I signed on for my 15th Mill Cities Relay when I heard our same team from last year would be taking on the 27 miles from Nashua to Lawrene. The group (Kevin Christie, Mark Blaisdell, Dave Lapierre, me, and Fil Faria) seemed excited to get back to it after winning the age 60 division last year. I had asked to be placed on the first leg as my knee and ankles were probably not up to the task of the long leg. Unfortunately as we got closer to race day both Kevin and Mark were dealing with injuries. I moved to the 9.8 mile fourth leg which I'd done 8 times since 1987.
Time to adjust my goals! Based on my recent racing (and training) I was looking at running about 5 minutes slower than I'd run last year. I'm about 30 seconds a mile slower than I was last December (ouch). I thought if I had a very good day I might be able to keep it closer to 15 seconds which would have me just slipping under 7 minute pace. Goal set.
D-la and I met up a bit before 8am at the start of my leg and I drove him over to the start of his leg. We bumped into many familiar faces (Dan V, Emer, Tom H, many GLRR teammates). I even bumped into Shawsheen Tech coach who was volunteering, we got to talking and he told me he had golfed with my dad randomly. Small world. D-la and I did a 3m warm-up then with a few minutes to go before Dave's predicted start time I hit the road.
I quickly switched into race gear and did another mile to loosen up. I got to the line right at the predicted start time and then the waiting game began. Unfortunately, Kevin pulled during his leg. He managed to finish but that put us more than 15 minutes behind schedule. I did not know this at the time and had to be on the line and ready. That meant about 20 minutes getting very cold standing on the line.
Finally D-la came into sight and he slapped the baton onto my wrist and I was off. I felt fairly comfortable starting but shocked at the 1/2 mile split on my watch (3:39), a lot slower than I'd hoped. I picked it up (or so I thought) and my 2nd 1/2 mile was also 3:39. I hoped I'd be faster than that but felt I was at the pace I could maintain. The next mile was covered in 7:02, much closer to what I'd hoped. The next mile was sub-7 and that included one of the only hills in the race (up to University Ave). I'd been counting runners as I caught them to give me something to shoot for and on the way down the hill I was passed by the 2nd person to get me. I tried to latch on but failed. The very messy snowy icy transition from the road to the Riverwalk was tricky. I went very slowly and the guy who'd passed me went even slower. I nearly got back to him.
The Riverwalk section was nice and just after 4 we exited it with a steep little hill, the last bump on this leg. The only aid station was right after that and I was surprised when the guy who'd passed me stopped for water. I grabbed one on the fly and went by him. He went back by me about 1/2 mile later (I didn't count that as a runner passing me since he'd already done so). I had another runner go by me between 5 and 6 but no more. I ended up passing 24 runners along the way (D-la passed 25 on his leg!). I kept it together over the final miles and checked my total time at 8 miles and saw I was very close to sub-7's. I closed okay and didn't have any issues (last year I had a hip muscle strain in the final mile).
I passed off to Fil and then carried on for another 1/4 mile to get a full ten miles. I was happy to see that I got in under 7s with a 1:09:56 for 10 miles. Another MCR in the books! Always a stressful race, especially as I get older and have to worry about getting hurt trying to compete. I may limit my racing even more in 2026 as I don't want to miss out on training. Training itself is fun!
D-la drove me back to my car and I headed north for a chilly (but fun) 1.5 hour bike ride for a "warm" down. A very fun day indeed!
