This was the second year running of this unique race in my home town, which I learned about through a Facebook push last year. There are a variety of choices to be had, from a 100K bike/run duathalon, to a not-quite-25K trail running race at several locations, to relays for both. I wanted to do the trail run. Katie came along to support me, but then got FOMO’d into signing up herself at the last minute.
It was a bit ambitious to run a second 25K just a week after the Bolton Valley race, but I was interested in making this a fun run. I also figured the format would make it easier to handle. To wit: the race was to be split among five different segments at five different preserves owned by the Western Foothills Land Trust in Oxford County, Maine. (As it turns out, the full 25K is run over six preserves, but in the interest of logistics the first section is only run by the 100K participants and teams.) Because these preserves have limited parking, the field was limited to less than 50 total participants, whether they be individual participants or team members.
So it was a small field that lined up at the start line at Roberts Farm in Norway, where we would meander through the wooded cross-country ski trails for 2.6 miles. Other than Katie and I, I think there were five other runners, only one other being a male. A couple of women took off in the lead at the start, and the other guy (Jason) was ahead of me. I soon reeled him in, and caught one of the women, a girl of maybe 20 named Liz, on the climb. I saw hints of the other woman at times on the climb, but then she was gone.
Being October, there were a lot of leaves down, and the single-track portion of the trail was pretty well covered. There was flagging for the route, but really not enough of it in places. I got off path for a short period, but regained my bearings and was second across the finish line. A minute later Katie arrived, and we were off to the second stop, Noyes Mountain in Greenwood.
Noyes was the first of two mountain segments in the race, with a 600-foot climb to the ridge, and another 100 feet as we circled around to the summit. Katie had finished ahead of the young woman Liz at Roberts, but she apparently had a more direct route to Noyes, and we caught her on the climb again. I went ahead while she and Katie stayed together for much of the climb. Because this was a cumulative-time race, I was trying my best for each segment.
The course was a lollipop, and on the way down I noted that the signage back to the finish line wasn’t super clear. Nonetheless I plodded on and finished the 2.3 miles in about 35 minutes. After checking myself back in, I headed back to run in with Katie. Who would be just behind me. Then I saw Liz, but no Katie. I thought of the poorly-marked turn, then also another intersection that I thought had been ambiguous. I was afraid she might be well off course.
As I climbed back up to find her, I saw Jason, then a couple of other women, and also a handful of relay racers. None of them had any information on Katie. I ran back to the start in case I had gone the wrong way on the lollipop and missed her. Not there. Finally I headed back up and saw her approaching. She had taken a wrong turn and run the summit twice, unsure of whether or not she should turn around.
The view from Noyes Mountain. So nice that Katie checked it out twice.
The mistake would be costly for Katie, but my finishing time was secure. We headed back to Norway to the Shepard’s Farm/Witt Swamp loop. This was the only preserve we had been on before, and was also the longest segment at four miles. It was another lollipop with another ambiguous sign. We turned right when we were supposed to turn left. No matter, as we knew the loop would circle back either way, but we did realize that the signage on the trail assumed the runner was going clockwise. We crossed paths with Jason coming in the opposite direction. He asked if he was going in the wrong direction, but we assured him that we were the ones in the wrong.
The arrow does not clearly show that we were meant to go left here.
At the end we told the race attendant about the signage issues, then were off to Twin Bridges in Otisfield. This was another 2.3 mile segment, butterfly-shaped and very flat. By now I was slowing down, and Katie was basically with me the whole way until she had to take a pit stop. I checked out at the finish then circled back to meet Katie, as I had noticed yet another poorly-marked section. (In general, marking was good on the way out for this race, but lacking for the return sections.) We chatted a bit with the race attendents, then were off to the final stop. Hawk Mountain in Waterford.
Hawk Mountain, the critical thinkers among you will ascertain, was the second mountain on the race. By now the air had cooled and the breeze had picked up, so we took a moment to change out of sweaty shirts and put on hoodies, as the finish line was at the summit. This was a small mountain run. It was about 225 feet uphill to the summit, which was actually only about halfway to the finish. The finish was at a scenic outlook, and only .8 miles from the start. There I was happy to cross the finish line and gather…my second place medal. Katie received one as well.
As it turns out, I had totally misinterpreted the timing of the race, which turned out to not be an accumulation of our running times, but who crossed the finish line first. And also, as it turns out, Jason finished three minutes ahead of me. Regardless of the misadventure on Noyes Mountain, we would have finished ahead of him if we had just dicked around a little less on the way.
And also as it turns out, the woman who ditched us at the start of the race at Roberts farm was a member of the only relay team. So by total running time, I was easily the fastest person in the race. Meaning I should have and could have won. Lesson learned: if you’re sharing a car in this race, there is nothing to be gained by running faster than your car mate. You’re going to get the same time as each other regardless. So if I had just stayed with Katie, she wouldn’t have gotten lost, and we would have been the first two across the finish line. Which would have been cool, even with such a small field.
But that’s not what happened, but that’s okay, too. At the awards ceremony I won the first raffle prize, and came home with a really good shirt from TruStrength Athletics. That organization, along with the land trust, benefitted from the proceeds of this race. They provide affordable access to fitness and outdoor activities to less-advantaged youth and adults. The proprietor, Jesse Wall, also organized this race.
In summary, I loved the concept, but didn’t really love the execution. To his credit, Jesse seemed very receptive of the feedback I gave him, and upon review agreed that marking could have been stronger. I appreciate that he’s dong great things for the community, and hope this event continues for years to come.
My intention is to be focused on the present with this blog in 2024, but a big part of our history here is race recaps, and it feels unfinished with all the missing races in 2023. So rather than reflections on last weekend’s long run, let’s get caught up.
9/2/23: Northfield 5K: Things seemed to line up for a good race, with cooler weather. I think of myself as someone capable of breaking 24 minutes for a flattish 5K. This one qualifies as that, but I ran positive splits, watched Tim Noonan get away, and ended up at 24:31. Still a PR for this race by a good 30 seconds.
9/20/23: Sodom Pond Four Miler: Somewhat similar to Northfield. I kind of feel like I should be able to do this in 32:00 (8-minute miles), but alas. The big hill at the start definitely makes that a challenge. I felt like the start was good, but the hill sapped me and I ended up with positive splits until the last mile again. There’s a woman named Kimberly Tillotson who is normally way ahead of me, but who I had in my sights pretty much the whole way. And I PR’d the race by 20 seconds. So those were positives.
