Sunday, February 24, 2013

2013 Jones 10-Miler


Today I ran the DH Jones 10-mile road race here in Amherst. This is a New England Grand-Prix event and draws the top talent from all over the region, so it's a much bigger race (with a significantly faster field) than we normally get in western MA. I usually place somewhere around the top 2030% of the races I do, but in this one I barely slipped in below 50%. Anyway, this was my second time doing it, and I knew the course well, both from running it last year and from doing some hill repeats on it the past few weeks (it's only a couple miles up the road from me).  

I went into this a few pounds heavier (183 lbs.) and slightly less trained than last year, and… yup. Predictably, I ran about 30 seconds slower overall. Admittedly, the weather was also slightly worse this year. There was wet snow falling from about mile 2 to mile 7; my tech t-shirt was soaked by mile 4 and I got a bit cold as a result (however, since I tend to run warm, I have to regard that as a plus, or at least a wash). Also, my otherwise awesome lightweight DS-Racers let water and mud in through the little holes in the soles. Still, none of that was debilitating or even really very detrimental. This is New England, after all. Basically, I can't say that the conditions were an impediment. The reality is: I was a bit heavier, a bit older, and a bit slower this year. Good incentive to cut back on the IPA and ramp up the training...

There's a pretty great new race report of this course over at Rock n Runner's blog

that's me in green, dressed for summer 
(photo by KrissyK)

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