The Cape Cod Marathon & Marathon Relay, Falmouth MA 10.25.09 - Are we there yet?

This was my first relay race and I have to say, I had a ball.

It was 2 1/2 months in the planning. I was the captain of the team, having recruited 2 friends and 2 friends of friends with my idea of "let's run a marathon relay - it'll be fun!" Our team consisted of 4 women, 50- and 60-somethings, and one man - the 60-something friend of one of the women. We named ourselves "Team Are we there yet?" Three of us live in the same town, the other two live in another state. Our team planning consisted of emailing each other exactly twice - not a whole lot of team time together, but in the end, it really didn't matter. We're all runners and knew what we had to do to prepare.

The day before the relay, I thought it would be useful to drive the relay route, so 3 of us on the team set off to get a lay of the land and see the various exchanges. We recruited my lovely spouse to be our "escort" (although she preferred the title of "driver" - we thought "escort" sounded sexier:D) and off we went to Falmouth for a little Saturday afternoon adventure. We figured we'd see if we could buy team tee shirts, then hit the race expo & pick up our numbers & some goodies, drive the race route, have lunch, and be home by afternoon. Not quite.

The maps provided by the race coordinators were difficult to read (I'm being kind here) and there were actually 2 routes - the route the runners were to take, and the route the support vehicles were to drive on; then there was the issue of support vehicle parking. So we had to drive 2 routes - that's 52 miles, find 5 exchange spots and 5 parking areas. We met up with our other 2 team members later that evening when they arrived at their hotel, had a drink or 2 at a local Irish pub and got home 'way too late. Not exactly the best race prep....

But race day was a typical Cape Cod autumn day. The fall foliage was at peak, the weather was cool, crisp, sunny, breezy - a cloudless perfect day for running. The relay start was in Falmouth village center; approximately 2200 runners participated, including 194 relay teams. Kathy ran the first leg - 3.0 miles. She made it to the first exchange in 32 minutes. I ran the second leg - 6 miles. Checking my watch as I passed the 3.1 mile marker, I noted 39 minutes - a big PR for me. I was cruising. My route was flat, much of it run along Vineyard Sound - an easy leg compared to the rest of it. But as usually happens, I went out too fast, and paid for it later, finishing my leg in 82 minutes. Jan, my daily running partner, ran next - 6.2 miles; hers was an extremely difficult course, hilly and rather desolate past an industrial park and along a state highway; it was made even more difficult because of my time. By the time I handed her the baton, Jan had to ran alone for most of her leg, for which of course I felt awful; she finished in 71 minutes. Gerry took over for Jan; he's a seasoned runner, having been running for 35+ years. His sons were running the marathon, his fiance was on our team, so it was family affair for him. Gerry flew through his 6.25 leg in record time (I don't recall his time), and handed the baton off to Elaine for the last 5.3 miles. Elaine finished in 58 minutes. We were all there at the finish line to cheer her in.

We decided to meet up at the aforementioned Irish Pub after the race, but it was mobbed and there was a one hour wait for a table. I was starved, I don't care for beer, so Pat & I came home, just in time to watch the second half of the Patriots game from London.

My overall time for my leg of the relay was a 13:30 mile, although I ran the first 3.1 miles in 39 minutes, a 12:30 mile. That's the best I've done since the Central Park 4 Miler in Sept. in which I ran a 13:15 mile, finishing in 00:53:09.

Considering I ran a 00:45:31 5K in June, I suppose I'm making progress. I doubt if I'll get much faster. Although our team didn't come in last, we finished "back of the pack". No one on the team seemed to care, so as long as I'm not the last one in, I'll be back for more.

Running has captured me.

Running the Harwich 1/2 Marathon

Today was my first 1/2 marathon, the Harwich (MA) Cranberry Festival Half Marathon and 7 Miler. After a week of local weather people forecasting everything from biblical downpours to scattered showers, today was a day made for running. Temps in the 60s, partly sunny, no humidity - couldn't have been better.

Since this was my first 1/2, I had huge anxiety all week. I don't think I was especially easy to live with all week either (we'll leave it go at that). Anxiety does nutty things to me. I'm not used to feeling like that. My running partner was away for the weekend, so the idea of running 13.1 miles without her was somewhat daunting.

We arrived at the designated area about an hr and a half before the start of the race, picked up my bib, etc. and did my race warmup. I saw a famous person lining up ahead of me, and my supervisor from my college internship days. After many trips to the portapottys, we were asked to line up.

At arriving at the starting lineup area, I noticed that we were asked to line up under mile minutes signs. BIG SIGNS that said "9 min" "10 min" and of course "14 min". I was supposed to stand under a large sign announcing to the world that I ran 14 minute miles. Wonderful. I stood there alone under that sign, mortified. The walkers - all 6 of them high school girls - were behind me. The national anthem was sung by a local opera singer, my wife took a bunch of pictures, and the race began.

Within 2 minutes, I was running alone. Apparently, people who run 14 min miles don't enter half marathons. What was I thinking when I signed up for this thing? That somehow I could compete? I decided to run my race & nobody else's race, and just go for it and see how I did. I can't say I enjoyed it to see almost 2100 runners ahead of me but since this was the first time I'd run a 1/2 marathon, I tried to relax and have fun. At first, my plan worked.

Harwich is one of the villages in the middle of Cape Cod. The fall foliage was spectacular and I must admit I tried to be aware of my surroundings. I was, however, more interested in my new Timex watch with stopwatch function ($19.99 as suggested by my son) than the red & gold leaves.

At mile 7 I felt great. A quick check of my watch showed that I was beating my Falmouth time by 12 minutes, & life was good. My plan to run 6 minutes, walk 90 seconds, was working. I anticipated no major fatigue. There were runners behind me, always good for the soul. The race was very well organized; volunteers were at every 1/2 mile to point the way and give the runners encouragement; plenty of water stops too.

I began to notice that there were a lot of hills on this course. Really - a ton of hills. I kept waiting for the straight-away that never really materialized. Up and down, up and down - I began to notice that I was running hill after hill after hill. I've trained on hills in my neighborhood ("Killermanjaro" comes to mind); there are 4 of them during a 4 mile run. I am positive there were more than 12 hills on the 13.1 miles I ran today. They seemed never ending.

At 11.5 miles my right lower back went into spasm. I don't know why this happened. Having never experienced back spasms in my life, I had no idea how painful they can be. The spasm continued until I had to stop running and walk slowly, which allowed the race walker to go ahead of me. Oh the humiliation. I told myself "you're a runner, don't let a walker get ahead of you" but there was nothing I could do. The pain was intense with every step and at times I couldn't move my legs at all. So I walked the last mile until mile 12 3/4th.

At mile 12 3/4s a volunteer told me that I only had 1/4 mile to go. I tried to run but couldn't when saw the finish line up ahead. My wife ran down the path to meet me and I told her I can't run the last 1/4 mile. She said oh yes you can. Sprint to that finish line! If you run right now like crazy you'll finish with a 14:30 min mile average time. You can rest on the other side of that line. So from somewhere (not sure where), I took off and sprinted the last 1/4 mile.

I finished. I finished upright. I finished with a 14:30 min mile. I ran the Harwich 1/2 marathon in 3 hrs 12 minutes. The race walker beat me but I wasn't the last runner in. Thanks to my wonderful family & friends for their love & encouragement. Thanks to the best wife in the world who knows me better than I know myself.

Next stop - Cape Cod Marathon Relay 10/26/09.