14/50 - Livestrong Austin Marathon

Ah, Austin, TX...  I first visited this city 10 years ago when I was narrowing down my graduate school choices.  The discovery of 6th Street's plethora of live music bars, Lone Star beer and the Texas way of life made an impression on me.  In fact, shortly after returning from that trip, I named my first dog Texas.  It was a big name for a 10-pound shih-tzu!

It was time to return to Austin and re-kindle my love affair.  The Austin Marathon was two weeks after my Melbourne Florida Marathon and two weeks before my New Orleans Marathon…seemed like the perfect time to go!  With that race schedule, I planned on enjoying these runs more than chasing a PR.  I was still ailing from a nagging knee injury so I hardly ran (about 50 miles total) between the Melbourne race and the Austin race. 

These trips really have become less about the running and more about the cities.  So, let’s start with the beer.  It’s amazing how easily we take for granted the bounty of good beer brewed in the Midwest.  In Texas, the laws aren’t in favor of the little guy so unfortunately, you won’t be seeing the likes of Freetail Brewing http://www.freetailbrewing.com/ outside of the San Antonio area anytime soon.  It’s a shame, because that was a fantastic brewpub!

After a sampling of all they had and a tour, we filled a growler and headed to the largest purveyor of barbeque in all of Texas.  The Salt Lick http://www.saltlickbbq.com/ is a sight to be seen.  The setting is in the Hill Country on a sprawling vineyard property.  The grounds seat about 500 people and I don’t get the impression that the wait is ever less than 45 minutes.  This isn’t really a problem considering it’s a BYOB.  You’ll get the sensation that you’re attending your very, very extended family reunion and your great uncle makes the best damned barbeque in the state.  Enjoy!

This brings us to the night before the race with bellies full of barbeque and the equivalent of eight pints of beer.  She’s driving, so most of that beer was uncomfortably residing in me.  Obviously, I don’t get too regimented with pre-race rituals but even for me, this was a little overboard.  Suffice it to say, I may have fared better had I just gone the pasta route.

The race was a fairly beautiful course, winding through the many eclectic neighborhoods of Austin from the Capitol to South Austin’s art district through tree-lined neighborhood streets and around the University campus.  I had been warned of the hills of this race but they were a welcomed challenge.  Throughout much of the course, I couldn’t help but think, “wow, they sure do have a lot of food trucks!”.  That’s no lie.  I’ve yet to visit a city that prefers their food prepared from a lunch wagon over all other forms quite like Austin does.  In fact, several trucks lined the finish line of the course as we were apprised to run with cash in the event we craved a taco with our finisher’s medal.

Meat pains aside, I ran a fairly consistent pace and finished in 2:59.  The weather was a perfect 60F and partly sunny.  I ran several miles with my tattooed doppelganger which I’m sure gave rise to spectators questioning whether or not the circus was in town.  If anything, that’s one trend I’ve noticed more of in the pack of runners finishing near the top 1% - more tattoos.

Whenever possible, we prefer to book our stays at small bed & breakfasts.  After a one night stay at a B&B in San Antonio, we found The Adams House in Austin.  It’s owned by a young couple entrenched in the local art/music scene.  He’s a drummer so, naturally, we had to stay here!  http://www.theadamshouse.com/.  Eric provided us with some great neighborhoods and bands to see while in town.  The most interesting place we visited was a dive bar called Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon http://www.yelp.com/biz/ginnys-little-longhorn-saloon-austin where we spent an afternoon taking in the un-apologetic old school honky-tonk sounds of regular Dale Watson http://www.theconnextion.com/dalewatson/dalewatson_index.cfm?ArtistID=439 and drinking Lone Stars in a parking lot while others bet on chicken-shit-bingo near the front of the bar; not a bad way to spend a post-marathon afternoon.  Just as my stomach was beginning to feel better, we embarked on one last barbeque adventure at Stubb’s http://stubbsaustin.com/ .

We spent the following afternoon shopping the kitschy storefronts of South Austin for the perfect pair of Wranglers for these ol’ boots o’ mine.  Looks like I brought home a little Texas after all. 

