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| Phoenix on Foss Mountain |
So week 1. 10/23-10/29. The week after Baystate. Basically just recovery. Ran very little. My legs were obviously very trashed so I had to take it easy. I can bounce back quickly from one marathon. But two in a week? Nope. Not at all. Writing this 3.5 weeks later, and while I feel I'm just finally getting my legs back, I'm STILL feeling the Gruesome Double. Haha. So this week was the perfect week to just mess around with my running and keep the mileage low. 29.5 miles for the week. Still managed 2,077ft of elevation gain, but it was all SLOW running. I also jumped right into a 63 hour work week. I'm getting used to the long hours, but I was SO looking forward to my first free Thursday in awhile the following week. I struggled a bit with Spot's absence this week since I had so much down time at home. I'm still doing ok with it, but the emptiness was felt strongly.
Monday, October 23, 2017- Happy 3rd Divorcary to me!! Although most of the bad memories are fading and my ex-husband and I mostly get along, it's still a day that I became the new, better version of the old me. So I still like to celebrate it on here. Haha. Recent events also reminded me of why being single isn't such a bad thing! In fact, it's mostly awesome. Fortunately, that mistake was only brief, and I'm back to not dealing with that disruption of my life.
My day was mostly spent lying in bed recovering from Baystate. We had calls, and I attempted to lift stretchers. Ouch to both sore muscles and my knees! And of course, we were out in the middle of the night for a 911 and transport to Memorial. Lack of sleep certainly didn't help my recovery effort.
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| Fueling up in the middle of the night |
Kind of a gloomy day. John had hiked Chocorua with his dad the day before so I let him veg all day before his ninja class. I took Phoenix on a walk from home and on the Waldorf School trails. Only 1.3 miles, but it was actually a struggle to walk uphill. Haha. And then I attempted an upper body and abs workout, but like I mentioned in my Baystate post, I had hurt my neck/shoulder blade from carrying stuff, so this workout was really painful. I could barely do the push-ups. I was pretty beat after that. Just took John to ninja class that night then got ready for another 24 hour shift.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017-
Me at "my" desk at work where I write most of my blog posts. I actually look decent in this photo, which is why I posted it. I did not feel decent. I was about to keel over from fatigue. I think I'd gotten less than 8 hours of sleep in the previous two days. We were actually really busy all day, too. I'm about to fall asleep as a write this just remembering how tired I was. I did manage to finish my blog post that day, though. While at my desk, I got an email that my Club Motorsports detail was cancelled for the next day due to weather. Grrr. So I just checked for open shifts for Thursday and found an odd one open for 4pm-7am. I cringed as I clicked on the button to pick it up. But this would put me at 29 hours of over time for this pay period. How could I not do it? I'd still have half the day to run and do what I wanted. Tangent time...... :)
With these long hours, I felt like I was becoming one of "them". One of those people who feels better about herself the more hours she works. Like it's something I SHOULD be doing. And I hate that because I shouldn't have to work 67 hours in a week and still find myself unable to make ends meet. Still eating rice and beans for most dinners. Living with a broken refrigerator (thank goodness I have the mini fridge). Living with the heater blower in my car that doesn't work. 67 hours, and I still can't take care of those things. UGH. How is this my life??!! But then... I remember when I tried to leave this job once. I missed it the second I walked away. I still picked up open shifts on holidays at my new job. I still worked every other Wednesday night...because I couldn't stay away. I realize that I'm not stuck here; I'm not totally doing this job out of necessity. That naive, innocent woman who never had any desire whatsoever to be an EMT is now one of THEM. I can feel it in my bones. The way it's changed me to the core. The feeling of belonging in it even though I tell myself I don't. It is me now. And unless you've worked in this field, you won't know what I'm talking about.
