managed to finish in 2:07:40 or so... which means I just barely made my goal! 7:59 pace...
Right when I finished my left quad started uncontrollably twitching. I hate that! I think it's a cramp ... but what it looks like is the muscle being stimulated by an electrical current or something. It didn't stop for like 5 minutes!

But, the important thing here--I finished.

And now it was time for a beer! After changing, we headed out for a meal and a beer. That was, of course, the best part of the day!

Next up: The Cape 10 Miler--and it's next weekend!
Hopefully I will be able to walk by then...