King of Pain

 

Glastonbury, CT

Sunday, February 11, 2024

First time running this race.  The race description includes "The course offers breathtaking South Glastonbury orchard scenery, along with hill, after hill, after hill."  I don't know about the orchard scenery as I didn't notice that, but I can sure vouch for the hill, after hill, after hill!

With a race start at 9am, I left home at 7am, got there about 8am with an easy traffic-free ride, and volunteers were directing me to parking behind the Hopewell Elementary School, where the race would start and finish.  Despite this not being a USATF-CT race, I saw so many Mohegan Striders runners, who it was good to catch up with inside as I was picking up my bib and shirt.

Ran a mile and a half warm-up, trying hard to stick to flat roads, as I knew I would be running enough hills soon!  Got back to the car with plenty of time to change out of my trainers into my carbon fiber race shoes, and get into my standard race gear of short shorts and a singlet.  The only tactical error I made was not wearing gloves.  I brought two pairs of lightweight gloves, but as the temperature was 41°F, I figured I didn't need them.  More on that later.

Caught up briefly again with my Strider teammates, wished them luck, and headed to the start line, lining up in the 2nd row.  You know those races where there is a long set of race directions and perhaps multiple introductions?  Well, this was the opposite.  It was pretty much, "Are you guys ready for some hills?!!", and then "Go!".

First half:  I counted that I was roughly in 7th place, until we turned off the main road.  I had roughly studied the course ahead of time by finding it on a Strava segment, so I knew roughly what was going to come.  Downhill running is my strength (with uphill being a weakness of mine), and I quickly passed four runners to be in 3rd place for the rest of the first mile.  I knew it wasn't going to last, but fast downhill running is just how I roll.

Sure enough, as I began climbing the next 200' hill, four runners caught up and passed me.  Three of them went by me with ease, but they all looked at least twenty years younger than me (they were), but the fourth guy I couldn't tell if he was in his 40s or 50s and he was just steps ahead of me.  I would later find out he's Scott Livingston, whose name I had certainly heard before in races, and he is indeed in his 50s.  Over the next few miles of rolling hills, I would go ahead of him on the downhills, and then on the uphills, he'd catch right back up to me.

At about Mile 4, we turned left onto the infamous Belltown Road climb.  The lead runner was way out ahead of everyone else, and as I was starting up the hill, he was finishing up the downhill, as it was an OAB on this 1/2 mile road.  I was really surprised and impressed when he shouted out some encouragement to me.  Based on the Strava segment of the climb, it was 200' up over 1/2 mile, with an average grade of only 8.1%, but it sure felt like more than that.  Most around me were walking as we were hitting the back of the pack of the early starters that went off 30 minutes ahead of us.  I wasn't in danger of walking, but I did notice how much more comfortable they appeared than me huffing and puffing my way up.  At the top of the Belltown hill, Chris Colangelo called out my name, as he was volunteering there.  I grabbed a quick cup of water, made my turnaround, noticed Scott was just behind me, and started my downhill.

Making my way up Belltown Hill.
Scott is in orange over my right shoulder, just
steps away.  The other people around me
are walking as part of the early start group.

Second half:  From the top of Belltown, we descend over 400' over the next mile and a half, and it was time for me to play the downhills to my strength.  I pushed it pretty hard, with Mile 6 my fastest at 6:06.  By seven miles in, I was really starting to tire.  But I knew I couldn't let up.  The next three miles were mentally tough as well as physical, as while the long climbs were over, it was just constant rollers punishing the legs.  At 90-degree turns, I would glance back to see where Scott was.  I never did see him again, but couldn't take that for granted.  

With a mile to go, I heard a runner coming up on me fast, and I figured for sure this was Scott making his final move back on me, but it was the runner that had been ahead of me at Mile 6.  How did that happen?  (At the finish, the runner [Robert Amatruda] told me had missed a turn and gone temporarily off course.)  I thought the course was well marked, but it would still be easy to miss a turn, especially running tired late in the game in no man's land.

When I saw the Mile 10 marker, I knew that we had just 1/4 mile to go (yeah, weird distance) and it was finally downhill.  Kicked it in the best I could, to come across the line in 6th overall.  Scott would finish about a minute behind me, and the next guy in our age group about 4 minutes behind him.

Finished!

Final result:  1:07:06, 6th overall of 242, 1st (of 31) in age group.  Full results here. 

Post-race reflections:

• My hands were so cold in this race (obviously my own fault).  At the finish line, a volunteer handed me a bottle of water and I just couldn't open it.  While 41°F is pretty warm, I guess it was more that there was a 10mph wind and no sun.
• Every turn was clearly marked with big arrows on yard sale type signs like we use at WTAC.
• Those hills are no joke.  They were just relentless with pretty much not a flat section the whole race.  Made it challenging.
• There were three turn arounds in the race.  I'm no fan of cone turnarounds, but they didn't really bother me in this race, and here's why:  If this had been a flat 10-mile course like Blessing of the Fleet where I'm going for a certain time, I would have hated it, but this was a novelty 10.25 miles with hills galore, so it didn't matter.  Two out of the three turnarounds were obviously added just to get the ensuing hills, and two of the three were actually cul-de-sac wide turns.
• Post race food and drink were pretty good.  I had a bowl of tomato soup (there was also chicken noodle), a roll, PowerAde, and multiple thick chunky soft chocolate cookies.  I felt I had earned the latter!
• I really had no idea what to expect on this unique hilly course, but I'm happy with my efforts and result!
• And the ultimate test:  would I run it again?  Yes.  Not sure I would run it every year.  But it was fun and challenging, and at $45 for a 10+ mile race with food, fairly priced.

With the only other Striders age-group winner,
also 50-59, Alison, sporting our awards.
(from Striders FB)

(close-up of above)

Today's loot (clockwise from upper left):
Tech shirt (to first 150 registered), finishers medal,
running gloves, scarf