Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday Night Vertical 2021

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

2019 BHZ 5K

Top of Black Mt after finishing Friday Night Vertical #4
I had a pretty decent week. Got my mileage back up to almost 60 miles. I could have easily hit 60, but I didn't feel like cooling down after the BHZ 5K so I ended up 2.5 miles short with 57.5 for the week. Good enough for me since I actually packed in quite a bit into those 57.5 miles so that I was feeling pretty shot by Sunday night. Two fun races. One fun but 100% all out effort race. And the most difficult mountain training run. All with some other stuff thrown in there as well. Gave me 12,172ft of elevation gain for the week. Almost 11 hours of time on feet. So I'm definitely feeling fit. What I'm not feeling is fast which is expected with basically zero road running. But being fit seems to be good enough to run around the same 5K time I've been running for over the last 2 years since high hamstring tendinopathy fell in love with me. Haha. I was actually amazed at how strong I felt at Sunday's 5K on the uphill. My 3rd time doing the course and the first time my tendons didn't hurt me or slow me down on the long uphill. So I'm really happy overall even if 19:37 would have made me cry prior to March 2017. This is just where I am now.

Although sticking to trail and mountain running has really helped with keep my tendon pain to a minimum, I was feeling it quite a bit through Saturday, and my plantar fasciitis has been KILLING me since Mt Washington. My right hip is out of whack since Mt Washington as well, so I'm thinking this is all related since it almost always is. The interesting thing is that after my hard 5K effort, I feel better, like maybe things fell back in place? I don't know. Hopefully. All I know is that I can't afford a deep tissue massage right now due to my dental bill and quarterly water bill due in July. Another reason I can't afford it is because I need a new watch!

My Garmin Forerunner 220 has been having charging issues lately. Either won't charge or will "charge down" to zero. But it usually just took some cleaning of both points of contact for it to work. All of a sudden, this no longer worked by Friday afternoon. I didn't know whether or not it was the watch or the charger and Garmin customer service wasn't helpful (and actually rude). I never asked for a new watch, but I was told mine was too old to be replaced and when asked if it could be fixed got only the response of, "No." So I decided to order a $12 replacement charger in hopes it was just that. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Ugh. I should add that my watch stopped working the day I also dropped my $100 sunglasses (bought with a gift cert), and then my washing machine decided not to spin the next night (luckily got it to work after many attempts). So it looks like Bad Luck Leslie is back! 😠 Add to that the fact that the Mt Washington Road Race is run by shady people so that the top 3 masters are NOT receiving prize money so I'm shit out of luck and could have gotten a used watch off eBay with that. But instead I had to pick up TWO extra overtime shifts this week to pay for a new watch. 67 hours of sitting on my ass. I'm going to be so miserable. At least the overtime shifts are Club Motorsports details, but still.

So yeah, about the prize money at MWRR. I knew in the past that top 3 age-graded had received prize money, but this year on the website it CLEARLY stated that top 3 masters received prize money and even defined masters as 40-49. Christin Doneski sent me this screenshot of it the day after the race...



I actually didn't think we got prize money until Christin sent this so I asked Paul Kirsch. He contacted the race who said that that was an error and that age-graded masters only get money. It was immediately changed on the website.


The funny part is that they didn't change the definition of Masters so it's still defined as 40-49. Haha. So it's still inaccurate. But whatever, it's fine. It's not going to change. I understand it was a mistake, but they should still honor what they originally had in there, in my opinion. It's not like they don't have the money. The $100 still wouldn't have even given me back my full entry fee.

Not sure if I should continue on my feelings about age-grading in general... but why not? You guys LOOOOOVE my long rants, right?

Maybe it's because I'm still in my early 40s that I have zero interest in age-graded results, but I honestly don't get why it's a thing. And this is how I've felt about it long prior to this year's MWRR. This incident has just brought it to the forefront in my mind over the weekend. To me age-grading means absolutely nothing, and I think it's just made up fantasy times instead of true events that actually happened at a particular race. I certainly don't think people should be awarded prize money for it. And to be fair, maybe that also means masters shouldn't be awarded prize money either. I don't know. I actually believe that if prize money is available for masters then it should actually be for all 10 year age groups over 40, but that's rarely the case and different discussion for a different day.

