16 Mile Race in NH

A friend and I recently challenged ourself to what we have seen advertised as New England's most challenging road race. "Many say this race is among the toughest anywhere, with hills. The largest hill, Warner Hill (also known as Antennae Hill), is a long climb, but it too is ideal. It is at the same point in the race (70 to 75% complete) as the famous heartbreak hills in Boston—ideal training."

My friend and I trained for weeks, each Thursday running the steep hills in the famous Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston. Up one hill, jog down, and up the next. . .repeat until we were grabbing our butts and quads.

We were told part of the charm of this race is often the weather. We got lucky--it was 8 degrees but not snowing or icing, as has been the case in previous years. Instead the sun helped keep us warm and toasty. (Notice that you can see my breath in the photo of me finishing.) Actually, our husbands probably beared the brunt of the coldness as they stood at the top of the last hill waiting for us to pass and cheering us on. We think they were just as much troupers as we were:)






Our goals continuously changed prior to the race. We'd go from hoping to run it as a solid training run in our marathon training schedule to my God just let me finish. Yet, we started out together running strong and kept it up, even climbing the hills with smiles and friendly chatter. At mile 13 my friend had an extra burst and we seperated, but she made the first 13 really enjoyable and I was able to power through those last 3 with independent determination took some time to reflect on how far I had come from a year ago. Luckily we both finished well under the 3 hour "strict" time limit where we would have been escorted off the course. I managed to cross in 2:35 feeling really good (a 9:47 pace for the 16 miles)--it was my longest run ever.