13/50 The Melbourne Music Marathon

I made a bet with my wife after the NYC marathon that I could gain more weight than she could lose in the last two months of 2011.  I wasn’t going to start training for the Florida marathon until the middle of December so this gave me plenty of time to focus on the consumption of donuts.  I’d say I averaged about four a day.  These were good times, however our bet ended in a draw; I managed to gain 2.6 lbs. while she lost 2.6 lbs.  What are the odds?!

The Melbourne Florida marathon coincided with a conference my wife was attending at Disney World.  For the three days she was working, I rented a Harley and rode the coast of Florida.  Starting in Orlando, I headed east to Cape Canaveral and rode the coastal A1A (Vanilla Ice reference, anyone?!) to Miami.  What an interesting city.  The best I can describe it to those who haven’t been there would be “tacky opulence”.  I camped for the evening and toured a couple of homes once owned by members of the family I work for that have since been purchased by the state of Florida and are now showcased as historical landmarks.  If ever in the area, I encourage you to visit the Viscaya Museum (www.vizcayamuseum.org).

Next stop Key West.  The ride from Miami to Key West is a beautifully scenic four hours of split-lane highways, impressively long bridges over blue and green hued waters and unique tourist draws.  The city itself is where 50-somethings go for spring break.  This alone was worth the visit!  When they all turn in at 9pm, I was left with a small town replete with bars highlighting a rich Ernest Hemmingway history, biker bars, quaint seafood restaurants, Cuban pasty and coffee houses and cleverly disguised franchise shops. At the end of the day, I retired to a campground site located on the water and just across from an Air Force training center.  The jets proved to be an effective 8am wake-up call for my 400-mile ride back to Orlando. 

1,000 miles of motorcycle riding in jeans and a t-shirt is my ideal marathon taper.  The tranquility of riding solo on Florida’s warm coastal highways sure beats stressing out about the race and other minutia.  Maybe that’s why I wasn’t too worried about the race after having just injured my knee two weeks prior.  I had an eight-week training plan for this race and managed to run for six of those weeks, averaging about 45 miles a week.  Then, I fell on ice trying to catch my train one evening.  My two-week taper included very little running. 

The race is largely a half marathon race with 400 marathon participants and over 3,000 half marathon participants.  The course was a loop around a body of water with two bridges being the only elevation gain.  The marathon runners ran the loop twice.  Their description of these bridges really downplays the size.  Each bridge is about one mile long at approximately a 6-8% grade; fairly substantial considering I neglected to do any hill training.  The highlight at the top of one of these bridges was a tuxedoed man with a white grand piano belting out Billy Joel tunes!

I was alone for most of the race.  Spectators were hardly existent and competition fell victim to the heavy, warm ocean air.  At mile 8, I was already planning to re-visit Florida after dropping out of this one after the half.  Instead, I soldiered on, though the second half of my race was 10 minutes slower than the first half!  I finished with a not-so-satisfying time of 3:04.  I still finished in 7^th place so I knew the weather was taking its toll on everyone. 

After breakfast with my wife’s family (who came in for the race), we headed north up the coast for one last warm convertible ride to Cape Canaveral for a late lunch at Seafood Atlantic (www.yelp.com/biz/seafood-atlantic-inc-cape-canaveral) .  It was here that we were seated on the pier in front of a fishing boat named “Iron Maiden”.  Sure, I recommend the restaurant, but to witness the “Iron Maiden” is worth the trip alone! 

12/50 - New York City Marathon

Ah, here we are; the end of my calendar year of marathons.  It’s been five months since my last marathon (Grandma's in Duluth, MN) and regrettably, my last entry.  I’ll be sure to run more so that I can write more next year!  As of now, I am not officially registered for a single race in 2012 although planning is well under way.  Having started this 50-in-50-by-50 goal with two marathons in 2009, four in 2010, six in 2011, I think I may need to plan for eight in 2012 (is that compulsive behavior?)!   

Training for NYC was an exercise in time management.  I have this inherent need to stretch myself so thin that I rather enjoy the forced isolation of my hours-per-day of train commuting to and from both jobs.  Fortunately, that time also makes up for the little sleep I manage at home!  This time around, I was balancing my career with a part-time job at a running store, playing shows and recording with my band, the minutia that encompasses home ownership, training for races, and raising a puppy - all at the height of motorcycle season!  I think I created a monster with the puppy; that girl is now up to running 20 miles per week with me!  It’s gotten to the point where she anxiously awaits for me to say the word “run” every.  single.  day.  She actually has our 5k route committed to memory.

