I think I had 3 potential races on my calendar for this week, but after the double weekend at Bretton Woods, I decided John and I needed a race-free weekend. With the following two weekends being marathons, I needed to actually attempt to cut it back a bit, and that meant NO RACING. I had a lot of other runs I wanted to do during the week before I did actually follow through on a week of tapering. Everyone knows I don't taper, but with TWO marathons a week apart, I had to be pretty conservative through the weekend and the following week. I needed to feel as close to 100% as possible. With the loss of training from being sick, my only option was to go in feeling good. And fortunately, this was the first week where I felt close to 100%. Couldn't have timed it better. It was like during the middle of the Fell Race, when my breathing suddenly came back, and I felt like I could finally breathe. I also stopped coughing up gunk. Just in the nick of time. A little late to make up for the loss of the speedier stuff I had been building up to 5 weeks prior, but oh well. Just shit luck. I had to make this a quality week! 58.4 miles and 7,198ft of elevation gain. Monday, October 2, 2017- Hell froze over. I actually got up at 4:30am and got my ass on the treadmill! I woke up ready to run...on a Monday!!! Only 3 miles, but I felt pretty good. 21:57. 7:19/mi avg pace. Didn't feel too hard and added in some elevation every half mile. Woohoo.
The quiet of work during the day would lead to the craziest night. We got our asses handed to us on the latest episode of The People of Ossipee. This could literally be a reality TV show. Haha. Crazy people!! My partner ended up getting punched in the face and a titty twister by one of our patients overnight. The next patient grabbed my ass...and then my thigh since he didn't realize I had turned my ass in the other direction. We got back from those two calls, and my eyes could barely stay open after driving back from the last call. I lied down, and 20 fucking minutes later, we got another 911! 5:30am. I wanted to cry. UGHHH. But off we went. On the way back later, my partner said, "I just checked to see if it was a full moon. " My response, "I did, too!!" Hahaha. Omg. Not only were we up all night, we got out of work 1.5 hours late. I had to stop at Dunkin' Disgusting Donuts on our way back to the base. A quick check of my bank account to see if I had enough money for coffee and a bagel found a nice fraudulent charge had nearly drained my bank account WTF. I had just enough for the coffee and bagel so I paid with my debit card, then called to cancel it and report the charge. WTF. Third time this year for me!! And every time, it's when I've planned out every penny until the next paycheck, and my account is drained. UGH. I ended up getting it back, but not for 48 hours! Grr. Luckily I could scrape together $4 in quarters and a few dollar bills I had to put some gas in my car while I had no debit card. Haha. Tuesday, October 3, 2017- Well, Monday blended into Tuesday, and I had gotten less than 2 hours of sleep. For some reason, I always have good runs when I'm delirious. I had to cut the run shorter than planned because of getting out of work so late, but it was still good enough mileage. 13.3 miles. I ran down Ossipee Lake Rd and onto Pequawket for a loop my partner showed me the evening before after our call to Danforth Bay. The owner of our company was at the base so we decided to go site seeing to avoid him haha. I realized I had never ventured down this road so we drove it. This would be part of my run. Sweet. What a great loop!! I can't believe I've skipped it all this time. 13.3 miles AND with my last 3.3 miles as my fastest. That never happens. I seemed to be channeling my closest friend who's a pro at this. I'm the positive split queen! 1:37:29. 7:19/mi avg pace. Flat-ish run with only 393ft of elevation gain, but I needed to be done sooner anyway. Haha. Very happy since this would be my last "long" run before Hartford. Nice boost. Of course, a year ago, I would have run that under 7 min pace, but I couldn't think about that. Had to be happy where I was at this point.
I got in my upper body workout then John and I headed up to Citizens Bank in North Conway to make a second attempt at getting something notarized. I had tried the week before, but both notaries were out sick. So this time, I called to make sure they were there. They were. Walked in and had to wait in line for like 10 minutes. In the meantime, one of the notaries goes to lunch. I get up to the counter and was told, "Oh he just left, and the other one is with another customer. Did you make an appointment?" Ugh. I wasn't told I needed an appointment!! Literally a 2 minute transaction! UGH. So I whined a little then told her I would just wait. I'll admit I was annoyed. My old branch in Conway closed, so now it's just a huge pain in the ass driving into North Conway with all of the tourists who never go away now! So much traffic. But anyway, I decided to get my revenge by stealing as many lollipops as possible while I waited. Haha. I did see someone looking at me, so I shot back a "What?" look. Damn right I'm eating lollipops. Many of them!
The first of two handfuls I ate as I waited.
Finally, the guy comes back from lunch, and he quickly does the notary thing. As I walk out, the lady who was also waiting for the notary was sitting there still, so I said to her as I reached into the lollipop container, "I'm stealing as many of these as possible for having to wait so long!" She laughed and I walked out. Take that, Citizens Bank. Hahaha.
It was such a beautiful day, so John and I drove over to Cathedral Ledge road for a walk to Echo Lake and back with Spot and Phoenix. John refused to get in a photo with me except for one which makes me look like I have a T-Rex arm.
Fine! I'll just take a selfie then.
I was super excited on the drive home. The morning before I was chatting with my closest friend as I got my things together. No idea of how Starbucks came up, but I happened to mention that I hadn't been there in over 2 months and how I really wanted a Flat White. Got back to doing stuff and heard a ding on my phone so I walked over to find I had an email with a $10 Starbucks card in it. Honestly, I was a bit taken aback and had to take a moment since this was definitely not expected AT ALL. It's only $10, but it really meant a lot. Like A LOT. So on our way home from our walk, I stopped at Starbucks and got myself a Flat White, and because I'm a nice mom, I shared the gift card with John and got him frappacino. So, thank you! You know who you are. You made my day.
