Once more into the breach!
An awesome Derry 16 miler in 2009
My legs are pretty sore still here and it’s Tuesday. I got my money’s worth out of the 2009 running of the Derry 16 Miler. One of my more annoying mannerisms is to recite excerpts from Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade”. It seems fitting at mile 10 when we hurl our old tired bodies at that monster of a hill that makes Derry a special race.
There are other hills in the race, but the one at mile 10 is special. It is the last long hill before the finish. This race was designed by a couple of old crusty New England Runnerati who decided the best thing to do in January would be to run up and down all the hills in Derry NH. A fine Sentiment if you ask me. They also designed it to be 16 miles and that’s perfect for most of us hardy folk who are training for spring marathon and are somewhere is weeks 3-5 of our conditioning.
The weather was threatening as it always is in NH in January. The forecast had it pegged at near zero Fahrenheit with a wind. Alas, no snow. Last year we had snow. The snow takes a good 6-8 minutes off your 16 mile time. It turned out to be much nicer than anticipated. By gun time it was up into the teens with a strong morning sun warming things up.
I went out with my chums and was overheating by mile 3. I had to take my fuzzy had off , unzip and roll up the sleeves of the yellow sweater. I felt heavy – I still have to take 5-10 pounds off to be running the distance comfortably. We cruised along through the ups and downs at a conversational 8 minute pace.
It really helps to know a course like this. You have to be smart about your pacing. Take it easy on the early hills and then hammer it home in the last 5k. And that is exactly what we did. Cruise the early miles, don’t kill yourself on the hills and then work your mechanics for the ride home. Excellent racing practice.
I’m not in the best race shape and probably could have eked out another 2 minutes or so by being wiser with my eating and pushing the pace a little harder, but I’m happy with a mature non-pyrrhic training race. I finished somewhere in the 2:06 range and that’s just under a 8 minute mile – comfortably executed. That points to a 3:30 marathon in a couple months – easy peasy. I love relaxed. Low stress training.
My quads are sore and my right hammy has a little pull in it today. I should have taken an ice bath after the race. It was the down hills with this extra weight that got me sore. Nothing that will kill me.
I also had an interesting mélange of nutrition. Some Vanilla Gu, some Hammer Espresso Gel, Power Bars, Bananas, and topped it off at mile ten with a honey stinger - all the while drinking purple Gatorade! It crossed my mind that this might be the running equivalent of mixing drinks at a party and I was little rumbly in the tumbly in the high miles But everything settled out. In a hot race things may have been a bit ugly.
I love these old style, hard core New Englnad races filled with grizzled old guys and lots of grey hair. Man we got a hardy crew up here. I’m proud to be a part of it. Next up I get to ride the ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard to get my fat, albino Clydesdale butt kicked by their sweet 20 miler in February.
See you out there,
Chris,
Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners. ChrisRunner@runrunlive.com