Boston BuildUp Series: Part III (A Double-Race Weekend)

As a rule, I don't schedule more than one race per weekend. In fact, in the past I have generally tried to avoid running more than once race per month. However, thanks to the "Polar Vortex" and all of the snow and ice it has brought with it, the 20k race of the Boston Buildup Series was postponed twice, resulting in it being run this Sunday . . . the day after the 4-mile Al Gordon race I already had on my schedule.

Last weekend, I made the difficult choice: I'd race-race the 4-miler and just run the 20k as a long run. This doesn't mean I thought my chances of placing were any better in the 4-mile race than in the 20k; I just wanted to avoid disappointing myself, and if I "took it easy" on the 4-miler and still ran poorly for the 20k, then I would definitely end up disappointed. So I decided 4 miles of pain would feel better than 12.6 miles of disappointment.

However, as you may have already predicted, I just couldn't help myself. I raced both.

To let myself off the hook just a little bit, I didn't run the 4-miler as well as I think I could have. Getting to the race involved so much treacherous waddle-stepping over black ice that I ran the first mile of the race scared to death that I'd take one step and end up flying into an icy snowbank; as a result, I started the race with a 7:30 mile--far slower than what I'm capable of. Miraculously, I somehow averaged 6:28 per mile for the whole race, which means I must have been cooking for those last 3 miles. Therefore, while I finished 3rd in my age group (and contributed to Gotham City Runners placing first in the team competition!), I still think I could have run a faster race.

On the train ride to Fairfield for the 20k race the next day, I had few (if any) expectations. My legs felt drained, and I did not feel up to racing anything, never mind something almost as long as a half marathon. When the gun went off, I didn't feel that surge of nerves and excitement I usually get when a race starts. I just felt apprehensive. My teammate A___ was wearing a bright red hat, and I used that as my pacing marker for the first 10k of the race. So long as I kept him in my sight, I knew I wasn't falling too far behind what I should be running for a race of this distance. At just about the 10k mark, he suddenly stopped on a hill (due to digestive issues, I later found out), so I picked up another teammate M___'s orange shirt as my new pacing marker. She was considerably farther ahead, but as the second half of the race progressed, I felt better and better. Either my legs were finally loosening up, or the course was flattening out, but regardless, I found myself gaining on her. Finally, in the last 5k of the race, we ran together for a good mile-and-a-half, during which we jointly passed a blond woman in front of us and earned an admiring "you girls were cooking" compliment from two other gentlemen when we all finished.

Much to my surprise, I somehow finished this race 10th for women, with an average pace that was only 6 seconds (per mile) off of my best half marathon time. Not bad at all for having just ran a sprint the day before! Now I can only hope that this back-to-back racing will have prepared me for April . . . when I am scheduled to run a half marathon on three of the four weekends in the month!

Results from these races:

Al Gordon 4-miler

Race Length	Finishing Time	Average Pace	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Group Place (F25-29)
4 miles	25:51	6:28/mile	51 / 1,898	13 / 905	3 / 166

Boston Buildup 20k

Race Length	Finishing Time	Average Pace	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Group Place (F25-29)
20k	1:26:21	6:57/mile	36 / 219	10 / 72	10 / 32