RACE SUMMARY: Distance: 4 miles Time: 32:41 Pace: 8:14 Position: 22/49 Age Group: 4/6 CVR Points: 85.8380
10/1/23: Bolton Valley Three Peaks Challenge: This one could probably do with a post of its own, but I will skip it for now. I described the gist of the race last year, and it wasn’t much different this time around.
Well, that’s not entirely true. New for 2023, the 20K race was extended to 25K, including a fun run down the new Ebascootcha mountain bike trail, and a little more woods time on the WildernTimberline side. Also new this year was a 10K race run concurrently.
The presence of the 10K runners was a bit confusing, because I got ahead of a bunch of them and thought I was doing really well in the race. But then they finished without me knowing! Things were going pretty well until I got over to Timberline, when the cramps came at mile 12 and never went away. Rode the pain train to the finish, little knowing that Katie was only a couple of minutes behind me. I’ll probably do the 10K next year.
RACE SUMMARY: Distance: 25K/15 miles Time: 4:0:05 Pace: 16:25 Position: 61/66 Age Group: 42/44 (all males)
10/8/23: Land of Light 25K & 10/28/23: Haunted Island 10K: OK, I think I should do separate posts for these two.
11/4, 11/11, and 11/18/23: Fallen Leaves 5Ks: This is where some disappointment started to set in. This is the race where I set my 5K PR at the end of 2022, and I figured I would just keep getting faster. I did manage to tie my PR on the second one, which was a great race with Donna. She was behind me on the track, asked what my target was, and decided to just stick with me. For a moment I was going too slow, but then I passed her back and she was within 10 feet of me the whole race. That was fun. Race #1 and race #3 were basically twins, particularly the part where I didn’t have any juice and faded in the third mile.
11/23/23: Turkey Trot 4 Hope: My third running of the Thanksgiving four miler in my home town. Last year was one of my best races ever, with a very strong finish. This year, that didn’t materialize. My splits were very consistent, but I could never get into that top gear and finished nearly a minute slower. On the heels of the Fallen Leaves races, this capped a somewhat disappointing month of racing. Still, a lovely morning for a race.
RACE SUMMARY: Distance: 4 miles Time: 31:08 Pace: 7:54 Position: 33/?? (over 100) Age Group: 2/??
2023 turned out to be not-the-bloggiest year for me. I’m planning to change that for 2024.
First on the agenda, training updates. In January I registered to run my second marathon, the Maine Coast Marathon in Wells, Maine. Pretty much as soon as my first marathon ended in 2022 I knew I wanted to run another one. Not because that one was so much fun, because it wasn’t. Instead, I signed up because I hope this one will be a better experience.
This winter several friends told me that they signed up for the Vermont City Marathon and encouraged me to do the same. But after that debacle and the one from last year at Pineland, I am very gun shy about Memorial Day weekend. I don’t want to get burned by hot weather a third year in a row. I wanted something earlier in the spring, and with a May 5 date, MCM fits the bill.
My friend Ali encouraged me to the Hal Higdon training plans (“it’s popular for a reason”), and I decided that my experience and current training base fit best with the Novice 2 plan. It’s an 18 week plan, and I entered on week two, which actually called for me to cut back from the miles I had been running.
I’ll spare you a lot of boring details about the training so far. The biggest obstacle, if you can call it that, is that this is the heart of ski season, and I refuse to compromise that hobby for marathon training. So maybe I’ve been putting more effort into the “cross training” days than is ideal. Such is life.
This past weekend was the end of week ten. We’re getting into serious milage for the weekend long runs. Saturday called for a 17-miler. I joined the CVR winter group run and ran the 8.5 mile loop twice, once in each direction. Both ways had a big hill in the middle, with a relatively gradual climb on the first (clockwise) loop, and a very steep climb and a long runout, including two-plus miles on very flat rail trail (part of the Cross Vermont Trail) for the finish.
The group runs are more group gatherings the way I see it. There were a dozen people in attendnce, and they split up in many different ways. I started out with Donna and Peter for my chosen course. Donna had already run seven miles from Adamant before we started, so she parted ways after mile four and took a shortcut back. Peter and I ran together the rest of the way. Then Peter was done, and after refreshing my fuel, I turned around the other way.
I am trying to do a fast finish run once every three weeks, which was the plan for this one, but mud season came early – at least until the big dumping of snow on Sunday and Monday – and the traction on the roads was more conducive to making sure I kept myself upright. I did manage to run the last couple of miles at something resembling marathon pace, which was nice to be able to pull off after 15 miles.
At this stage of training, with less than two months to go, I am reminded of the self doubt I had last time about being able to maintain my goal pace for 26 miles. In my mind I’d like to run in the 9:15 – 9:30/mile pace, which is 4:05 – 4:10 in total running time. It was hard enough to do this for two miles in what would be the middle of a full marathon, much less the whole thing. I am heartened by knowledge that the race itself won’t have this kind of hilliness, and also the knowledge that the plan is supposed to build me up to that point. What I don’t want to do is push too hard for a fast goal and end up paying for it at the end. That’s what happened in Burlington, and it wasn’t fun.
This week calls for 36 miles, including an 18-miler over the weekend. The mountain has a pile of new snow to play on, but I hope that I can still keep my eyes on the prize.
I was surprised when I last checked in to realize that I had not yet written about this race. I am also surprised that it’s been two and a half months since I wrote that post. So I guess it’s time to play catchup. Let’s get to it.
Back in 2021, Katie and I enjoyed our experience at the Gunstock Trail Festival in New Hampshire. We knew that that race had previously been held at Pineland Farms, in New Gloucester, Maine. Not far at all from where I grew up. A new outfit is now running the resurrected Pineland version, with a variety of races and distances available. Because there was something for both of us, and because we could save some dollars by staying with my family, and because Pineland Farms is a beautiful spot.
By “there was something for both of us,” I mean that we were both able to sign up for stretch goal races: 50K for me and 25K for Katie. I had actually run 50K once before, at the Race for DFL in 2021, but that was different to me. That was a series of four mile runs, whereas this would be one 30 mile run. (In actuality, two loops of 15 miles.)
I planned this to be a “just get to the end” race. Borrowing lessons from previous struggles like the Vermont City Marathon, my plan was to settle into an “all day” pace, where it feels like you’re not overtaxing and can just keep going. I dialed that in during my training, on my long runs. It seemed doable, but then again my longest run was 20 miles. I didn’t exactly end that thinking that another ten miles would be super easy.
Still, I was feeling very well prepared to take this on. Right up until the Sunday before, when I felt pain in my knee in the ninth inning of our baseball game. This was after having pitched two innings, my first time on the mound all year. The lateral rotation of my right knee seemed to strain a ligament. Or something.
