Monday, January 24, 2011

A moderately challenging Derry Prep 16


The Derry Prep 16 miler is as advertised: moderately challenging. This is one of those races that proudly displays the course elevation profile on the technical shirt given to all pre-entrants. My goal was to run a pace close to a marathon goal pace if the road conditions were decent. I have run this race twice before. My foray in 2001 was a learning experience. Don’t bother driving in a snow storm to attend a road race unless you are allowed to wear snowshoes in the race. Joe Shairs and I ran 6:22 pace in 2006 during a string of long runs that winter to get us ready for the New Bedford Half Marathon.

I warmed up with Andie Colon, Mike Quintal, and Jim Johnson over the first .75 miles of the course hoping to see an indication of the road conditions. There was plenty of bare pavement. As it turned out, the shaded sections of the course still had a hard packed snow but you could run over the tracks left behind by vehicles over the last 36 hours since the last snow fall on Friday afternoon. I got out into the top ten immediately after the start. I ran the first few miles with Mike Quintal. I never looked at the watch so I was just running against the course but wanted to stay close if possible to those that could pull me along the first half. Then I had some company in the middle miles with Tim Catoggio who runs for Marx Running. He was already running well under his advised pace. He planned on taking off after 13.1 miles and he certainly did, making his way up to 4th place in the end. I was crawling up the hills after mile 10 and the splits prove it. Still I could see a few guys about a minute ahead and plugged away. I rolled up on Mike Quintal who was hurting pretty bad with 2 miles to go. I went onto hit my quickest split of the day 2 miles away from the finish chasing down Humberto Rodriguez in a downhill stretch.

I finished with the 16 miler in 1:37.46, a 6:07 per mile average. My pace for the first five miles was 5:58, 6:00 through 10, and 6:08’s through 13.1 miles (Half Marathon). I promptly did a cooldown walk into some dry clothes and broke bread (Pizza, Soup, Hot Chocolate) with Kristen and the CMS gents: Mike, Jim, and Jason Dunklee. The Nike Lunarcrap that I wore provided a heel blister on each foot were stinging pretty good. That is my fault as I should have left them home. The legs are a bit sore today. I certainly got their attention in this tough course.

Splits
608
556 1205
532 1738
545 2323
623 2946 5 miles
535 3522
558 4121
557 4719
555 5315
638 5953 10 miles
641 1:06:35
630 1:13:06
629 1:19:35 (low 1:20 Half Marathon)
624 1:26:10
526 1:31:26
620 1:37:46

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