The real issue in all of this was finding a training routine that worked.  In the end, there was no routine at all.  Having read my past entries, I’m sure that surprises none of you.  I often found myself out the door by 5 am or running between jobs, or getting off the train at an earlier stop and running home.  I was averaging about 40 miles per week.  Most runs were just fast with little variation so that I could get to the next task of the day.  I had no structured speed work or hill training.  I just didn’t have the time or energy.  I’ve also reached that point where I wake up every day and ache.  Shouldn’t I be getting paid for this?!  Am I really at the age that everyone warned me about the “running ravages of time”?  I remember when running was fun AND pain free.  Now, it’s just fun…and slightly obsessive.

I finished up the Homewood-Flossmoor 5K circuit series (having barely won it this year), did the Chicago Triathlon on a whim (I got a free entry three weeks prior and took the crash course in learning to swim via You Tube videos), and PRd at a half marathon in Calumet City.  I figured I would be fine for NYC.  We arrived two hours before the close of the expo, the night before the race.  We stayed near Wall St. in lower Manhattan due to its proximity to the Staten Island Ferry (if you run this race, take the 6:30 am ferry, the sunrise over Manhattan from the ferry is dazzling!) that takes us to the start of the race.  We spent the night in bed watching the ID Network (having given up cable months ago, this was quite indulgent!) with a bottle of wine and eating takeout pizza from Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar (http://www.harrysitalian.com/).  This was the evening of Daylight Saving Time and the extra hour of sleep was much appreciated! 

The NYC Marathon is massive.  47,000 people started the race this year!  It’s by far the best organized race I’ve run – from the start villages to the course to the finish (though I must say, the line for free Dunkin’ coffee was ten times longer than the bathroom line!).  It’s also surprisingly hilly.  Race day weather was perfect with no wind, full sun and 50 degrees F at the start (9:40am for me).  The course traverses the five boroughs of NYC (Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan) with some incredible bridges and crowd support throughout.  This is NOT a fast course.  However, I went into this with little hill preparation and still planned to PR.  I was really enjoying myself at the halfway point (with a time of 1:26) but fell off my mark after that.  The second half of this course has an impressive collection of unrelenting hills.  I had a rather lackadaisical approach to this race and never felt like pushing myself too hard.  I kept it fun.  I finished feeling great (in 2:56) and off we went to walk the streets of Manhattan.  Between Sunday after the race and Monday, we walked from Central Park to Wall St. and back!  I think I’m sore from that alone. 

Some highlights of post-marathon NYC include;

Book of Mormon (http://www.bookofmormonbroadway.com/home.php) – Funny stuff.  Chicago, you’re lucky, it’s heading there in 2012.  I don’t know how we got these tickets (it’s always sold out) but I’m glad we did (though I still rank Avenue Q as the funniest play I’ve ever seen). 

Num Pang Sandwich Shop (http://www.numpangnyc.com/) – Wow, Cambodian goodness on bread. 

Totto Ramen (http://tottoramen.com/) – A Japanese noodle house the size of a closet.  Very good, very cool.

Chimichurri Grill (http://www.chimichurrigrill.com/) – If you’re like me and would put chimichurri on your cereal, you’ll love this Argentinian spot. 

McSorley’s Old Ale House (http://www.mcsorleysnewyork.com/) – Oldest Irish bar in NYC?  The floor is reminiscent of a hamster cage with wood shavings scattered throughout.  There are two beers on tap – light and dark.  It’s a must. 

Oh, and I can’t forget Matlock (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090481/).  Again, having no cable, it’s a real treat to lie in bed the morning after the race and watch two hours of Matlock; It's become somewhat of a post-marathon tradition.  Damn, I love this show. 

