the Way of the Turtle

LONG DISTANCE 2011 - Race #1
Spring Forward 15k Road Race
Sunday, April 3, 2011


Back to beautiful Mendon Ponds park for my first race of the 2011 season, plus a few miles afterwards to build distance for the trail marathon at the end of May. While I can't say that the Spring Forward 15k is one of my favorite races (it is a road race, after all!) the course is nice and hilly for a good workout, the scenery can be really nice, and the folks at Yellowjacket Racing are always great.

What wasn't great was how freakin' cold it was when I arrived at the park! Even though I knew I'd probably warm up a couple of miles into the race I didn't want to risk freezing for 2 hours, so I wore my jacket and gloves (and I was right, I tied the jacket around my waist at about the three mile mark and never needed it after that.

Didn't set any PRs today but I did keep to a nice steady pace that left me some gas in the tank for my post-race run and still mananged to pass a couple of other back-of-the-packers. Not quite as satisfying as pushing my hardest and ending fried... but that won't get me ready for the marathon. I also set a goal of running up all the hills and I pretty much accomplished that - walked a bit toward the top of the longest ones, but that's OK. It was definitely a good day for a medium-length run in the sun at a pace that was probably a bit faster than I'd have gone if I just headed out for a run.

I sometimes wonder if the other runners see some of the things I notice as I'm cruising along at the back... like the herd of deer running across a field in the distance as we were leaving the park... or the hawk perched in a tree just over our heads about a mile and a half from the finish. Wonderful sights like that help me appreciate being slow!

JMH

2011 Event Totals
Run 9.3 mi, 1 hr 57 min
Bike 0 mi, 0 min
Snowshoe 74.3 mi, 18 hr 57 min
Kayak 0 mi, 0 min

states visited: MA, NY, VT