AM so I made sure to set the expectation with Teresa that we were leaving the house at 7:00, so I could get a nice long warm up in before the start.  I got up and rubbed some flexall into my leg muscles to wake them up and get some blood flowing.  I had some coffee and a couple bites of oatmeal.  We got out of the house on time. The weather called for freezing rain but it held off until after the race.  It was below freezing, maybe 28 degrees or so.  There was a skim of ice on the ponds as we drove over.  I put on full tights and a long sleeve tech shirt with my club singlet over it.  I had a pair of thin running gloves and the multi-colored knit hat my mom made for me.  In such a short race I didn’t want to be cold.  We checked in and I headed out to run the course as a warm up.  I am so glad I took the time to warm up.  I ran about 2.5 miles of the course in just over 21 minutes, I managed to get my heart rate to come down but my hands never warmed up and I never broke a sweat.  I probably should have done some strides, but by the time I got back to the start I had missed my clubs group photo and the race was about to start.  There are a lot of kids in this race and a lot of rookie runners.  They tend to take off like bottle rockets at the beginning and you have to be careful not to get tripped or get sucked out too fast.  That first mile felt so strange and unnatural.  I was trying to find a form and pace that didn’t feel totally alien.  I was with a bunch of folks I knew from my club but there was no way I talk to them.  It was all I could do to get oxygen. I looked up my time from last year and it was an average pace of 7:04’s so I set my A goal to break 7’s and my B goal to not collapse 2 miles in.  We clicked by the first mile mark at 6:36 which was a pleasant surprise.  I had managed to find my form.  I wasn’t focused on effort or pace, just on having good upright form, turning my legs over and working the tangents.  This course is pretty flat but does a bunch of zig-zagging around the neighborhoods in the second mile.  It helps to know the course or to have run it 20 minutes before the race!   With the fast first mile I just relaxed and worked my form.  I knew last year I had faded in the last mile so I wanted to make sure I held back enough.  There were a couple little kids running near me, like 8 or 9 year-olds.  It’s great to see the next generation out there but they haven’t learned pace awareness or special awareness yet.  It was like when you’re trying to cook in the kitchen and the dog is underfoot.  I was just behind some dude running with a pumpkin pie hat, more like a head dress, and he got a lot of attention from the volunteers.  I passed the 2 mile mark and misread my watch. I thought it said 6:37 but it actually said 6:47, but either way I knew I was ahead of my goal pace going into the last mile.  Right after the 2-mile mark the course turns up and over a rail road bridge and back through the center of town, then one more small hill and downhill into the finish.  Those little hills were where I faded last year, but with my thorough warm up I was able to push through there without the leg fatigue.  I just held my form and focused on turnover.  I pushed through the finish strong.  My watch had me running 6:44 averages pace but the race clocked me at 6:51’s. I ended up 61st out of 587 with a  21:16 finish and 5th out of 72 in my age group.  So, yeah had a good morning.  Got to talk to some friends and made room for some turkey.  Next weekend I’m running in the Mill Cities Relay and I’m dragging Teresa along for that too.  It’s an 8-leg invitational that all the local clubs run from Nashua New Hampshire down the Merrimack River to Lawrence Mass.  My club usually fields a bunch of teams.  After that you’re all invited to join me at the 4th annual Groton Marathon and half marathon on New Years Eve Day.  We’re going to have actual timing this year.  I have at least 3 other people going the distance with me and we usually get 20ish people show up to run some of it with us.  … I have been doggedly reading through Thoreau’s Cape Cod in snatches as part of my morning routine.  I find it quite enjoyable.  I know the places that he is talking about.  I have been to them.  And even though he is tramping around the outer Cape in the 1850’s, the towns are the same, the flora nad the fauna are the same, and the sand and the sea are the same.  I can picture it quite well as I read.  I’m nearing the end of my trip through this small but dense book.  And Mr. Thoreau is nearing the end of his trip as well.  The portions I read this week travelled through Truro, past Highland Light and up Race Point to Provincetown.  One morning he is watching the mackerel fleet sail out to the fishing grounds from Provincetown.  He sees hundreds of boats under sail coming in the morning then arriving back in the evening.  He compares fishing in the ponds of Concord to the fishing these men do.  In Concord they fish as a form of relaxation or sport.  He seems to infer that these men and boys of Provincetown get to play at fishing all day and it seems like quite a life.  The next day there is a strong North Easterly gale.  Thoreau and his companion march out of Providence into the wind across the desert, as he calls it, to the Atlantic shore.  They see the breakers being driven onto the banks at high tide and see the few ships struggling in the sea. “As we stood looking on this scene we were gradually convinced that fishing here and in a pond were not, in all respects, the same, and he who waits for fair weather and a calm sea may never see the glancing skin of a mackerel, and get no nearer to a cod than the wooden emblem in the State-House.” This resonated with me on a fine morning in November with the first dust of snow on the ground.  Are you waiting for calm seas?  Are you waiting for fair weather?  The fish aren’t going to wait for you.  Get in your small boats and be brave.  Go out into the stormy world and wrest your destiny from the gaping mouth of Fate. I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -