At one time this was a well heralded race, drawing such top notch runners as Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Jeff Galloway, and Catherine Ndereba. However, in recent years the number of participants has dropped off and it has become more of a fun race for local runners. Two years ago, new leadership took over the race organization, with the goal of returning the event to world class status.
One of the things that has been done is the hosting of a spaghetti dinner at packet pick up on Friday night. They have invited in a special guest speaker each of the last two years, to boost interest and try to increase the number of runners.
This year's guest was Joan Benoit Samuelson, the Marathon Gold Medal winner of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She is of particular interest to me, since we both grew up in the state of Maine. I had a nice conversation with her about running in Maine and the challenges that a northern climate brings to runners. She ran in the race the next day and won the women's division, which was nice.
There also is a 4 mile race (started in 1999) that goes on at the same time. A lot of runners go for that distance rather than the longer number of miles. There also is a children's mile race that is run the same morning. With all of the participants totalled, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people involved and the effort of the organizing committee is evident. This year there were 733 Ten Miler entrants, up from the 509 who ran 4 years ago.
The last two years my time has slowed down despite an increase in the number of miles that I run in preparation. My goal was to stay close to my time of a year ago, which was 1:50:46.
The race course starts with a steady mile and a half decline, which when combined with the adrenalin rush brought about by the atmosphere, can put the unaware runner in a bad position for finishing the race. Experience has pointed out my limits and I know that I will run easier later on in the race if I take the beginning slow.
The course is known for the hills that are friendly when running down them but that become your enemy when you are tired and face climbing back up. The race is run on an "out and back" route, meaning that you run out for 5 miles and then return on the same five miles. This means that you get to "enjoy" the challenge as well as the benefit of each hill. The unique challenge here is that you face the friendly decline at the beginning of the race, when you are fresh and can easily get worn out in going out too fast. The hill sucks you down at a pace far faster than what you are used to. Pay back comes at the end of the race when you are already worn out and you have to climb this same section to cross the finish line.
I run purely for fun and try to keep pace with my goals. It was probably due to this that I finished within 34 seconds (19 seconds in actual running time) of what I had run a year ago. This certainly was acceptable and made for a fun day.
At the end of the race I knew that I should have run faster than this pace. I felt that I had not managed my pace quite as well in the middle miles as I should have. A discouraged runner had appeared along the route and I stopped to encourage them. The timing of this was not the best for my race plan. With that in mind, I ran another 10 miles the day after the race. This post-race run was 5:14 faster than during the Ten Miler, despite my fatigue. However, this second run was very encouraging and I am glad that I did it.
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