Henniker, NH Covered Bridge - 5K

ONE HILL........

So by now I have been able to get the bug back for running after all these years away from the sport with little hesitation. Keeping in check my will & desire I still have found myself wanting to race on my feet more & more. I have surpassed my last 3 months of bike racing now by racing more races on my feet than two wheels.

Henniker, NH is special oasis for my wife & I. The town we met in, the town that holds countless hours of my hockey practices, games, lacrosse games, miles of roads driven back & forth to Concord to get away from the very town I enjoy going to after all these years. The town holds countless hours of school studies, walks to classes, teacher meetings, friends laughter.

The 5k was advertised by 3C as a start/finish from the covered bridge and had a great scenic course around the campus. It was not by design however a certified 5k so I knew it would be correct, wrong, or a complete mess of course. Gauging from the course map at the registration table it was going to be hilly as hell (with 1 HILL) and a mix of 50% trail, grass, dirt, sidewalk bursting climbs and ONE BIG HILL......

My newness back to running, my lack of any sort of resemblance of speedwork and positively 0 hours running hills up or down, this was going to prove to be a cluster F from the start, but my ignorant confidence of the past 2 races had me believe the end result might be different....

I started in the second row behind the Concord, Nh High School CC team. Yup 8 of them. All wearing their HS kit. Looking around there were a bunch of 'fast looking' dudes and dudettes. Go....Into the trail rock section, hard right around the athletic fields, up a grass banked hill (>10%) for 50 meters, then back onto the rocks, through the covered bridge, behind the ice arena, up a short rock hill (>8% for 100 meters), around the business school building, and the hill starts.......(at this point I was sitting in 10 spot behind the high school team and some fast dudes).....

The HILL was >10% for 900-100 meters (think 2+ laps on a standard HS track). It HURT. I managed to pull through 5 of the CC high school kids and get a gap of 100 meters by the top of the hill but it would prove to be the wrong move at the end of the race.....

The crested and then descended sharply for the next 400 meters with a sweeping left that had a long flat section before another short descent setting us up for a short rock wall. I was sitting in 4 th place with the high school kids chomping on my 37yr+ heels. I learnt something very valuable. High school CC runners can run FASTER downhill than I can. They were making ground on me with the downhill sections. Last mile or so (no mile markers on the course) was a blur, I let a few of the kids come through me and at the turns and hills I could see the others coming up.

Final hill bump to the covered bridge finish another high school kid came through, how many more of these kids are on this course? He kicked, I had nothing. I came through in 8th place, managing a top 10 in a 80 runner field. A minute slower than last weeks 5K but for so many reasons I will take it. Need to begin working on my hill running up & down, and perhaps put some mid-week speedwork into my training, and try and run more than twice a week ;0

Was fist in my age group, winning.........yup, another PINT glass (Zen is going to be so jealous). Next race? Some good one's coming up this fall, but trade show season begins soon!

See you on the roads.