OK, This Saturday is the final race of the GSSS and I find myself in 3rd place overall in the series. But Ted Hall is only 1 point behind me and Jay Myers is only 6 points behind me. So it's a tight race for 3rd place. Last year I finished in 3rd place and was very please with that out come, seeing it was my first year of SS'ing and the fact that I was 49 years old. This year however I'm a little pissed at myself for jumping into the series with little to no base running miles and for my very poor performance at the first race of the season, Pooh Hill. You see, back in November of 2007 I damaged my left achillies tendon during a cross country race and just ignored it. 2 days later I ran another cross country race and did even more damage. At that point I could barely walk. Well I took a couple of days off then did a ton of stretching and was back at training for Boston and running SS races in 2008. By August 2008 I was just a mess and decided to finally see a doctor. So guess what the first thing he tells me to do....take some time off...duh!! But the doctor also sends me to a Physical Therapist. For 3 months I follow the doctors/Therapist orders and it still wasn't getting much better. Oh, I was also told that I have what's called "Pump Bump" on my heal. GREAT!! So in December I train for a week then run a relay race and felt pretty good but could only manage 6:20's per mile. I guess I'm getting slower in my later years. Anyway the holidays sunk up on me and before I knew it I had missed almost a month of training.
Then comes Pooh Hill race. I thought I was ready but was under trained. So 1.5K into the race I had to stop and turn Pooh Hill into my version of Poopooh Hill. I guess when mother nature calls I always respond. As I was doing my business I watched 30+ people pass by. Not very good for points in the GSSS. I did catch some but my race was done. Ted and Jay were way ahead of me at that point and I was way down in 15th place. I almost gave up right then.
At Cobble Mt I was able to gain a few spots but Ted got me again. On the other hand Jay had a bad race and I gained some ground on him. In addtion I found myself in 10th place.
At Sidehillers Jay finished just in front of me but Ted and even "Strong Man" Ri had tough days and finished well behind me. The next day at Frosty's I managed to get both Ted and Jay. At the end of the weekend I was now in 4th place. Not to bad. Ted had 3 points over me to put him in 3rd and Jay was 5 points behind me to place him in 5th.
Last weekend at Horse Hill I manged to nip Jay by just a few seconds and Ted placed 4 spots behind me. That's when I took 3rd place.
So the way I'm looking at it right now is that I have to beat Ted to take 3rd. If Ted beats then we would both have 3 wins each head to head. If he only beats me by one spot then he should get 3rd because the next tie breaker in my mind is the total amount of time he has beaten me by would be more then the total amount of time I've beaten him by. In that case I would finish in 4th over all. Don't get me wrong, 4th is nice but it's kind of like kissing your sister...it's nice but....HEY IT'S YOUR SISTER!!!
So I have to leave everything out on the course on Saturday night. I may not win but I won't give it away.
On a side note, Chris Dunn has been tracking the status for everyone and if things were a little different here's how I would guess the series should have finished out.
1. Jim Johnson (DUH...He is kicking the snot out of everyone)
2. Steve Wolfe (he was sick for Cobble mtn and unable to run so missing 1 race kills you)
3. Chris Dunn (he's the race director for 3 of the races but has shown he's one tough SOB)
So, let's have some fun in the dark at Kingman Farm 5K!!
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Scotty, my race strategy for Kingman is to keep the next day's 10 miler (grand prix) in the forefront of my thinking... That said, all I have to do 'strategically' is make sure I stay within 44 places of Ri and that should do it for me... Easier said than done though...anything can happen on snowshoes...then factor in the dark, and my canny ability to get lost. Thats why I am going to let Steve Wolfe do ALL the work. You'll see what I mean. ;)
ReplyDeleteGood strategy!! Steve knows the course and can drag you along to the 2 mile mark. After that you’re in single track climbing the only hill in the race. You can kick it into high gear and put some distance on Steve going up the switch backs and jog into the finish.
ReplyDeleteHey why don’t you catch a ride with Ri and that way both of you will miss the start of the race so you can play catch up the entire race. That could make it very interesting. Ri managed to miss the start of the last race, last year and started about 5 minutes after and still caught half the field.
What are you guys talking about? I have absolutely NOTHING to race for on Saturday so I'm going to hang with the banana and save myself for Sunday's USATF 10-miler humbling beat down instead.
ReplyDeleteHey Scotty,
ReplyDeleteDo the 50 year olds proud in the snowshoe race! I wish I had entered that one. It sounds like fun.
Jim
Jim, I'll try but in Chris Dunn's races, his age categories are a little different. He has two categories, 1-44 and 45 and up. That puts Patrick Smith in my age category and I've never beaten him. Last week was the closest I've ever come. I give it a go.
ReplyDelete