Mt Holyoke Summit 5K -- Sun. September 16

I knew it would be tricky getting to this (though I was preregistered) as I had lectoring duty that went till 9 or so, and the race was set for 9:30 on Rt 47 near the marina. As it turned out the drive was excruciatingly slow and it was just a bit too far. I had changed in the bathroom and raced off just in time, I thought, but no: the crowd was off gathering at the start as I drove into the parking field.

So I did up my laces, stripped off to running gear and took off towards the registration field (it's lucky that from last year I knew the layout of things, and wasn't planning to return to the car). As I got to the second field, the runners were streaming away down the road. I went up to the table, gave my name, got my tag, pinned it on, was asked for an estimated time -- I wanted to say "Late," and she at the desk said "It's probably the last thing on your mind right now" -- but I said 25:00 and headed out. On the road I hit the start on my stopwatch -- the GPS never had a chance to kick in, I wasn't still for long enough -- and went off after the now distant runners.

The first mile is flat, pretty much, and I was trying to hurry through the tailend without burning up everything before the hill (nearly all the 800ft climb is concentrated into the last mile). Clocked a 6:05, and it felt a bit tough as I'd had no warmup and needed to pee, but it got me into a good set of runners.

The second mile was heading up the hill, gently at first but getting steeper; mile 2 came at 13:45 or so, and near the end of it I caught up with Mark and said hellos. Then it was just grim and earnest up the rest, bloody steep and goes on forever, plus I was in with people who were much harder work to overtake. Just before the turn of mile 3 I was ready to quit, definitely feeling the bikeride I did last night, but somehow kept it going and didn't lose any places. Another 100 yards and I'd have had the guy in front too, but It was a fair enough run in the end.

Time: 22:47**
Distance: 3.1 miles
Speed: 8:18 mph

**I clocked 22:47, remembering to stop my clock as I crossed the line; their time for me was 24:40. So I had started almost two minutes behind the gun. I came in at #17, I think, and I suspect that my adjusted time would have me in the top 10, maybe top 5? But the winner was two minutes quicker still, with just over 20:00 as the top time (and 32 not far behind).

Still, I'm pretty happy with the result, as I was about a minute quicker than last year. And of course the food afterwards was generous and excellent (bagels, yogurts, OJ, fruit, cookies, etc.), and Mark (who'd clocked 29, I think, and while note wildy chuffed was looking very comfortable, and he was only a minute or so behind the winner of his age group) and I got to chat all the way down -- in part planning next weekend's excursion to the mountain run. All in all, satisfying -- feel like a looong run tomorrow, and I'll be happy if it's mainly flat!