Someone shared an article yesterday that I almost didn't read because the title was a turnoff: 4 Stresses that Paramedics Deal with that Non-Paramedics Should Know About. An ignorant title like that almost had me dismiss it. We are not all paramedics!!! But we're all EMTs. A paramedic has a higher skill set, but we all go through the same shit on every call. But based on who shared the article (someone I respect), I decided to read through it. I didn't think this would be me, honestly. I'm not like those people at all; well, that's what I thought when I started this job over 6 years ago. I remember Bryan being concerned after he read about PTSD being high for this field. I brushed it off that it wouldn't happen to me. Probably on a smaller scale than others, but if you've followed my blog, then you know I have it to some degree. The stress that really caught me was the dehumanizing tragedy. It's something that hit home yesterday when a mouse I tried to save didn't make it overnight. I was really upset about it, and as I buried it, I remembered a fatal accident I was on last week. We had to put the body on our stretcher and in the ambulance until the coroner arrived. When we took patient off it, and I looked at the stretcher and saw the blood all over it, the words out of my mouth were, no joke, and in annoyance, "Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me." All because it meant I had to clean it up and was annoyed. Yep. I'm burying this mouse in near tears, but this dead person's blood got on my stretcher and I was annoyed. I have become this. I did enter the world of the cold and unsympathetic. I have become a stronger person, but to a fault. If you aren't as strong as me, then you're weak, and I can't tolerate weak people in my life. Yet, I'm kind to the weak people I have as patients. I smile at them. I pat their arms. I've held their hands. I've listened to them for hours. I've made them laugh and smile and feel better, but in my own relationships, I'm less kind, less patient, less tolerant. BUT, to shift this to a positive a bit, then I get around my running friends and all seems right again. I feel kind, happy and tolerant. I want to smile and talk and hug the ones I'm close to. It's almost like a personality clash. Haha. Running is what brings me out of that mode. Surrounding myself with the running community brings me back to who I am at the core, a kind, loving, happy person. It's also what probably keeps me in this field because otherwise, I would have crashed and burned by now.
Thursday, October 26, 2017- Ok. Time to move on from the Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. Haha. No overnight calls, but woke up to the pouring rain. It felt good to go home instead of on to the next shift. I procrastinated a bit and then took Phoenix for a slow trail run in the Bolles Preserve by Chocorua Lake. I kind of forgot how much elevation gain it has, so climbs were reaaaaaallly slow. Haha. I was absolutely soaked to the bone the entire time. Phoenix, too. 5.5 miles in 1:03:53, one of my slowest times ever doing this run. Haha. 938ft of elevation gain. Ouch.
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| Tried to get a pic of how soaked I was from the rain, but you can't really tell. |
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| Wet, cold dog! |
Got to work just in time for the first call and transport. We weren't back long before the next one came in. A trip down crazy lane with this one. Wow. Haha. This one deserved a serious wow. We even had to get a rescue person to drive us so that we had two people in the back with her. And it's funny after what I wrote above when looking back on this call. A use of my coldness combined with kindness did wonders for this patient. Overly emotional. Took us forever to get her to walk out of the house. I thought we were going and walked down the stairs only to find she wasn't following, and that's when I'd had it. I stomped back up the stairs and said, "XXXXX, let's go. Right now." She started crying more but reached out and hugged me and then we proceeded to get her stuff together and out she went. Haha. Definitely a transport worth remembering. Haha, but I still held her hand. Like I said. Crazy magnet. Haha. Glad to have that be the last one for the night because I was in delirious mode by the time we got back.
Friday, October 27, 2017- I had decided that today was going to be play day as far as running goes. Since I was in recovery mode and didn't care about speed or miles, I was finally going to check out some new places. Phoenix accompanied me for the day with our first stop being Belknap Woods in Center Harbor. Driven past it a million times, but never stopped. According to the sign, I assumed it was 2 miles to the beginning of the Outer Loop, so I was banking on maybe 5 to 6 miles in here.
Turned out to mean that if I did the Outer Loop and the Beaver Pond Loop, it was a total of 2 miles altogether. Nothing special with these trails. No views, leaf covered and unmaintained. 22 minutes and we were done. Haha. On to the next one.
The next stop was only about 4 minutes away at the Chamberlain-Reynolds Memorial Forest. This ended up being super awesome! This basically hugged the shoreline of Squam Lake for the outer trails and then it was a zig-zag through the middle to make at total of 4.1 miles. It was such a diverse run with beautiful views and a long bog bridge. I would definitely run this again, and I highly recommend it. I even learned they have primitive camping here that I might have to try out next summer. Squam Lake is so beautifully clear.
4.1 miles in 43:47. A surprising 300ft of elevation gain. Just gorgeous. Loved this place.