All I really know is that it hurt, and I wasn’t happy about this. I hoped it would go away the next day, but it didn’t. I took it easy during the week, with just a couple of short runs to assess how much of a problem it would be. It seemed to be okay going forward, and the pain wasn’t nearly enough for me to bail out of a race I’d been looking forward to, so it was full steam ahead. Or some steam anyway. I was going ahead.
We stayed at my brother Steve’s house on the Friday night before the race, which was Memorial Day weekend. Coincidentally the same weekend as the marathon that didn’t go quite as well as planned last year. (*Spoiler Alert!*) Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the half-hour drive to New Gloucester. My race started at 8:00 a.m., and Katie’s was at 9:00 a.m. It was in the upper 50’s at race time, but the forecast was concerning: sunny and temps in the 70’s.
I had done some snooping on Strava to find out information about the course. The elevation gain was about 3,000 feet, or about 100 feet per mile. I am used to that in Vermont, albeit over shorter distances. I was thinking that an all-day pace of 12-minute miles, plus stoppage time, gave me a target of six hours and thirty minutes. My friend Matt had run here a few years back and finished in 6:58. That was my fallback goal – beat Matt.
The course is a sort of butterfly, with a circuitous loop on one side, then past the start/finish for a circuitous loop on the other side. Figuring an hour and a half for each side, I wondered if I would cross paths with Katie as she started out on the 25K an hour after us.
At the start I locked in a pretty good 10:30 – 11:00 minute/mile pace that didn’t seem overly strenuous. The course is mostly on cross-country ski trails, though those take the form of gravel roads and mowed hay fields during the summer. The elevation gain was real, but also a bit stealthy. There was not much in the way of a steep climb, just lots of continuous gradual climb and rolling hills.
The temps warmed up pretty quickly. I was mindful of my prior cramping issues, and was trying to be aggressive with water, salt, and electrolyte intake. There actually wasn’t much in the way of aid stations, one each on each wing of the butterfly that we passed by twice. The first was at 1.5 miles, but then it was about four miles between them. That seemed kind of long, especially on a warm day.
The not-so-fast crowd
I settled in with the not-so-fast crowd. There were a couple of older guys who I traded places with a few times – they gained on the uphill and I gained on the downhill. There was also a younger woman who was running pretty much the same pace as me. I felt better about competing with her than with the old men! I felt my knee from the very start, but it was only ever a problem if I hit a rock or something that made my knee twist to the side. But I was thinking about it the whole time, which wasn’t great.
By the end of the first loop, the 10:30 – 11:00 pace was turning into an 11:00 – 12:00 pace, but that was still okay, as I had been planning on 12:00 all along. I was kind of hoping to get back to the start/finish before any of the 25K runners passed me, but that was a pipe dream. A couple of guys passed me at about the 11-mile mark, then a couple of more caught me by the end. I never did see Katie, however.
I finished the first loop in about 2:55, which was well on pace for the race. I knew the heat was going to be a problem in the second half, however. And my feet were already starting to hurt. I took a 10+ minute break at the start/finish. I changed my socks and shoes – I determined that I didn’t need my Loan Peak trail shoes for this terrain, so switched to my cushier Paradigms. I also loaded up on mashed potatoes and my electrolyte drink.
I suspect my running friends from the first loop didn’t break as long as I did, and I never saw them again. There weren’t nearly as many runners with me at the start of the second loop. There was one young woman who I caught and passed a couple of miles in, but I don’t remember many more. At this point the 50K and 100K runners were rather interspersed, so it was tough to tell who was who. There was one other runner I remember, another young woman who noticeably was not carrying water. I thought that was questionable strategy, but I did see her hydrating heavily at the aid stations.
By now the terrain was getting to me. It was a mix of gravel road and mowed hayfields. The roads were starting to hurt my feet. While that wasn’t a problem with the hay fields, the footing wasn’t especially flat. And worse yet, the fields were in direct sun, and the temperatures were approaching 80 degrees. That’s bad enough mid summer, but in May there hadn’t been enough time to acclimate.
So the 12-minute miles turned into 13’s. Then 14+ at mile 20. I took a good long break at the aid station at that point, pounding down water and gatorade and potato chips. The first trip around there had been salt pills and pickle juice, but those were all gone by now.
The cramps were inevitable, and they hit around the midpoint of the second loop. I was baking in the sun and warm temps, and couldn’t catch up with my hydration. The last six miles or so were an exercise in getting to the end. There was a lot of walking. I couldn’t push up hill, and my muscles seized up on the downhills. The woman I had passed at around mile 17 passed me again and was long gone. I didn’t have anyone else to race at this point. Not that I could race if I wanted to.
The last few miles were at over 16 minutes per mile. That’s basically a fast walk. Strava has the tale of the tape. After 22 miles, the race analysis projects me with a 6:19 finish time, a little faster than I had expected. In reality, I came in at a little over 6:53. Better than seven hours, not last place, that was all good. But not what I wanted.
It’s not really the time that bothers me. I was hoping to run this relatively pain-free, and that wasn’t the case. Some of that is certainly my own fault; I believe I need to learn about proper pre-race hydration and making sure I’ve got the right minerals running through me. But I also have been burned a few times now by race day turning out to be unseasonably warm (and then warmer still than the forecast). It’s making me rethink taking on a long race on Memorial Day. It’s not like the climate is getting any cooler.
The apres race would have been fun absent the persistent cramping. There was free beer. More fun was that people had noticed our rainbow-striped popup tend and decided that was the place to be. We hung out with some really cool people who had invited themselves over. Katie had run a great race (sub-three hours, much faster than she was expecting!), and there was a great sense of accomplishment all around.
Feeling the post-race joy. And pain.
Because I am someone who wants to try everything, and because there are so many options out there, I probably won’t rush back to Pineland again. It was fine, but I didn’t love the terrain, and I don’t love the time of year for this race. For a first real 50K, it didn’t exactly get my jazzed for more. But I also know I can have a better experience than this. So it’s all in deciding what the next one will be.
For that matter, it’s been a longer minute than I realized. I could have sworn I did an update after Pineland. I did not.
I think I’ll re-engage with a rapid-fire review of the races I’ve run since my last update, which was the Paul Mailman 10 Miler in April. The one exception will be the Pineland Race, which was a 50K in May, and which was a sufferfest. That deserves its own post!!