We went home for awhile and then to John's ninja class later. I tried to get some photos, but they came out blurry even with the fast photo taking thing.
John is in red
Wednesday, October 4, 2017- I did NOT get up to run on the treadmill. I was SO tired from the less than 2 hours of sleep on Monday night that there was NO way I could get up before 5:30am. But that didn't mean I wouldn't run. It just meant running at work. Oh, and work. Ugh. I could so go off on a rant, but I don't know who's reading this. But I am shaking me head every Wednesday. I did end up getting that run in on the trail out back. Only planned 3 miles, but I felt so good that I decided to keep going. Literally, .2 miles from being done, the tone dropped. Haha. Raced back to the base hitting 4 miles exactly in a crazy fast avg pace compared to all of my previous runs back there. Just felt so damn good. 31:25. 7:33/mi avg pace and perfectly progressive! Crazy! Threw on my clothes and we drove to the 911 call. I showed up POURING in sweat and still wearing my Hoka's. Haha. Unfortunately, it took us awhile to clear the hospital because Fryeburg Rescue accidentally backed their ambulance into ours. Haha. Very small ding, but we had to write up the accident report with their crew. I was happy I didn't witness it so that I didn't have to write anything. Haha. My partner did, since he watched it happen. And speaking of my partner...it's called personal space. I like to have it. Thanks.
Work shoes for an hour
Thursday, October 5, 2017- I had originally planned to get up and run 3 miles on the trail out back but decided not to. I'd run later after the Club Motorsports detail. My car was in the body shop for some work, and I found out the evening before that it wouldn't be done until late Thursday. Oops. So I decided to borrow an ambulance to get me down to the Tamworth base where I could pick up another ambulance to go to the track. I have to say that was very convenient since I had no other way of getting down there. Haha. I stopped at home first like I usually do to take a shower then headed down to Tamworth.
My "rental"
The "old" A2 (now numbered as A7) in my driveway
I got down to Tamworth and grabbed A4 and found the previous crews had left the tank with a quarter of fuel. Fuckers! It should never be left with less than half. I was mainly mad because I was starving! I had just gotten paid overnight and needed to buy food. That fraudulent charge from Monday had drained my account so that I couldn't buy anything to eat before this morning. Grrr. But I'm a woman who was getting HANGRY so I went to Tedeschi's anyway and got myself some food. I had just enough time to put in enough fuel in A4 to get it over half and then made it to Club Motorsports on time. Another beautiful Thursday there! I was with Eric again so we pretty much just shot the shit all day.
Mike at the track was disappointed when I said I wasn't running the course today, but I told him I had to get back up to North Conway with the ambulance and pick up my car at the body shop. I have to admit it was nice not using my own gas today to go to and from Tamworth, and it was fun driving this particular ambulance around again since it's just a backup truck now, typically collecting dust.
I decided to run from the North Conway base after I got my car from across the street. To go anywhere else meant less daylight. I had planned to run 8, but after sitting so much for the two shifts, I was wicked tight. It took me two miles to loosen up, and I just wasn't feeling it, so I cut it short. I decided to run a quickish pace to make up for the lack of distance so it was still a quality run. 6.6 miles in 47:36. 7:12/mi avg pace. The last 4.6 miles of it were consistent and right around 7:00/mi avg pace, so I was happy with that.
Friday, October 6, 2017- I finally had the perfect day to do one of my favorite long loops. Castle in the Clouds. I realized a few weeks prior that I hadn't done it yet this year so I needed to get it in. Rain was in the forecast, but I seemed to just miss the downpour by the time I started, and the weather was perfect. Just like I like it, I pulled into a completely empty trailhead...only to be crushed when some tourists pulled in the lot and parked RIGHT NEXT TO ME. Why is it my car seems to attract people who want to unnecessarily park right next to it? Huge pet peeve of mine. See above to remind yourself that I like personal space. So the tourists get out of their car and head out to the trail looking very prepared for a hike...
Good luck with that!! Hahaha
I headed out solo. No dogs today. Phoenix had gotten pretty tired on our Bretton Woods run, and with this one being 18 miles, I decided not to chance it, especially with it on the warm side. I ran the same exact clockwise route I always run, starting with the 4 mile climb up to the top of Mt Roberts. The views were stunning with the clouds still hovering around, but the photos couldn't quite capture it. This long climb will wear you out, so it's tough hitting the summit and knowing it's only 4 down, 14 to go, but the rest is less climbing and even some really long downhill, so it all evens out.
Mt Shaw in a cloud
Lake Winnipesaukee
I ran the ridge line for about 5 miles. It's mostly a mix of up and down on nice footing, so I love this part of the run. Just as I was making my way up the last .3 to the summit of Mt Shaw, I thought of how I've never been up there with other people, so....that meant I got to the summit to find 3 women there. At first I was annoyed since I'm stingy and like summits to myself, but they ended up being pretty cool, and the 4 of us enjoyed the most awesome rainbow I've ever seen in my life. My photos don't do it justice one bit. It was truly amazing, and I spent way longer than I planned up there because of it. I'm not sure where these women were from, but I was helpful in pointing out some of the landmarks they were looking at from up there. I don't mind that since there was a time I was clueless, too.
