"Plymouth's Old Sandwich Road was originally a trail used by the Wampanoag Native American tribe and later became the nation's first true public road and a stagecoach route to ferry passengers and mail back and forth between the Massachusetts towns of Plymouth and Sandwich. It remains now pretty much as the Pilgrims left it. It’s a wide, scenic, dirt road bordered by beautiful tall pine trees and towering oaks." -OSRR Website
On Sunday June 6th Heather and I went down to Plymouth Massachusetts for the Old Sandwich Road Race. I have been looking forward to this race for a long time for a few different reasons. First of all is the course, its unique with most of the course run on dirt roads and on many of the roads I trained on back in the day while living in Plymouth. The race also finished at Plymouth South High, which I graduated from in 1996. When I first heard about this race I knew there was no way I could miss it. I had to get down there and run the dirt!
After making the long drive down to Plymouth I checked in and got my number and timing tag. The course is a point to point course, so I boarded a bus with my buddy Steve Infascelli and we were off to the half marathon start at Ellisville Harbor State Park. The course runs on dirt roads for the first 6.5 miles, during those miles you have some rolling up hills in the first couple miles, then one larger climb and then some flat areas before hitting the pavement. Once on the pavement you have some more rolling hills and then a down hill to about the 8.5 mile mark. Its here that the work really begins. From this point till about the 11 mile mark you are climbing consistently and gain over 200 feet in elevation. Once past the 11 mile mark its back to rolling hills again until you hit the grounds of Plymouth High School and the stadium style finish on the track. Overall the course gains a net total of over 200 feet. I decided my plan would be to go out conservatively at about 6 minute pace and see how things felt, and see what the competition was like, then press the pace a bit but make sure I still has something left for the long climb back to the school. After 2 mile warm up with Steve, it was time to head to the start and get the race going!
As the race went off three of us went to the front including Steve Infascelli, David Corbett, and myself. The first mostly uphill mile went by in 6:01. I turned to Steve and asked him if the pace was good, he said no. I was pretty sure then, that I would be on my own for the rest of the race. I passed the next mile in 5:42 and I was now alone as I headed for the first real climb of the race. At about 2.5 miles I turned onto an out and back section of the course and this is were the climbing began. After making it over the top and to the turn around I started heading back down towards the other runners. I passed mile 3 in 6:06. Just after this I got my first look at who was behind me. At this point I had a pretty big lead over David Corbett in second and Steve Infascelli hot on his tail in 3rd place. I made my way downhill back to Old Sandwich Road and continued on my way to passing the mile 4 in 5:21. At this point I was feeling pretty good physically and also feeling pretty good about winning the race, as long as I didn't have some kind of disaster over the remaining 9 miles. I decided to try to settle around 5:45 to 5:50 pace over the next few miles until I got to the long climb at 8.5 miles. I did this pretty well running 5:42, 5:47 5:53, and 5:40 for miles 5, 6, 7, and 8.
At 6.5 miles, just after coming off the dirt, I was met by Heather who was on the bike and out on the course to support me. She let me know there was no one behind me and gave me some encouragement. During mile 9 I hit the start of the long climb. I passed 9 miles in 5:52 and I was really starting to feel the climb, the effort was getting much harder and I really had to concentrate to try to hold down a solid pace. I passed mile 10 in 6:10 and mile 11 in 6:00. At about this point I had made it to the top of the climb and the next mile was rolling as I made my way to the finish area. Mile 12 went by in 5:59 and I started making my push for home. At this point I knew I had the race won and I knew I would be close to breaking 1:17. So I made the decision to try to get under 1:17. I dropped the pace a bit and made the turn into the high School and then onto the track. I went through mile 13 with a 5:49 and made the push for the finish crossing the finish line in 1:16:53.
I was pretty happy with how the race went. I was able to stay relaxed for most of the race, and make a nice push up the hills later in the race and then finish strong. Steve ended up finishing in second place, a 1-2 sweep for Plymouth South Alumni!
For a first year race I have to say that race director Craig Brenner and his crew of volunteers did an absolutely fantastic job. The course they set out is awesome, it was well marked, and the volunteers both on the course and at the start and finish areas were great. I recommend to anyone looking for a new and unique event to check this race out. Run the Dirt, Run the History, Run Plymouth!