5/6/23: Genny Tenny: This is a 10-mile point-to-point between the general stores in Craftsbury and Albany, Vermont. I ran this race once before, in September 2019, which was only the second time I had run ten miles at once. There were lessons in that race, particularly about both uphill and downhill pacing, that I could learn from. I ran that one in just under 1:43, which I knew I would crush this time around. I was kind of hoping for 1:30, or about a 9 minute/mile pace. I felt like I ran a good race, but wasn’t really nailing the sub-9:00s. I dicked around too much at the second aid station, and by the time I remembered that the distance was really 9.8 miles I had wasted too much time to finish under my goal. Overall I’d say it was a fairly well executed plan.
RACE SUMMARY: Distance: 10 miles Time: 1:30:22 Pace: 9:15 (Strava timing) Place: 26/47 Age Group: 3/4
5/11/23: Corporate Cup: Ah, my fave! In this case, the race coincided with the party my TNC Vermont colleagues gave me as a farewell, as I switched to another TNC job with Corporate. The party had great food, yummy desserts, and beer. It was great fun, but not a great pregame. I ran a warmup hoping to lose the bloat, and at the very least expected to feel better after the first mile. It did not work. I was hoping to at least break 25 minutes. I did not. Worth it though.
6/17/23: Birdland: Ah, what I want to be my other fave! A trail 5K right across the street in North Branch Park. As with last year, there was rain. As with last year, it was just two weeks after a long race that beat me up. I felt better this time, though. The folks at Onion River Outdoors changed the course. This was not necessarily better, and resulted in the distance coming up far short. (I got 2.7 miles.) I was kind of on my own for most of it. The total time was faster but the pace was slower than last year. Some of that was due to the uphill vs. downhill ratio being different. But still
7/8/23: Bear Swamp: This was just two days before the flood that ended up altering the entire summer here in Montpelier. Maybe more about that in another post. I was feeling pretty good for this race, and definitely executed it better than last year. At the finish I thought I had PRd by breaking 50 minutes. I had not.
RACE SUMMARY: Distance: 5.6 miles Time: 49:57 Pace: 8:53 Overall Finish: 16/42 Age Group: 2/3 CVR Points: 90.4571
Barre Heritage Trail 5K: This is a fun race on the trails at Millstone Hill. I felt pretty good, but it was warmer than expected and slowed me down. I had a fun race with Donna Smyers. She got ahead, then I passed her going uphill, then she passed me on the “flat” part, then I totally smoked her on the final downhill. Still, slower than in 2021. A big field this year made it more fun.
Berlin Pond 5 miler: On the surface, this looked pretty good, but it could have been better. Katie and I had a late lunch, and our vegan BLTs were sitting heavy in our tummies. It made for not a comfortable run at all, and I wasn’t able to muster any push on the back stretch to make up time. I had another good race with Donna, but there wasn’t enough downhill and it didn’t come at the end, so I lost this time around. Orange Tank Top Guy was back again, and I didn’t beat him either. I would love to get to the place where I can really sustain some speed on that two mile flat return stretch, but that hasn’t happened yet. But, exact same time as last year, so all was not lost. Katie ran a strong race, so it’s just a matter of time before she’s pushing me again.
RACE SUMMARY: Distance: 5 miles Time: 41:49 Pace: 8:22 Place: 25/53 Age Group: 5/9 CVR Points: 95.6351
This was my first race in three months, since the trip to Bermuda. Even so, it was a last-minute decision to sign up and run it. Katie and I signed up for the Pineland Trail Festival – 25K for her, 50K for me – which takes place at the end of May, and we’ve been gearing our training up for that. (With more than a couple of concessions for skiing and illness.) Part of the training plan was to run the Adamant Half Marathon, plus some extra miles, the first weekend of May. However, I learned that the race is on Sunday, which is also the date of my baseball team’s first game, and Opening Day takes precedence.
So the Paul Mailman became a Plan B, in part because I didn’t want to miss out on too many race series events. Katie and I had been planning to run eight miles in Adamant, but the compromise was for me to run this race and then join her for a few miles afterward.
If all of this is starting to sound like someone who hadn’t really been preparing to run a race, well…
The first indication there is that I didn’t have any race plan whatsoever. As in, I didn’t even look at my time from the last race, which is usually a good goal to beat. I had this memory of 1:28:something from 2021. I thought it would be nice to break 1:28. But I didn’t set any benchmarks.
That’s not entirely true. I had a vague notion of something 8:40 splits the first three miles, low 9:00s for the two uphill, under 8:30 for the downhill, and (if I was really feeling it), bringing it home in the low 8:00s for the last two miles. That’s 1:27. Ish. And hopefully not too far off the pace set by Peter Lucyx, who popped in at the last minute to sign up and take his 100 points in the race series.
I had been looking forward to the weather, which after a few hot days was promising clouds and temperatures around 60 degrees. Perfect! Except that history has shown this to mean “65 and full sunshine.” Which, in April, is not ideal for running fast. Especially if you haven’t been training for it.
There were over 90 runners at the start line, though this was a combination of 5K and 10 mile race runners. We started with a lap around the high school track before hitting the bike path pavement for the now-familiar out and back route. I found myself behind my friend Kim Caldwell, who was running the 5K, and was keeping a good pace. At least until I remembered she was only running 5K, and then I wondered if it might be a little fast. The first mile was in 8:23 which, yeah, could have been a little slower.
After Kim turned around I settled in behind two guys running together, one wearing a Vermont Bicycle hat. I figured they would end up being a lot faster than me, but they were running a decent pace so I stuck with them. At one point on Junction Road a big tanker full of manure sludge creeped up behind us – it would not be the last one heading out to the corn fields that morning – and the hat guy did the universal arm tug that little kids all over do to entice the driver to blow the horn. The driver obliged, and there were smiles all around.
Mile two was in 8:37, which was on target. I was now one minute below a 9:00 pace for the race, which was in line with my loose target. The third mile is a continuation down Junction Road, which becomes Three Mile Bridge Road (after Three Mile Bridge) before turning on to Jones Brook Road. I was already starting to feel the effects of the sun and slowed down a bit, though I was still only a few seconds behind the two other guys. The third mile was 8:52. That was slower than I thought, but I also figured energy conservation would help in the end.
I thought there was nobody close behind me, but as we turned on to Three Mile Bridge road I saw a blue shirt out of the corner of my eye. I had more company! He slowly gained and then passed me. I didn’t really look at his face, but when we got to the water station and slowed down I could see it was my friend Graham Sherriff, who is also the CVR membership coordinator. Graham had similarly started conservatively in the New Year’s Eve race before passing me partway in and leaving me in his dust. I figured I was in for more of the same.
