Disclaimer: I received
a free entry to the Runner’s World Classic as part of being a BibRave Pro.
Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador) and check out BibRave.com
to review find and write race reviews!
You may all me crazy but I just ran 3 races in 2 days!
In its inaugural year, the Runner’s World Classic featured a
5k and 10k on Saturday—paired together as the “Five & Dime”—and a half
marathon on Sunday. Run all three races
and you complete the “Hat Trick.”
Race weekend events took place at Merrimack College in North
Andover, MA. If you are unfamiliar with
the area, it’s waaay north of Boston.
Like practically New Hampshire.
Going into race weekend, I didn’t really have any race goals
except to have fun. This non-goal
concept is pretty unknown to competitive me but I hadn’t gotten into any
serious training since the Buffalo Half Marathon so I knew I wasn’t in any
shape to race. With that in mind I was
excited to represent BibRave in my second race as a BibRave Pro and I was lucky to
convince some friends to run with me so I had company at all three races. (ICYMI I wrote about my friends in Weekly Roundup 6.27-7.3!)
On Friday night I fought the Boston traffic and spend the
night with Lizzie in Winthrop. We went to
this awesome Italian restaurant and splurges on penne a la vodka and white
wine. Oops! Like I said… I was there to have fun!
Race morning #1 we had a 4:45am wake up call, got ready and
drove to North Andover. We got our
numbers and met up with Christa with little time to spare before the 5k. Christa was running the Five & Dime,
Lizzie just the 10k. Our other friend
Anna was supposed to run the 10k but didn’t make it.
The 5k
The 5k started at 7:00am and it was already getting hot and
humid. Luckily most of the course was in
the shade and fairly flat as Christa and I ran and chatted the whole way. I should have been paying a little bit more
attention to the actual run but we hadn’t seen each other in over a year so we
had lots to talk about!
Time: 23:43
Place: 102/863
Splits: 7:37, 7:42, 7:35
The 10k
With the temperatures steadily rising for the 8:30am start,
we were getting anxious to run the 10k!
Because of the high humidity, Christa and I felt like 7:30 pace for the
5k felt like a lot more work then it should have so we decided to take it
slower for the 10k. She was nursing a
hamstring injury and I still had a half marathon to go the next day. We stayed with Lizzie through 4 miles and
truly embraced the term “conversation pace.”
There was a massive hill during mile 3—it seemed like it lasted the
entire mile. We lost Lizzie at one of
the water stops and I think it was my brilliant idea to pick up the pace for
the final mile and a half to the finish.
Yeah, that sucked!—but there was a wonderful downhill for a big majority
of the final mile.
Time: 53:26
Place: 185/752
Splits: 9:23, 8:36, 8:41, 9:17, 8:17, 7:22
After the race we all went to Trask’s apartment in Saugus
for an afternoon by the pool. The sun
was HOT and the water felt amazing. I
truly think hanging and floating helped with recovery from the morning’s
events.
[Related post: Recovery Tip #3: Get in the Pool]
Christa, Lizzie and Anna all had to get home. Trask took me to The Yard House and I found
my new favorite drink—Ace Pineapple Cider.
I have to find some to stock my fridge!
Race morning #2 I was pretty tired from running and sunning
and sleeping on couches. Trask and I got
to North Andover with just enough time to use the porta potties and head to the
start line. Standing there we both knew
it was going to be a rough day. We just
didn’t know how rough.
I was kind of treating the half as a long run and I’d been
running 7:30-7:45 pace for most of my long runs lately. I was even content cruising at 8:00-8:30 pace
the whole way. Survival mode was the
name of the game.
The Half Marathon
The first few miles were ok.
Hot for sure. I took water at
every water stop and starting pouring it over my head as well. Around 3.5 I was asking myself why
was I doing this. Why wasn’t I walking
or even better why wasn’t I back running with Trask? I’m pretty sure around mile 5 we revisited
that nasty hill from the 10k. From there
it was all up and down. Literally. Rolling hills for miles and miles and miles.
I was so thankful for the cloud coverage for most of the
race. At mile 10, the sun started to
peek out but by then we were running in shady neighborhoods. I was walking and even physically stopping at
all the water stops by now. My legs felt
like bricks. The air was so thick that I
was having a hard time breathing. My clothes were soaked. I felt a blister
forming on one of my big toes. Everything
just felt uncomfortable. At 11.5 I
decided I was done running and walked about a half mile before I got annoyed
and started running again for the last mile to the finish.
Time: 1:43:44
Place: 67/546
Splits: 7:31, 7:33, 7:39, 7:30, 7:48, 7:56, 7:45, 7:33,
8:12, 7:48, 8:08, 9:37, 7:46
I made it!
I knew Trask was quite a ways behind so while I waited for
her, I met up with two girls I had met last summer at my RRCA certification
course. We relaxed in the beer tent
sipping on Blue Moon. It was cool to
catch up and I’m hoping to run into them at future races!
Trask started texting me about how horrible she was feeling
and with a mile to go I started walking backwards on the course to find
her. She’s so awesome and I felt so bad
she was feeling so awful BUT she made it too!
Woo woo!
Overall, it was a fun weekend with some pretty awesome
running friends.
Did you run the Runner’s World Classic? Head on over to BibRave.com and post your
race review!
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