The Mohonk! -- Sun. September 28

This is such a great race, and made such an excellent outing by our hosts John and Jim -- it lived up to all our expectations, and yet it was still frustrating on this second attempt, as it was last year on my first attempt. I don't know how well I could do this one if I felt really prepped, but I know I can do it better. . . Anyhoo, to the biz: Mark and I drove down the night before, after a rainy and windy day. Long drive, but then a fabulous dinner and long chat (with wine, not so well advised maybe) and bed for about 6 hours before we got up to a misty and mild morning.

At the course by 8:15 or so, and then get our numbers and stretch a bit. Very misty, and ground pretty damp: warnings of slippery course. Lined up and off just after 9, with me aiming to go slow in first two miles, knowing that 3, 4, 5, and 8 are serious hills. I managed to be cool for the first mile, but the weather was killing my GPS reception, so I couldn't really track pace. Felt okay after slogging up to the halfway point, though by then I realised I'd not get to last year's time. Still, I'd figured 1:15 would be good, marking a 7:30 pace, and two minutes slower than last year. I was holding position okay until we came up on mile 7; I'd been running just out of sight of the guy ahead, having steadily lost ground on a couple of other runners ahead of him. Then an older guy I recalled from last year overtook, about a mile before where he caught me last year. Ouf. Then it was the hard downhill and the *killer* uphill of mile 8. The older guy was walking bits, but I still couldn't catch up. So I tried walking a bit, but after 20 yards of that I just wanted to stop altogether, so I forced myself to jog onward and upward, somehow. From the top of that mile it was two miles more of holding on, feeling okay finally, but with not enough spare energy to go faster -- also some pain from right thigh front. . . A couple more people got past me, but I was just concerned about my time and about not being passed by the Connie who passed me in the last mile last year.

I ended up placing 22nd, just inches behind the guy ahead, and feeling ready to do a few more miles (go figure -- Mark felt good at the end too). Time from the official site, given my GPS troubles:

Time: 1:15:18
Distance: 10 miles
Speed: 7.97 mph

Comment: Good place (278 finishers, and the guy ahead of me had the *same* time), and I wasn't the only one slower than last year, either. The rain seems to have slowed most everyone down about 3 mins on last year. The after-race eats were excellent, too (for all the rain that really started to come down seriously at that point) . . . Ah well, better luck next year?

I just need to do a heck of a lot more hill trainiing -- it really kills me, but that's where it's at. I want to get Gabriella into it too, if she's up for it: it's such a cool event, and almost in her neck of the woods.