Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday Night Vertical 2021

Monday, March 21, 2016

Catch Up Post

It's finally come down to this. I am just too far behind to write a blog post for every race and run in the last month and a half. Knowing I just keep getting further and further away just keeps me less and less motivated to blog. So the last month and a half will be a quick recap with some pics.

Horse Hill Snowshoe Race- What would turn out to be the last snowshoe race of the season and only 15 people showed up. Temps below zero. Coldest I've ever raced in. 1st woman in 30:37. 3.3 miles on my watch. Thought my face was seriously going to have frost nip before I was done. Ended our Granite State Snowshoe Series with me as the women's winner again. Similar to 2012. Doesn't really feel like a victory, but I'll take it. Took John back to the New England Aquarium after the race.
Six03 crazies who made the race despite the cold
USATF-NE New Englands Indoor Track Meet- One final attempt to improve my 3000m time at Harvard University's indoor track. I, surprisingly, got John to warm up on the outdoor track with me. That was fun, and he seemed to enjoy himself. I was nervous about this race because the women only had one heat, and I was seeded 3rd to last. But racing with the fast women meant I would be pulled along to a faster time. My CMS teammate, Jenn Brooks, pulled me along most of the race. I ended up passing her but only beating her by a second. Having her to drive me along helped my finish with a 12 minute improvement on my 3000m time. 10:42:30. I was psyched!


John warming up with me

Yay for the Indoor Track! Wait. What?

Being pulled along by Jenn early on in the many, many laps of the 3000m. I'm never wearing that outfit again!

Post-race Pretty Things, now defunct.
Belleville Pond 10K Trail Race- A race that I had signed up for for early February that got post-poned due to too much snow! Ended up being a beautiful day. So worth the trip down to Rhode Island for this one. I had been missing dry trails. The race was fast and deceptively hard with many short ups and downs. I found it pretty challenging due to the speed of the race combined with these little hills. I had been sick the day before and could hardly eat much at all so I came into the race feeling ok, but drained of energy. I felt like I crashed right at mile 4, but I was able to maintain a fast pace for the last two miles, easily winning for the women in 45:41. Eric Narcisi won for the men making it a Six03 sweep over the Four01.



Eric and I with our winnings

After the race, John and I joined Eric Narcisi, Bob Jackman, Scott Mason and Mike Daniels for lunch at the Oak Hill Tavern where I had a stuffie for the first time. I had no idea what this was. I swear the record stopped and room got quiet when I vocalized this. Haha. So I had to try it. It was good!

#Stuffiesonthelevel
From there, we drove over to the Tilted Barn Brewery which was really cool. John was content playing at the playground area while we had beer in the main building (barn). I was even able to take the dogs on a short walk here and picked up a live chicken. Super fun day which ended in a looooong drive home, but it's always worth it in the end.
Tilted Barn Brewery
John had his 10th Birthday party the next day at his gymnastics place. We all had fun since I joined in with the kids. I still can't believe I have a 10 year old! Where did the time go?!

Decorating his own cake

Lighting his own candles
An Ras Mor 5K- The first race of the New England Grand Prix Road Race Series. I went into this one knowing that I would be lucky to finish in the top 40 for women, so I had no pressure on myself as far as place went. It was nice not to be nervous for this one since I'm just a peon in grander 5K racing world. I was there to enjoy the fun of the Grand Prix races, and I hoped the insanely fast field would pull me along to a decent time. My goal was to race close to my PR of 18:35, and I ended up beating it by 5 seconds! 18:30! The race was almost entirely flat, so that helped, but the biggest factor was the field. I ended up just barely under 30th in 28th place. I was very happy with this!! You know the field is fast when an 18:30 is 28th place! The race was, of course, followed by drinks and food, this time at Asgard Pub there in Cambridge. 


St Paddy's Run Before You Crawl 5K- This was an unplanned race. One snowshoe race for the weekend had been cancelled already, but the second one wasn't cancelled until shortly after my long run on Friday. This meant I had no race! So I searched and found one in Dover,NH that looked fun... for the pub crawl after. Haha. What a difference between this race and An Ras Mor. When I lined up on the line, I knew I was going to be first woman. What I didn't know was how well I would actually race. I was so sore, and my legs were beat after the previous day's long run. I heard talk of the course and how it had a lot of uphill. I had a feeling I wouldn't be running any sub-19. I still went out hard, but they were right; the course had A LOT of uphill. I knew from the first mile that I wouldn't break 19. I still gave 100% and finished 1st woman, 5th overall in 19:04. The biggest moment of the race was my first time EVER in my life breaking a tape. After all of these years and many, many wins, there has never been a tape. I was nervous when I first saw it, but I just ran through it trying to look like I knew what I was doing. Very cool. I won $100, too. I had no idea there was prize $, so that was a nice surprise. The pub crawl around Dover was ok. John and I hit 8 different places, mainly just for the food. I did have two beers spaced out. One at the Brickhouse and the other at 7th Settlement. After the pub crawl, we took a short walk at Wagon Hill Farm in Durham to end our day in southern NH.

 



Walking through Dover

John at 7th Settlement

Wagon Hill Farm

My big guy at Wagon Hill
So that pretty much catches up my goings-on up until this past weekend. I left out all of my weekly running blah, blah, blahs because it's been nothing out of the ordinary. I've been putting in solid long runs in preparation for Boston. Not hitting huge weekly miles, but it's really all I can fit in. I've also been able to get back on the trails and in some mountains with the early Spring. Mountain racing season will be here soon, so I have to start getting in shape for that while I taper (yes, I said that word!) down for Boston. My long runs have been way better than expected, but they are still not coming easy. I'm trying, though, and just hoping for a sub 3:10 at Boston. Anything super fast will mean I'm having an extraordinary day, and I don't foresee that at this point. I think I'll save "extraordinary" for just over a month from now when I turn 40!

2 comments:

  1. You are truly amazing and driven! Great job!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Beth! I just hope I can be a little smarter and not injure myself again. :)

    ReplyDelete