September 1st, 2008
I’m currently sitting in Plymouth, NH, unpacked, decompressed, organized, and psyched! I’ve arrived with some of my fellow seniors(wow!!) for leadership training and to take the new students on orientation hike. Campus is a little different than last year…most noticably so in the newly redone Weld Hall dining room.
So the day after I posted from Block Island, I had a time trial planned. I wanted to make it 5k, but my family and I didn’t know exact miles>kilometers conversions (typical Americans). So we eventually settled on 3.3 miles, or now that I’ve calculated it: about 5.3k. The race was pretty uphill…I think the net elevation change was a little under +200 feet. Anyway, I warmed up for half an hour by jogging into the town of New Shoreham, then did some warmup sprints, and started. The first 3k probably contained the most uphill, and there is one really killer hill right in the middle of the course that is just a wall. After that the road goes up for about another 7-800m and flattens out slightly to the end. My time was 22:32 for the whole thing, which isn’t as bad a race as I first thought. Considering the distance, the elevation change, my lack of real training for running so far this summer, and the conditions — it was like 87ºF and the breeze was at my back — I think I did alright. That time will improve though…hopefully in three weeks time when I have my first race.
I’m really bummed that I didn’t get to do the 2nd BNSC tri on the 31st! It sounded like a blast! I had to pack my stuff into cardboard boxes and do boring stuff like that. (See funny picture of boxes, left) Sounds like competition at the race was pretty fierce. If I had done it, my one goal would have been to do the run well and not let Jen catch me…but I’m not so sure that would have happened in reality. Anyway, time for bed. Maybe some running tomorrow.
Ian
