Mine Falls 16 mile trail race

Mine Falls (Nashua NH) trail running festival:  I had signed up for this race more than a month ago.  Training has been going well but my posterior tibial tendonitis and ankle arthritis had flared up in the last couple of weeks. Trail running (uneven footing) is probably the worst thing for my ankle so I decided to drop down from the 32 mile race to the 16 mile race.  I figured that 2 hours of racing was probably a smarter move than 4+ hours.  On Friday I headed up to Mine Falls to check out the course again as there were a few minor tweaks to the 8 mile loop.  I felt pretty good and pushed the pace a bit, not quite a tempo run but definitely a quick pace (7:15’s).  I figured that’d be pretty close to race pace for 16 miles and was now worried that I’d pushed it a bit too hard that close to race day.

Sunday morning dawned cool, clear and dry.  The only weather factor was the wind but in the woods that wouldn’t be much of an issue (although it really did seem like the wind was always in my face).  I was happy to see teammates Dan Verrington and Jim Pawlicki arrive.  Both were doing the 5k so we headed out for a warm-up previewing their course.  The long 5k would cover the first 2 miles of the 8 mile course and then the final 1.5 of the same.  It was a little early for me to warm-up but nice to catch up with the guys.  I watched them race and then did a little more running before the 9:30am start to my race.  Over 100 lined up (socially distanced) for the 8 mile & 16 mile which started together.  I walked up to the line with one other guy who asked “8 or 16”?  He noted he was in the 8, we wished each other well and were off.  He took off and was soon out of sight.  Two other guys (one was Carson Bottomley, BJ’s son) went by in the first ½ mile, I heard some chatter and it sounded like both were running in the 8 mile.  I tried to relax, it was going to be a long day.  Especially long considering I very rarely ran further than 6 miles on my training runs (although I’ve been averaging a bit over 80 per week for the last 6 months).  Two more guys went by as we reached the mile (7:17).  I was thinking 715-730 pace for the first lap and hopefully I’d pick it up in the second lap.  I settled in and focused on keeping the two guys in sight.  I moved back into 5^th place on some of the rougher footing between 3 and 4 miles.  The course was a great mix of single-track, canal paths, and carriage roads.  Of the 8 miles about 5 was single-track, not much of it was rocky but there were a lot of roots and pine needles could make it slick in spots.

The mile splits fluctuate wildly depending on the footing and the little ups, downs, twists, turns.  I tried to keep a steady “effort” and between 5 and 6 miles closed on fourth place.  I went by him as he took a left (I yelled for him to come back) when he should have gone right.  That was the only part of the course with markings in both directions, but it was fairly obvious which way to go.  I gained a little on him until about ½ mile to go in the lap when he went into a kick as he was doing the 8 mile.  I hit the end of the loop in 56:33, finished off a Gel, grabbed a drink as I went through and saw a couple of other guys from the 8 mile standing at the finish.  I wasn’t 100% sure I was leading the 16 mile but knew I was in either first or second.  I upped the pace and focused on getting to the other end of the park (4 miles) since most of the tougher running was in that first 4 miles of the loop.  At about 2 miles I passed one of the Ultra runners (there were about 50 out there doing 32 miles) and offered him encouragement.  He noted that I was leading.  I was pretty sure that he was right and would know if anyone moving quickly was ahead of me.  Still, you never know.  I struggled a bit on the rougher stuff and the little uphill parts heading out towards Stellos stadium. I kept tracking my splits and knew I was faster than the first loop but by 12 miles I was starting to really feel the lack of long runs.  I held on and came through the finish in 1:52:21, so my second loop was 55:48 (45 seconds faster than the first loop).  Getting the win was great, learning I won by nearly 15 minutes was a huge surprise.