As soon as I left the summit, the rain started so I put on my rain jacket, only to have the rain stop 2 minutes later. Haha. I made my way back down hitting the summits of Black Snout, Turtleback and then Bald Knob. For some reason unbeknownst to me I always bonk just before the spur trail up Turtleback, no matter what the weather. I don't get it. It's around mile 14 and over 2 hours in, so I guess it's just that point where my body wants a break so I actually sat down on Turtleback for about 5 minutes refueling. I moved on to Bald Knob which I've never had to myself to find it completely empty. Haha. A little over 2 miles from there, and I was back at my car. 18 miles. 3:12:26 moving time which is about average for me there. 3,403ft of elevation again. Another Castle in the Clouds loop in the books. Haha.
I was totally drained and had time to go by the coffee shop in Sandwich for a coffee and a blueberry-cream cheese loaf before driving over to The Community School to pick up John. Once again, he was so happy. I was talking to the director while he rode around on his bike, happy as a clam. He showed me a "troll hole" before we left that you could climb in and peak out of. My vibe from this place was spot on. He really loves it. Of course it's only one day a week, but one day is something, and I'm so happy to see him enjoying it. He enjoyed it so much in fact that he was OUT COLD quickly and for hours after that. We both had a full day....so I once again bagged mowing the lawn for at least the 45th day in a row. Haha.
Saved one of my favorite Trillium beers from Rachel Flaksman for my post-run beer.
Saturday, October 7, 2017- Slept in and went out for an easy and very slow 5 mile run in through Cranmore Shores. 39:59. 7:53/mi avg pace. I love easy days...sometimes. Haha. I did what would be the second of only two days of upper body and abs this week, right after the run.
It was so nice to have laid back day with John today. We took our annual trip to the Corn "Maize" at Sherman Farm. He's been to it every Fall since 2010, and we also went in 2007 when just the two of us lived here, so it was of kind of sad when, about 10 minutes after we had been there, John said, "Why do I feel like I'm too old for this?" So I made him do Phase 1 of the corn maze to hopefully kick in some fun. They have these trivia sheets to help you along the way. After looking at all the different subjects, I was like, "Why would I pick something difficult?" So I grabbed the tiny tots one. Hahaha. John and I thought it was hilarious. The first question asks, "What am I?" Picture of a pig. 3 multiple choice questions. Hahaha.
These hint sheets aside, I don't know if the corn mazes have gotten easier or if we've just gotten better at them, but I really think we just know how to do them. Especially after seeing the hoard of morons in there who couldn't figure it out, I'd like to think we've just gotten smarter. Haha. Only one quick mistake in Phase 1, and we were out of there. Easy. Then the same thing happened in Phase 2. Easy. We even did it faster, and it's supposed to be the hardest one. In and out boom. I did win a race overall here once that went through the corn maze. 2013 maybe? I can't even remember. But that time I walked it the weekend before, so it was kind of cheating. Haha.
Forced mom and kid selfie
For someone who thought he was too young for the place, he seemed to enjoy the hour he spent on the jumping pillow after that. Haha. And he wanted to play corn hole after that. So, he still had a fun time. We didn't go to the pumpkin patch, but I didn't want to pay double the cost of the pumpkins anyway, and he had no interest.
I'm kind of dumb, but I really wanted to go get beer at Saco River Brewing, even though the Fryeburg Fair was going on, and traffic was backed up. After hitting Walmart, I pretty much drove about 15 miles out of my way via back roads to get to Fryeburg. It was so dumb, but I still did it. What would have been a quick drive over from Sherman Farm took about an hour round trip. Haha But I walked out with two howlers. The porter would get me through mowing the lawn in the dark. Yes, I finally had a reason to mow my lawn. Pat Quinn was coming up for the day to run Chocorua with me. I couldn't have a guest come up with my lawn looking like that so I waited until it was down to the wire and cut it in the dark. I'm procrastination queen....and positive split queen. Wait. Why is my queen-ness so negative?! :)
Yes, I drank the entire howler.
Sunday, October 8, 2017- Pat showed up pretty early for our run so I rushed to get my coffee and get dressed. John was going to stay home while we ran. Since he passed the test the week before, I decided to give it another go. The weather was pretty shitty, but sometimes those are fun runs, and it meant the trail wouldn't be crowded with people. It did literally pour rain the entire run, but the air was warm so we never really got cold until we popped out on the summit in crazy wind and rain. That was a quick stop. We had taken the Piper Trail up so I chose to take us on the loop down via Liberty, Hammond and Weetamoo for the way back. I find Piper boring on the way down, and loops are more fun anyway. We ended up with around 8 miles total. Totally soaked to the bone when we got back to the car.
After we were dried out, Pat, John and I went to the new place in town, Barley & Salt. Finally a place with a lot of decent beers on tap!! North Conway has needed this for awhile. Other than the Moat, anywhere you go in this town has a really weak beer selection. I really liked it, and, of course, a keg kicked on one of the beers we ordered. This ALWAYS happens to me. ALWAYS. Haha.
Clown Shoes Space Cake
Pat had to head home to Rhode Island as soon as we got back to my house. It was a fun day to end a race-free, mostly relaxing week. I needed a week like that before Hartford and Baystate. I had no idea what to expect out of myself from either of those.
Here's a funny thing an old friend from the Fayetteville Running Club back when we lived on Fort Bragg in NC saw from afar while she was reading the latest issue of Runner's World. My Vermont City Marathon ad photo from last year! Haha. I had no idea! So I got my (unwanted) copy of the magazine in the mail yesterday and looked through it. Puhrity shuur this girl is trying to one-up me!