Graham and I ran together and chatted for awhile, catching up on our progress and the races we had run. I noticed a woman who was ahead of me – her name is Kimberly Tillotson, and she’s faster than me – was walking on the hill, then she ducked into the woods for a potty break. We passed her and I wondered if I’d get enough distance to finish ahead of her.
Graham and I stuck together around the turnaround and heading back down. I wasn’t really paying attention to my watch as miles four and five clicked in at 9:13 and 9:25. Slower than ideal, but not bad for climbing. I did notice that we were going a bit slow for my comfort on the downhill for mile six, however. That came in at 8:58, which was not great for the “plan.”
I stopped for Gatorade at the aid station near the six-mile mark as Graham moved ahead. But I picked up the pace and soon caught up and moved ahead of him. The two guys from earlier were still the next two in front of us, but they were maybe a quarter mile ahead by now. I saw that they were near a guy with a bright blue shirt, and they passed him as they got back on to Three Mile Bridge Road. As Jones Brook flattened out, Graham went back ahead and was on his way.
Mile seven was a more respectable 8:24. After I turned on to Three Mile Bridge, keeping up with Graham was not going to be an option, but I was gaining on bright blue, and passed him halfway to the bridge. As I got close to the bridge I heard footsteps and thought he was coming back, but no. It was Kimberly Tillotson, and she was cruising right along.
Mile 8 came in at 8:43. By now I was at 1:10:30. I needed to run 8:45s to break 1:28. Here’s where my plan to run 8:00 minute miles at the end would come in handy, but it just wasn’t there. Too much heat and not enough race training. Plus, nobody was pushing or pulling me. Graham and Kimberly were way ahead, and blue shirt guy was nowhere to be seen behind me.
The last two miles were in 9:02 and 8:58. So no 1:28. And I still wasn’t done. I still needed to turn onto the track and sprint to the finish. I found a little bit of kick on the dirt, and was motivated by the clock. If I could just run fast enough, I’d break 1:29…
But no, I wasn’t quite that fast. My finishing time of 1:29:05 was 40 seconds slower than my 2021 race. Which wasn’t all that bad considering what I think was better training in the preceding weeks to that run, but still slightly disappointing.
But I still had some more running to do with Katie. A couple of hours later we were up in Adamant. She is still recovering from her illness and didn’t have the eight mile loop in her, so we did the five miles up by Bliss Pond instead. I was tired, but thought it would be good practice to continue running when I didn’t feel like it. We took it easy, especially up the hills, and had a lovely time of it.
Now all I need to do is be able to double the day’s distance by the end of May!
RACE SUMMARY: Distance: 10 miles Time: 1:29:05 Pace: 8:51 Place: 31/50 Age Group: 4/4 CVR Points: 87.1282
First, the good news: I’ve accepted a new position within my organization, and I’ll be moving back to full-time employment soon. It’s a welcome change in both job duties and income. The bad news is that, this means my no-work Fridays are coming to an end, starting in just two weeks. Feeling that impending loss, I decided that I needed to go for a long run today.
“Long run” means different things to different people. Strava defines it as 8+ miles. I’ve gone with that definition for awhile, but in the past couple of years it’s not been unusual for eight miles to just be a run. So now I think double-digit miles constitutes a long run.
Particularly, as in this case, when those miles are paired with a big-ass hill. Today I decided to go up North Street to where it ends at Horn of the Moon Road, then across HOTM to Jacobs. There’s another decent climb there before Jacobs ends at Sparrow Farm. Then a left on to Gould Hill Road and back to Elm where I started. It’s 880 feet to the high point on North Street, and the associated rollers turn this into a 1,300-foot climb.
Friends on Strava this morning reported icy conditions. I contemplated bringing my nano spikes. I held them in my hand. But I didn’t want to have them bouncing around while I ran on the pavement, which would be a fair amount of this run. I looked at the mid-40’s temperature and the frequent sunshine, and decided that the conditions wouldn’t be too bad. I could do without nano spikes. So I put them back in the bin.
I think you think you know what is coming next, but it’s probably not what you think.
There are two ways to do this run: up Gould Hill Road and Down North, or the opposite. Gould Hill is generally more gradual, and I figured if the downhills were going to be slick, I’d want that on the gradual bit.
On the other hand, the really steep part of North Street is paved, and the paved roads were in pretty good shape. The biggest problem at the start was that the mini snow banks on Elm Street, created by the sidewalk plow, created some big puddles at the ends of a few driveways. I found myself dodging around in the soft snow to avoid soaking my feet at the very beginning. I took a left over the bridge on Vine St., then when given the choice of taking the steep climb on Mechanic Street or the more gradual slope of North Franklin I opted for the latter. There was plenty of climbing ahead.
The road was paved up to the East Montpelier line, a little less than halfway through the 2.5-mile total climb. I kept a manageable slow-but-steady pace. There were a few cars, but overall light traffic. Two guys in a Forester gave me a thumbs-up as we passed.
The gravel of East Montpelier was a different story. The frozen stuff doesn’t melt away so readily on gravel, so it was a thick layer of ice. Because it’s a hill there was sand down, and some soft stuff from yesterday’s snow on the edges, so it was manageable. I thought trouble was starting only after the road flattened out around 3.5 miles in. Here there was no sand, just rutted ice to navigate.
The run turned into a meditation. I was focused on the road immediately in front of me, thinking of little more than the best path forward in the next few steps. When the flat part turned into more rolling hills, I made the choice to go to the side in case a car came over the top of the hill toward me, and my choice was validated both times. Toward the far (north) end of North Street the road was more slush than ice, which presented its own challenges.
Just when you think you’re done with the climbing, North Street ends on Horn of the Moon Road, and there is immediately another hill. As I got to the top of that hill and approached a curve in the road I heard a noise that I made out to be an oncoming car, but it didn’t sound quite like that. It turns out it was the wind! I turned the corner and got blasted by the westerly breeze, which was stiff though luckily not super cold. This persisted until I got to the Jacobs Road turn.
Jacobs Road is about a mile and a quarter long, traversing another big hill. The climb from the north is just short of 200 feet, about a 5% grade on average. The final peak is at 6.4 miles, meaning the next 2.5 miles were all downhill before finishing with a flat mile on Elm Street.
There were a couple more spots on Jacobs and Gould Hill roads where I got blasted by the wind, but trees and lower elevation dulled it after a bit. This was a good opportunity to practice punching my arms forward on the downhill, which serves to keep my body more centered over my feet and helps avoid problems with harsh heel striking. It was also an opportunity to let my heart rate recover.
