Frank Nealon 15K

Upton, MA

10AM

This race served as the USATF-NE 15K Championship, which was the reason I did the race to run for Notch. At 2 weeks out from Boston, it would serve as the last really hard effort prior to the marathon. After running 49:04 at Gate River, the logical goal would be to go for sub-49 but I thought this race might be slower as the elevation gain was about double that of Gate River and was rolling pretty much the whole time versus most of Gate River being flat. I expected to be around 49:20, but secretly thought sub 49 would be a great day. 

I wasn't quite taking this as seriously as the bigger races of Gate River, NYC Half and Boston, but it was still important and I wanted to give sub-49 a shot. 

Arrived around 8:30, and hung out at the Notch tent. Fairly easy/seamless race setup. I felt a little awkward since the Notch team is huge now and I knew barely anyone. Dan gave me the new New Balance singlet and shorts which was super nice to have. I was a little annoyed Notch didn't warm up until 9:20 which was cutting it close for me, but I didn't want to be rude and go off on my own. When I came back I felt I might have to poop, but couldn't go and was a little worried I might have a problem mid race (as usual, not an issue). 

Crowded start

Like some past USATF-NE races, the race started in the school parking lot/driveway instead of the main road, so it was super tight at first. I had met a few new Notch guys who indicated they wanted to run 5:15s/low 49s which sounded great and I was excited to run in a pack. Except those guys were well ahead of me at the tight start and unreachable. I went out in a 5:15 exactly with Steve Dowsett just behind me, although a few seconds slower on the clock. I thought I maintained the 2nd mile moving up slightly but the official mile 2 split was over 10:40, so I knew I'd have to pick it up especially with mile 3 being uphill. I felt pretty relaxed up to this point but a slight pickup on an uphill meant much increased effort. I moved up a lot, briefly running with another Notch runner who I didn't know before having to continue to push up. 

Rare pack running for me (Mile 1.5)

I hit the 5K in 16:25, a full 30 seconds slower than Gate River and more concerningly, on pace for a 49:15. Either I'd have to continue to pick it up or I wasn't PR'ing today. I felt more controlled than Gate River at this point but unfortunately not super easy either. As early as 4 miles things were feeling pretty hard. I continued to push up, pass people and was running really strong on the hills. I hit 10K in 32:31, meaning a 16:06 split. That might have been overdoing it as the second 5K is supposed to be the hardest here and now I was feeling pretty heavy and tired. Much of the race was on narrower roads in quiet neighborhoods and a lot of times it seemed to take a long time to get to the next turn or bend in the road. 

While there weren't any big hills as mentioned, the constant rollers were feeling brutal at this point. Just never quite recovering then the downhills felt hard and steep as well. I saw teammate Sebastian ahead, who I had met this morning and was really confident I could catch him. But as I got closer, I realized it was a GBTC who also had long hair and was wearing a hat with a red singlet as well. Now I could see Sebastian and Dan Vassallo maybe 30 seconds ahead and they were definitely uncatchable. Around 7.5 we turned off the quieter roads and would be on more major roads for the rest. Around here, I also felt like I had burned all I had and felt pretty weak to the finish. My mile 8 was a little slower than I had been going, but I still managed a 5:11 final mile despite feeling pretty bad. I came right behind the GBTC runner, and also got caught by two BAA guys. There would be no big kick finish for me to try to beat these guys as I didn't have much left. With a 32:31 10K I thought I'd be comfortable under 49. Yet when I first saw the clock it showed about 48:50 already. Fortunately I got there pretty quick in 48:55, and surprisingly my official time got cut down 2 seconds to 48:53.

This was probably my best race of the season - 11 seconds faster than Gate River on a course that almost certainly runs 20+ seconds slower. Not just because of the hills but I also got 9.41 on my watch - about 0.08 extra distance runs whereas Gate River was very close to 15k. My watch pace of 5:12 is probably the most impressive pace I've run for an activity and pretty even too. However, I felt slightly disappointed because I was the fourth Notch guy. I was 2nd and 3rd in my first two Notch races while either not running my best race or not being in great shape. Today I was in the shape of my life and ran almost my best possible race and that was only good enough for 4th. I didn't do anything wrong, but other people were just better and I couldn't help but feel somewhat inadequate. The other disappointment was that this race felt brutal. I was hoping 15K would feel like a half but then be really nice to not have the last 4 miles. Instead it felt really hard past halfway and there's no chance I could hold that for a half. These are minor nitpicks in a strong performance for me - this was one of my strongest road races to date. Results here. 

Nice food spread after and the race was pretty cheap, however I'm not sure I'd do it again with how hard it felt. I didn't particularly like the course either.