This was a fun first time race for Debbie and me. The King of Pain is a 10+ miler in South Glastonbury. It’s the race with the catchy name!
The race is self-described:
In 2004, a legend was born. The King of Pain is the toughest road race in the history of Glastonbury and, as anyone who has run it knows, it lives up to its name. The course offers breathtaking South Glastonbury orchard scenery, along with hill, after hill, after hill. As a bonus, we scheduled the race smack-dab in the middle of a frigid New England winter. No extra charge. And you’ll be pretty sore after you finish, but you’ll walk away with bragging rights that will last all year long. Register quick. The field is strictly limited, and all of the clinical masochists in the state want in.
That name, some savvy marketing, and a lovely course (hills!) in a beautiful part of town are all attributes of this event. I love riding on the roads in this part of Glastonbury (a geographically huge town), and running them was “kind of fun” too.
Being an early February race, we weren’t exactly “peaked” for this one, but it was a great workout. Normally in February, we gear up for the Colchester Half Marathon, but I think we are skipping it this year. Today’s weather was nice. It was mild with a temperature in the mid-40’s Fahrenheit. It was overcast with a light breeze. I warmed up quickly.
There were lots of great volunteers out on the course. Most were members of the host Glastonbury River Runners. This race has many twists and turns, but it was well marked. It’s also known for those aforementioned hills. It’s a clockwise loop (sort of) with zigs, zags, and three “sticks” which are out and back sections.
I wanted to push it, and that I did. I ran steady and strong for about seven miles before starting to fade. I struggled on the downhills (go figure) as they were pounding my legs. The last 2.5 miles were a bit rough as I was distanced by the guys I was chasing.
Rob Amatruda was in front of me through eight miles and then he appeared behind me and passed me. He missed the sharp 180 degree right turn off of Matson Hill Rd. on to the even steeper Hopewell Rd. which means the course wasn’t marked quite well enough for him! From the looks of his Strava activity, he ran an extra .25 miles, which kind of sucks. Better him than me. I probably would have cried if I missed that turn!
Kudos to Rob for catching back up to me and then catching a very strong Jeff Walker (59 years old!) who took the 50-59 age group win. For the first half of the race, I would catch Jeff on the uphills, only to lose contact with him when the road tipped down. He was fast.
Debbie had a good run. She was only using this for training and combined with yesterday’s run, she got more than a marathon for the weekend. Avid readers of this blog know that we are opposites in many ways. I was cursing the downhills and pleading for the road to turn up so that I could relax my quads. She was hating the ups and hoping for more downs so that she could let it fly. Our body composition is different. What hurts her is good for me and vice versa.
We saw a lot of friends and enjoyed the fun little post-race festivities in the Hopewell School cafeteria. I’ll definitely return to this one in the future. The only thing that could make it even better….is….snow!
Life Adventures 