Gould Hill was more of the same, pretty well sanded, though I did have my one slip (not fall) on this road. Pavement returns toward the bottom of the hill. Then it was back on Elm Street, running in the bike lane. This was actually the only bad part of the run. The pavement was clear of ice but wet, and many cars were speeding by at this hour. One car swerved a little toward me. It was a sherrif’s vehicle.
Finally I was back on the sidewalk. I was going to be a little shy of ten miles, so I took a detour on North Park Drive in order to avoid the sloppy puddles that I knew were waiting on the other side of my house. The finish was uneventful.
RUN STATISTICS: Distance/Elevation/Time: 10.1 miles/1292 Feet/1:44:13 Weather: 45degrees. Windy at elevation. Other runners seen: Zero Turkeys seen: 5 on Sparrow Farm Road Cars seen: too many at the end Overall Rating: 8/10. Very nice despite some dodgy footing.
A few months ago I was scrolling Strava, as I do far too much during any given day, and came across a person in the CVR feed who posted a run in Bermuda. Having never been to Bermuda, I was struck by how much of the island his fairly shortish run covered.
“I bet a half marathon would cover almost all of that island,” I thought.
My next thought was, “I wonder if they have a race?”
And so a dream was born. Indeed there is a race in Bermuda. (Not really a surprise.) In fact, there are three races: the Bermuda Triangle Challenge. And if you run the three races, you get a bonus fourth medal. Once my renewed passport arrived, Katie and I checked the finances and decided we could swing it. And so the whim started to become reality.
The Bermuda Triangle Challenge happens in the middle of January and is comprised of three races. On Friday night is a 1 mile race, followed by a 10K race on Saturday morning. The last race, on Sunday morning, is either a half marathon or a full marathon. Katie had never completed a half marathon before (thanks largely to my own shitshow for the Moosalamoo last summer), so she signed up for that. She assumed that I wanted to do the marathon, but I assured her that I wanted to have a good time on the trip, and a marathon would not be one of those.
Just booking the trip turned out to be an adventure. We had checked prices on Expedia a few days before Thanksgiving, but waited until after to book a trip because we figured Black Friday would bring a deal or two. We figured incorrectly. When we logged back in, the price to fly out of Burlington had increased by hundreds of dollars. This was a problem. So we tried a couple other departures, and discovered that we could save $700 by flying out of Montreal. We would have to get a hotel in Montreal to catch a morning flight, but it would still be huge savings. We would fly to Bermuda on Thursday, have some time to tool around on Friday and Saturday afternoons, then be able to have a real post-race party day on Sunday before flying back on Monday.
But shortly after we booked everything, including the Hamilton Princess hotel, AirCanada decided that they no longer were going to fly out of Bermuda on Mondays. So they changed our flight to Saturday. Which would basically eliminate our ability to run two of the three races in the challenge. So now the search was on to find another alternative. We could wait it out until the next AirCanada flight on Wednesday, but that wasn’t going to work for a number of reasons. We ultimately settled on flying back on Sunday afternoon on WestJet. This would kill our post-race plans, but at least we’d be able to run them all.
Other than the flights, everything lined up pretty well for the race. In particular my biggest fear – that a big snow storm would impact our ability to get to Montreal – did not come to fruition. We drove up on Wednesday under clear skies. We took advantage of the time in Montreal to catch the Pink Floyd exhibition, Their Mortal Remains, at the Arsenal Contemporary Art gallery. I’d call myself a medium Pink Floyd fan; I have a few records and generally like most of their music. I enjoyed this exhibit. They were intentionally a very visual band, and it was cool to see how all that developed over their career. And old guitars and tour posters are always a hit as well. We capped the evening with dinner at the LOV vegan restaurant, which was simply outstanding.
On Thursday our flights went off without a hitch. It was a little skip over to Toronto, then a surprisingly short flight from there to St. George, Bermuda. We were picked up by our shuttle driver, Lou. Non-Bermudans aren’t allowed to drive real cars on the Island, and for good reason. For one thing, most of the tourists are American, and Bermuda (being a British territory) drives on the opposite side. Also, the roads are very winding and narrow. We were grateful to have Lou navigate the roads after dark, all the while pointing out landmarks that we couldn’t really see, like houses owned by Michaels Bloomberg and Douglas.
Friday was warm (mid-60’s) and Sunny, and after hitting the race expo we took the short walk from the Princess to downtown Hamilton. We had a nice lunch and toured the small downtown, taking in some parks and the sunwashed architecture. Hamilton is small, but it would be cool to have time to tool around and just enjoy the food and drink.
Vermonters take on Hamilton
Alas, it was already time to turn to race mode. The one miler started at 7:00. The race was in five waves: Katie was in wave four and I was in the last wave. I figured it wasn’t super urgent to be early to the start line, so we did a little warmup run. As we ran down Front Street to the start line, the band that was kicking off the festivities was marching up. Then a guy chastised me for not being at the corral yet. Oops!
While waiting in the corral, we made a friend named Lisa. She was in the fourth wave with Katie, and when it came their turn they ran off together. I didn’t really have goals for any of these races. I kind of hoped I could run a sub-8:00 in the mile, but with two more races to go I wasn’t going to kill myself.
Still, this was a pretty fast wave. The course was quite flat. A slight downhill grade at first, circling the so-called “bird cage” that used to be where the traffic cops stood, then uphill/flat for half a mile, then slight downhill to the finish just up the road from the start. I wasn’t planning to run fast, but people were passing me like crazy and I just wanted to keep up. While going up the street I spotted Katie coming the other way with other wave four runners, and we executed a really sweet high five as we passed each other. Shortly thereafter I made the turn and found myself sprinting toward the finish. I surprised myself by finishing in 7:06, which was nearly half a minute faster than my previous one-mile race PR.
It turns out that the mile race was a whole thing. We stuck around and watched the elite groups go, both men and women. Both of those heats were done in around five minutes! We went to the hotel, changed, then headed out to the Pickled Onion for dinner featuring the Impossible meatloaf (which was delicious). The mile races were still going on! There were races for primary school, middle school, high school, and masters runners. We sat on the balcony overlooking the start line, and watched runners go by until 10:00 p.m.
After we returned to the hotel, we were fortunate to ride the elevator with the race weekend guest of honor, Meb. Katie told him how we use his warmup before every run and we’ve been avoiding injury, and he was incredibly gracious with his time.
On Saturday morning we hopped a shuttle bus to the Bermuda National Sports Center for the 10K race. Weather reports for Saturday were threatening. We anticipated running six miles through the ran, and things were very windy as we warmed up on the track and started the race. We saw our buddy Meb in the corral – he was running the 10K – and thought about rectifying the fact that we missed an opportunity to get a selfie with him the night before. But people were streaming up to him, so we decided against it.
