I was hoping to race this weekend and thought I might make a return to the Codfish Bowl in Boston. Unfortunately they only allowed full teams to enter and CMS couldn't get 5 guys interested (!!!!). Fortunately I heard that NHTI (Concord NH) was having an open XC race. They have a team but no races this season due to current conditions. The coach invited all former students and supporters to come out and race the team. I've run at NHTI many times so it was "Game on!".
I got to NHTI an hour before the start, grabbed my number and got a quick overview of the course. Then I went out and previewed the well marked loop course. I'd run all these trails at one time or another so there were no big surprises. It was a very flat course, but there were a fair amount of turns and it was a mix of grass and dirt. It would not be a fast but it'd be fast for cross-country. I felt a bit sluggish warming up, probably not fully over the migraine from Wednesday. My hope was that 6:20's would be possible, so I was thinking under 20 minutes for my time. I switched into racing flats and went out for another mile and arrived at the start line with a minute or two to spare.
Heats of 10 were set based on the number you were given. I was in the second heat so that'd be one minute after the first group went off. After a quick course review off the heat went and then it was time to race. My heat had a good mix of kids from the XC team and supporters (including the president & CEO of Delta Dental - Tom Raffio). The kids took it out pretty hard and by 200 meters in I was in fourth place. I slowly worked my way up and by 1km I was up to second place. The leader was pulling away. I concentrated on keeping him in sight as we started catching people from the first heat. I reached the mile in 6:02 which was a pleasant surprise and noted I was 15 seconds behind the leader. Of course he was the PRESUMED leader as someone in heat 3 or 4 could be running faster. We passed back through the start/finish area at 3km and I wasstill about 15 seconds back. I hit 2 miles in 12:05 (6:03) and was happy to note I'd made some ground up and was only about 10 seconds back. We'd caught all but 1 of the heat 1 starters by that point. The gap kept closing and I got to within 3 or 4 seconds by the 3 mile mark (18:10) 6:05. I just didn't quite have enough to get him (and he was looking back a LOT over the last 1.1 miles).
I was happy with the effort and the time was better than expected (18:55). I'll take that for XC!
Next up: ECTA 10 mile trail race next weekend.
Results:
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