Here's a basic definition: "In running, age-graded scoring is based on how fast you run (by correcting it to what your speed would have been at your prime age) and a percentage value of the world record for your gender." Link to full article. This is just made up bullshit. My age-graded time from yesterday's 5K is 18:43, but I'm not in shape for that. I didn't train at all for a 5K. So should I be awarded for an 18:43 that I DIDN'T run? No fucking way. I was once in shape to run faster than that, and it was for real, not a number from some stupid calculation. I trained hard for those faster times. I deserved the prize money I won for those. I did NOT run an 18:43 and would never have deserved to be awarded as such. And if my much younger self  never ran that time, which I didn't, why would I be awarded for something I had the potential to do but never did because I never trained for it at the time. I had my chance and blew it. We have age groups for a reason. So that you're competing with those who are your age in reality, not in the matrix. Haha. We don't need age-grading for anything but to make people feel like they've accomplished something they haven't. There are so many more factors besides age that affect the outcome of a race. Everyone knows that. What you did on race day is a combination of all of those factors and your result is an absolute, not an abstract. Although I'm pretty sure I could find an 18:43 somewhere in this...



All this being said, this is just my opinion and doesn't mean you should scoff at age-grading like I do; I'm sure it's fun to look at the data, but that's all it should be. Fun. Not taken seriously. Oh I know. There are a lot of people out there who would adamantly disagree with me on this subject. And they would probably tell me that I'm still just too young to appreciate age-grading, but, honestly, I don't think so. I feel like it's a generational thing that will hopefully fade out over the next 20 years. Sorry...no I'm not.

And while I'm on a rant roll, I'll just leave this here...


I will either not respond, offer a meaningless "thanks" or give you my best fake smile...

"Mindless and annoying"- took the words right out of my mouth
So anyway...on with the week!

Running Totals- 57.5 miles. 12,172ft of elevation gain. Time on feet: 10h 50m. I wish this time on feet would help me not look like a fat cow, but it hasn't. I lose weight better by doing faster runs...so it looks like I'll be a fat cow forever. Yeah, yeah. I don't want to hear it. "You're not fat." Well, it's relative. I'm "overweight" to run fast. But oh well. It's either keep on a few pounds and not be in pain all the time. Or be in pain, lose weight, but then not be able to run so then I gain the pounds back. One thing I did decide to change starting yesterday is quitting the weight lifting. It's just making me look BIG. No definition in my arms at all. Just fat-looking arms. I will admit I like the "cleavage", but that should stay. I'm going back to Zuzka Light upper body and arms workouts which is mostly body weight so I will still stay strong but hopefully without that heavy weightlifting look. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about the gross, saggy skin on my huge quads. No idea how my quads got so big all of a sudden. Maybe from Insanity Max 30? That's the only thing I can think of. Oh well. Age is also a factor in all of it, as well, and there's nothing I can do about that other than die. And I prefer to live, so I'll just deal. Not like looking good did anything for me in the past anyway.

Monday, 6/17- Zero. Usual Monday zero. Just did the body exercises. Glutes, chest/triceps and abs. Got our asses handed to us today with 911 calls. I guess summer is here. Haha. We even jumped one of Bartlett-Jackson Ambulance's calls since we were right nearby. I texted them and asked if they wanted us to take it. 5 min response for us vs 15-20 min for them. No brainer. Rick texted me back with a yes and off we went. One of those weird coverage area/town line things that just doesn't make sense for response time for a Delta level call.

Photo of a mosquito imprint after I smashed it. That's art right there! Haha
Tuesday, 6/18- 14.1 miles. Now that John is out of school, I'm going to run as soon as I get off work at 7am. That way I'm home sooner. Bryan is technically supposed to be with John until 10am, but John sleeps late so Bryan leaves early instead of hanging out. I just want to be home by 10ish so I'm not wasting our day on myself like I would when he's in school. It's tough, though, because I always wake up at work very, very groggy so my runs are usually not as good. But it's what I have to do so I do it.

