Notes
Pack Monadnock! Well this was an interesting race. I was conservative to start and waited to see what other people would do. About 4 or 5 people were ahead of me for a while. I ran at a comfortable pace behind them but reeled them all in before 1.5. I stayed at that effort level for the majority of the rest of the race. It was roughly 6min pace on flat or rolling sections, and 7min pace on net elevation gain miles. But, I never felt like I had truly lost anyone I had passed, and turns out I was right. I was told a little before 7 miles that second place was ~100m back. So I pushed a bit harder through the 7th mile which had a lot of uphill. When I got to 101 at mile 8, I could hear breathing probably 50 feet behind me. I put in another surge on 101 to try creating a gap before the mountain. But the breathing still seemed the same amount behind.
That mountain was something else. I figured I'd just grind through the roughly 1 mile long road to the top and it wouldn't take too long. But that road took FOREVER. I was passed after being on the road for only a minute or so. I tried to keep up but he was getting away from me. Another person passed at roughly the same time, but I was able to get back ahead and hold him off for a while. He eventually passed back, as did two other people.
I felt severely limited in speed and in my ability to react. I was able to put in some surges on the less steep sections, but the more steep sections were killer. I think I lost a good bit of motivation too, once I got passed. There was also the thought in the back of my head of pushing too hard and getting injured. This was new ground for me, and I would say my mileage just barely supports my participation in this race - not much headroom.
But overall I'd say it was a fun and successful day. I learned a lot and have thoughts for the future. I definitely underestimated the field - I assumed since Jake and Sam weren't there I'd have a good chance. And the elephant in the room is that I went too fast for the first 8.5 miles, leaving me with nothing for the mountain. I think that's true to a degree. But really, I did feel comfortable for most of it. Hard comfortable but comfortable. I think the bigger factor is not having enough hill training, and not having enough general endurance. I really want to see what this race is like with a much bigger base.
But next time, I will probably save a lot more for the hill. I can test the hypothesis of how much freshness matters for that hill. Go very easy until I reach the hill, then hammer down. I can then see how much of a difference it makes by comparing my hill time next year to this year.
This mountain series is pretty fun. I think once I accomplish my goals on the track, this would be a fun discipline to turn to. I'm sure there is a ton of mountain-specific training you can do to get better at these races.