race report x 3: boston, cambridge & winthrop. yeah, winthrop.
2010 boston marathon
so yeah, i ran the boston marathon again back in april. it was my 6th boston and it did not go so well. okay, let me re-phrase: it went really bad from mile 15 until mile 21 and then went pretty damn good once i got over heartbreak hill.
over the first 13 miles, i hydrated poorly and also developed some giant blisters which tweaked my stride. so the leg cramps came early this year… and they came hard. i struggled to maintain pace through newton but finally accepted defeat at the base of heartbreak. once over that li’l monster, i proceeded to have the most fun i’ve ever had in a marathon. hell, i was high-fiving friends and strangers nearly every step of the way over the final miles and even performed the moonwalk in coolidge corner. best of all, we had over 50 teamracemenu/mix1 runners out there proudly sportin’ our new team singlet!
so there ya’ go; i really enjoyed the boston part of the boston marathon. but sadly, i failed to win again. in fact, my result (3:34) means i did not even re-qualify for next year and gotta’ run another 26.2 deathmarch in the fall. baystate, here i come.
cambridge summer series race numero uno
like so many others, i love the summer series races for the fun factor: run 4.1 miles, eat crap food, drink good beer & party with crazy friends. over 1,000 people show up for these monthly races along the river and i’m guessing more than that are there partying afterwards. (yeah, seriously)
team racemenu/mix1 had 5 or 6 runners amongst the 1,251 people at this race (including mike thompson!) and we almost got the win! greg picklesimer ran very strong and finished 2nd overall at 21:50, 5:12 pace. i finished 19th at 25:00, 5:57 pace; better than expected but off my normal pace for these races. as usual, crazy fun afterwards.
seaside stride 5k, winthrop, ma
i’d heard about this 5k race over in winthrop but forgot about it until friday afternoon. considering its proximity to the father’s day 10k, relay & walk for dad i’m putting on at revere beach next week, i decided to go hand out flyers and shoot some video for a racemenu project. my printer said they’d have the flyers ready by 5pm but – of course – they were not ready when i arrived at 5:25. without any flyers to put on windshields, what else is there to do during a race in winthrop? already wearing shorts and sneakers, i decided to run. so what if i haven’t laced up in nearly three weeks; i am well rested.
thanks to rush hour, i arrived at 6:28 to find over 250 lined up for the 6:30 start. i sprinted to registration, handed them cash, begged them to let me register after the race, got a bib and dashed to the line. when i say dashed, i mean sprinted top speed across a baseball field. the gun went off no more than 15 seconds after i got there.
whoa, USA-england starts in less than an hour… guess i’ll let this video tell the rest of the story.