I made my way towards The Community School to pick up John but realized I was going to be super early, so I decided to run the Jackman Pond Loop Trail that's right behind the school to kill time. Well, that was only 1.6 miles, and I still had 45 minutes to kill. Haha.
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| Jackman Pond |
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| Fred Steele Trail |
That was enough for me for the day, though, and Phoenix was all done, so we went back to The Community School and waited for John to be done. He'd had another awesome day there. Really can't stress how much I love this place.
With my tired legs and body, that 8 miles and over an hour-twenty of running really knocked me out for the rest of the evening. I was beat. Bummed that the beer store was out of Sixpoint 5Beans (even though the sign was still there. Evil! Haha), so I settled for a sipper. Dragon's Milk.
Saturday, October 28, 2017- Slept in finally for the first time in a week. Felt so good. Lounged around a bit then went for a typical Cranmore Shores run that was actually faster than I expected even though I was still slightly sore and fatigued. 5.7 miles in 43:09. 7:33/mi avg pace. Decent.
John wanted to go to the Settler's Green trick-or-treat thing that we go to most years, but he couldn't come up with a costume so I decided to swing into the Family Dollar on our way there. I knew we could come up with something. First we got what would be my sugar downfall...three bags of Halloween candy. I seriously ate more candy in the next 5 days than I had probably eaten in the last 6 months...and I tend to still eat Hershey Bars quite often. Ugh. Then we moved on to the costumes. $6 later, he had his costume! I told him he looked like the Phantom of the Opera and then proceeded to play the theater soundtrack for him on the ride over. Ok, ok. I admit that I LOVED the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack in college and know all the words to every song...so I sang along for John. He totally appreciated that! :) (I saw the theater production at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, too. LOVED!!). John decided to go with the Phantom of the Opera thing, but with a twist. He decided that he was the Cult Leader of the Phantom of the Opera Cult. Haha. One person giving candy away in a store asked John as we walked in, "Oh! Are you the Phantom of the Opera?" YES! I was happy to see I wasn't alone in my assessment. Haha.
We took the dogs on a short walk in Redstone after Settler's Green and then went to the pet store to finally get dog food. I nearly jumped up and down with excitement when I found out I'd finally earned another free bag!! $50 more in my pocket. Woot!!! I dropped John and the dogs off at home then drove to Paul Kirsch's house to finally pick up my dolly that he's had since the Dirty Girl. It had become a joke that we live so close yet I couldn't seem to return his cooler and he couldn't return my dolly. Haha. BUT, I actually needed it. I couldn't get my refrigerator out from the wall without it. It was kind of jammed behind a piece of the old wood flooring and I couldn't lift it. I thought if I could get the dolly under it just enough, I could roll it out. It took many tries, but it finally did the trick. One look at the back of the refrigerator and I knew I had my work cut out for me. This called for wine.
I was pretty sure I knew what was wrong with the fridge. It was no longer cooling the refrigerator part, but the freezer was working fine. Looked up stuff and pretty much narrowed it down to a $45 part. Seemed simple...except Whirlpool didn't make replacement simple. I was able to open up everything inside the refrigerator to see that the coils were working properly, so I had to open up the back. Turned out I needed my large wrench set that someone (not me) misplaced a long time ago. I replaced it with a smaller set, but they were all too big. So I resorted to pliers which took forever. Not to mention I was in the grossness that tends to settle behind appliances. After taking off the metal piece, I found what I needed to look for wasn't there. It was completely inaccessible. I felt all around the back of the fridge looking for some possible way to take the rest of it off. Nothing! I know there's a way, but whatever that is is unbeknownst to me and not in the manual anywhere. Ughhh. There went my inexpensive fix of the fridge. So now, my beer fridge has become my new refrigerator for anything that needs to be kept cold. I can still keep stuff in the fridge that only needs to be kept slightly cool. And thank goodness the freezer is working perfectly. Maybe I'll fix it some day, but right now, I need to new tires instead. Good thing I don't really need a refrigerator for much.