"I'm a Runner," huh, Karlie?? Well, so am I! And just because you're a 25 year old super model does NOT mean you should have your own spread that's WAYYYY bigger than mine. WTF. I mean come on. Look at my 40 year old bod!! Haha. I challenge Karlie to a marathon face-off. VCM 2018. Bring it on, beeatch!
Hmm. Had a lot of different song choices for this week, but I finally settled on one that someone played for me about a year and a half ago. It brings back a good memory.
Addendum: Patrick Quinn is scum of the Earth. If you happen to come across him on a dating site or at a race, run far away. He's a man whore, a narcissist and a liar.
Still plagued with full lungs all week, but I was able to pull off some ok runs, including a long run in thick, foggy humidity. I came up .9 miles short of 50. Haha. Didn't realize it until Monday morning or I would have actually gone back out for another .9. So 49.1 miles for the week. Got a lot of climbing in for 9,560ft of elevation gain. Most of that was from 3 days straight running at Bretton Woods. Got my last "long" run in before Hartford, if you can actually call 16 miles a long run. I did my best to regain what I'd lost, but not being able to breathe going on week 4 at this point just kept me down. That didn't ruin my excitement about Bretton Woods, though. Even though I knew my chances of winning this year were nil, I still had some smidgen of hope that I could outwit my competitors. Already registered were Christin Doneski and Kassandra Marin. I knew I didn't stand a chance against either of them with speed, but my knowledge of the mountain could. Knowing I had to really be on my game this time, I actually did some recon for the race on Friday. I know the mountain well, but not well enough to know some of the new-to-me ski slopes I would need to take. In the end, this paid off, so I was glad I made it up there. I was nervous about it all week since I love this race and always seek the win here.
Monday, September 25, 2017- Not a bad day at work. The crazies wouldn't come out until the following week. Haha. I didn't walk today because it was SO hot outside and in the ambulance bay. I would have been soaked in sweat and miserable. Instead, I hung out by the air conditioning. Haha. I did spend part of the day prepping for Bretton Woods with the map and Dave Dunham's notes.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017- Luckily for Rob and I, we weren't up when the tone dropped for mutual aid to Wakefield at 6:30am. The other crew had the bad luck. Dodged a bullet with that one, although we'd get our payback the next week. I really needed to get my last long run in, and I was a little annoyed that Bryan had picked up a shift at work starting at 7am. I said I wasn't really comfortable with him leaving John since I would be so far away from home, and my car, on top of that, but I talked to John about it and felt like he would be ok. I knew he would be, and I made sure Bryan left John his work number in case of emergency since he would only be 10 minutes away. I HAD to get this long run in. If not, I probably would have just gone home and run from there. John's almost 12, and it was a good test. I called him once during my run to check in and he was fine. I'm glad we did give him a chance because I was comfortable doing it myself two weeks later. I already leave him to run or go do errands, but I'm never that far away. Baby steps. Haha.
I decided on my favorite loop on the Tamworth back roads starting at Remick Farm. I LOVE this loop. Super hilly, but quiet and pretty. Today was just gross, though. Everything was blanketed in a thick fog of humidity, which in the end actually stopped me from cutting the run short halfway. It kept the sun at bay! It was still stifling, though. Couldn't breathe worth a shit, so the run sucked. The only good part was finishing it! I made the same loop I always do when I run this. Up Cleveland Hill to Bunker Hill and loop back via 113 and then the dirt roads that loop me back.
With all of the climbing, it's never been one of my faster long runs, but it was definitely much slower today. 7:50/mi avg pace. Would have been 8 minutes probably, but the last 3 miles are all downhill and quick. The rest is very slow.
This where I stopped to call John. You can see the humidity. Yuck.
I was absolutely drenched in sweat when I finished. Like soaked. And I was totally drained. I called John to let him know I was on my way home. I was relieved that worked out.
Once home, the sun started to come out and the temp skyrocketed. This called for a beer instead of my usual coffee, and it hit the spot. This was the same beer that E-J gave Scott after Lone Gull, and it was SO good.
Always wants to play stick
I don't know how I got myself to do my upper body and abs workout, but I did, then I took John to the lake to swim. It was in the high 80s and would probably be our last lake day of the year. Cry!! It was nice watching John swim. I had so looked forward to when he could swim in the lake this year, so I can't believe it's already over! It went by way too fast. We went home for awhile and then back out to John's ninja class that night so he was worn out.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017- I got myself up at 4:30am to run on the treadmill. I don't know what's happened to me. Last year and most of this year, I was very consistent with 5 mile treadmill runs every Wednesday. All of a sudden, I just cannot get myself up, and when I do, it's always after two alarms, and I'm left without the time to get in the full 5 miles. Just no motivation to get up that early anymore. But I did this morning! 4 miles in 29:12. Decent 7:18/mi avg pace. I think part of it is that I know I can run at work now if I don't get up so I get lazy. The treadmill runs are usually better quality runs, though.
The 24 hours at work was the usual. Not crazy busy, but consistent. We had a late call midnight-ish, but slept the rest of the night. Thursday, September 28, 2017- Got up at 5:45am to run on the trail out back of work. It sucks that it's dark out at that time now and I have to use a headlamp. The trail is actually pretty rooty so it was much slower than I normally run it. 3 miles in 26:46. It started to get light out for the last mile so I was able to actually run that at a decent pace for that trail. It's really just bonus miles for the day before I go sit around at Club Motorsports all day for the work detail.
