never race if you do not know the course !!!

just completed my last tune-up race before Boston.
I was perhaps a little naive to select a race on a hilly course to simulate the same effort as in Boston. Actually the Mt Butler race is much much tougher !!!!!
it is a 15k mixed cross-country and road, with 2 climbs of at least 2k each !!! the start is on a stretch with 15% gradient, so if you push too much, you can burn out after only half Mile !!
Well, I started in the lead group that very quickly spread itself on the tough first mile. after a steep downhill we started to climb the toughest stretch to Mt Parker: huhuhu, very painful. My HRM gave me clear indication that I was NOT doing a leisurly LT run, but rather being almost flat out. Better to scale down the pace, man !!
I crawled at the peak and luckily I was caught by a decenty fast group that basically towed me until the 10k mark. I was really struggling , but later I realized that they were struggling even more... to cut short, at the final climb I realized that they were slowing down a little too much for the gradient, so I pushed a little and exploded the small group. That was enough to gain a gap good enough to bring me at the finish line as 3rd Master and win a pair of running shoes.
a good lesson earned: never never run cross-country or hilly races if you do not know the course ... I could have saved my body a tiring hour (I made 50% of the time in the over 180bpm range !!)
The real challange anyway was the painful legs of the Monday ....