Motivated to Succeed

http://runwmac.com/images/greylocktrail-map.jpg

 Above link will take you to the topographical map which I suggest before you judge too much for having a 3+ hour 1/2 marathon. Also you will see there is a 2200' elevation gain in just the first 3 hours. I am writing this race report in parts and chunks as I have been so busy with work that I have not had time to do so otherwise.

• Mile 1: 17:17
• Mile 2: 17:43
• Mile 3: 23:21
• Mile 4: 13:54
• Mile 5: 15:00
• Mile 6: 12:39
• Mile 7: 12:41
• Mile 8: 12:24
• Mile 9: 13:46
• Mile 10: 11:07
• Mile 11: 10:19
• Mile 12: 11:03
• Mile 13: 11:33
  

Total Time: 3:01:09 Total Distance: 13.5 miles Average Pace: 13:25

I got to the Glen where the Start/Finish area was about 1-1.5 hours early, so I had time to chill in the car and listen to NPR before starting my warm up. I registered and spent an extra $5 to get a tshirt. This was nice because generally the races here don't give you shirts and/or don't choose to sell them. Did about a mile warm up in 9-10 minute pace and used mother nature's facilities. Believe it or not they only had ONE RESTROOM at the start/finish area and there was a line 30 deep. No thank you!

As I was waiting for the start of the race, I saw a running friend Laura Clark who does most of the trail races in these parts. She's from upstate NY too and made the trip down. I also heard a guy talking about how he'd done Mt. Washington the day before (hardest road race in New England). He said an elite woman had locked her shoes and singlet in the car and she had to borrow some from another runner. She went on to win the race and set a new course record by more than two minutes.

On to the race report:

THE ASCENT (Miles 1-3, 2200' elevation gain)

Miles 1-3 were rough. The field started in a field and bottlenecked into a single track after only 200 yards. I find with trail races, I know that I am not going to finish up front so I like starting near the back and working my way up to mid-pack. I let the rabbits go, and bided my time. As it opened into a double track after about .25 miles I started to kick it into gear. First 3 miles were all race walk style. I passed a good 20 people the first mile, blazing with my 17:17 uphill first mile. Continue to push the pace but the last 1.5 miles up was a doozie. Deerflies were biting my back and sweat was cascading down my face. I looked like I had taken a shower with my clothes on, no joke. It was 82 and humid, humid, humid! Got to the top in 55:00 and change. Only one problem... NO WATER STATION! Thankfully as I had ran the mountain road so many times this spring I knew where a water spicket was. I went off course to briefly fill it and then DOWN, DoWN, DOWN I went!

THE DESCENT (Miles 4-13)

Going downhill is always much harder for me. As I went down I made my way down slipper rocks and single track. Tons of roots, and I almost lost my shoe no less than 3 times in ankle deep mud! It was such a great time. This one lady in front of me that let me by said, "Man! This is nothing like running on the West Coast! You can't take a break here!" You got that right Cali-forn-i-an!

I started to pick off a few stragglers. Made my way into the first aid station at mile 6, filled my bottle and off quickly, trailing a group of 4. I made it a plan to stick with them. An odd assortment we were, a geriatric, a 20-something kamikaze gal that literally jumped off the rocks going down, a guy with a camelbak, me, and another gentleman. I ended up wedging myself behind the kamikaze lady until about mile 8 where she literally must of evaporated into air. She simply disappeared!

Next aid station was mile 8. I got in there and most of the powerade was gone. One bad thing about this race, was only powerade and water on the course. Very hard to run strong without food! Must invest in a fanny pack methinks! ((HAHAHAHA Imagine the Howling Commando with a fanny pack. I almost said that with a straight face!))

I got passed in mile 9 by a young kid (about 14 or 15). I had given him a look at the mile 8 station, and I could hear him trailing me for the mile 9 going downhill along the ridge. I let him go and he caught the girl that flew down the mountain.

I started to pull them back, but I think he sensed it and he took off. I caught the girl at mile 10 and kept on running past her. She was fading fast; she was not carrying a bottle of any kind! I can't imagine running this race without a bottle or camelbak!

Miles 10-13 pretty much ran by myself. Last aid station was unmanned at mile 12. There were jugs of water on the ground. Filled my bottle and took off. I thought I had a chance in the last mile of breaking 3 hours. This is an unbelievably hard course!

THE FINISH (13.5) I came running strong down the hill and cruised through the finish. A lot of people still hanging out and bbq-ing. I grabbed a few cookies and went and changed clothes before heading out to go home. I am still waiting for results to be posted on the website.

So all in all, a fun race: 1. Would I run it again? YOU BET! 2. Was it a hard course? YOU HAVE NO IDEA!! 3. Do I love trail runs?  WWWoooOooOoo WoooOOoOOoooO  I DO I DO!!!

Recovery Run after the 1/2 yesterday. Was near 84 degrees when we went. Needed somewhere cool to go so we opted for Olivia's Lookout and the Burbank Trail. Found a plaque at the top that told us about the Pittsfield Lawyer the trail is named after. Emm was absovlutely flying on the way down. We were consistently hitting 7:00-7:30 pace!!

• Mile 1: 12:11
• Mile 2: 9:36
• Mile 3: 8:57
  

10:00 AM - The Day Has Finally Come. Mr. Griffin gets to show his RUNNiN' LEGS to the BArT kiddos. We got on the bus this morning after homeroom and rode up to Shady Pines. The kids were so happy to have a day outside of BArT, and with my final grades submitted, so was I.