The race kicked off at 9 a.m. The wind was brisk, but the rain was holding off. Still, the temperature was around 70 degrees and humidity was 90%. It was very warm and muggy. Knowing we had a half marathon the next day, it was never our intention to kill ourselves in this race. So we enjoyed the run. We went through some charming villages, and the crowd support along the course was outstanding. The highlight for me came about a half a mile from the finish; we were climbing the final hill and a woman shouted out “keep it going Santa Claus!” Katie and I both broke out laughing, which led another woman a bit down the road to say, “I love your energy! You’re still smiling!” Well, laughing at me, but it was fun.
When we hit the six-mile mark, the urge set in for me to go on a finishing kick. It seemed Katie had less of that urge, so I took off without her. The finish went back into the sports center, and I passed a bunch of people on the dirt track around the field on the way to the finish. My official time was 1:01:01, which was gun time, though it should have been less due to chip timing. Strava had me at 1:00:26, so that’s what I am going with.
Powering through the 10K finish
Other than an utter lack of vegetarian (much less vegan) food options, the after party was fun. Goslings Rum and Bermuda Craft Brewing were offering up their wares, and both were mighty tasty. I had a good buzz on by the time the noon shuttle was ready to go. And coincidentally, that’s when the storm really hit. Rain started pouring down as we walked to the bus. By the time we got to the hotel, the island was fully engulfed. 60-mph winds and torrential downpours. Instead of touring the island, we stayed at the hotel and took a nap.
We signed up for a pasta dinner on Saturday night. It was a good carb load opportunity, and our buddy Meb was the keynote speaker. We sat with a couple who were on a quest to run a marathon in every country (at least she was), and also were quite clearly hoping nobody would sit with them. They weren’t fun, but Karen who works for Marathon Tours, and Marta, a fellow runner, were interesting to talk to. There is definitely a community of runners with the means to travel the globe to follow their passion. Sadly, we aren’t those.
Still, we were here in Bermuda, and luckily the weather had cleared up for the half marathon on Sunday morning. Also luckily, the start was literally on the street in front of the hotel. We were able to roll up early and even run back to the room for a missing bib before the start gun.
This was Katie’s first half marathon, and we had purposefully taken it easy on Saturday to make sure she felt strong for Sunday. Race time temps were a few degrees cooler, humidity was down, and skies were overcast at the start. There was a little drizzle the first couple of miles. Really perfect running weather.
Due to the bib snafu, we started at the very back of the pack. That meant that we were able to pass a few people as we went along. At around the two mile mark the marathon course converged with the half marathon course, and so the whole thing was commingled. You weren’t sure who you were passing, though the marathoners were a bit more bedraggled than the people running the half.
One benefit with the Sunday race was the Goslings Rum aid stations. Not content to just be at the finish line, the Goslings folks set up drink stops along the course, at about six miles (St. John’s Bay) and ten miles for the half marathoners. We were treated to Dark & Stormies along with Rum Swizzles. Not huge servings, just enough to keep you going.
Rum Swizzles at mile 10
As with the 10K, community support was outstanding. Islanders lined almost the entire course. The scenery was outstanding, as we ran along the south shore to St. John’s bay, and along the North Shore. We passed through numerous villages. One spectator stands out, a man driving a scooter who we saw probably six times. We would run by him, then he would scoot ahead and stop further up the course. I suspect he was cheering on somebody behind us. At one point I said, “I feel like I’ve seen you a few times before,” and he relied, “yes, and you will see me again!”
The sun came out for the last few miles of the race. This was reminiscent of the Unplugged Half Marathon in 2021, as well as the Vermont City Marathon last year. There’s nothing like some bright sunshine to turn 65-degree weather into a real bear. I made sure Katie and I were hydrating, and we took some salt sticks at the first sign of trouble.
We needed to slow down at the end, particularly climbing the last couple of hills. (As an aside, so many runners were complaining about the hills. And yes, there were some hills to navigate. But running in Vermont, we would call the course “pretty flat.”) There was a woman with colorful tights and a yellow top who we had been trading places with, and as she passed us on the last hill she said “keep up! You can do it!” We couldn’t quite keep up with her, but we were able to find the strength to run it in for the last half mile or so. In fact, Katie was able to hit a sprinting speed that left me in her dust at the finish line!
This is the thanks I get!
At the end we were able to chat with our new friend, whose name is Marla, and who was super gracious. In fact, pretty much everybody on the island was super gracious. We also saw Meb again at the finish, and he remembered we were from Vermont. I don’t know if my VCM shirt helped him out, but it was nice regardless. And we finally got our pic with him, too.
We had a blast at the after party. Drinks again were flowing, and we caught up with many of the folks we had met throughout the weekend. (The food, alas, was still not vegan-friendly.) The sun was out, and it was a perfect afternoon on the waterfront.
Soon we had to head back to the hotel and check out. We were lucky to have Lou as our shuttle driver back to the airport. Our flight was delayed, and he didn’t have any other customers waiting, so he gave us a great tour of some of the fancier parts of the island. Lou is good people. It was fun.
I haven’t mentioned the fact that Bermuda is really frigging expensive. I *would* go back and do this challenge again – it’s easily the most fun race I’ve participated in – but I don’t know if I *will* because, you know, we aren’t made of money. But for a one-time destination race, I highly recommend.
RACE SUMMARY: Butterfield Mile Distance: 1 mile Time: 7:06 (new PR) Pace: 7:06 Place: 115/329 Age Group: 9/35
Most races are a race against time. This one turned out to be a race against Tim.
Astute readers may recall from last year’s NYE race, or more recently the final Fallen Leaves 5K in November, that CVR veteran Tim Noonan and I have found ourselves to be very competitive with each other at this distance. (Tim would absolutely kick my butt in a half marathon though.) In both of those races, I caught and passed Tim a mile or so into the race and managed to maintain my lead the rest of the way. Would history repeat itself?
As has been the case for much of this winter, New Year’s Eve was unseasonably warm here in Montpelier. The midafternoon temperature was in the mid-40s for the race, and more than 100 folks showed up to take advantage. Most of the CVR usual suspects were there, as was my baseball teammate Dan Winters. And because it was a Saturday, Katie didn’t have work responsibilities to keep her from participating.
