The masters 10K championships in Massachusetts last weekend were neither positive nor negative for me, I didn’t race. So tl:dr a net loss. However, socially the trips was good and worthwhile.
I just had a day and a half to decide whether to make the trip to Boston and New Hampshire, where I had planned to visit a long-time friend. For about a half day I was leaning no, and was pretty sure my hamstring would not hold up for a hilly 10K road race on Sunday. But when I considered the other aspects–seeing friends–with the hope that there might be a chance to line up and race I decided to make a go of it.
Friday, travel day, was long (10 hours of car, plane, and bus) but it all went smoothly. Soon after arriving in Concord I tried my first jog in 3 days since tweaking the muscle. The first 12 minutes went better than expected. But soon after turning around on this relatively flat run, it started to get tight. So I walked for about a half mile while it worked itself out, and was able to jog on the pavement. 20 minutes total, and 9 minutes a mile. With less than two days before the race the outlook did not look good. Nevertheless, had a great visit with my friend, his wife, and another friend, sitting out by a fire until nearly 10 (only 8 my time) before turning in for the night.
On Saturday I took the bus back to Boston and met my teammate at the airport. We schlepped around the city and made our way to the suburbs in time for a shakeout run to the bib pick up, 2 miles each way. I felt okay heading out, but as a final test did 3x 20 second pick ups, and a moderate (maybe 15K effort) pace. Achh, it got tight and I decided right then not to do the race, even if it felt good on Sunday. It would just be too risky, and with the May 25K still a possibility, and the World Masters races in August on the schedule, I just did not want to lose 3-6 months on rehab and re-build.
Although I did not get to race the 10K I had some more good visits at the race. Did a pre-race 5 miler (no pain) with an online friend, and then met up with a couple of long time online friends, one whom I have known since the the 1990s and had never met and we talked for nearly an hour before I peeled off to find my teammates and to have a beer.
The flight back to Denver on Monday morning was a little dejecting, but I’ll take it as a lesson learned (trust your own training, even if it might be flawed).
Starting May a little bent but not broken. Ended up running 50 miles, pain free, this week and ready to move ahead.
rrunnin234 