If there is one thing that I have come to realize, it is that middle and high school students (especially at a school with no sports teams) have little to no concept of distance running. From the comments like, "Oh Mr. Griffin you ONLY ran 20 miles? I run that at gymnastics practice!" to "I run a 4:30 mile in gym!" to "Yeah I ran a 15:00 5k last weekend" - - and yet I kind of feed into their false sense of accomplishments, as I don't want to be 'that guy' that says, no I know for a fact you did not run 20 miles, or a 4:30 mile, and that running a 15:00 5k in high school is darn near impossible. So what they also do not realize is that despite all the miles I have logged, I do little to no speed work, which correlates to slower leg speed and hence slower short events. I told them realistically that anything around a 6:40 mile for me right now would be good.

Before the race my main two competitors dropped out opting to play volleyball and touch football instead (I think they feared the Griffinator!) The race was organized around the access road, and I was planning on doing Vibram Five Fingers, but changed at the last minute when I realized we were not on grass. The race was set to begin at 10:00 . There were two divisions, teachers and students. With about 2 mins ago, I revealed my "short shorts" and immediately the comments started: "Woooo eee Mr. Griffin! You're out of dress code!!" "Put them back on! My eyes!" "You can't be serious!" I told them to just wait and see.

The race consisted of three loops staying to the right of the orange cones they placed. I really actually liked the course! Kids have already started posting pictures and most comments are nice, though some people have said that I look "fat" in them. Blah! I need to lose some lbs!

THE RACE:

The first lap I started mid-pack. I let the "rabbits" go, because I knew that many kids have not learned the lesson of pacing yet. In addition, my legs were shot from Sunday's Race. I didn't know what to do so I didn't want to go out too fast and utterly die. There were about seven students ahead of me and three teachers. I locked into a 6:30 pace and hung with one of my 9th graders, Joe. We ran most of the lap together. I started to pick people off towards the end of the first lap.

Moving into the second lap I left Joe and started pulling back another student Dalton. Aidan was still ahead of me (both 9th graders) and I caught Aidan going into the last 150m of lap 2.

Lap 3 I started to push it. By now people had started turning out and cheering me on and I will admit that it was a somewhat surreal experience. I very rarely win any type of race, let alone a race against high schoolers, but this was nice! I pulled away and was by myself. I ended up holding the lead all the way to the tape and felt surprisingly fresh, despite my dead legs in the beginning.

The rest of the day I spent playing volleyball and basketball with the kids. My juniors ended up beating Mr. Wheat's advisory which was not expected at the beginning. We ended up losing the next round but we still had a blast.

Got on the bus and headed home. I got sunburn on my face and arms! Ow! It was overcast in the morning so I forgot to put it on. Classic rookie mistake!

6:00 PM - Later tonight I did a 4 mile recovery run on the treadmill. I did it in 37:00, about 9:15/mile. Felt really good considering the race today and on Sunday.

6:00 PM - Sunny with thunderstorms in the afternoon, humid and temps around 82 or 84. Bittersweet day today. It was my last day at BArT for this school year. Many of the kids were crying and hugging as they realized a chapter in their young lives had come to a close. In addition, several very beloved teachers have decided they need to move on and will not be returning. The awards ceremony and talent show at school were very sweet and I saw more than one student choking back emotions as teachers were recognized and students alike. I am looking forward to next year, and even though I did not really want to pack up all my things and load up my car I know I am embarking on my own chapter in my life as a first year teacher to my 6th and 7th graders. I can't wait!

Went running this evening with Emmy after she got out of work over at Olivia's Lookout. We did one loop and then I explored for about .3 miles on the Walsh Trail on the other side of the parking lot. One of these days I am going to do a loop there!

Total Time: 39:27 Total Distance: 3.5 miles Average Pace: 11:17/ mile

9:00 AM - I was wide awake at 5:30am and so was Ruby (our cat). She was meowing like crazy as she was missing her breakfast. I got up and made coffee as Emmy took a shower and got changed for work. I made her eggs, a bagel, tea and orange juice and made sure she ate before heading off to work! We have our first official date this month hopefully tonight when we are going to go see Toy Story 3 at the movie theater! Then tomorrow I need to drive to NY to go to Jonn's graduation from high school! Kind of crazy because I remember visiting him in the hospital when he was born!

Errands today.. but boy were they adventurous. Cashed a few checks but the lady realized as she was counting it out that she wasn't giving me enough. Oops! She quickly corrected it. Spent 1.5 hours at the insurance agent today trying to get MA insurance but laws are different here and I have to have the title of the vehicle in my name AND a MA driver's license before. So I went and got my MA license, only when I was walking out with the temporary I realized they'd misspelled my name. Usually people think they are doing me a favor and remove an "n" from my name, but in this case the lady ADDED a letter, lol. She spelled my name: BENNAJAMIN L GRIFFIN. I came back in, took a number (another weird thing) and got the same lady again and she goes, "Woah! Good catch!" No harm no foul. She was about the nicest lady I'd ever dealt with at the DMV.

Went running on Olivia's and then did about a .75 mile cool down on the Walsh trail going to the left and downhill. It is runnable but not nearly as fast as Olivia's. Will try to do a full loop and see how far it is later this week. Would be nice to have 2 trails to choose between and would add more adventure to the long runs if I run them here.

Total Time: 44:36 Total Distance: 4.08 miles Average Pace: 10:56/ mile

6:00 AM - Went running before going to Jonn's high school graduation in NY this morning. Ceremony started at 10am and it is about 1:45 drive from the house to there. The run went well. I was sweating a bunch. Felt really great though. Splits were:

• Mile 1: 8:27
• Mile 2: 7:47
• Mile 3: 7:15
• Mile 4: 7:57