Went home, showered then drove to Tamworth to pick up the ambulance and drive over to the race track. My partner, Eric, was already over there. Eric was one of the first people I ever worked with here and probably trained me the most in the beginning. We used to be friends along with his wife, Mel, who is also a coworker. We all great times at the North Conway base when there were 6 of us on shift, and we hung out outside of work a lot, as well. After all of the restructuring, I hardly saw them anymore since we all worked different shifts and there really wasn't much else we had in common, so I stopped hanging out with them. Until today, I'd hardly talked to Eric in probably 2 years! So we spent the entire day catching up on life while we watched the sports cars race by. Haha. It was nice. Eric is probably the only one who actually knows Bryan and me, both, and was one of the few who was there when the marriage began it's breakdown. So he's really the only witness and person who knows both sides. I didn't think of that until today, and I felt sad that I'd lost touch. But it was like we'd never stopped working together. So easy to catch back up. He seems to be loving his new-ish family of four kids and just staying busy working on his house.
One of the reasons I'm writing about Eric is that he's one of a good number of people I cut off in the last 2.5 years. I've been slowly coming around and trying to mend some of those broken bridges lately. I recently made up with someone else with whom I'd had a falling out. It was funny, like it was time. A former co-worker that I had been friends with until his lack of work ethic just sent me over the edge. My last text to him in 2015 had, no lie, 5 f-bombs in it. It was a downward spiral after that. I hated it that it ended that way, and for the last 2 years, every time I passed him on the road, I waved. I kept waving and kept waving. And finally in August, I ran into him at the 80s concert, and it was like all of a sudden, we were both over it. So weird. There's someone else I kind of chatted with then suddenly cut off after a short time; I felt badly about that and have been slowly trying to let that person know I'm not the total bitch I'm sure I appeared to be. There are others I still haven't fixed things with. Not sure if I will. These others I have just happened randomly with paths crossing again. Interesting the ebb and flow of relationships and how people move in and out of our lives.
I finally felt comfortable enough to ask Mike, who oversees the track operations at Club Motorsports, if I could run the track after hours. He's so laid back and cool and didn't even hesitate to say yes. Even said I could come anytime after the track is closed and to just let him know. I was super excited! Squeal! I couldn't wait! I started saying I was going to make Strava segments using their names for the track sections and then realized no one knew what the hell I was talking about. Haha. But it was only a minute or two later when I got an email from Mike with the track map and the proposed section and corner names, so he got mostly what I was blabbing about. Haha.
When the last car left the track, I drove the ambulance back to the base, got my car, then headed back to the track. There was a ton of traffic entering the track to unload cars for the next day's huge event, so it took me almost 20 minutes just to turn in there. I was antsy to get running. The course is basically a climb, a downhill, a steeper climb, another downhill and then a fast straightaway. I entered the course like the cars and started the first climb. I could breathe! The air was cool and dry and the sun was setting. Perfect! It was fun seeing where all of the cars had run off the track. Haha. Tire tracks all through the grass. Dents in the siding. Crazy drivers. Haha. I have to brag that I definitely felt special being the first person to ever run the track. I made two segments for the two climbs. I would run the first segment exactly the same on both loops. The other segment was slower on the second loop since I stopped for a photo. Haha. This was just so neat. I'd love to put a 5-mile road race on here, and it's actually a possibility. Not sure if I want to take that on, but if I do, I'll talk to Mike about it next season. 5.2 miles in 39:17. Surprised at how much elevation gain it was! 1,083ft!
Crazy hair in the wind!
Beautiful view
I was kind of on a high from running something new and unique. Haha. I'm a running dork.
Friday, September 29, 2017- I didn't really want to drive all the way up to Bretton Woods since I was already doing it twice this weekend, but something told me that recon would be really important for this one. Not going to say the other year's courses were easy, but I found that the shortcuts were far more obvious. I would realize that this one was very difficult. Any which way might be faster, but not by much unless you really have no navigation skills. Haha.
I brought Phoenix along on our fun, random run. With Dave Dunham's notes and print-out of Ed Sheldon's recon in hand, I decided to start off with Dave's idea for the start by using the road. I found the quickest route from the start had to be done through the playground since the rest of it was fenced off. I messed up and went on too much of the road but still found the base of ski lift to start uphill. Immediately, I was met with a very overgrown slope with two different options to go around it. I chose the glades this time. I noticed that more of the slopes in general were overgrown than the past years. I would also realize that some of Dave's recon that was a month prior actually didn't work due to the insane overgrowth that had happened so I made notes of it all to pass on to him. I didn't know the exact location of checkpoint A and ended up going too high above it. I followed most of his route to checkpoint B but then opted to check out a slightly different route to C. I would do his route in the race, but after doing both, I think either, or, would have been about the same. After checkpoint C, I stopped for some photos since it was so beautiful out. Plus, I needed the breather. B to C kicked my ass. I was actually hurting pretty bad which made me regret signing up for Saturday's race and worried about Sunday.
I found Dave's route checkpoint D had a steep overgrown section. What had been overgrown for him was half-mowed now and less wet so I took it back up and decided this was what I would take on race day. I followed Dave's idea to follow the road across and then up, but on my way up, I realized where Ed had gone and felt pretty confident that Ed had chosen the better route. On race day, I wouldn't make my decision until I literally had to. I chose Ed's. By far the faster route. I also followed Ed on the climb up to E. Dave would take a look at it again the next day and realize that we were right. His idea was far steeper.
