Six03 Summerfest 10k!

Angela is in a Six03 Sandwich!

Today was the my first 10k of the year; I love the distance but there just aren't a lot around in New Hampshire.  I usually do one in August (Saunders at 10k) and had been doing one in Durham (Bobcat Bolt) but the Durham race did away with their 10k this year.  The Six03 Summerfest was an inaugural race put on by the amazing guys who started Six03 (the running club that I run with.)  Check them out here- it's such an encouraging, motivating group of fun people!

  Back in February, Six03 announced that they would be hosting and planning a 10k for the Dover Race Series; I was so excited that I registered in March!  Pretty soon, the course map was put up on-line....it looked pretty hilly and daunting.  A couple of weeks ago, Mariette, Angela and I ran the course preview with some other Six03 members (or a modified version..we sort of missed part of the last group of hills..but definitely confirmed that it was a hilly course!)  Everyone joked that it would be a great race to PR in- if it were your first 10k!

   Race morning, the three of us met up and drove over to the race together and got our race packets.  All of the volunteers were friendly, organized and high-energy; the packet pick-up itself was also super organized!  The weather was perfect (around 73 degrees) but the humidity was pretty high- we did about a mile warm-up and I was already hot!
    We lined up towards the front, I put myself behind Angela and Mariette because they are definitely faster and I didn't want to try and keep up with them for the race start.  The race started right on time and even had a guitarist do the anthem.
   The first mile is mostly downhill with a slight uphill towards the end;  I forgot that whole thing about 'pacing' myself and ended up doing the first mile in 6:45. Yikes.  The second mile is a steady uphill with some downhill and flat sections;  I thankfully slowed my pace down when I realized that this was not a 5k and I still had 4+ miles of hills ahead of me. The 2nd mile was 7:25- I had to gulp water at the water stop.  The 3rd mile was when I really started to curse inside of my head;  the humidity was getting to me, there were rolling hills and I felt like I was going to get sick- blah.  This part of the course was an out and back which was probably good because it kept me running instead of lying in the road; also, I knew that my friends would be running by soon and I wanted to cheer.  The 3rd mile was 8:25 (not doing great at this negative split thing!)  By the 4th mile (8:35), I was getting dizzy and overheated; I had to stop and drink two glasses of water which helped.  I had to walk for a tenth of a mile and then found two guys to run behind who were doing exactly an 8:55 pace.   This really helped because I just focused on slowing myself down and staying behind them.  At mile 5 (9:05),  I was feeling much better (had two more glasses of water at the water stop) and got down to an 8:30 pace.  Then came the 1st of 2 hills before the finish line; the 1st hill was super steep, I was still shouting obscenities inside of my head and asking why I had been so excited to sign-up for this race; luckily, I saw my friend Kim and while I couldn't get enough energy out besides a "hi," it was a big help to have her there to run alongside.  We made it to the 2nd (and last hill together);  it was so steep that Six03 actually put a timing mat at the bottom of the hill and would award "King and Queen of the Mountain" to the fastest male and female that made it up the hill!

Mariette's husband Jeremiah took pictures, thanks Jeremiah!  I was glad to see him but so ready to be done...and beat Mr. Bandanna.

I made it up the hill in 3:26 and pushed myself through the finish in 53:47, definitely not a PR but I was happy with my time considering how hilly it was. Mariette and Angela were already finished and I couldn't even get a word out because I was so dizzy and tired.  My friend Karla was volunteering at the finish and I was so excited to see her but could only muster up a "must. sit.drink. now."  I drank a ton of water and finally was able to be normal.  Mariette got 2nd in our age group (and got a pretty sweet silver belt buckle!) and Angela wasn't far behind Mariette with 6th in our age group.  

  The after race party was so much fun; there was a frozen greek yogurt truck, oranges/bagels, a Hoka One One demo stand and a huge beer tent.  I wanted to stay all day but had plans to go shopping with mom. 

  Alex and Tom with Six03 did an amazing job- it was such a well-organized race with tons of spirit and great volunteers.  I will probably not be able to walk tomorrow but I can't wait to  do this one next year!