Sunday, October 29, 2017- Woke up super early the next morning. I was volunteering at the White Mountain Milers Half Marathon. (Now that John is almost 12, he didn't have to come with me! Yay! He was SO happy.) This is the third year in a row I would NOT be running it. It hasn't worked out either from injury or race conflicts, and I'm kind of glad because I ran my HM PR here in 2014. 1:22:36. The thought of running this race again and knowing I couldn't come close to that makes me happy for the conflicts these last 3 years. Haha. There was NO way I could race today even though it pained me to see that I could have easily won it even with dead legs. Ugh. But the prize money would have just barely given me back my entry fee with not much left to spare. I was perfectly happy volunteering when the downpour started and NEVER stopped.
I was working bib pick up first, then Sharon Morrison and I were working the relay exchange on West Side Rd. We had a few snafus at bib pick up since the racers were supposed to look up their bib number first before coming to us. Only problem....the bib list wasn't in alphabetical order! My face describes how I was feeling about this as the racers started to arrive.
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| And the confusion starts. |
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| Chris Reilly, Matt Garfield, Zach Switaj and Tim Livingston at the start |
Once the last relay runner was through, I changed into my running clothes and went for a run down West Side and onto Passaconaway Rd. Watching the race inspired me to make it a fast one, although my legs kind of called it quits by the end. Haha. 6.2 miles in 43:49. 7:03 pace. I remember back about 10 years ago when that would have been an amazing 10K time for me. Haha. I would cry if I ran that slow for a 10K now. But a training run one week out from Baystate? Hell yes!
I took a beer ticket I'd taken from an unclaimed bib and headed to Sea Dog after my run. I know I vowed never to eat food from this place again, but I couldn't help it when I saw the veggie sweet potato burger. It was calling my name. I had a stout as my free beer. And I told the bartender that I was going to order a kids meal for John to go, but the bartender sucked balls. I was dressed as if I had just run the Half so I assume he thought I was from out of town. Never came back by after dropping off the food. Only when I was done did a different one come by to ask if I wanted another beer. Nope. All set. Still left a good tip, but he would have gotten more if I had ordered the kids meal. Maybe I will finally listen to myself and never go back again this time! That place sucks (ok, ok. the sweet potato burger rocked; I'll admit it).
I went home and dragged John out for a walk with the dogs through the neighborhood and Waldorf trails. John was obsessed with his new mask and wore it for a week. Haha. The rain mostly held off except for a light drizzle.
I attempted another upper body and abs workout and was happy to see the neck pain almost completely gone. Yay!! The light rain turned back into a hard rain, a really hard rain. It woke me up overnight when the wind picked up. We were in store for a crazy day in the Valley on Monday.
Week 2 10/30-11/5- Still kept the mileage low, but started working my way back to more miles and ended up with 39.9 for the week! Haha. That .9 again!! I had no idea until it was too late. So funny. I did run all 7 days this week. No long runs, but decent miles and a bit faster than the week before...except Thursday's run that left me feeling like I'd never run up a mountain before... well, actually, it made me feel like I'd never run before. Legs were not recovered for that. Haha. And then finished it off with a XC race that my legs definitely weren't recovered for. 3,970ft of elevation gain total. Other than running, it was a pretty crazy week with drama, but that was drowned out by some really good moments. I was thankful to put that drama to rest by Friday morning so I could enjoy my weekend and the race.
Monday, October 30, 2017- Woke up to an intense rain storm and high winds. A coworker texted me saying that 302 was closed through Crawford Notch due to flooding and would be late for work. I knew we were in for a big storm, but I didn't realize the magnitude quite yet. I never lost power at my house the whole time, so it didn't really affect me...until I was headed to work and was rerouted through the dark back roads of Madison. Debris and washed out roads made it rough going, and I could barely see anything. I ended up only 5 minutes late to work with the detour. I was lucky. The day would end up being crazy with tone after tone after tone. Downed trees and power lines were constant. Listening to the radio picked up North Conway and Bartlett where flooding about equal to Hurricane Irene was taking place. West Ossipee and Tamworth were even flooding. The actual craziest part is that we didn't have any serious calls the entire 24 hours! No transports to the hospital! So while all fire and rescue personnel were out working their asses off, we didn't do shit but listen to it on the radio. Andrew Drummond got some good shots of the flooding of the Saco River. Craziness!
Tuesday, October 31, 2017- What a different day. The calm AFTER the storm. It was a beautiful morning. For me, it was just another Tuesday. While for so many other people, it was day 2 of what would be many days without power. I have no idea how I never lost power at my house. Kevin Tilton basically lives just up the hill from me, less than a mile in air miles (4955.95ft to be exact; Google Maps has this feature to measure it haha), and lost power. So weird.
