Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler

The Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler on Valentine's Day.
We took the ferry over from Wood's Hole at 9:30 am on Saturday morning. It took about an hour and a half to get there from Boston. The race starts rights outside where the ferry gets off so the small terminal building was jammed with people in tracksuits and tights and running gear doing late registration, writing labels for their bags so they could be transported to the finish, queuing up to use the bathroom. Sara had decided that she was not going to run the whole race and went off to the hotel we were staying in to drop off our stuff. Having vowed not to make the same mistake I'd made at previous races, I went for a short warm up run of maybe 7-8 mins with my backpack and all my layers on as it was a chilly, sunny morning of a little above freezing. I was a little worried as both left and right calf were a little tight. I stripped down to shorts and long tights (really long johns) and a long sleeve tee, my somerville road runners singlet, and a hat and glove and dumped off my bag at the bus and headed out down the road for another 10 minutes or so to warm up a little more.
I met Sara at the start and I hit the bathroom again. Then, with a loud blast and a generous plume of smoke from the brass cannon that started the race, we took off. The route took us out along the coast and accross this bridge that marked mile one. It was significantly warmer than I expected. We followed along the coast for the first 8 or 9 miles, making a couple of little detours around open, public areas. I had my hat and gloves in my pocket by about mile 3. I didn't fully realize it then but we were getting the benefit of a significant tail wind and this made the first half of the race deceptively easy. I think it also allowed me to run a little faster than I actually thought that I would. The first miles was about 7 mins 15 and from then until mile 10 I pretty much did 7 minute miles. I clocked the first half of the race at a few seconds under 70 minutes. Around mile 11 or so things turned; the direction of the race had changed and while we were no longer running along the coast we were getting a stiff head wind. The race continued onto bike paths at the side of the road, the surface was good and was sheltered in spots, but for a couple of miles it was windy. There were a few hills, at miles 12 or 13 or maybe a little later. I cannot quite remember. That was where the race really started. I wouldn't say I had been cruising before, but it had been fairly uneventful up to then. I don't have my split times but I know that I slowed down for 2 or 3 miles, and by the time I got to mile 17, I knew from my watch that I needed to run about 6:45 miles for those last three miles if I was to make it in 2 hours 20. And then there were a few more little hills, which didn't seem quite so little given how my legs were feeling. I was able to gut it out, though when I crossed the road from the bike path to get onto the road going to the finish line and the guy said, "Only 600 yards to go." I didn't feel overly encouraged.
I made it with 7 seconds to spare and then lay down for a few minutes to recover. I was completely knackered.
I watched a bunch of people finish, including a couple from the Somerville club and then went for a cooldown run/stumble around the school where the race ended. My quads, in particular were sore, but I was generally very gimpy. I had a bit of damage to the toe next to the little one on my left foot--it is black, though I think the nail might not come off. I did some stretching and had some of the post race food, which was very good. I checked the results sheet to confirm my time of 2:19:53. Cutting it pretty tight. That made me 32nd overall and 10th in my age group.

Felt a bit stiff yesterday morning but nothing too serious--quads were worst. Sara and I did about 4.5 yesterday afternoon at the river and felt pretty gimpy at the start of that, and afterwards. I spent about 15 using a foam roller to knead out some of the kinks, and I think that opened things out a bit; I know I was pretty darned sore this morning, and, strangely enough, my biceps were as sore as any other part. I guess I got pretty into my arm pumping motion during the race. Or maybe I was tightening up.

A tough race, but no damage done, thankfully.
Time to plan out the next two month's schedule...