Falmouth: The Great American Road Race

In it’s 39-year existence, the Falmouth Road Race has become an integral part of summer on the Massachusetts Cape.  The unique and picturesque course, which is a 7-mile point-to-point run that winds along the Atlantic Ocean starting in Woods Hole, MA and ending in Falmouth, MA, attracts 11,000 runners every year, including some of the best runners in the world.  The race’s rich history, which includes past winners such as Americans Alberto Salazar, Frank Shorter, and Bill Rodgers, as well as some of the top international runners, and signature finish – a giant American flag welcomes runners home – has earned it the distinction of being known as “the Great American Road Race.”

A race like this will generally bring out a lot of big names, but looking over the start list for this year’s race was like gazing over a who’s who list of professional running.  It can be pretty nerve racking looking over a start list like Falmouth when you know you’re not in great form.  A long season, stretching from the end of January well into late summer, a rough couple weeks of training, including a few poor race results, a nagging hot spot on my foot and an impending cross country move, left me questioning whether or not I should even go to the race.

Let’s just say that I’m glad I went.

The race itself went well; I covered the 7-mile, rolling course in 34:20, with a 10k split of 30:21.  But more importantly, I felt better during race than I have felt in about a month and I remained engaged for the entire race.  Like I said previously, I had been struggling through workouts for a good 2 weeks or so and although I was hoping for the best, my expectations were for the worse.  It’s hard not to think that way when your struggling to cover shorter interval workouts in a pace you hope to hold for 7 miles.  And as many of you know, running isn’t like other sports, where you might wake up one day and magically feel better, all cylinders clicking.

Before I went to bed the night before the race, I thought a lot about how I would react when I reached that point in the race when things got tough.  Over the past month, during both workouts and races, I’ve been both physically and mentally anemic and have not responded well.  Thankfully, this was not my reaction at Falmouth.

I was certainly not at my best at this race, but yet I was able to salvage a solid race.  This gives me some confidence going forward because I know when things come together training wise and I get settled in with my knew living and training situation, I will be able to mix it up in big races like this.  That being said, I was happy to stay within range of, and even beat, some really good runners.

These are the races that help aspiring runners improve.  Racing well when everything else around is not ideal is something I can look back on when I encounter future rough patches.  Challenging myself against a world-class field is what I need in order to get better.  It’s good to get beat because it keeps you hungry and focused on the necessary things for improvement.  I can learn more from a race like this than an entire summer’s worth of smaller races back in Ohio.

More than that, it’s fun to run in these marquee events.  The crowds are amazing and I can really feed off the energy they provide.  The race organizers take great care of us.  And I love being able to interact with other runners after the race.  It can be intimidating at first, because many of the guys I compete against are runners I’ve looked up to, but when you start to see the same faces at these races, you begin to form some friendships.

I’ve got one last race on the schedule (US 20k Championships in New Haven, CT) before I shut things down for the season.  I’ve only taken 1 day off from running since mid-February, so it will be good to rest up before I begin my Olympic Marathon Trials training cycle.

Post-race gathering @ Falmouth