I left work and drove to the Silver Lake Railroad to park and run a loop up High St and around to Washington Hill and back. I knew of at least two places with wires down on this route since I'd heard it on the radio the day before, but it didn't matter. Anything blocking the road could be gone around via the woods. I'd have to do this twice, even though there were a total of 5 blowdowns. The run would end up being majorly on the slow side and not just from going around the downed trees and lines. A lot of it was from the insane debris of mostly pine cones all over the road. But in reality, I just wasn't feeling 100% either. 8.1 miles in 1:04:06. 7:50/mi avg pace. 771ft of elevation gain,
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| That red truck was in the process of turning around. He had no way through. |
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| See. Like I said. Kindergarten craft skills. I even sawed the 2x4 crooked. hahaha. |
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| Heading out of the driveway. It was literally dark within like 5 minutes of taking this photo. |
Wednesday, November 1, 2017- I actually got up AGAIN for a treadmill run before work! I'm getting better! Short progression run with elevation. 4 miles in 28:36. 7:09/mi avg pace. Working my way back to my fast treadmill training.
Oh god. The first of the month on a day I'm working means....THE DREADED MONTHLY TRUCK CHECK. Haha. An hours long ordeal of cleaning EVERYTHING and thoroughly going through supplies. As usual, I start with the cab and outer compartments cleaning while my partner goes through supplies. He was done, so he said, far sooner than he should have been, so being the jerk I am, I went in to check. Liar. 100% lies. He did not clean shit. I caught him redhanded and he had to admit at least one thing he didn't clean. The flat out lied that he cleaned the other. I had him look at how dirty it was, watch me clean it and proved that my towel was filthy. He thinks he can pull shit with me. I think not. I'm like the nagging wife who notices every single thing he does wrong and is sure to point it out. Hahahaha. In actuality, this is a common thing and has become frustrating after 2 years. At this job we're all like roommates so it's a similar dynamic. Haha. So anyway, got that done. We did have a 911 call in the middle of it so I think it was close to 10am by the time we finished.
And to update my outburst against an individual in my Baystate post....It was at some point during the truck check that I figured out that the person I mentioned had cut me off without any reason, like I seriously didn't even see it coming. Just boom; no precursor, no explanation. To be clear, this had only been about a month long of a "relationship", which I'm hesitant to even call that. It really wasn't. It was like a few "dates" basically, but still long enough I would say to be owed an explanation. Grow some balls and use your words. My use of the word "coward" in my blog post struck a nerve...as I thought it would. That word is enough to make anyone come out of the woodwork. It wasn't until Friday morning when I got a message basically just arguing against my claim of coward (I still stand by it 100%). He literally just argued with me and when that didn't work he attempted to go the nice guy route to ask me to take that off the blog post. Even said, "I'll re-friend you." Are you fucking kidding me? Are you in high school? Nice try, buddy. And like I said to him, "Not a chance." Do you know what his reason for just cutting me off was? He isn't a fighter anymore, and he was "taking the path of least resistance". Like I told him, that just blew up in his face. But as far as having the guts to actually say WHY he cut me off, there was nothing. Nothing but a fucking pussy. But you know what?! I am SO THANKFUL this didn't go any further. I'm actually glad he did this. He did me a huge favor because I was able to be rid of him sooner rather than later. Ugh. If I could only erase the memory of it all! The thought that I gave someone so weak a chance with me makes me cringe. I was definitely off my game by allowing myself to be conned into thinking he was a nice person. But other than memories I wish I didn't have, I am free of him. Now, I just feel sorry for his next victim. But, seriously, good riddance.
Thursday, November 2, 2017- A free Thursday!!!! Yay!! Only a 48 hour work week? It felt so strange, but I had fun plans. It was so nice getting out of work and knowing I didn't have to be back until Monday.
I came home for a few hours and then drove down to Mass for a run in the Blue Hills. It had been a REALLY long time since I'd been there, and funny enough, I had never run there before, only hiked. My very first hike there was with my dog, Coy, when she was a puppy in 2001. I remember thinking these trails were like the mini-Whites, and my memory was super technical. Well, my memory was right!! Haha.
