Mill
Cities relay – This was my 12th time running the MCR. This is
a fun relay that covers 25 miles from Nashua NH to Lawrence MA mostly right
along the Merrimack River. The race is put on by “local” clubs and
features five legs varying in length from 2.5 miles to 9.5 miles. Over
the years I’ve run every leg except the first. Most of the time I’ve run
the long leg which has ranged from 9.3 to 9.6 miles over the years depending on
the exact start and finish spots. I recall starting at the Wang building,
the boathouse, and the bathhouse on the Lowell end and finishing at Bea’s (a
landmark sandwich shop which is now a boatramp) most years.
Dan
Verrington and I met up at the end of the long leg as we’d both be covering
that leg for different Winner’s Circle teams. I’d see a lot of my CMS
teammates out there competing for other clubs as CMS is not on the list of
invited teams. Fortunately it is easy enough to become a member of
another club. WCRC has lifetime memberships so Dan and I have run for
them a number of times. I’m also a lifetime member (Hall of fame) for the
Greater Lowell Road Runners but haven’t run for them in a few years. Dan
was running on a fast 50+ squad and I was on a mixed 50+ team (three men and
two women).
We got
to the start of our leg at the Umass Lowell boathouse pretty early. The
race hadn’t even started in Nashua when we rolled up. I like plenty of
time to prep so this was not a problem. I decided to warm-up with Dan
knowing that he would be starting 15-30 minutes before I would. We
loosened up with a 3 mile run on the third leg course and got to see the
“sunshine start” runners as they went by. It was great to see a bunch of
familiar faces. After the warm-up Dan headed out to make sure he didn’t
miss his start and I changed into race gear and did some last minute
prep. This is the worst part of the relay, waiting around knowing it
could be 10 minutes or 30 seconds until you get your hand-off. I hung out
near the exchange zone with about 100 other people waiting anxiously for their
number to be called. I hadn’t met anyone on my team but we had some good
email exchanges so we’d all know about when to expect the baton. Sure
enough right around our scheduled time my teammate came into view.
I grabbed
the baton, slapped it around my wrist as I hit my watch and took off. I
guessed there would not be anyone to run with since you’d have to somehow get
the hand-off at exactly the same time as someone who would be running it at
your pace. I lucked out a couple of years ago and ran the entire race
with a guy from Somerville Road Runners, but that is a rarity. About half
of the 246 teams had already gone by so there would be a lot of people to
catch. The first 2 miles were wide path and wide breakdown lane.
The next 2-plus miles would be dangerous running on narrow sidewalk with little
room to pass. I reached the mile in 6-flat which was promising as I’d set
my goal at 6:00-6:15 pace. I’d run 60:13 at the Amherst 10 mile way back
in February and this was a much easier course. The second mile has the
only real bump along the way the tough hill at mile 24 of the marathon was not
so tough in the 2nd mile of a much shorter race. I hit 2 miles
in 12:04 (6:04 split) and then got into the construction zone and the narrow
sidewalk. I called out “coming up”, “passing”, “heads-up” or some version
of the same as I closed on runners. Mostly it wasn’t bad, maybe I was
fired up by the fear of wiping out at any moment as the next two miles were
quicker. I ran a 5:56 and 5:57 hitting four miles in 23:57. I kept
thinking “get to 5 miles then pick it up”. I was also hoping to get to 5
miles faster than I’d raced at the NE 5m champs back in June (30:01). I
reached 5 miles in 29:58 (6:01 split) and was feeling pretty good. I’d
made it past the funky detour onto and off of the bike path which included a
couple of sharp turns some dirt/grass and a sharp little downhill (followed by
a sharp little uphill). With that behind me I focused on pushing the pace
and passing people.
I’d
been counting how many I passed right from the start and by 6 miles
(5:58/35:54) I had gone past 40 people. I only had one problem with
anyone up to that point (a woman with headphones blaring who did not hear me
calling out a bunch of times and freaked a bit when I tapped her on the
shoulder). I know had a fairly wide breakdown lane so it was a lot easier
to pass, but people don’t seem to run as straight as you might think they would
and as I was heading by a guy he started weaving to the left so I adjusted and
started around to the right. Of course right when I did that he started
weaving back over to the right. I made it by okay but he chastised me as
I went by stating “you are going to get in an accident, you should be passing
on the left”. I was not happy and told him to “fuck off!” as I continued
on my way. I felt bad later about cursing him but it was frustrating at
the time.
The
final few miles went by with nothing as exciting. I ran a 6:01 and a 5:58
and kept trying to pick up the pace. I must have been pretty much at max
as my 9th mile was a 6:06 (my slowest of the day). I kept it
together as I headed up the driveway toward the exchange zone. It was
then that I realized my baton was no longer wrapped around my arm!
Yikes!!! I hadn’t even thought about it during the run and thought maybe
it was up my sleeve or something. No such luck. I reached the
exchange and slapped hands with our anchor leg and told him I couldn’t find the
baton. He said something like “no problem” and dashed off. I hit my
watch and got 57:29 for the 9.6 miles which was right on 6:00 pace. I was
pleased and pretty darned tired. I had ended up passing 64 people during
my leg, so over 1/4 of the entered teams. We took 64th place
overall in the relay and 6th in the mixed 50+ scoring, out of 16
teams. The club took 2nd place in overall points.
Fantastically fun day!
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