I intended to follow Aggasiz down as Dave suggested, but I found the slope to be very overgrown and thought I would attempt Ed's idea through the glades. I've used these same glades to checkpoint F multiple years, but never from Aggasiz. Always from Avalon. But I decided to go for it. Once in the woods, trails went off in different directions. I picked one then realized at the base of it that I should have chosen another. I crossed Avalon and found myself at the top of the Cherry Mt Slide. I followed these glades all the way down until I came out at the bottom and found I was maybe 100 yards down from checkpoint F. Perfect. This was my route for this one for sure. I just planned to do it one more time to make sure I knew it exactly before Sunday. My recon came out to 6.9 miles and 2,527ft of elevation gain. I knew the elevation gain would be about the same on Sunday, but I was hoping those miles would whittle down closer to 6 miles. We spent 1:48:43 out there. It seemed long and it was. 27 minutes of that was spent NOT running. Crazy. Often stopping and looking around and the photo stop with Phoenix. This recon went on PRIVATE on Strava. I wasn't having any competition look at my route. Good thing I did, too, because it probably would have cost me a place.
On the way home, I had just enough time to run back on the Kismet course to take down a Six03 sign that Tom had left behind. Glad it was only .3 miles in since the sign wasn't there. Haha. John didn't have school today so he was already home when I got back. I got in some upper body and abs, but found I was pretty exhausted the rest of the day. I had two races this weekend (since I'm dumb) so I decided to just rest up the rest of the day.
Saturday, September 30, 2017- Mt Rosebrook Ascent Race-
I didn't originally plan to do this vertical climbing race at Bretton Woods, but I decided to after all. The goal was just to have fun and test my lungs out on the climbing. Definitely not go all out since I needed to save my legs for the Fell Race on Sunday. The late start made the morning easier, but John still slept in the car the entire time. Haha. There wasn't a huge turnout, but I liked that. I knew mostly everyone there so it was more intimate. I ran a mile warm up to do more recon on Dave's route up the pavement for Sunday's start. I realized where I had gone completely wrong the day before and thought this was definitely the faster start (this would be TOTALLY wrong haha).
I realized that I hadn't even looked at today's course and had no idea where it went. When I looked at the map, I saw it followed the service road the whole way. Ew. Hmm. Not going to be my cup of tea, but I figured it would at least be more gradual. The footing was what turned me off. Very loose, lumpy gravel.
We all lined up at the start for Chris Dunn's pre-race speech. There was a very fast looking woman there that I thought was much older, probably 50ish. (I feel badly because I would learn later that she's 3 years younger than me! Oops. Do I look 50?? Omg. Haha.). I didn't know her at all. I spoke to her only briefly about my Ink 'n' Burn shorts just as we started, and she took off fast! I knew I wouldn't stand a chance against her on a good day. She was obviously a good mountain runner. I ended up quickly with Paul Kirsch and a younger guy as we vied for space on the best parts of the road for footing. I immediately struggled to breathe so I just kept my pace "easy", and I say "easy" because running up a mountain is never easy, but I wasn't giving 100%. It still hurt, though. Haha. The first half would be somewhat steep, and this is where Paul has the one-up on me, so he stayed just a few steps ahead. The kid, on the other hand, was slightly annoying because he's the typical young guy who can't stand being passed by a woman. This happens often to me when I pass guys under the age of 20. They immediately speed up and pass me back. Today was no different, but I just stayed my pace and kept going. There's a point where I always break them due to their surges to get ahead of me, and sure enough, around halfway, or maybe just past it, the grade eased up, and I easily passed Paul and the kid. I was shocked to find us at the top of the lift quickly so I knew I was almost done, just a gentle climb across the ridge and one last very steep climb to the finish. The footing on the last steep climb sucked badly so I was just kind of jogging when everyone started yelling that Paul was catching up. One look back and I saw I had plenty of time to just keep jogging...and laughing of course. I was even yelling out that he couldn't catch me. I finished laughing and barely out of breath. Second woman. 1.7 miles total with 1,337ft of ascent. 23:22. That was actually really fun, and I was happy I didn't push myself too hard. Full Results
Jeff Hixon capturing my look back to see where Paul was.
Photo by Dave Dunham just before the finish.
So we learned after that the first woman, Sula Gay, was once Sula Young. She was part of the Scottish Women's Team at the 2005 World Mountain Running Championship where she placed 16th and the team won silver. Her husband was a fell racer in Scotland and would be racing the next day. They came over from NY, NY with their young child to participate, so that was cool having them there.
I hung out for a bit at the top catching up, then started my run down via the glades, as planned. I knew this was the faster route so I wanted to memorize it. There would be no time for mistakes...and sure enough, there actually wasn't the next day! I ran into a group that included Christin Doneski and a few others just out doing recon. Christin was super nervous about the fell racing aspect so she continued on with her group as I turned on to Aggassiz and found my exact route down for Sunday. Muwahahaha. I definitely had evil laughter in my head as I ran down this. Once I was down, I ran down some lower slopes and just before crossing a wooden bridge, I stepped in a huge hole completely obscured by grass. This sent me sliding a good 5-6 ft down the slope face first. Definitely caught me by surprise, but I was laughing my head off. Too bad no one else saw that show. I actually couldn't stop laughing at myself the rest of the run back to the lodge.
Awards took awhile, but there just happened to be free beer tasting from really good breweries. Basically all you could drink. Otter Creek, Stoneface and Shed. Score!
Just before we left, Emer O'Donaghue, loaded us up with two HUGE trash bags filled with boys clothes for John. Her boys are all big now so she passed it along to us. And wow!! It was so much great stuff. John is set for years!! Thank you, Emer!
