Manchester, NH
Saturday, August 29, 2020
"Real" race in the COVID era: Due to COVID-19, so many races in 2020 have either been canceled outright or gone virtual. I've supported two virtual races this year (Stand Up For Animals 5K, and Blessing of the Fleet 10-Miler), and while I feel good about having "donated" to these two non-profit foundations, the format is not my favorite and hard to race solo. (To be fair, I had the benefit of Matthew pacing me in both).
Thankfully this race decided to have an in-person event. When you peruse their race website and/or watch their COVID safety race preparation for the race, you gain the sense that this organization (Millennium Running) really knows what they're doing. I feel the WTAC has the COVID safety race features down pat, and I'm hoping that will accelerate approvals for our planned fall races, but Millenium Racing (host of NH 10-Miler) brings it to another level.
As we were staying up in NH already, Jana and I visited the Millenium Running store in Bedford, NH the day before to pick up my shirt and bib, and then drove to the race start at Massabesic Lake. This not only saved time on race morning, but gave us the chance to talk with some of the race crew. We then drove the race course to get an advance feel for it.
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| Nice looking AND informative bib: I'm starting in Group #1, sequence #37 (line up on cone #37 in staging area) |
Race morning panic: Race morning the plan was to get up at 5:15am, leave the campsite at 5:30am, and drive the 33 minute trip to race start, thus giving about an hour before my official individualized race start time of 7:06AM, leaving time for warm-up, plus the required staging in corrals. (There were a total of about 750 runners registered, each with a personalized seeded start time, in 10 second intervals.) Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. I just happened to wake up and checked my phone curious as to how much longer until 5:15am. GULP! It's 5:43am! Semi panicked, I woke Jana up and told her we were 1/2 hour late already. She puts up with my nonsense and got up right away without complaint. Fortunately, I had laid out my running clothes, with bib attached to my singlet, and a dry set of clothes and shoes the night before. In less than 10 minutes, we were both up, dressed, used the facilities, and got ourselves and Brady in the car to go. As I drove and Jana plugged the race start location into Google Maps, my panic melted away when she told me ETA 6:23am (again, against a 7:06 start time).
Warm up and race prep: On the ride over, I remarked how fortunately it wasn't raining yet, and I didn't mind if it rained after the race start, but not while I was sitting around pre-race. Jana said don't jinx it, and sure enough I did! By the time we arrived, it was raining, and as I went out for my warm up, it was now raining fairly hard and steadily. I came back and sat in the car for a while, before heading to the race start and ducking under the cover of some trees waiting for the Group 1 staging.
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| Rainy line-up for Group 1 staging |
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| Facial coverings are required in the staging area, but not once you move to "On Deck" and then start |
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| At my assigned cone (middle of pic). The rain let up for a little while just before start. |
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| And I'm off ... Cool overhead signage, and neat to get free pics as well! |
Race start: Immediately after the national anthem, the race went off like clockwork. Actually, it was clockwork! Every 10 seconds, one runner moved to the "On Deck" position and removed his mask, while the runner ahead of him had his (or her, not being sexist, but using the male pronoun form I learned from high school when sex not specified) name called out and started his race. I looked around and saw Dave Dunham two positions (i.e., 20 seconds) behind me, but recognized no one else.
After a half mile running along the shore of Massabesic Lake, it was time for the first hill, with a 100' climb. This was neither the steepest hill, nor the most elevation gain, but Mile 1 is the only mile which is completely uphill (i.e., no downhill respite). It showed with a 6:41 mile. Ouch. The next two runners were well ahead of me, and runners behind me were nipping at my heels.
The early and hilly miles: There were three major hill climbs (100' in Mile 1, 120' in Mile 3, 170' in Mile 4) and the pattern of me relative to competitors was the same in every instance: On the ascents, I could hear at least one and sometimes two runners come right up to me and then on subsequent descents I would pull away.
At the top of the long and steeper hill in Mile 4 (my slowest mile in 6:44), the runner that was right on me went to my right and pulled even with me. I didn't look over but from the breathing, I was certain the runner was female and not male. Good. It was most likely the very fit looking female that started 10 seconds behind me, and it was NOT Dave Dunham.
She remained with me right through the cone turnaround at Mile 5. I don't like these at all. I'm not efficient at them as I make wider turns than other runners, and I inevitably slow down. The only silver lining is I could now see where Dave Dunham is, and DARN, he is not far behind me at all. If I am to get the age group win, I not only have to finish ahead of him, but I have to finish more than 20 seconds ahead of him. Ugh.
The back half: The rest of the race is mostly downhill, and it is on two fairly steep downhills that I pass two runners. I go by each fairly quickly easily. My Mile 6 split is 6:10, and Mile 7 is 5:55. I'm wearing road flats (NB 1500 v6) and as the roads are now soaked, some places with running streams, and downhill, I'm a little concerned on whether it could get slippery, but I had no issue at all. The final two road miles are rolling and go by quickly (Mile 8 6:41 and Mile 9 6:02) before turning off asphalt onto the final mile on a near manicured flat rail trail. In addition to the race going on, despite the rain, there are a few walkers and casual bikers on the rail trail. One gets a little too close to me for comfort, and then pulls over and waves me on. In retrospect, I feel I could and should have pushed myself harder here. I cross the finish line, and then try to count how many seconds before Dave Dunham crosses the line. I'm pretty sure he beat me. He comes right over to me, gives me a fist bump, and we both compare the times on our watches. Yes, he beat me - turns out by just 4 seconds, and he is very humble and congratulatory, saying it wasn't fair for him to finish behind me and still win and says I had a really good kick. It's all good and I'm just happy to be out here racing again in a "real" race!
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| About 7 miles in. Roads pretty wet, as you can see. |
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| Finishing up. Absolutely drenched, with shorts and singlet clinging to my body. |
Final result: 1:03:30. 33rd overall out of 571. 2nd in age group of 33. Full results here.
Hung around for a very short time before getting cold. Then went to car to change into dry clothes, get a hot coffee from a nearby DD and come back to watch my brother and niece finish. Despite the rain, I had a really fun time out here today! Kudos to Millennium Running for putting on such a well run event.
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| With Brady, Lucy, and Kurt at the finish, in the rain (Photo by Jana) |
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| Not that I need any more medals, but this was kind of neat |
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| Gave splits at quite a few locations |
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| Pretty hilly for a 10-mile road race |
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| Nice to get this e-mail! |
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| Post-race pack-up. Ugh. We had great weather most of the trip, but packed up the partially underwater tent the best we could in the pouring rain. Again, Jana was a really good sport. The next day in RI the sun came out, and the water just ran out of the tent as we set it up in the backyard to dry. |
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