Spring Equinox 8k - New Canaan, CT - March 22, 2009

The Spring Equinox race was almost forgotten this year with all the craziness with the bad weather or forecasts of such resulting in the postponing of some Boston Buildup races. With no other local races on the schedule for the weekend, a few of us e-mailed Jim last week to suggest that he put on this race. Jim was nice enough to grant our wishes and put it together at last minute. I'm not much of one for running an afternoon race, but I did want to show support and thought it would be nice to get off the couch for a little while on a Sunday afternoon. I had run 16 miles on the Trumbull rail trail with Jill, Joe L, and Cindy on Saturday so it was another race with no real expectations.

It was probably about 10 degrees colder at the race site than in Norwalk. The sun had gone behind some clouds and a bitterly cold wind was blowing. I had elected to wear a running skirt, but was happy that I at least had on a long sleeved running shirt. Slowly people were starting to roll in. I talked a little with Andrea, who was there to volunteer and also chatted with John, Don and Rob. Emmy showed up about 5 minutes before race time and told us that she had won her division in the 15k in New York that morning. Frank decided not to run to the race since he was drained after a long morning in the city.

The race started out on Oenoke Ridge and then went along West Road, Turtleback Road and then back to Oenoke Ridge. I started out at a reasonable pace in the first half mile, but felt like I was stuck in the masses with us all running single file on the side of a busy road. I decided that I wanted to get away from the pack despite the benefits of the people ahead blocking the wind. I passed a group of runners and set my sights on Don, who was a little ahead of me. I continued to run with him in sight, but he gradually got far enough ahead that I figured my chances of catching him were slim to none. I ran most of the first half right behind a guy called Luis, but after the hill on Turtleback I passed him and tried to push the pace a little. Roy passed me and made a comment about whether or not we had a hope of catching youthful Don. The race was mostly downhill after Turtleback with a slight uphill in the final stretch. The sun made an appearance and the wind died down at times too. My mile splits were 8:03, 8:09, 8:26, 7:48, 7:03 (7:16 pace) for an average pace of 7:57. I finished the race in 39:29 (my watch time) right behind Roy. As I crossed the finish line Ronnie told me that she thought I was the 3rd woman to finish! What a wonderful surprise.

Emmy was nice enough to run the race with John who is just starting to ease back into racing for the season. He was struggling with some cramping in his legs, but managed to tough it out and finish the race.

We all hung out for a while after the race. We ate bagels and talked about the 30kms coming up this weekend. I'm so glad that I decided to run this race since I had such a good time. The long sleeved shirts that Jim made up for it were really cool too.

Course map:
http://www.clubct.org/Races/Equinox/Equinox.GIF

Results:
http://www.clubct.org/Results/09Results/09EquinoxRes.html

The cool race shirt

Emmy coming in after sticking with John for most of the race.



John





John crossing the finish line



Don



Neil and Andrea



Ronnie and Julie



Roy and Rob





Don and Emmy



Don, Emmy, Rob and Roy



Don, Emmy, Rob, Roy and Kate



Ronnie, Jim and John



Jim, John, Kate, Don and Emmy



John, Kate, Don, Emmy and Roy