CCM - I am in...

Howdy all,

Very little running. Just P90xing it and some golf. Good summer, but now headed to winter school opening. Love to catch up soon and get a run in or two Agricola.

Hope everyone had a good summer.

Cape Cod Marathon Relay, Leg 4

The fourth leg of the Cape Cod Marathon Relay was fun and mildly painful. I'm a bit more sore today than I was yesterday, so am resting one more day. I enjoyed the team experience very much this year and it was great to run with so many old friends, and new runners.

Last year I went out and ran the same leg in just under 48. I was hoping to run the same or better this year. I wasn't sure where I'd net out though. With nights of broken sleep from Child 3 etc. I downgraded my expectations, though I was still hopeful that I could hammer it. Leg Four is sort of a bear, with a ton of climbs and descents and a particularly brutal climb at mile 20. Some woman said, her as I and others were running by her at the 20 mile marker that the top of the hill was at a car that was parked part way up it. Deep in my memory banks though, I remember it being longer than what I was looking at. It was. The hill actually turns at the point where the car was parked and continues up. I know that I wrote about this last year, but this is a big climb at this point in the marathon and I have tremendous respect for the runners who did the full course yesterday -- this means you VTR.

Speaking of the full course the CCM is a nasty little marathon. I'm quite familiar with about 20 miles of the course and it is a hilly, climbing extravaganza. As I said I was reaching for 48 minutes and came in at 45:54.1 so I was pretty pumped. I gritted my teeth up the last few hills, leaned into them and shifted my drive from my quads to my calves. I passed a lot of relay runners and was only passed by one relay-gazelle. He was a tall skinny guy and I heard him come up behind me and then disappear over a long hill around mile 18 of the course.

Based on some rough calculations I received the baton at 14.9 miles, and handed it off at 20.9. Here are my splits:

First 1/10: 0:59.3
15-16: 7:57.9
16-17: 7:38.3
17-18: 7:47.5
18-19: 7:52.7
19-20: 7:54.4
20-20.9: 5:44.0 ( this is s 6:22/mile pace, and granted there was a long down hill in this stretch but this also included the huge uphill, so I'm pretty stoked about this split)

I had a blast running this challenging leg and even more fun running with my old friends. Running is so solitary 9 out of 10 runs that it's great when it becomes a team sport. Nice job to the FAs, you worked hard and hit your goals and should be proud of yourselves. Way to stay on the course this year PR. Finally, way to tough it out VTR, it was an impressive performance. Let's all do it again next year.

CCM Post

Racing is always a bit surreal. It is nothing and so much like your training runs that you do. One large difference is the adrenaline that hits you when you reach the course and you see runners of all shapes and sizes preparing to show others, but mainly themselves what they can do. The racer has never left me and I had to admit that I not only had an adrenaline surge, but butterflies. Thoughts of: Can I break my goal of 8:30 miles? Will I injure my ankle again? Can I keep others from passing me? What if I just threw pacing out the window and tried the classic fly and die strategy? And before you know it your off, whizzing down the course, throwing pacing out the window while you burn some of that excess energy. I think my rowing days hinder me in this respect because spring crew races always begin from a cold start and boats immediately take the rate up to sprint like levels before settling into the body of a piece.

The body of the piece is where it becomes a bit of a training run as you set your body up to run a pace looking for mile markers and familiar terrain (a nice advantage when running the same leg). Then you begin seeing the runners with the bright orange batons and the competitive spirit takes over once again and I began looking for ones to pass and making sure few runners with them would pass me. There is no way I would have sprinted the last 100 m until the guy I passed a couple of miles ago came up and said lets finish strong and we just took the pace up.

But, the real beauty in running a relay are the people: the ones that surround you on the course, but the people who on your team. It was wonderful seeing FA and Mrs. FA putting their hard work to the test and watch Agricola put out a great time when just a few years ago running was just an occasional thing. How about VTR pushing through his own barriers to reach the finish line, face encrusted by salt and sheer determination. I suppose it is just watching the blog come to life with people that I have known since college running and sweating together. Thank you for the laughs and good food the other night and I am honored to be part of the whole experience with a group of wonderful people.

Have a great day!