BostonBound59

How do you spell miserable? Today was the Eastern States 20 mile Run to the Border. The race consists primarily of Boston Marathon bound runners desiring a final act of self flagellation before the big race three weeks away. Nearly 600 brave souls endured bone chilling wind and rain from start to finish in the 20 miler. Another 150 entered the Half-Marathon which is run simultaneously. It is a point to point shot from Kittery Maine to just over the border in Salisbury, Massachusetts. You begin the day by parking at the Hampton Beach Casino and are then bused 20 miles north to Traip Academy in Kittery Maine. From the moment we got up in Amherst at 5:30 A.M. we knew it wasn't going to be pretty. We actually debated whether to bag the race and run indoor at the Hampshire Dome. With Boston just three weeks away we erred on the side of giving it a shot. Temperatures when we arrived in Hampton were 40 degrees but with wind gusts of 10-15 mph and rain coming down at a steady clip. Bone chilling as a description would be mild. Just before the race I had a nice surprise from my younger sister Anne and her son William who live in 10 minutes away in York and came by to see us off. The visit made the act of actually stepping out into the pouring rain in Kittery a little more bearable.

My goal was to run somewhere in the 2:28-2:30 range (about 7:30 pace) but despite the efforts of my running partner fellow Flash coach Rick Collopy (who I qualified for Boston with in Scranton, Pennsylvania's Steamtown Marahon) to keep the pace sane we were closer to 7:20 pace most of the early miles. We passed the 5 mile mark in about 36:20 and the 10 mile at 1:13 (my plan was 1:16). The effort was pretty steady and I felt strong despite my nagging adductor and/or psoas musle strain. We passed the 13.1 mark in 1:35 which was about 2-3 minutes faster than my plan. There were some incredible seaside ocean views especially along Rye Beach that we might actually have been able to enjoy if the weather hadn't been so brutal. Rick and I reached the 15 mile mark in about 1:49 and I could see Cathy and a few other runners from our club not too far ahead so I pushed forward. Steve Piper, who is a top area masters runner from Hollis, shortly after pulled up next to me (despite running a first mile 40 seconds slower than mine) and along with Manchester attorney Mike Craig we ran miles 16 & 17 stride for stride. Steve and I finished together in 2:25. As we closed in on the finish I was closing in on Cathy (she didn't realize ) and I planned to take her on the final turn but another women runner passed me and was about to take Cathy...when I yelled a whooping call only known to my family (invented by my mother) she suddenly heard me, sprung to attention and picked it up holding off this other runner. While I wanted to beat her, team first. I shouldn't get too confident as she had minor foot surgery this week and doesnt run real well in cold damp conditons due to her arthritis. http://www.coolrunning.com/results/09/ma/Mar29_Runtot_set1.shtml

That's it for now, I'm pretty exhausted. I'll post the results from other runners either later tonight or Monday.