11/50 - Grandma's Marathon

After Vermont, I took the week off to rest up for the beginning of a series of three 5k races in my hometown. Most runners have their own secret race that they use as a confidence booster. You know the race - it’s the one that not too many competitive runners participate in and the one you don’t tell your friends about because they just might steal your moment. The Homewood/Flossmoor 5k series is mine. In 2010, I ran all three races with the best overall combined time. This year, I had some great competition waiting for me and lucky for them, they were able to take advantage of my ravaged legs from the heavy marathon schedule as of recently. I started this year’s series off with a 3^rd place finish and a sign of just how much these marathons were taking their toll on my body! Having just completed the 2^nd in the series this past weekend (with a few wrong turns that put my total distance at about 3.5 miles!), there are three of us with similar cumulative times. The final race will be interesting.
   
I had a good two, 40+ mile weeks after the 5k in spite of the fact that I picked up a part-time job after Vermont (in addition to the full-time gig) working at a running store. I was warned that the irony of working in a running store is that you will run fewer miles than ever before. So far, so true! The tradeoff is that there’s nothing more exciting to me than seeing the enthusiasm of all types of runners coming into the store and helping them find the right shoe or gear to better assist with their training. Also, it was a great way to help me heal my aching hamstrings!
 
I had a nice two week taper for this race – a 19 mile week and a 4 mile week. A last minute opportunity came for the wife and me to fly to Belgium for a long weekend right before we were to ride our motorcycles to Duluth, MN for the Grandma’s Marathon. She had some work to tend to and I had the world’s best beer to find, drink and maybe bring home! Belgium proved to be the perfect melding of French and Flemish cultures and a nice break from running for a bit. Beer, waffle, frites and chocolate repeated for three days…
 
Then on to Duluth, by way of motorcycle. We started our bike trip the day after we got back. Two days of riding through the Wisconsin backcountry was a beautiful escape from our hectic, day-to-day lives. I intentionally didn’t book much for this 10-day trip. We planned to get to Duluth, run the race and just explore all the nooks and crannies of WI and MI. After two days of riding on scenic roads along rivers and through dairy pastures and taking notable stops at New Glarus Brewery and Leinenkugel’s Brewery, we settled into the cold, rain of Duluth in our college dorm accommodations. We found a great Italian place with a beautiful view of the lake for a pre-race dinner (http://www.vabenecaffe.com/va-bene-caffe.html).

The morning of the race remained cold and wet with the rain finally letting up at the start. Grandma’s has a reputation for being a PR course because it’s pretty flat. In its 35^th running, the start corrals were noticeably skewed toward the sub 3-hour runner. To date, Boston is the only other race where I’ve seen this. I settled into a 6:30/mile pace knowing it probably wasn’t a good idea. I thought I was starting off slow based on where I lined up in the corral. I came to find out that the runners around me were actually starting conservatively (well, with the exception of the three middle-aged guys dressed as Steve Prefontaine - complete with 70’s track shorts and mustache!) as most were shooting for times in the 2:40 finish. Whoops! After the half, I settled into a more realistic pace and met up with Doug Kurtis – the 59 year-old that won the race a few times. Doug was now on pace to complete his 299^th sub 3-hour marathon. I was on pace with him to complete my 8^th. What can I say; he’s got a few years on me!
 
The last two miles were the most painful I’ve felt since my first marathon. I’m sure a combination of Belgium, beer and 700 miles on a motorcycle didn’t help, but I was actually sore for days after this race. Having been humbled most recently at the Vermont Marathon last month, I went into the Grandma’s Marathon knowing that I wasn’t in shape to run my best. I just wanted another sub-3 hour marathon in my quest for the 50 states. I got it, my 8th, with the company of Doug, who completed his 299^th sub-3 hour marathon. It was just another reminder that in life, there’s always someone, somewhere, going harder, faster and longer.

The healing process began with a great beer tasting at http://www.fitgers.com/ for lunch then dinner and a movie (Midnight in Paris – fantastic!) at http://www.zinema2.com/ (a cool indie brew and view with a great restaurant attached) in downtown Duluth before hopping back on the bikes to explore the Upper Peninsula and eventually make our way back down to our regularly-scheduled lives.

