Capital City Classic

The final race of June was the Capital City Classic 10k in Concord, NH.  This would be the third race in the eight race CARS (Capital Area Race Series).  I was looking forward to the longer race as thus far we’d done 5k’s which feel like an all-out sprint to me.  I had some troubles leading into the race as my adductor was really bothering me for nearly two weeks.  I decided to drop my mileage (for the second time in June) to see if that would help.  On Saturday I felt terrible but I got in a few runs including getting to be the first person to run the Atkinson Fit Trail after the ribbon cutting ceremony.  What a nice little trail!  A local gem that hopefully will get a lot of use.  Anyway, on race morning it was already closing on 80 degrees and very humid as I got together with some of my teammates for a 3 mile warm-up.  Doug forgot his racing flats but I was able to loan him a pair of my “workout shoes” that I always keep in the trunk of the car.  Doug made it through okay, but the shoes were not so lucky.  I guess 25 years of use is pretty good?

 

After warming up and feeling pretty decent I changed into race shoes, ditched the singlet and headed over to the start.  This would be the first mass start race in the series!  I lined up about 5 rows back and checked out where the rival team (Kezar Lake) was.  I’d be keying off of Jim Angel and Ernie Brake.  Figuring the heat now up to mid-80s and the humidity I was hoping to run under 6:20 pace.  Nearly 400 took off down Main street.  Wow, people were going out FAST.  I stopped counting after about 50, since it really didn’t matter (but I do like to know how many I catch).  I hit the first ½ mile in 3:00, so even a bit faster than I was planning.  I was tucked behind Jim and teammate Darin Brown.  Ernie was already 10 seconds up by the mile (6:06) and pulling away.  I kept thinking “relax and wait until 3 miles”.  The course is either slightly downhill or flat until nearly 4 miles then there are a couple of tough hills.  I was hoping to hit halfway feeling decent and then push.  I pulled ahead of Jim before two miles and starting aiming for Ernie.  I slowly moved through people who were falling off.  I got Ernie by 3 miles and he offered some encouragement as I went by.  I kept my focus on gaining on the next guy and was still catching random people as we hit the first hill and some very hot exposed road.  I tried to work the downhill before 5 miles and at the same time recover for the final tough little hill at 5.25.  It seemed like a LONG way into downtown from there.  It doesn’t help that you can see the Capital Dome and it seems so far away.  I kept it together into the finish and was surprised to finish in 20^th overall.  I got the 50+ age group victory by exactly 1 minute (over Angel) and Ernie and I had a good battle in the Age Graded category where I got another slim victory.  Doug and Darin came in 5^th and 6^th in the 50+ to round out our “Duct Tape & Spit” team.  Kezar got us again in the team category but we still have five races to go.  Next up: Luti 5m on July 17.  Back to physical therapy this week to see if I can ease some of this adductor pain.