New Haven 20K - 2024

 

New Haven, CT

Monday, September 2, 2024

This would be my third consecutive running of the New Haven 20K.  To give you a flavor of my two previous showings, my Strava posts in 2022 and 2023 were titled “New Haven Sufferfest 20K” and “Another New Haven Sufferfest”, respectively.  It seemed this race would always be hot and humid, but finally we got a break, with a decently comfortable 66°F and 81% relative humidity at race start.

Despite having run this race the past two years, I seriously underestimated the time needed to drive to the New Haven parking garage, basically because I had no issue the past two years and thus I failed to give a contingency buffer.  I was regretting this as I sat in New Haven traffic moving at a snail’s pace, watching my ETA on Google Maps get steadily later, as I feared the impending mad rush to get to the start would impact my race performance.

Upon parking, I hustled over to check-in, which fortunately was very efficient, used the bathroom, and changed into my race shoes as there would be no time for a warm-up.  I ran some strides in the park and arrived at the start line just as the national anthem was starting up.  Not good.  But at least now the stress was gone.

Race start:  I got a glimpse of professional runners Keira D'Amato and Hilary Bor on the starting line, saw Jared to my right, and we were off.

I didn't see Jared at first in the busy and crowded first half mile or so.  But as the crowds thinned out, I saw him right next to me.  OK, maybe we can run together for a bit.  That stretched into nine miles running together, which definitely helped!  Unlike last year in the sun, heat, and humidity, where my miles slowed to as much as 6:40s, this year while running together we were knocking off mostly sub-6:10 miles!

At time like water stops, he or I would go slightly ahead of each other, and then work to catch up batch, and continue working off of each other.  There were a lot of music stations along the course as well, and most were pretty motivating, include Tom Petty, CCR, and even a bagpipe player!

Running together with Jared,
about 6 miles in

Unfortunately, in Mile 10 ("the hill"), Jared dropped back a bit.  My race wasn't against him, so I had hoped he'd continue to the finish, but it wasn't to be.  Mile 10 last year was where I was getting passed by both the 1st and 2nd eventual age group winners as I hung on for 3rd.  But I was feeling good and forged ahead.  Besides last year I was in my 50s and I'm in a new age group now!  

After the hill, I picked up the pace, and finished with a 12th mile split of 6:07 and then the final half mile in a 5:30 pace!  Does that suggest that I left something out on the course?  

"Sprinting" it in to the finish

Final result:  1:16:54, PR!!  88th of 536 overall, 1st of 21 in M60 age group.  Full results here.

Not only did I win my M60 age group this year, but the two M50 gentlemen that passed me last year finished behind me this year, and thus I was the fastest M50+ today.  Felt really good about this race!

Post-race food was really good as usual, and I helped myself to two servings of soft ice cream to make my day.  This was the 7th of 8 in the USATF-CT road series.  This year I completed four in the the series, and I'll miss the final race (Norfolk Pub 10M) as I'll be away in December.