Grandma's - The Wife's Perspective

I've already explained that my husband is insane. And based on the fact that he has (1) run a couple of marathons on little to no training, (2) ridden his motorcycle 180+ miles after work to Indianapolis just to run a race the next morning and then drive home, (3) run 2 marathons in a single weekend, and (4) run 4 marathons in just over 6 consecutive weeks, I think I have also proven that fact. So when he told me he wanted to take an extended motorcycle trip incorporating the Duluth marathon and as much camping as possible, I shrugged and started packing my bags. I knew it wouldn't do any good to ask him whether he wouldn't be uncomfortable riding that long/far and then racing, and then riding some more, not to mention sleeping on the ground. I know better than to do anything but just go with it.

Besides, I was eager to take the trip myself! I just bought my "big girl" bike last October, and as of this spring had managed to put maybe 600 miles total on it. It was just begging to be ridden for real, and I was ready for the challenge. Even when we were delayed leaving our house by almost 2 hours after we planned due to rain and my husband asked whether I wouldn't rather take the car, I insisted on the bikes.

And the first two days were so, so lovely. Lots of sunshine (once that initial rain passed), decent temperatures, a few good brewery stops, and the freedom of being so unplugged from work (though I had my iPhone with me, we had nowhere to lock a laptop so I had to leave that – and any serious possibility of doing work – behind), all the way to Duluth. And then the rain and cold truly made itself known. I worried for the marathon. I already knew it would be unpleasant, since my husband had done nothing but eat and drink for the 2 weeks prior (when in Belgium…), even despite our best intentions to spend some time running through Brussels. And by all accounts it was difficult. He finished sub 3-hours, but other than this race I have never known him to be tired or sore afterward. He was definitely feeling it. 

For my part, because this race was a point to point and I didn't have transportation (we had dropped off my bike with the uber-capable folks at Harley for some service and there was no way I was going to chance taking my husband's baby out alone in the rain and on the hilly streets), this was the only race so far where I've gotten to sleep in. I went back to bed for a couple of hours, then woke up, walked to the local farmers' market for coffee and a muffin and strolled toward the finish line (it was about a 3 1/2 mile walk downhill which was great on the way there, but TERRIBLE for both of us on the way back!). I was able to see him about 1 ½ miles from the finish, then take a shortcut right to the end while those silly runners kept running down the street. Good thing he had had me bring a whole bag of dry clothes with him – he was soaked and starting to turn a bit blue by the time I met up with him again. Nothing cures that like beer and burgers, so to lunch we headed!

The rest of our trip was uneventful (if you count lightning storms, pelting rain and wearing 3 wool layers + leathers + rain gear and still feeling cold "uneventful"), and totally awesome. We never did manage to camp, preferring dry, warm hole-in-the-wall motels to setting up and breaking down camp in the rain, but I put in a lot of good riding time and feel like I can actually control my bike now (gone are the days of having my husband park it or make U-turns for me!) and am comfortable riding it through any kind of weather. Plus, I kept getting out of showering by telling my husband that real biker chicks don't shower every day. He slept on the other side of the room most nights, but he didn't try to argue!

He hasn't run a single mile since we got back, but he's planning to run in Missouri on Labor Day Weekend. He has also said that he'll be running this one in Vibram's Five Fingers to see what the fuss of minimalist running is all about… can't wait to report how it goes!

10/50 - Shires of Vermont Marathon

How do you train for a marathon two weeks after running a back-to-back marathon you ask?  You don’t.  Well, I don’t.  I logged about 30 miles, stopped going to the gym and fell face first off of the no-sugar bandwagon – It was two weeks of pure bliss!  Yet, in my ignorance, I held an infinitesimal hope that Vermont would be the marathon that I took first place in.  Let me explain…

The inaugural 2011 Shires of Vermont Marathon was a scenic, point-to-point marathon that connected the towns of Bennington and Manchester and coincided with the celebration of their 250th anniversaries.  We were traveling to Northampton, MA that weekend for my wife’s reunion at Smith College.  All I can say is that this college/area of the country is a utopia of acceptance of varying creeds, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation, complete with a cappella groups!  Oh, and fantastic ice cream.  (http://www.herrells.com) …and an intriguing history of the Gone With the Wind story and landmarks, considering that Margaret Mitchell attended college at Smith, briefly.  Since only 360 people signed up for this marathon, I was hoping that it would not be very competitive.  Upon arriving in Bennington the morning of the race, I discovered just how wrong that assumption was! 

