Belleville Pond 10K

For the second week in a row, my race participation was a last-minute decision.  Last week, it was a balky ankle.  This week, I had a litany of excuses at my disposal.  On Friday night, I nearly cut off my son's finger while trimming his hair, throwing all of our weekend plans into upheaval as we spent Friday night and part of Saturday in the emergency room.  Luckily, kids forget quickly, and my wife is a very forgiving person.  Then, my lingering cold came back with a vengeance on Saturday.  I felt awful on Sunday morning but really hate to back out of a race, especially one I knew would be an epic experience.  So, I threw down some Day-Quil, chugged a cup of tea, and headed out to Ryan Park.

A shoe or a weapon?

My biggest concern going into the race, however, was not my cold or barber skills, it was my footwear.  After slipping around the Old Mountain Field course in my wife's YakTrax "Walkers," I knew I needed something different this time.  So, earlier in the week, I ordered a pair of the Kahtoola Microspikes that Bob Jackman had worn to victory at OMF (obviously, it must have been the equipment, and not his superior fitness, that allowed him to beat me that day).  Well, Amazon Prime FAILED to meet their two-day delivery promise, and so I was back to the YakTrax as my only option.  Then, I had an epiphany. Well, maybe it was more of a memory of something I had seen, like, a few days ago than an epiphany.  When digging out my old track racing shoes prior to last month's 800 meter race, I remembered seeing a bag of ridiculously long spikes.  Sure enough, after rummaging around the basement, I found these things and put them in my old XC shoes.  I'm not even sure how to describe how they looked.  It was like having bayonets attached to my feet.  Why did I even own these?  I ran a lap around the house in them, and they seemed pretty good, so I figured I'd give it a go.  They had to be better than the YakTrax.

The Race

The ninja falls into line behind Jonny.

My only strategy for the race was to get right behind whoever would take the lead.  My best guess was that it would be Jonny, since this is his home course, and he's one of the few people ballsy enough to break trail for the rest of us.  Sure enough, Jonny jetted out to the lead, and I fell into step behind him.  The footing was awful almost immediately, and I discovered the one downside of my shoe choice -- what I gained in traction, I lost in surface area.  I was wearing whatever the opposite of a snowshoe is.  In the soft snow, I sunk right through, and my foot twisted off anything hard or uneven.  I made a mental note to be careful to place my foot directly within existing footprints wherever possible.

I was pleasantly surprised that no one tried to pass us as we cruised through mile 1 on the rail bed.  I felt way better than I had expected and was content to sit behind Jonny as long as possible.  My hope was to wait until the halfway mark to make a move, thus turning the 10K into a 5K, which I felt would give me more of an advantage over the guys who thrive at the longer distances.

There were two things during this period of the race that stand out in my memory.  One was when we came upon a small fallen tree in the trail.  There was plenty of room to go around it, but Jonny launched himself over it like an Olympic hurdler.  I sidestepped it at the last second, not realizing that my late move had screened the branch from view of whoever was behind me.  Turns out, it was TNT nemesis Bob Jackman, who got a wicked lashing across the shins as he ran straight through it.

The second was the incredibly cool image of a single-file line of runners following Jonny around turns and up and down the hills.  As we ascended the steep hill by the power lines, I joked that we all owed Jonny a debt of gratitude, and Bob promised to buy him a beer.  These were fun and innocent times, but a race still awaited us in the coming miles, it was just a matter of who would make the first move.

Should I tear Jonny's heart out?  Never!

A little after mile 2, as we churned through the rough trail along Route 4, stuff started happening.  First, Jonny very matter-of-factly declared, "I am done."  The Mortal Kombat "Finish Him" screen flashed through my head, but I didn't want to break Jonny, I wanted to give him a break. He had been doing yeoman's work to this point, and I was feeling terrible that I hadn't traded off with him earlier.  I was about to make a move, when I heard some commotion behind me. Apparently, Bob was getting hot, and his clothes were coming off.  It seemed like a good time to mix things up a bit, so I told Jonny I'd take over for a little while and promptly accelerated as I went by.  The footing was terrible in this section, and I quickly realized how much I'd been relying on Jonny's trailblazing.  I was trying my best to land within the existing footprints, but these were too close together, and I felt like it was quick-stepping through the trail.

Which Jackman was running shirtless behind me??

We finally popped out into a meadow, and I had a chance to look behind me and see who'd covered my move.  As expected, Bob was right behind me, but who was that behind him?  It was...Jeff???  I was thrilled and terrified at the same time.  Was he about to take me down? Fortunately, I started getting excellent traction on this hard-packed section, so I was able to up the pace a bit (to 9-minute miles maybe?).  As we were about to re-enter the woods, I stepped in a hole and twisted my stupid ankle.  There was no time to worry about it, though, so I dug down and tried to gap Bob on this next technical section.  I really didn't want to battle with him during the last mile, so I decided to push myself now and relax later.

By the time we popped out onto the rail bed, I started to feel confident that I was going to make the lead last.  I was hoping to hammer this section to put the race away, but the footing was far worse than it was on the way out.  I also realized that, having only run the course once before, I didn't know where the turn off the trail was.  Did I already pass it?  Was Bob going to have to redirect me again, as he did the Christmas 10K?  Would he be so nice this time?  At long last, the turn appeared.  I took a peek behind me as I made the turn and didn't see Bob.  Thank God, because my resilience was as close to 0 as it has ever been in a race. I would have let Colburn Graves pass me if he wanted to.

I kept the pressure on through this final technical section, nearly crashing into Scott Mason over the bridge.  Mercifully, the baseball field came into view.  I trudged around it, so thankful that I didn't have to try to mount a kick through this ridiculously tough section.  I stumbled across the finish line, just cracking the magical 48-minute barrier.

I enjoyed seeing Jeff finish strong to secure his incredible third-place finish, then Nate also crushing it for fourth, Justin and Jonny coming in together (almost), and Seth shortly after.  Great work all around.  Once more, thanks to Jonny for doing literally all the work for us for the first 1/3 of the race. You're a tough and selfless guy, Jonny!

Post-race
After pathetically complaining about my historical lack of race prizes in my last post, I was almost in shock as I got to choose from an array of cool stuff Mike Galoob had assembled.  I came away with an awesome watch and a BBC beer -- thanks, Mike! While I'm writing my weekly Galoob tribute, let me give this guy one final shout-out for his crazy fast mile at the NB Boston Indoor Games.  Oh, and the man who placed second was just a former Olympian (and a New York State high school legend whose name I've known since I first started running).  Incidentally, there was also a Quadzilla sighting in Boston that day.

Physically, I'm a mess right now.  The spikes did a number on my calves, which are still sore to the touch three days later.  My cold mutated into some nasty infection, and my voice, well I'm not sure how to describe it. Sandpaper on a cheese grater on a blackboard maybe? Regardless, I have no regrets.  It was a fun race to be part of, and obviously I'm thrilled to get a rare win and for another great WTAC team performance.