Christin Doneski ran really well at Ascutney, although she wasn’t even aware of how well she did. In checking in to how her performance stacked up, we got this back from Dave Dunham: “Christin Doneski (WRT) ran 35:10 to take the women’s title running the third fastest time ever. Her time also smashed Suzy West’s previous course record for masters by 1:42. West ran 36:52 in 2003.” The questions we sent out were typical:

What was the race plan?
Were you able to execute?
How did you feel?
Less than two weeks until Mt Washington now. Are you feeling ready?
How do you rank this race in comparison to the rest in the series?

The response that I had no choice but to roll with (in a good way):

Doneski ran historically well at Ascutney on the way to a win. Pic courtesy of SNAPacidotic.

I ran Ascutney for the first time last year. I went into the race really sore last year from having run Bretton Woods the week before. A smart person would have decided not to make the same mistake twice….but not me. I ran a 5k with my son on Saturday, the day before Ascutney. My son’s goal for this year is to beat me in the 5k and I feel obligated to give him opportunities. I do NOT feel the obligation to make it easy. I was lucky enough to have a good race Saturday and stay ahead of Simon (this time) and win the race for women. It was a fairly flat race so I felt confident I had left my hill climbing muscles in good shape for Sunday.

I expected all the powerhouse runners (Hardcastle and Nadeau for example) to be there and promised myself to run as hard as I could for as long as I could. That’s exactly what I did. Ascutney is tough, but it’s short and before you hit your breaking point you always get a rest or a break in the climbing.

I had NO IDEA where I was amongst women runners throughout the 3.7 miles. People cheered but nobody said “first woman” and I just assumed the fast YOUNG women were ahead of me. When I crossed the finish line there was no fanfare and nobody said “first woman” so I finished still unaware that I had won the race. In fact I asked someone at the top who had won and they said “didn’t you win?”. I had 5 fourteen year old boys arriving at my house at 1pm so I needed to head back down the mountain before results were available. I was not certain I had won until much later.

I couldn’t find results for over 24 hours so I sent a message to Dave Dunham. I figured if anyone would know where to find the results he would. Thank God for Dave. He sent me a link to the results and told me I  had broken the masters CR too. I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was. I’m 43, I do not take a single win lightly.

All the more impressive considering that she won two races last weekend. It can be easy to start taking them lightly when you rack them up like that. There was one question that she did answer directly:

As for Mount Washington….I NEVER feel ready. NEVER.

I’m pretty sure the results will show something different. Just over a week away until Mt Washington!

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