Rockin with the girls

I drove up to the Holyoke range on a last minute whim this morning to run the Seven Sisters. With the new house in Florida, running really has not been much of a focus for us this Spring, but, with Bear Mountain looming next weekend, I figured I should get in one last long run and they are always easiest for me when either on a bimble or in a race. So , with Shelly Girl nursing yet another cold, grhhh!!!! I drove solo up to the race.

I have rode the sisters several times over the years so I pretty much knew what I was getting in to. Those girls only last for six miles but they are quite busty (okay, I will stop) and you have to take them on twice to complete the 12 mile course. Before the start I did have the most pleasant of surprises, when seeing not one but 5 runners from Canada who we had run Trans Rockies with last summer. We got to chatting and I found out three of them live in the town where my grandparents had a home and I summered as a youth. It was really fun to chat and made me homesick for those wonderful days spent in the Rockies.

The start of the race was as typical, 250 runners trying to cram in to a single track trail for the first climb of the day, which is basically a hike for almost 20 minutes. Having done the race before I was perfectly fine with this and settled in for a nice warm up. After the first climb, I settled in to my place in the train and began reliving the Trans-Rockies practice of hiking the hills, jogging the flats and bombing the downs. The problem with that strategy at Seven Sisters is the downs are much more difficult than at Trans-Rockies. Each down on the way out is fun but super steep, super technical and you know you are just punishing your quads too early in the race. You really can’t do anything else so you just let go and keep a good tree in sight, to hang on to if things get crazy. The rest of the first half of the race was pretty uneventful. I missed not being able to run through the balcony of the guest house but I guess that was outlawed last year. I made the turn around in 1:15, which is what I always make the turn around in. The real test of Seven Sisters begins on the way back. I find it much more difficult and a negative split is, for me, impossible. It is simply a matter of holding on as best as you are able. And that is what I did. I felt fine the whole way and just maintained a pace I could manage. I was finding myself passing lots of runners and not being passed on the numerous up hill hikes, so I knew I was hanging in there pretty well but man those hills keep coming at ya and by about mile 8 or 9 the downs were really becoming tricky. This happens to me every year at Seven Sisters, the downs are just so technical and my legs feel like jelly. This year I also banged up one of my toes pretty well and each downhill had me trying to avoid aggravating the injury. If you have run the sisters you know this is impossible. It really is a let loose and pray kind of downhill course cuz the only thing worse then letting loose is breaking the whole way down. Anyway, I crested the last climb of the day and headed home. Right before the end I made the mistake of following some hikers and I got off the course. I did my best to back track but I suddenly saw myself coming out of a descent with other racers coming from my right. I had cut part of the course! To make matters worse the guy coming down the trail on course was one of the Trans-Rockies guys! Man I was feeling bad. He said I just missed about 100 feet so I decided it was an honest mistake and continued on. Since he was running much slower than I was, I did end up passing my french buddy but stayed behind the other two runners who I knew I had cut in front of and who were running about the same pace as me. I vividly remember a runner who had cut the course trying to pass me at the bash two years ago (you can actually see me elbowing him out of the way in the finish line pictures) so I was not going to do the same thing.

I finished, chatted with Amy Lane about Trans-Rockies (she is running the event this summer), said good bye to my Trans-Rockies cronies and headed home. Not sure how Catamount finished. Perhaps another race report?