MHM -112/Mt Greylock Half -- Sun. June 20

Father's day treat, sort of, though it was too bad noone was able to join me on the trip. Set out at 7 am and drove the hour and a quarter to Adams, where I found the DnD for a coffee and pitstop, then headed up to the starting point at Greylock Glen. Already at 8:40 there were tons of cars, so it looks as though turnout might have been higher this year (*STILL* no results posted, so I don't have details--WMAC are always v. slow and idiosyncratic with their posting of results, it seems). It was muggy and set to get pretty hot, so I was drinking gatorade and water to get fueled up. Registered, paid my $20 and got a T-shirt (think I missed that last year), then changed into trail shoes and headed out for a warmup. Stayed mainly on road, not wanting to get the pre-race injury I did last year. Left ankle/shin sore, but not too bad. Got warm very quickly, and after a mile and a bit I headed back to the car to stretch. Both races were set to start at 10, but they sent off the half-marathoners first, thank goodness.

I had a good spot on the line, and went out fast, recalling the bunching last year, but made sure there were about 20 people ahead of me (not wanting to get in the way myself). Once on the hill started out okay, and first mile was 11:25, then the second seemed tougher -- I was still making places, slowly, but I had to walk a bit periodically. Slippery and muddy in places, which hits energy usage. 12:47, and then mile three was as I remember and more so: like climbing stairs. Arg. That was 17:17, and I was gasping as I hit the top. Over the crest and I had my first missed direction, wasting time, then finding the start of the descent and enjoying the crazy part of the race. Thought I was doing okay, then I missed a turn, came back and heard a guy behind: yappari I'm just not very fast on the descents, even when I'm enjoying it and feeling good! I let him pass and tried to follow, as he clearly knew the route, but he got away. That was pretty much the story throughout: I made the wrong choice at just about every unmarked junction--the marking was better this year, as were the water stops and road crossings, but I made at least half a dozen false turns, including two in the last mile that really hurt. Probably 30 seconds of time wasted? To say nothing of the psychological effect...
[Actually that's something I need to work on, mental toughness: I think I'm getting frustrated at doing so much of this solo, maybe? Or it could just be a mix of elevated expectations and burnout: I've gone from zero to two marathons a year, and that takes a lot of training for a complete amateur. Hmm. Cultivating a positive attitude is all part of the training, at this level, I think]

The first two downhill miles are hard work, and I wasn't even going very fast, I discovered: 8:12 and 10:28, and my feet and ankles were feeling the pounding. Mile six was better at 8:46, but then I took a tumble, spilled off the course onto my right shoulder, and dropped the gatorade bottle and food bar. Scrambling back up I completely forgot about the foodbar, which must have gone flying out of sight -- about a mile later I realised something was different, and by then I wasn't going back!

I got water at two of the aid stations, including to rinse the muddied drinker on my bottle. It was very hot when we came out onto the grassy section at the back end of the mountain, and I was feeling just plain TIRED at that point, frustratedly so. A couple of people passed me there, and I figured I'd probably dropped out of the top 20, so I pushed on as best I could for the second half: 9:32, 8:54, 8:30, 9:26 -- that made ten miles, and I had a stone in my left shoe and I'd jammed my right ankle pretty hard. Somehow got into the flow a bit again, for a 7:57, but then missed a turn and was caught by two guys, one of whom had his dad -- who'd done the 5K -- coaching him on, and I just stood aside to let them go by: all out of fight, or rather, full of frustration at my tiredness. Miles 12 and 13 to the end were at 8:14 and 8:18 pace, with one more missed turn on my part -- managed to finish strong with the goal of beating 2:10 again, which I did.

Thirsty, and eating as much for comfort as from real hunger (unlike last year) -- realised I was just not up for a cool down run, so I sat in the stream for a bit cooling off instead. The waterfall I enjoyed last year is gone, it's all tweely riverscaped now, but it was still pleasant to feel the coolth. I went back up to look at the board and was surprised to see I'd placed 16th, and with a time I think was identical to last year. . . Provisionally, here's what I got:

Time: 2:09:28 (GPS)
Distance: 12.98 miles (GPS -- which held signal pretty well, except for miles 4~6, when it wonked out pretty hard)

Pace: 9:59s (or 9:53s for 13.1 miles, or 9:35s for the 13.5 miles WMAC claims for the course. . .)

Comment: add the warmup run and this was a 15 mile day, but it felt like 20. I've got to work on all round strength if I want to improve in this trail running biz -- which I do, if I can persuade myself my ankles will survive! Meanwhile, re-practice turning frustration into drive.