I ran right from work for a loop in the Green Hills. Hit the Outer Limits then the summits of both Middle and Peaked Mountains then looped back via Pillar-to-Pond Trail thru Redstone and back to work. 11.1 miles total. 2,139ft of elevation gain. 2:05:38.


Despite cloudy weather, John still wanted to go swimming at Conway Lake. With the public school kids still in school, this meant the beach would be deserted, and it was. I decided to see just how many rules we could break at once.

✔ No Bridge Jumping
✔ No alcohol
✔ No Dogs

All 3 at once...


I took quite a few photos even one that shows off my stomach rolls and hip cellulite for anyone who wants to tell me I'm skinny. Haha.







Peter Maskimow handed me that Heady Topper at the top of Mt Washington. I had to send it down in my bag in Paul's truck and then decided to save it for after my 24 hour shift.

Late afternoon was the usual Whitaker Woods Summer Series trail 5K. I was feeling pretty beat still from Mt Washington and this morning's run and probably the Heady Topper so I ran quite a bit slower in 21:39. Still finished first woman. I got John to jump in there with Phoenix. He was supposed to run just the mile, but he missed the turn and followed the walkers so he ended up walking (some running) the 2-mile course. I was surprised to see him as I was coming through about the halfway point of the 5K course. Haha. Phoenix wanted to follow me. He finished in 38 minutes and some change. I'll admit that I actually bribed him with ice cream in order to get him to do the race. So we went to Trail's End after that. Ran into Jeff Walker who was wearing an old Bradbury Mountain Breaker shirt that I literally almost wore today, too. Haha.

Start of the race

You can see John and Phoenix in the mix.

Me trying to stay ahead of Rich Fargo. Something I can't do at the Friday Night Vertical races. He's a great uphill runner.

FYI: This is a size SMALL ice cream. Haha
Wednesday, 6/19- 3 miles. I came really close to another zero day, but it was so nice out that I finally got myself out on the trail behind my work for something. 24:13. Also did glutes and back/biceps. Never got to the abs since we had three 911 calls after that. They all sucked since I was with the Crew of Chaos, which is what I call them. Every single time I end up with these people on Rescue plus my coworker for the night (not Jeff), it's so unnecessarily chaotic. I can't stand it. Just embarrassing. And said partner has tried to sweep one of those calls under the rug and not do the report. Not when you're with me, buddy. And that's also part of my extra job duties anyway so I threw him under the bus after giving him a week to get it done. You are not getting away with not doing your STATE mandated report especially if my name is attached to that 911 call. No excuse to be lazy like that.

Thursday, 6/20- 17.5 miles. After being too injured last summer to hit my usual runs, I couldn't wait to get back to Pleasant Mountain in Bridgton for the "Quad". It's the one run that always destroys me. I even "DNFd" my first attempt because I bonked so hard. The second time I made it up and down all 4 trails from bottom to top but not without bonking again and sitting by a spring I found pounding water. I almost bagged today's planned run there because the forecast called for heavy rain, but then I had a moment of clarity. Pouring rain meant not hot and no people. The only downside would be a slightly slower pace due to a lot of slippery rock slabs. I found it was a good trade-off to not be dying of heat stroke or sharing the trails with 100s of people. So I went for it anyway.

This time I was smart enough to stash a jug of water at the base of the Southwest Ridge Trail since this is where I always need it. Less than a 3 mile drive out of the way which was worth it. Then I headed back to the trailhead at the Fire Warden's Trail. I lucked out to have no rain for the run up this trail, but the rock slabs were really slippery, even on the way up, due to recent rain, but I somehow got a Strava CR on a segment of this climb. Go figure. I think it was actually before I got to the really slippery section, though.