Have you ever heard of Chuck Engle?  Of course you haven’t.  Here, read this; (http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=21482&PageNum=&CategoryID=).  Ok, now that you’ve been briefed, I will proceed.  Chuck is one of the first people, in a sea of middle-aged marathon veterans I see standing in the art gallery that served as the check-in place for the race.  I overheard his plan for a goal of 2:40 and his impression that he will face some competition in his attempt to add this marathon to his pile of marathon 1^st place finishes.  New game plan – just enjoy myself!

As tempting as it was to stand in the comforting warmth of the gallery for the hour until the start gun, the entertainment just outside in the mist and cold was beckoning me.  I enjoyed the a cappella groups of Smith throughout the course of the college reunion weekend.  Vermont has its own special a cappella group, Blackberry Jam.  I swear, when I find a You Tube video of their performance, you will see it here!  The band consisted of two adolescent boys akin to Hanson in their prime, outfitted in bedazzled white denim jackets, hand painted jeans, perfectly coiffed hair and vibrantly colored Nike Air Force Ones singing a medley of hits from Don’t Stop Believing to the Star-Spangled Banner and my personal favorite for the day, I Can See Clearly (since it was clearly not going to be a bright sun-shiny day!).  Over and over again.  The comedic value of their appearance, performance, and looping repertoire did not go unnoticed by a single runner in attendance!  I can only attribute their obvious dedication and seriousness in the face of such adversity to years of America being subjected to shows the likes of American Idol – making subpar, laughably terrible singers (in)famous.

With temperatures in the 50’s (F) at the 9am start time, the rain began to fall more heavily.  In fact, there really was not a break in the rain throughout the entire race.  Weather aside, the course was beautiful.  It twists and turns, rises and falls through small towns scattered sparingly across the southwest corner of Vermont, over covered bridges, down pothole-riddled dirt and gravel roads and smooth, asphalt two-lane highways.  For a first time marathon, this race was exceptionally well organized and staffed with the right amount of aid stations and course marshals directing traffic.  I knew nothing about this course other than the course description offered on the race’s website; “There is a net elevation loss of 160 feet, with 500 feet of vertical gain between Miles 2 and 13. The last six miles of the course are flat. About nine miles consist of hard-packed dirt, with the remainder of the surface paved.”

If that sets your mind at ease, then I too had the same false sense of security!  This course was hard, second only to Pikes Peak Marathon for me.  After the first two miles of aggressive downhill, the climb from mile 2 – 13 was a bit more difficult that I was led to believe.  It was such a shock, in fact, that I actually had shin splints for most of this part!  I haven’t had shin splints since I started running marathons in 2001.  I can’t decide if this was a result of the course or karma for having just worked with a customer at Fleet Feet (a running store I work at) who had this issue and I boasted at the time that I hardly recalled the pain!  Additionally, I wouldn’t call the second half of this course flat, or even downhill.  It consisted of a lot of hills.  By this time, I accepted the fact that I wasn’t properly trained for this and was just going to hold my own for the remainder of the race.  I was currently in 6^th place.

Between miles 16 & 17, two other runners had caught up to me as we were directed by a supposed course marshal to turn onto a highway with a not-so-insignificant incline.   For 3/4 of a mile, we worked off each other to crest the top of the hill.  At that moment, a police officer passed us and doubled back to inform us that we were off the course!  The three of us were on pace for a sub-three hour marathon when one runner just said, “f**k it, I’m done!”  I made friends with the remaining runner over the rest of the course, laughing at how absurd our 28-mile marathon was going to be.  That extra 1.5 miles mentally and physically exhausted us as we were not prepared for even the slightest alteration to our planned 26.2 miles.  As if Mother Nature herself knew the feeling, it just rained harder. 

