{"id":975,"date":"2024-02-13T14:32:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T14:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racereportblog.com\/?p=975"},"modified":"2025-02-25T20:45:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T20:45:42","slug":"fairfield-20k-february-11-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racereportblog.com\/?p=975","title":{"rendered":"Fairfield 20k – February 11, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
With Greg Donat, friend from high school and college, after the race. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last week\u2019s 15k had been almost magical in shifting my attitude and didn\u2019t know if I could re-create the magic. So, I had some doubts about this race:\u00a0 didn\u2019t get enough sleep the night before; and wasn\u2019t sure I had trained enough to run\u00a0 20k (12.4 miles) \u2014 farther than the 9.3 miles of\u00a0 last week\u2019s race and a 10-mile workout of a month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrived at the elementary school parking lot a solid 40 minutes before race time \u2014 checked in (using the same bib as last week\u2019s \u201cBoston Buildup\u201d race), found the men\u2019s room (even the faculty had child-height toilets!), and ran a couple of blocks.  That got me warm enough to take off a layer and meet up with high school and college friend Greg Donat (who took up running races only a few years ago and made the cut for Boston this year). I had politely declined to warm up with him \u2014 I am not running a marathon and don\u2019t need 2 extra miles before and after a race! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was such a low-key affair that they didn\u2019t have an airhorn or anything \u2014 the crowd simply surged forward, and someone near me said, \u201cHave we started?\u201d Coach Steve had suggested that based on my 8:12 pace from last week I\u2019d average 8:25 today.  Frankly, I was relieved that Greg planned to run a 9:30 pace  so I didn\u2019t have to worry about keeping up with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right away, I got into enjoying the motion and the effort and the thrill of pushing \u2014 enough to continually feel that I was moving FORWARD, resisting the lag, enjoying the uphills (wow, these marathoners don\u2019t seem to slow down at the hills!), LOVING the downhills.  Only looked at the watch to make sure it was clicking off some mileage \u2014 whoops, that first mile was a 7:40, but it felt fine, not rushed.  Kept checking in:  the left knee started aching but then stopped, this pace is sustainable, each mile marker was spray-painted in purple on the road so I didn\u2019t have to check my time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saw a guy around my age looking at his watch and I thought, \u201cwhat are you checking for? You already qualified for Boston!\u201d  Chatted with a woman in her 30s dressed in yellow jacket, and she said, \u201cthat woman ahead of us in black?  She\u2019s at every race I\u2019m in and she\u2019s always ahead of me until the very end.\u201d  Woman in yellow surges ahead, I catch up to the woman in black, and tell her about my conversation; she replies, \u201cOh, please, I\u2019m twice her age!\u201d  Later, I say, \u201cFinally! another uphill!\u201d to a fellow age grouper, with short gray beard and built like he\u2019d been a tremendous athlete when he was younger, and he just laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the downhills are so continuous, I can\u2019t believe it; my quads are aching but I\u2019m feeling fine.  I turn to a guy with gray hair and say, \u201cis there an uphill coming?  Do you know?\u201d  He ignores me!  Either he\u2019s an asshole or he\u2019s digging deep or he\u2019s just deadly serious and that\u2019s what got him into qualifying for Boston.  After the race ends, he came up to me and said, \u201cI couldn\u2019t hear what you were saying.\u201d  He\u2019s partly deaf and reads lips!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, lo, another result better than expected:  1:44:38, or an 8:05 minute\/mile pace.  My only goal with this crowd was to be in the 50th percentile, so 6\/11 AG (60-69 years), 75\/190 OA was fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After cheering on Greg\u2019s finish, he agreed (while we tacked on another 1\/2 mile) that running can be pretty joyful.  And going inside the school cafeteria to stretch, I bumped into the woman in black, and the guy with the gray beard, and a third runner in her 60s.  They all had changed into warm dry clothes and were chatting and asked me, \u201cSo, see you in three weeks?\u201d  at the final, 25k race in the series.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll do another, longer training race.  But it\u2019s a nice bunch of people, dedicated to running, and it\u2019s nice to tune into each mile as its own celebration that culminates in a Finish Line.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week\u2019s 15k had been almost magical in shifting my attitude and didn\u2019t know if I could re-create the magic. So, I had some doubts about this race:\u00a0 didn\u2019t get enough sleep the night before; and wasn\u2019t sure I had trained enough to run\u00a0 20k (12.4 miles) \u2014 farther than the 9.3 miles of\u00a0 last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-races"],"yoast_head":"\nFairfield 20k - February 11, 2024 - Race Report Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/racereportblog.com\/?p=975\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fairfield 20k - February 11, 2024 - Race Report Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week\u2019s 15k had been almost magical in shifting my attitude and didn\u2019t know if I could re-create the magic. 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