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| Puppy Coy in 2001 on the Skyline Trail |
Friday, November 3, 2017- Woke up a gloomy, drizzly morning. John was at school, so I once again picked a run down that way. We've biked the Cotton Valley Rail Trail, but I had never run it, so today was the day. Not the whole thing, but 4 miles out and then back from downtown Wolfeboro. My calves were really sore from the day before which was crazy. The run was very consistent with my splits, but they were on the slower side for such a flat run. One stretch was slow due to so much debris from Monday's storm, but even the rest felt harder than it should have. Another reminder that I wasn't even close to recovered. It rained the whole run, but it was warm out and felt good. 8 miles in 59:45. 7:27/mi avg pace and seriously one of the most consistent runs I've done in awhile.
I changed in the public bathroom there and then ventured over to check out Lone Wolfe Brewing's new place. It was super cute, and the beer is really good. Since they have food now I got some bruschetta and then a taster of their IPA before I had to leave to pick up John.
When I picked up John, one of the moms wanted to talk to me about wreath sales. This school stuff is so new to me. Haha. I don't really know how to be a school parent. Haha. She even said I could help make them. Ummm. Hmmm. I run. I know nothing about crafts and fundraisers. But I'm game. I'll push John to sell the wreaths. I might even buy one just because. So as I was talking to her, I noticed this cool art thing someone made. I had to get a photo. I love it.
After we got home, I did an upper body workout. Really not motivated to do these lately so I've been lucky to get in 3 days a week. I'm not sure why the lack of motivation, but I think a lot of it is just fatigue. Recovery is slow this time around and any running I'm doing is taking a lot out of me. Justifiable really, but I still feel lazy, and I'm definitely putting on the post-marathon, pre-winter weight that I'm going to have to work on ceasing pretty soon. Haha.
Saturday, November 4, 2017- I needed something easy and off-road today, so I ran from my backyard with the dogs. Even though I've gotten sick of this run, I'm still super lucky to be able to run from my house up Heavenly Hill and over to Tin Mountain's trails. Not many people are lucky enough to have a trail network from their backyards. The leaf cover was crazy so it was really slow-going. Interesting, though, that the ONLY reason the trails were still recognizable was because of the 5 hours I spent raking them for my race!! I still don't understand their reason for not clearing the trails. It makes no sense. I did find they put up brand new trail signs, though, which I also wonder the point of since the trails are completely indiscernible in the spring, but whatever. I have to work out a compromise with them if I want to put on the Dirty Girl again, but I'll worry about that in 2018. Anyway, the run was still fun. I really do love these trails. They aren't mine, but I have to admit I feel some sort of ownership of them because they've been my baby for 4 years and they're basically an extension of my home. 4.9 miles total in 1:05:14. Very slow for me there. 1,043ft of elevation gain. The dogs had a good run and wood also get a walk in later.
I had to get John out on this beautiful day, but I wanted something easy yet awesome. Foss Mountain fits the bill. Although I've made it up the 4x4 road in my Kia before, I wasn't taking any chances with a tire with a slow leak, and the lack of power the car has now that it's at 116,000 miles, so we parked in the winter lot and walked up the road. I liked this better anyway since it was more exercise for John and the dogs at just under 3 miles total. There wasn't much traffic so it's an easy walk up the road and then up to the summit that we were lucky enough to have to ourselves.
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| I just don't understand his dislike of the selfie! ;) |
We had to make a stop at Walmart for wood pellets. It was time to get the pellet stove up and running. Upon entering the parking lot I found my usual parking spaces somewhat messed up. Haha.
I decided to pack for the next day's XC championship 6K race. Last year, I wore regular trail shoes and found I needed something more grippy, so it was time to pull my Inov-8 X-Talons out of hiding. The last time I wore them was at the 2015 Bradbury Mountain Breaker where I proceeded to sprain my ankle a SECOND time while wearing them. I decided to never wear them again, and apparently, I was so fed up that I never cleaned the mud off of them that day. When I found them, they were still covered in that mud. Oops. But a little bit of cleaning made them a little better.