The last 0.2 miles became that usual show of bravado that exists in many runners to see just who has it in themselves to sprint to the finish.  As friendly as he and I had become, there was no way I was going to just trot it in.  This final sprint really was the icing on the cake considering that it was through a field transformed into mud puddles as a result of an entire morning of rain.  I finished in 8^th place, nudging my new friend out by one second.  Awaiting us at the finish was the most impressive array of food I’ve seen at a marathon.  Chocolate milk, galore!  My lips were blue, my hands were numb and my arms were filled with snacks and drinks as I stood half naked in the rain waiting for my wife to pull the car around to drive us to the airport.  I had a word with the race director about the 1.5 mile snafu and he amended my finish to 7^th place to account for the approximately ten extra minutes we ran.  My official time was 3:14:21.  Who knows what it could have been without the detour! 

Oh, and Chuck Engle? He finished in 2:44:55 and won, of course.    

Vermont - The Wife's Perspective

We had planned one – one! – trip for the whole year that was a "me" trip. That trip was to Northampton, Massachusetts for my 10 year college reunion. I could have gone alone, and I knew my husband might feel a tad out of place since there were bound to be way fewer men there than women (what with it being a women's college and all) but I wanted him to come and get a bit more of a firsthand understanding of what college had been like for me. Smith College was the most important time of my life, and getting in was the best thing that ever happened to me. More than anything else, it shaped who I am.

But then he "mentioned" that there was a run in Vermont that very Sunday… and it was only 2 hours away!... and we didn't have to do it, but…

So I found myself skipping Commencement (no great loss – I abhor commencements, to be honest. They are so boring! Not even a great speaker can make up for having to watch all those strangers walk across the stage) and driving to Bennington, Vermont. It rained the whole drive, and my weather app kept insisting it would rain the entire morning.

The race was the smallest I had been to yet. The 2 boys karaoke-ing outside of the entrance was quite an experience (I don't know why we can't find them on YouTube. Someone – their mother? – was videotaping the whole thing. I WANT THAT VIDEO!), and inside, the participants were just as interesting. Although a small race, it was obvious that the participants by and large were "real" runners – there were lots of Marathon Maniacs (identifiable by their shirts) and other people who were clearly not first-timers. And of course there was Chuck Engle. I'm glad we figured out who he was right away, so that my husband didn't kill himself trying to win against someone he couldn't possibly beat.

None of the roads were closed for the race. That might have been less great for the runners (I myself am not a fan of running with cars), but it was super great for me, because I didn't have to ever worry about not being able to get to the course. The course seemed well designed, too – I never had to cross it, and it was easy to find good spectating spots. I came in at miles 6 and 17, both of which were turns off the main road so there were course marshals in each spot, and I spent some time making friends (although not too much time because it was still raining, so I spent more time than usual sitting in my car reading). Race volunteers are always so nice. On my way between the stops I even found a Christmas store, and since I had lots of extra time (my drive was a straight shot; their run, not so much) and it was still raining, I went in and did a little shopping and had a nice chat with the owner.

From Mile 17 I headed to the finish. Well, I tried to head to the finish. For the life of me, I could not find it. Everyone said "you can't miss it." Well, I did. A LOT. I kept trying to find the right place on my iPhone, but it kept directing me to the same Lincoln museum. Once it gave me directions to enter from the other side and I got very excited, thinking I had finally found the right place. My heart absolutely dropped when I figured out I was in the same parking lot but had come in from another entrance! Finally I went in and of course they directed me right to the correct field. By the time I got there and sprinted from the car to the finish line (in the rain), I thought that for sure I had missed my husband since the clock was ticking past his goal time. But only 5 people had finished, I found out (by asking the very nice people monitoring the finishers). More and more minutes ticked by. Not once up until this point had my husband ever failed to meet his goal time and I started to worry. I must have looked crazy, pacing up and down, up and down – and all in the rain. Finally I saw him coming. He had to run past us and further up the road, only to turn around and run back through a field, so it was easy to track him coming in, although I'm guessing frustrating for the runners to be so close only to have to run right past the finish and keep going! I found out later, of course, about the detour. I was just happy he was done, and seemed well, although a bit blue (it was still raining…). We had to jump right back into the car and head to the Hartford airport, driving right past Smith again as we did. I don't know when I'll be back (probably not until my 15 year reunion), but I'm so glad we both went. The whole weekend was really fun, and I was actually more than happy to give up one of my days for another race. Spectating 50/50/50 is just as important to me as running 50/50/50 is to my husband. We can't all have super lofty goals!