RACE REVIEW:SUPER SUNDAY 4 MILER

"Rolling, rolling, when I'm breaking down

I don't want you here to help me out

I just want somebody sitting next to me"

'Next to Me' - Jim-E Stack

Well, my first race of 2022 is officially in the books.  This past Sunday morning I lined up with my Whirlaway teammates for the Super Sunday 4 Miler in Bedford, NH.  It was the first of seven races in the New England Grand Prix series which is a group of races that we compete in as team against other local teams.  Given that it was February in New England, the weather was about what you'd expect.  It was 20 degrees out, it was snowing (obvs) and the streets were coated with a fresh sheet of ice.  Good, good times.  Side note, I have no idea why I live here.  I've been asking this question a lot lately.  But, I digress.  As you may know, I've been training for an April marathon and I haven't raced since last December so this was going to be a solid fitness test and a way to assess how things are coming along.  Naturally, I was both excited and ridiculously nervous.  My anxiety about racing increases as the distance decreases primarily because speed is not my forté and even though the short ones end faster they hurt so much more.  Which is exactly why they are good for me to do.  Gotta step out of that comfort zone every once in a while, you know?  Comfort being a relative term here.  Right, so here's how it all played out.  I woke up at my usual 4:45am and made some coffee.  I know.  It's stupid early.  And it's not by choice.  My freaking dogs didn't even get up with me.  Whatever.  I was up in Franconia, which is about an hour and twenty minutes north of Bedford so I had some time to kill before taking off.  I drank my coffee, read some emails, did the Wordle of the day (yes, I'm obssessed) and took my time packing up and getting ready before finally taking off around 6:15.  About forty five minutes into my drive I found myself feeling really, really tired.  Which makes sense.  I mean, it was basically time for a nap at this point given how early I'd gotten started.  I never have two coffees pre-race but I was fading hard and ultimately decided it had to be done.

Fun fact, when you order a latte at Dunkin there is no 'small' option; just medium or large.  Okay, I thought to myself, well I don't need that much coffee so I'll just get the medium and sip half of it.  Lolz.  I rolled into Bedford around 7:45 and, yes, my cup was empty.  This extra cup was either going to help me or hurt me for obvious reasons and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

I parked, got out and took note of the absolutely miserable conditions that we were about to race in.  I found my teammate, Amy B., and we looked at each other and just nodded.  Words weren't really necessary.  We walked to the start to grab our bibs and then planned to come back and sit in our cars until we needed to warm up.  The finish line was in the process of getting sanded down and I was both grateful to these guys for doing their job and hopeful that they'd done the same for the majority of the four mile course as slipping on ice is one of my worst nightmares.  As you can see, the scene was pretty grim so while, yes, I was complaining, I felt it was for good reason.  Racing is hard.  Racing in tough conditions is...also hard.  

We got our numbers and met up with a few more of our teammates as we all walked back to the parking lot to drop gear and get ready to warmup; all of us agreeing that we'd likely need more than a few miles to actually get warm.  We stayed bundled up, deciding to drop coats and pants on the way to the start and headed off to check out the course.  The middle of the street wasn't terrible so that was good to note.  We cruised for an easy three and while we chatted all I could think about was the fact that I couldn't feel my thumbs or my big toes.  Which begs the question.....why?  At the time, I didn't have my answer for this.  I'll circle back on this one, though.  We dropped our layers and ran over to the start with only a few minutes left to march in place and think about how cold we were.  Finally, at 9:30, we were off.

I honestly didn't know what to expect for this race as far as my performance.  Yes, I've been training and doing workouts but, as I said, I haven't raced in months and given that and the weather I just didn't know what I was capable of.  So, the goal was just to run hard and see what I had in the bank.  Honestly, I was so happy to be moving when we finally got going that I didn't really pay attention to my pace for the first mile.  I just followed the crowd and focused on staying in the middle of the road which was, in fact, the safest spot.  We had a slight down on the first mile and between that and the general excitemenet of the scene I ended up running mile 1 in a 5:59 which was a bit faster than planned.  I told myself not to panic while also reminding myself that I only had to feel this hurt for three more miles.  At that point, I decided it wasn't worth checking my pace anymore.  I was going to do what I could do and checking was just going to stress me out more than necessary.  I had several teammates ahead of me that I knew would finish before me so I focused on following their singlets and trying to keep them in site.  This helped a ton as it kept me in control and gave me something to think about other than my breathing and the pain I was in.  Mile 2 felt really long and significantly harder than the first.  But I managed to hold on, hitting 6:04.  As I said, I wasn't checking my watch, but I could feel that my effort was about the same so I had a hunch that I was pretty close to my pace for mile 1.  Two miles to go and while it felt like I lifetime it also felt digestible.  Come on, Rebecca, I said to myself in my head or maybe out loud, I have no idea.  Two freaking miles.  Lean in.  You can do this.  The grind continued and I just kept watching the ladies in front of me who unbeknownst to them had become my pacers.  Thank you Dana and Christen.  We had to do a little climbing in mile 3 which I'd known was coming as we'd run it in our warmup.  Not that it made it any easier but helpful to have that info.  Always fun to have a hill at the finish of a hard effort.  Though "hill" is a bit of an exaggeration if I'm being honest as it was really just a slight rise.  But damned if it didn't feel like a legit hill.  Finally up and over this thing and half a mile to go.  I just put my head down and gave it everything that was left in my tank finishing in a respectable 24:35 which I was more than pleased with.  

I ended up coming in 18th overall and took the win for my age group (45-49). Our Whirlaway women's Masters team (40+) also took the win which was awesome.  And our women's open team took 3rd out of 15 teams which I thought was pretty sweet.  The five of us who scored in the open category came in within one minute and nine seconds of each other and I am 100% sure that having them there was why things went well for me as I definitely drew strength from their presence on the course.  Theirs and all the Whiralway women and men who were out on the course with me, really.  Running can be such a lonely sport.  Running for a team just feels different and in some ways, more important.  Often times more rewarding.  Because I'm running for others not just myself.  And, not to sound cliché, but we're stronger together.  I often tell my Lex athletes that it's important to know your 'why'.  If you get on the line and you can't answer the question why am I doing this then it might be time to step back and reevaluate things.  For me, on Sunday, my 'why' was to be a part of something bigger, something that I'm proud to represent.  To run hard and have fun for and with my teammates.  When I finished I could honestly say that I felt that I'd accomplished this.

Several of our teammates found each other as we rolled into the finish and after hugs and congratulations we set off to cool down, or in this case, to stay warm.  You really couldn't stand still for long without getting painfully cold.  We decided to run the course backwards and while I was tired and a little sore I really enjoyed the down time catching up with different people and hearing about the goings on in their lives.  More of my 'why', I suppose.

We got back to the parking lot and the majority of us decided it was too cold to hang out at the post-race party so we said our goodbyes and I got back in the car to thaw a bit before heading home.  My next marathon is on April 10th.  But our next race as a team is in March.  I'm already really looking forward to that one.  Maybe it will be a little warmer.  Pipe dreams.

Listen to this:

Next To Me - Jim-E Stack (feat. Luck Daye)

Jim-E Stack · Next To Me feat. Lucky Daye