Before going home, John and I stopped at Story Land for one last visit this year. He's kind of over it so this was probably our last year with season passes. There are only a few rides John still likes to do. We'll probably just pay full price one day next year to go. We weren't there long. It was kind of chilly and rainy, but we got in everything John wanted to do. Kind of sad to know he's outgrowing it, but that's just part of growing up.
Pretending to be attacked by an octopus
We weren't home long when our guest for the night arrived. Rachel Flaksman! She was staying overnight for Bretton Woods. I don't know how long we stood in the kitchen gabbing and drinking beer, but it had to be over 3 hours! Fun to have girl talk...and gossip! Haha.
Rachel with Phoenix
Sunday, October 1, 2017- Bretton Woods Fell Race-
How is it October already?? What the hell. Time moves way too fast these days. I'm not looking forward to winter right now, and not because of the snow, but because I remembered how shitty my snowblower is and makes me cry, and I have no heat in my car. Haha. I'm laughing and shaking my head at the thought. Sometimes you're just screwed and you have to accept it. So I guess I'll just accept it when the time comes. Solutions: one of those car defroster/warmer fans, that don't work that well for the whole car but will at least defrost my windshield, and probably two seat warmers that plug into the 12V. If they're expensive, I'll just get one for John. My only issue that I'm most concerned with is my hands. They go numb when I touch cold things so I need to buy some really grippy gloves to make it safe for wearing while driving. I can put toe warmers in my shoes. So looking at a less than $100 solution vs $800 for the new blower installation. Not ideal, and it's going to suck so bad that I'll probably cry over that, too, but it's something. Well, unless I win Publisher's Clearing House. My chances are good! 1 in 1.7 billion by one estimate. Someone has to be the ONE. Pick me! Pick me! Haha.
So anywho...time to cut the shit with the whining and get on with the day. John wasn't too thrilled about going back to Bretton Woods for a second day in a row. (This would be my third!) But once we got there, he was good. Got his computer out and set everything up at a table. Actually didn't give me a hard time at all. So that helped reduce my pre-race stress level. I was nervous. I always am for this one because I'm never sure if my route is the right one! I found out once I was there that Kelsey Allen had shown up. Dammit! I knew I couldn't beat her. I did beat her here in 2014, but I also beat Kim Nedeau, and we all know I can't do that now. I was so good then that I'm not surprised there were some people who genuinely thought I was doping. Haha. No doping, just divorce. Hmm. Maybe I should get remarried and then get divorced so I can be fast again! Hahaha! Ugh, so having Kelsey there crushed my hopes of a top 3 finish. They would all have to screw up royally with their route for me to beat them. I took my nerves out for a mile warm up. Well, that didn't help because I realized my breathing was way worse!! I was wheezing! WTF.
Todd Brown took this photo of Christin and me at the start
At the start, Christin, Dave Dunham and a few others of us lined up at the back of the pack. At this race, you didn't have to actually cross a start line at the start, so we stood in the back ready to go the opposite direction, and that's what we did. Quite a few people followed us. I thought for sure we were getting a huge lead on the rest, but I should have thought better of it when Todd Callaghan told me pre-race that he wasn't going the road route. I still don't know how our route wasn't quicker, but we came out to an open point and saw who we were running parallel with, I realized our route was big mistake. We were mixed in with the middle of the pack! NO!! I could see Kassandra Marin FAR up ahead. Fortunately Christin was with me so we talked it out a bit. That helped. Then she moved on ahead of me slightly for the steep climb up the slope. I was SO discouraged at this point, and I couldn't breathe. I didn't know why! How could my breathing be worse today?! I struggled for air up to checkpoint A, but then all of a sudden, even though it was still a gradual climb across the top on the road, I could breathe again!
I followed my planned route down to checkpoint B, and by this time, I found Kassandra Marin way far ahead of me. That meant Kelsey was even farther ahead. I'm talking 3-4 minutes. I was able to stay close to Christin on the downhill to B, but she gained a good 30-45 seconds on me on the climb up to C. I SO had a plan to do what I had done the day before up to C by cutting left above Latitude 44, but after seeing everyone else (including Ed) going straight up the slope we were on, I decided to follow them. The only thing I did differently was follow the flagged part of the slope. I don't think it helped or hurt me, but by the time I got up to the checkpoint, I couldn't even see Christin anymore. I was once again so discouraged, but I saw Josh Fields taking photos and realized I had to smile for them so that helped.
Photo by Peak Focus Photography
Photo by Peak Focus Photography
I rounded the building and actually passed a guy who had been ahead of me. He just started walking. I crested the slope, and...OH! WHAT'S THAT?! I see Christin with two guys running back up the slope to a black diamond for the descent to D. Omg. They're going the wrong way! Christin was going the right way and then chose to follow them. They were still really far ahead of me, though, so I didn't know if it would help me at all, but I started hoofing it down the slope on my planned route past Latitude 44. I was thinking at this point how happy I was I did my recon. As I got closer to my turnoff at Deception Bowl, the ski slope to my right came into view through openings, and...OH! WHAT'S THAT?! Why it's Kassandra Marin, Michael Narcisi and another guy coming from completely the wrong direction. All of a sudden, I was parallel to them and as they exited their slope onto mine, I was just in front of all three. I felt like I was at Lionel Playworld and my frown was turned upside down! Haha. So in a matter of about 3 minutes, my race had totally changed. I realized that Christin and Kassandra had really messed up their routes...so they probably would again! I also realized on the way down the steep and wet Deception Bowl that I got ahead of Kassandra quickly. That was a good sign for the final descent to F. I just needed her to mess up her route in between that.