Normally I set a goal to run faster than my previous best in any given race, and the weather conditions set up well for that. My training, however, did not. A few days earlier I realized that I was close to 1,600 miles for the year, so I did some heavy miles in the few days after Christmas. In addition, I spent half a day on the ski slopes on Thursday. So it would be a big ask of my legs to PR the race, but I figured I could still shoot for sub-25:00.
My strategy was to start somewhat fast on the flat part, push some on the uphill (taking advantage of the plateau on Terrace), then go for time on the downhill. I’ve run this course several times in races and in training, and I’ve gotten pretty familiar with where the speed opportunities are. Now it was up to my body to come through.
Once again Tim started out faster than me, but I caught up to him earlier than normal, on the bike path about a third of a mile in. I moved ahead, then he moved back ahead before I passed him for what I figured would be one final time on Bailey Avenue. My friend Graham Sherriff passed us just before Bailey turns into a hill, and while he would continue to gain ground, the rest of us nearby were all pretty much in place for the rest of the race.
I followed a woman through most of the first climb on Terrace, then passed her on the flat bit, with Tim right behind me. The first mile clicked at 8:24, which was in the ballpark of last year’s race. Up we went Deerfield, which is gradual enough to maintain some pace, then on to the high point at Dunpatrick Circle. Somewhere along there Tim surprised me by retaking the lead. No worries, as I was conserving a little energy. I had passed him on the downhill last year, I could do the same again.
And that’s exactly what happened, though it took me most of the way down Greenfield to catch him. Mile 2 was in 8:27, again a few seconds slower than last year, but well within the bounds for sub-25:00. I was feeling good on the downhill, and got my pace well under 7:00/mile at times.
But Tim appeared motivated. He wasn’t going to let me go without a fight. He was on my tail on the steep part of Clarendon and onto Bailey, all the way to the turn back on to State Street. Here’s where it would have been nice to have some burners, but those were pretty spent. Tim was being nice, pointing out that the three mile marker was well short, but he was also making a move. He passed me with about a sixth of a mile to go, and there was little I could do about it.
Without an extra gear, Tim ended up beating me by three seconds. Still, my time of 24:52 was under my goal, and only ten seconds behind my fastest. I think Tim motivated me to run the fastest race I could. But I’m going to get him back next time!
After a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Turkey Trot 4 Hope returned for Thanksgiving 2022. I enjoyed this race in 2019, as a nice kickoff to the busy holiday weekend.
My expectations for this race were a bit different than the first time around. In 2019 I was coming off my first year of racing, and actually in the beginnings of some leg pain that slowed me down a little on the day of. That leg pain actually led me down a path that ended up in improved preparation via stretching and physical therapy, as well as improved running form. I’m a much stronger runner today as a result, and I’ve gotten through the year without any significant injuries.
I of course wanted to break my PR for this distance, but doing so was never in question. It’s a flat four miles and it would require an 8:08 pace, or 25 seconds per mile slower than I’ve been running my 5Ks this month. Barring me pulling a muscle or twisting an ankle during the race, a PR was basically a given.
Spoiler alert: I did not pull a muscle or twist an ankle.
This is a run/walk event, and there were well over 200 participants, 170+ of whom were runners. I positioned myself at the start toward the front, behind the speedy-looking people but in front of the little kids and folks who looked to have a more casual approach to the race.
Conditions were pretty ideal, sunny and 26 degrees, with very light breeze. The course started at the Norway Fire Department, went down Main Street and out along the lake. And then back with only a slight variant.
At the start pretty much all of the little kids – 11 or 12 years old probably – went sprinting past me. This is as I had feared. Most kids this age don’t know what it takes to run four miles, or even a 5K, and so they go out at unsustainably fast speeds. (Admittedly, I did this in my 50s.) So they go too fast, quickly tire, notice there is an old guy catching up to them, and start sprinting again. This went on for the better part of half a mile before I was able to clear that crowd. After that, the field was fairly well sorted. A young woman passed me, as did a guy running with a great dane. I in turn passed a handful of other runners.
So what was my goal for this race? Obviously the PR (24:32) was the bare minimum. 24:00, an 8:00 pace, seemed like it should be doable, and that was kind of in my mind. I’d run my recent 5Ks in around 7:45 paces, which would be 31:00, but I had faded over the last mile of each of those and didn’t think it would be sustainable.
The first mile split of 7:47 seemed to support that notion, though it was subtly uphill, with 60 feet of elevation gain. Mile two dropped about half of that at the very beginning, but was mostly flat. I was about 1.6 miles in when I crossed paths with the leaders coming back, which seemed on par with my normal “2/3 as fast as the race winner” pace. As we approached the turnaround, just short of two miles, there were footsteps right behind me to my right. I made the turn ahead of him, but shortly thereafter I was passed – on the left! This was a stealthy guy who I hadn’t heard coming. The louder guy swept by on my right.
The stealthy guy was much faster, and he pulled away quickly. I was sticking with the other guy, and we were gaining on another runner. As we got to the water stop near the 2.5 mile mark, that guy slowed down to get a drink. We passed him, and then I moved back ahead of the footsteps guy. As I got to the hill, I could tell I was pulling away from him.
Meanwhile, I noticed that a very large portion of the field was actually behind me. This is unusual, even though turkey trots tend to be much more casual races. My mile three split was 7:48, and when the race time came back on my watch I was just over 23 minutes. That meant I was pretty much on pace to be under 31:00 for the race. And I was at the highest point on the course. It was all downhill from here.
And I was feeling strong, so I decided to run a little bit. On the way back the course veers a little to go around the Advertiser building before curling back to Main Street. There were a handful of walkers on this curve (it being the turnaround for the one-mile walk), who I had to dodge around. Then we crossed the street and returned the way we came.
There were some other walkers on the sidewalk, but it was pretty wide open. Stealth guy was long gone, and I couldn’t hear the loud footsteps of the other guy behind me, so my finishing place was set by now. I just kept pushing to the end. Finally I reached the turn to the fire department, and dodged a few more walkers* getting to the finish line. My time was 30:15**, which far exceeded any expectations.
* I recognized the walkers at the end to be the Turner family, who have lived across the street from my father my entire life. ** My official race time was 30:22. So evidently the chip just marked one’s finishing time and not their start time. That’s dumb.
This was a fun race, and a great culmination to the 2022 racing season. (I expect to run one more race in 2022, the New Years Eve 5K, but that’s really the start of the 2023 season.) I finished the year really strong with PRs in my last two races, and am healthy heading into the winter. I really couldn’t ask for much more.
RACE SUMMARY: Distance: 4 miles Time: 30:15 Pace: 7/39 Place: 20/173 Age Group: 10/50 (M 19+).
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