New Balance Falmouth Road Race Weekend

38:25 – my time for the 7 mile New Balance Falmouth Road Race. That time was good enough to finish 13^th overall and 11^th American.  It is a race that I can walk away from and be OK with because it was the best I had that day. It wasn’t the ideal race that I would have loved to run, but with only 2 weeks of workouts behind me I think I am still lacking some speed and endurance. I also need to remember to exercise some patience. I went out a little bit harder than was probably ideal for my current fitness, clocking the first mile a 5:10 pace. I usually run fairly even splits, but I got a little too excited and when the gun went BANG I was out hard. Patience and pacing is one of the hardest things for all runners to learn. Even amazing runners like Shalane Flanagan have to remind themselves to be patient – see great Runners World article “The Killer Inside Her” profiling Shalane and how she learned to be patient in races.

Falmouth was as beautiful a race as I imagined it would be. It was a great day, a little cloudy and humid, but that is pretty good weather for a race, so no one was complaining. They had to start the race 10 minutes late because the buses that were transporting the participants to the start were running behind. The town of Falmouth is a very quaint little place with narrow streets and beautiful old architecture, which makes it a really fun place to visit. But it makes holding a race with 11,000 participants a great exercise in planning and execution. I give major props to the race organizers for making the event go as smoothly as it did. I really look forward to running the New Balance Falmouth Road Race again next year. For now I am looking forward to my next race – the Stratton Faxon New Haven 20K which will be held on Labor Day (which also happens to be Cole’s and my 1 year anniversary).  Hopefully I can finish a lot higher in the 20K and make it an even better anniversary than I know it will be.

Back to Work

For the time being, it will back to work. Tomorrow I will be doing a tough workout of 2.5 mile repeats with short rest. I am a little anxious for the workout because I know it will be tough, but it is also a very important workout because it will help me gain the stamina that I need not only for the 20K in two weeks but also for my ultimate goal on the horizon – the USA Olympic Marathon Trials.

Until next week…cheers!