I've always heard about this race, but never ran it personally, even though it's right in my back yard.
I got up nice and early on race morning and ran the 3 miles from my apartment to Hannaford's in Chelmsford/Drum Hill to sign up.
One thing that I noticed was that there were a lot of youngins and new faces at this race, some lookin' pretty fast. I figure that this is a common distance for the high schoolers and collegiates, home for the summer. This was a race for me to set a new distance PR, and I didn't expect to place in my age group.
The reason for the new faces was most likely due to the fact that this race pays out $1,000 to whoever breaks the course record (8:50 for the men's...or is it 8:57?), thus attracting speedsters from all over.
The Farias were all here today after a long day yesterday of throwing frisbies, breaking frisbies, taping frisbies, breaking up dog fights, swimming in the pool, cookouts, and, of course, drinking.
The heat of the morning was already draining whatever motivation I had to run the race, but it's only 2 miles...
My legs were still a little heavy from the prior day 10K race, but the 3 mile warmup definitely helped loosen things up.
I was warned before the race that this race would be similar to the start of the Hollis Fast 5K where you can quickly be overwhelmed by the kids running in the race. I was told to start up as close as possible to the starting line.
I've always felt that the short distance races, like the mile, is always the most difficult. If you're not in discomfort for the entire run, then you're not trying.
The same is true of this very difficult 2 miler. Glenn agrees that this is one of the toughest races of his season.
The course is deceptively uphill, and the time of year typically means that it can be brutally hot and humid like today.
My race goal was to try to get close to 11's, and beat Frank Georges.
I only managed an 11:32 run, but did beat Frank, around the half-way mark where he caught me and then faded.
I tried to catch Kara Haas throughout the race, but Wonder Woman is back and she just pulled away the further we got into the race.
Cody led the way for GLRR with an impressive 10:32 run.
A great race overall and I would definitely try again next year to see if I can get under 11's.
I ended up running home on the Freeman Trail for an additional 4 miles on the day. Very hot!
Results
(Photo Courtesy of the Lowell Sun)
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