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| 2 year old true Maine mud |
Sunday, November 5, 2017- USATF-NE XC Championship
The only reason I was doing this race was because it was part of the USATF-NE ATR Series that I've been doing since the second year in 2015. I didn't really have to do it for scoring. I was going into it in 2nd place, but I knew I would walk away from there with 3rd. Ginger Reiner only had to basically "jog" this to move into second. And I already had the 40-49 win for the women. But I couldn't pass up the chance to embarrass myself in a XC race again. Haha. In reality, I actually enjoy it. I'm terrible at it, and it's just an entire different world, but it's still super fun to take part in. I knew speed would be tough with my legs still not recovered, but it didn't matter to me. This was a no pressure race for me.
John and I got to Franklin Park about 1.5 hours before our race start. It was nice to find this race much less crowded than the Mayor's Cup in 2016 so parking was much easier. I was the only woman on the CMS race team, so Jim Pawlicki invited me to join the men's team under the CMS tent behind the start. It was nice to have a group there that I knew. I wasn't the only one there as a loner. Jamie Woolsey was the lone aR women's runner, and it was so great to see her. She had a bad bike accident that left her out of running for months and has finally come back. I assumed Ginger and I would be the only competitive masters, but I was wrong. Western Mass Distance Project brought a full masters team! They set up right next to us, and it was great to have some other women there that I knew. This race just had a great vibe, and I love it. Might have to get myself out to more xc races next year.
I watched the master's men's race for a bit and then went out for a warm up. Legs felt heavy and sore. Haha. Oh well. I wasn't back long when it was time for our start. This time the course was a 6K. A what?! This was a first, and it meant TWO times over Bear Cage Hill. Ugh. I lined up in the back of the WMDP ladies to make sure I didn't go out too fast, but as soon as we started out, I found myself passing them all and trying to keep up with Ginger. By the end of the field, I had already realized this was dumb and backed off. I immediately ended up in a group of 4 Williams College girls all wearing bun huggers and were over half my age. I would end up running with about 3 of these girls the entire race until the very end when they outkicked me. Haha. I must have looked ridiculous running with these young girls, but at the same time, they had a 41 year old hanging with them. Crazy to think that if I had been as fast as I am now that I could have run xc in college. The hidden potential I had for so long kills me.
Since this is the 6K and not the 5K, we would do the usual first loop around the field and then loop around again to do Bear Cage Hill before heading into the wilderness. My memory failed me since I flew up the hill passing the young girls only to realize we weren't at the top. The hill was much longer than I remembered, and I nearly burned myself out with this stupid move. I thought I had gone out stupidly, but my first two mile splits really weren't that dumb. 6:29 and 6:30. Pretty consistent. The wilderness section doesn't seem like it would be slow but it has some climbing. Mile 3 also had the SECOND round of Bear Cage Hill in it, so the split was much slower at 6:54. This is where I started to lose the college girls for the last stretch to the finish. I didn't care at this point. It hurt and I wanted to finish. I came through in 24:09. 50th female, but....2nd master!! This meant prize money! Haha. It pays to be old. Only $50, but I'll take whatever I can get. I was actually really happy with my race. I felt way better than I expected and finished much faster. On fresher legs I would have expected to run faster, but I didn't think I would break 25, and I did by a lot. No complaints.
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| The Williams girls. Photo by Arthur Besse |
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| Ugly face, but a good photo by Scott Mason, nonetheless. |
I watched the open men's race then it was time to run a mile with John on the course. I had made a deal with him that if he ran a mile with me after the race, I wouldn't go to Doyle's and be social. We would just go to Dorchester Brewing for one beer and a drink for him, then go right home. No hours of socializing. He was all over that.
I have to say this was the most enjoyable part of the day. He ran that mile with me and seemed to enjoy it. He never complained. When his music quit, he made up for it by singing. And then he chatted the whole way. He definitely could have run faster, but I didn't care. Just as long as he ran the mile and enjoyed it. It was awesome running with him. I loved it so much. My phone failed me again so I only got one blurry photo of him.
After we finished, I picked up my second place masters medal and then John told me he wanted to run back to the car. Yes!! I changed clothes and then we went to Dorchester Brewing. Not a huge selection of beer, but the stout was awesome. I was trying to get a photo of my beer when someone kept messing with me. haha.
As promised, after one beer, we were out of there and on our way home. As much as I would have liked to go to Doyle's, I much prefer a happy kid so it was worth it, and I still got a beer! Haha.
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