A beautiful Fall day in Milton, MA, and a great time of the year for a trail race. No worries about being too hot, too crowded, not finding a parking spot, staying in line for the bathroom or running to slow and missing the best post race treats...
This was my first year running the Houghton Pond 10K. My R knee has been bothering me for a while, and my plan was to let it dictate the tone of the race. I met Carlene and Geoff before the race, and my husband Chris babysat Pepe and Lila - Carlene's daughter (he did get to play tennis and watch the Sox later in the day, though he is the sweetest and most supportive husband ever). Geoff started out very fast and Carlene and I settled at an 8:10 pace. My knee felt great. We ran single file and at some point I lost Carlene. So I plugged along faster, around 8:00 pace. Then at mile 2 my laces came untied. Bummer. I stopped but did not do a good job and they untied again. This time I took my time at it. By the time I started running again my GPS showed 8:22 pace. Yikes! I had to speed up. And I did. Some tough hills and then lots of downhills which allowed me to get my pace down to 7:45 for a strong finish, 5th woman overall. Chris says I could subtract 1 minute from my time, and that I could have easily been 3rd woman overall had I not had the lace issue. Quite possible. Nonetheless, I loved the race. I had to be super careful bc the terrain was rocky, with lots of roots and a few boulders. But this is the beauty of running a trail race, you think about not tripping, not about how tired you are. Oh, and I forgot to mention how I pleaded with the Gods that I would not throw up in the last 100yards...and I did not. At the finish line Pepe ran into me and post race he gave me the biggest hug ever. Beautiful!
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