I went through D and was easily passed by Mikey and Kassandra on the up. I just had nothing for the ups still, BUT I could breathe! We were halfway up before passing Christin. She had really gone the wrong way. I was bummed for her because her fear had come true, and I hate that, but since we were in a race, I had to keep on competing. I got to the top of Deception, and this is where I had to make the decision to go the way I had practiced or Ed's route. Looking up and over, it was a no-brainer to go Ed's route for sure. I just happened to look up to my left as I was crossing over, and...OH! WHAT'S THAT?! What the hell are they doing?! Kassandra, Mikey and the other guy are totally going the wrong way. It would still get them there, but it was much longer. My route was spot on!! And I had no one anywhere in sight or near me. It was like everyone completely disappeared. But just as I was nearing the top of the slope, the three came running by just above me. They had lost so much time. I got up to the road and ran my planned route which also happened to be the marked course. It was definitely the right way to go. Just as I passed by the base of this insanely steep-ass slope on my left, I looked up, and ...OH! WHAT'S THAT?! Mikey, Kassandra and the other guy are going up it?! Omg. Like totally a mistake, and I'm thinking SUUWEEET as I was sneaking by, but that's when Kassandra must have looked below her and thought, "OH! WHAT'S THAT?!" Dammit to hell. All of a sudden I heard footsteps behind me! It was Kassandra and she was smiling! She'd caught me! I think I laughed and said, "Oh damn. You spotted me!" It was actually kind of funny, BUT we were really close to E, and my plan for the descent to F could be thwarted! We ran together to E, and the whole time I'm trying to come up with a plan to get out of her view, so I very slowly and carefully started to back off behind her as we approached Aggassiz. When we hit the slope, I started to run to the left, but then I thought better of it. The left side was overgrown; the right side wasn't. If she saw me running on the left she would know something was up. My turn off was just up ahead, and I could see Kassandra was just about to go over a slight hill. As soon as she did, I quickly sprinted left and into the woods onto the glade as planned.(Little did I know, Kassandra had seen me and followed, but lost me quickly). I was FLYING down the glade. There are so many here that you could go so many different ways, but I had my route memorized. I was filled with evil laughter as I crossed over Avalon and onto Cherry Mt Slide glade. I was running with second place in hand, and I knew it. Muwhahahaha!! My plan had worked!
I couldn't resist using this meme again as me running with my 2nd place cowbell down the slope!
I hit the base of the glade and turned to run the short distance up to F. I had nearly caught the two guys who were pretty far ahead of me prior to E. I ran through F, and still no Kassandra! All of a sudden, I see her come flying off of Avalon, but instead of turning left to F, she started running towards the finish line. To be honest, if I thought she could have caught me at this point, I would have been evil enough to let her run all the way to the finish only to have to go all the way back up to F. But I knew I had 2nd place in the bag and couldn't let her do that, so I started screaming for her. She was still pretty far down slope already that it took three tries before she heard me, "You missed checkpoint F!" I continued down only to pass Mikey coming the opposite direction to F. I told Kassandra after, "Don't ever follow a Narcisi!" I ended up passing Brian Ruhm running back up and thought he was on his cool down. Nope, he had totally gone the wrong way and was also headed back up to F. I'll admit it. I was laughing the entire way to the finish. Once again, my navigation skills had saved me at Bretton Woods. Kelsey got the win, as expected, but she didn't exactly run away with it since she also went far out of the way at one point and only beat me by just over 2 minutes. So my total mileage came out to 5.98 miles (on my watch; Strava bumped it to 5.9). 1:06:25 for time. 2,463ft of gain. And the reason I saw no one after D was because so many people ahead of me chose poorly. I finished 9th overall! Wow. And THIS is why I love the Bretton Woods Fell Race! Full Results
We hung out for the awards and raffle outside. It was so nice out in the sun. The free beer was 603 today which I don't really like, but it was free so what the hell. I'm happy that Chris Dunn has switched from them to Tuckerman Brewing as a sponsor. I don't love Tuckerman either, but they do have a few that I like, and I think it's good quality beer. I ended up winning a crowler, but no ski sign this year! Wahhh. Kind of sad, but I didn't really have the space for it anyway. Haha.
Just as we walked out of the lodge, I noticed Sarah Canney place something on my windshield, but I couldn't tell what. When I got to my car, I saw that she had left me the coffee she had won in the raffle! That was so sweet of her. She was backing out so I waved a thank you.
I really wanted to stop somewhere with John so I chose Frontside Grind where everyone knows John. Haha. I only had a gift card with $3 on it and a few bucks to spend but it was enough to get him a hot chocolate (special order for John that they all know how to make) and a coffee for me.
I chilled my crowler while I took the 3 dogs on a walk up Heavenly Hill. They'd been neglected this weekend so they deserved the walk. I enjoyed my crowler when I got back.
I was finally happy again with a race!! It had felt like SO long. And it really was. Exactly a month to the day that I had gotten sick. This boosted my mood greatly even though I still dreaded my next race, the Hartford Marathon. That month of SO much lost training. I didn't even know if I could finish Hartford at this point. But it definitely helped to have a good finish at Bretton Woods be my last race before Hartford. Otherwise, I would have beat myself down mentally. I knew I had no sub-3 in the cards this year, but this helped me get past that and rethink my goal. I decided to give myself (and John!) a racing break the following weekend and just focus on Hartford. It would be a really good decision.
