the Way of the Turtle

LONG DISTANCE 2007, Race #15
Race the Train 8.4mi Road Race
Saturday, August 4, 2007

2007 Race the Train results

I seem destined to run this one on very little sleep... despite getting to bed a bit earlier than usual (and actually falling asleep!) I woke up about three hours later and was unable to get back to sleep. Not a problem for the drive and the run, but it definitely gave me second thoughts about taking my bike with me and doing some riding on the way back...

In the end, I decided to leave the bike at home, which proved to be a good choice. The drive to North Creek was uneventful - an hour on the Northway followed by about 40 minutes through the Adirondacks. Probably the nicest thing about it (besides the beautiful scenery) was the temperature - cool and dry, a welcome change after the last two days of oppressive heat and humidity. Checked in (at least this year I knew where to go!) and stood in line for 20 minutes at the bathroom. Then I geared up, snapped a few photos with my "good" camera, and boarded the train for the ride down to Riparius. This year I knew to sit on the side by the river, so I had some nice views of the water as we headed for the start. One of the conductors also filled us in on some history - specifically, the story of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt taking a train out of the North Creek station to Buffalo where President McKinley had died after being shot in 1901.

Once we reached River Station in Riparius, I had another long wait for a bathroom and then I went and sat on the bridge over the Hudson River that serves as the race starting point. It was a gorgeous day - sunny and cool - and I was definitely looking forward to the run. Right around 9 AM we all clustered on the western end of the bridge and then - a surprise! The train blew its whistle and we were off! (The RD had said previously that there were some folks who were going to say a couple of things before the start - either that changed or I just didn't hear them, at the back of the crowd of 275 runners.)

On the train ride down, the fellow sitting across from me asked if the course was hilly, and I told him, "Well... the first two miles are all uphill." (He wasn't overly thrilled to hear that.) I ran that first uphill stretch fairly steadily, and hit the 2 mile mark at around 23 minutes, the same as last year. After that, the road follows more rolling terrain, with a lot of downhill early on, and I made pretty good time for the next few miles. Apparently the seasonal-use dirt road had been recently topped off with a fresh layer of sand/stone dust, which made running a bit challenging, but truth be told, this is one place where my trail running serves me in good stead. Running a dirt road, even one surfaced with a layer of sand, will almost always be easier than the trails I run on a regular basis! It was tough to be sure, but from the splits they were calling at each mile marker, I think I had picked up my pace a good bit (to something just under 10 min/mile) and a passed at least half a dozen other runners in the next 4 1/2 miles, running strong and feeling pretty good. I took it as a good sign that in a couple of cases I even passed people running uphill!

Unfortunately, that all started to fall apart about 2 miles from the end... my legs started to run out of juice and my stomach started bothering me a bit (it had been acting up for a good chunk of Friday.) Don't know if I went out too fast and just burned out, or if the heat and exertion were finally catching up with me, but it became harder and harder to keep a strong pace, and I ended up walking more. So much for my hopes of knocking 4-5 minutes off last year's time (and maybe setting a PR pace for this year's races) - a bit demoralizing, but at least none of the folks I passed returned the favor. The last mile takes the runners down into town - I put my time running sidewalks in Albany to good use and stayed out of the road, though that did mean dodging pedestrians (most got out of my way, there was really only one jerk who apparently felt she was too important to move... ironically, she was walking with a runner who'd already finished the race.) Managed to pass the two runners ahead of me and sprinted down the finish "corridor", completing the race with a time of 1:27:05, about a minute faster than last year. Not what I was hoping for partway through the race, but not bad.

Collected my finisher's medal, had one of the finish line volunteers ask me if I'd taken pictures the whole way (he was surprised when I said I had - little does he know!) and staggered back to the car, dripping with sweat and trying to rehydrate. Had another long wait at the bathroom, where I changed clothes and then hit the road.

Overall, other than being exhausted from little sleep and running fairly hard (and driving a bit, too) I would say this was a fairly good day at the races... not sure if I'll do this one next year or head to Connecticut to try the People's Forest 7 Mile trail race, but this one's definitely a future option, with a nice challenging course that still allows me to push a little harder than I usually would.

Next up: Savoy! 20 Miles of rocks, roots, mud, and hills. And the 2nd race in the WMAC long distance trilogy.

JMH

2007 EVENT TOTALS
Running 155.7 mi, 36 hr 23 min
Cycling 26.2 mi, 1 hr 55 min
Snowshoe 31.3 mi, 9 hr 11 min

states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, VT