Juddmansee.com

I had been thinking about running the Yankee Homecoming Race this year, but my “training” has been more opportunistic than rigorous so I definitely wanted to do a pre-race check before signing up for the 10miler. On July 27 the weather was nice and I got home from my business trip in time to get in a longer run, so I did my standard 9 mile loop around the reservoir. I took it easy, 9min pace, and felt a little sore the next day but fine. YHR 2011 was a go.

Yankee Homecoming is a weekday race, and this year it started a bit earlier at 6pm, so I took off work plenty early to beat traffic and get to Newburyport. I walked over at 5pm to register and then stretch and warm up. My right hip has been stiff so I enjoyed having a good long time to relax and do some yoga poses. It looked like we might get a thunderstorm, but there was only a light sprinkle before the race, resulting in a cool evening with relatively low humidity – perfect running weather.

I went out at a relaxed pace, and around the second mile I met up with my group running buddy Alice. We often run together on Monday nights, and this was her first 10 miler, so I decided to stick with her and help pace her. I tried to slow her down a little at mile 3, but then she said she felt great and wanted to pick it up for mile 4. We settled down for the hills, running strong but conserving our energy. The section around Maudslay went quickly, even though this year’s course included a detour through the neighborhood to make up a bit of distance due to the change in finish line location. (Kudos to the race organizers for putting that little extension in the middle, not the end of the race!) Coming up Storey Ave we knew we were in the home stretch and started picking it up a little. We ran past another running group pal who was struggling a bit, so we cheered him on as we kept up our acceleration through the finish. I was most pleased with pulling out a sub-8min final mile, negative splits! Here are our results (watch time below, official time at the link – I was about a minute back from the start line):

YHR 2011 Splits

Alice and I exchanged high fives and a hug; she said she couldn’t have done it without me. (I know she *could* have, but it’s still nice). We were both beaming as we walked through the field of spectators to cool down. Despite the lack of focused training, I ran faster than last time.

Even though I know they must taste gross under normal circumstances, there’s something about a brightly (artificially) colored popsicle or flav-or-ice after a hard run that hits the spot. I ran in my new Kinvaras, and was in good company – this has become a very popular racing shoe. I took a hand bottle of Hammer’s HEED drink (20 oz) to have before and during the race, and ended up dumping water into it along the course to make sure I kept hydrated (and avoid what happened in 2009). I had a little calf cramping as I walked home, but I chalk that up to the new shoes more than fueling. Brian greeted me with pasta for dinner, and I have to say I slept especially well after a terrific (and tiring) run.