January 6th and by my accounts the year has begun and I’m under 200 days from Ironman USA in Lake Placid, my first test of a return to competition. To kick things off, this morning I head about 40 mins north into Connecticut to race for the first time in 2008, a 10K which is the first in a progressive series known as the Boston Build-up series.

The series is designed to prepare athletes for the upcoming Boston marathon in April, but the series looks more like a reunion of armed services personell and hard core triathletes using the hills of Connecticut to prepare for their upcoming race season. 140.6 stickers decorate the majority of the cars and SUV’s in the parking lots, participants “warm-up” for an hour or more on their bikes sitting on trainers that are now portable enough to take with you to the beach or a road race.

The venerable US Army marathon and triathlon teams regularly participate in this series due to its close proximity to West Point, and these folks are fast, super fast. I remember finishing off last season with a race at the Westchester triathlon, an Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and the podium was chock full of army folks in every age category, save for two spots for two Race with Purpose athletes - we so desperately need to get these guys suited up in their RwP orange uniforms. Avi, Erin and I are having a phone call this evening to figure out how to do just that, but Dana and Michelle and Nathan and others should not be standing on the podium in 2008 in anything else but their RwP tri-outfits. Given that we also have a large group going up to do Tupper Lake this season, we only have a few months to get all of this done, so I’m excited that we’ll get cracking on this today.

So I’m off for the first race of the season. I’m too heavy, too slow and too unfocused, but then again that’s what starting is all about. The one thing I do know is that once I start running and the cold air begins to sear my lungs, I’ll quickly remember how much I enjoy knowing that as difficult this is for me, it is equally difficult for the folks next to me and I know how to suffer.

Previously, I’ve finished this race in a slow 43:23 or a 6:59 min/mile pace in 2006 and an even slower 45:08 or a 7:15 min/mile pace in 2007. Like all of the Boston Build-up courses this is hilly with ascents between miles 3.5 and 4 and then again between miles 5 and 5.5 on Flax Hill Road. This goes back to Javier’s 1st law: Avoid all streets with the words “hill” in them. The goal for this series is simple. Do as well as you can early on and then try and hold as much of that pace as you can as the distances increase through the upcoming 15K, 20K, 25K, and 30K races. The harder you train, the greater the chance to reduce the slippage of pace as the distances increase. Partly this is because these courses are hilly, partly because most of us have over indulged and we’ll be getting back into shape and partly it’s because we’ll remember how to race, how to go fast, and how much raw fun it is to taste metal at the end of a race signifying that you gave it your all and left nothing else on the road. That can be done equally well at 7:15’s or 6:15’s. We’ll just have to see what the day brings.

See you out there on the road.