Millenium Mile

 

Londonderry, NH

Sunday, January 1, 2023

Wasn't originally in my plans, but having no plans on New Year's Day, and with Matthew already signed up, and the price only $20, I registered up two days before.  

We arrived 1 1/2 hours early, and after checking in, I saw Dave Dunham and went up to talk to him.  While I don't have anywhere near his running pedigree, we finish reasonably close in many races these days and are both the same age.  We chatted before the race and he gave me a quick rundown as he has run this before.  (The first 2/3 mile are mostly downhill, followed by a slight uphill and then a slight downhill to the finish.)  He ran this last year in 5:01 and given the net downhill indicated one might expect to take 10-15 seconds off a flat race.  OK, so maybe I could get about 5 flat?

Warm-up:  After a warm-up preview of the course with Matthew and Brady, I shed my outer layer, ran a few strides, and lined up in the 4th row of the race.  Given that I would eventually finish 53rd, this self-seeding seemed appropriate to me.  But ...

Race start:  Many runners blasted out ahead of me, only to slow down.  I felt I got out of the starting "gate" pretty quick, but I guess not fast enough, as I soon got boxed in.  For almost a quarter mile, I didn't consistently run a straight line as I now had to dodge those that had surged out but subsequently slowed.  Somewhere around the 1/4 mile mark (every 1/4 mile was marked with a big sign), I switched to running in the left shoulder to try to easily go past runners I was catching, and that seemed to help.  Food for thought for next time in a mile race?

Start of the 2023 race

Very crowded for me (light blue singlet and cap) early on

I felt like I never got into a good rhythm.  The "hill" at about 3/4 mile in was only about a 20' elevation gain, but according to my Strava data, I slowed to about a 5:45 pace here.  Picked it up at the crest and "kicked" it in (I don't really have a kick) down the slight hill to the finish, but people were passing me here and I could see the time on the big clock was already "5:0x" and ticking.  

Looking at the spacing in this photo between Dave Dunham (forefront in black)
and me (blue singlet quite a ways behind him), I found it hard to believe I
 finished less than a second behind him
---
We caught up post-race, and will likely compete
against each other next at Super Sunday 5K
in Cambridge next month

Spaced out much more now, but still
plenty of runners around me at finish

Final results:  Net time 5:20.3 (gun 5:22), 54th of 1,095 overall, 3rd of 33 in age group.  Full results here.

Pretty disappointed with this result.  How did I run 5:12 on a flat measured course with four turns (Bottone Mile) just five months ago, but could only muster a 5:20 on a net downhill course with zero turns today?  It's totally on me, but I do believe there were at least three factors at play here:

• Headwind of up to 15mph (course ran in a NNW direction, wind was out of the WNW).
• Boxed in at start / never got my rhythm.
• Haven't trained or done any workouts in the past few months.

Post-run it took me a while to even jog, as my lungs burned and I kept coughing.  Attempted a cool-down on the Derry Rail Trail, but those conditions made it tough for me and I kept it short.  While I certainly wasn't happy with my result, I wasn't upset either as I hadn't trained for the race, didn't have any expectations, and noticed in Strava comments and results that others' results also fell short.