At the top I took a left on the Bald Peak Trail. I actually made it across the open ledge and down to the road before the rain started just as I turned around for the climb back up around mile 4. The rain immediately turned to heavy rain and literally never let up the entire rest of the run, except for literally a minute at the summit once. Just a total downpour. But I couldn't complain since it kept the temperature cool. I actually had to put my rain jacket on to stay warm. Managed to snag another Strava CR on a segment up this trail. Pretty surprised by that since I was purposely keeping it easy so I didn't destroy myself too early.

Got a photo of the ridge before the rain started
Once back up to the top, I took the left to head .2 miles to the actual summit. I only stopped briefly to drink and eat something before heading down the Ledges Trail which is the shortest of the 4 trails at only 1.6 miles. Got a segment PR for this downhill probably only because I wasn't have to stop for all of the people today. I wouldn't see a single person during this run. I was feeling pretty decent until I turned around to go back up. That's when I started to feel the fatigue in the legs. It was tough switching gears again. Also tough knowing I had the longest trail (Southwest Ridge Trail) at 2.7 miles one-way coming up for my last one. I purposely do this trail last because it has the most gentle grade of all 4 trails (although it doesn't feel "gentle" at all) and it also gives me a bail-out point if I need to cut the run short and just run the 3-ish miles back to the car. I actually almost did this. The run down is mostly on rock slabs on an open ridge so it was really slow going in the rain. About half-way, I started hearing thunder. There was no way I wanted to be caught on that open ridge in a thunderstorm so when I got to the bottom and to my water jug I stopped and tried to look at the radar. It was pouring rain so hard that I couldn't keep the phone dry enough so it was making the screen go wonky. Probably spent 5 minutes between drinking some water and just trying to get the radar. Once it finally worked, I saw that the thunderstorms had passed on but that they would be back around 4pm, two hours away. Plenty of time. So without a legit excuse to quit, I headed back up the trail for my last time at the summit.

Although I wasn't bonking this time, my legs were just as shot as each time I've done this. It's just a brutal run no matter what shape I'm in. It was a struggle in that sense, but I felt good otherwise. Made it back to the summit and had about a minute when the rain lightened up just enough for me to get a few photos.

Soaked to the bone
Finally, my favorite part. The last downhill. And funny enough again, I got the Strava CR for the descent of the Fire Warden's Trail. Haha. I guess the slippery rocks didn't slow me down after all. I was happy to finish the run and get out of the pouring rain which just got heavier. 4:19:11 for moving time which was 7 minutes faster than the last time I did this run in 2017. Elapsed time was actually 25 minutes faster than 2017 so that made me pretty happy. 6,845ft of elevation gain. Here's a visual from Strava:



As soon as I changed into dry clothes, I drove back to the other trailhead to pick up my water jug. Just as I was slowing down for the left turn, a very young kid on a bicycle rode right out in front of me from a road on the right; he wasn't even visible until he came out from the trees blocking the view of that road. Scary because had I not been slowing down already, I probably would have hit him. I was maybe going 10mph at this point so I was able to stop instantly, but just think had I been even going 20mph. Yikes. Got back out of my car in the pouring rain to get the jug then headed right for Saco River Brewing. Oh and right at 3:57pm, another thunderstorm arrived. Haha.

The rain actually got heavier while I was at the brewery. I felt bad for the food truck people who had just shown up. Fortunately, people were ordering food, including me. I HAD to eat or I never would have made it out of there. The brewery had a 3 beer release today so I had two of them. All IPAs, but they were really good. Some guy tried to chat me up after his friends left. "Did you come here alone?" My response, "Always." Haha. Fortunately, that ended that conversation other than a few quick comments on the food truck, and then he skedaddled as well.


Poutine!

This was the radar after I got to the brewery.
I went home after this for the evening. No Tuckerman pub run for me tonight. Haha. Got all excited to find a package in my mailbox...until I realized it was just my subscription order for tampons. Hahaha.

Organic tampons, ladies! Don't be putting chemically treated cotton up that hoo-haa! Haha
Friday, 6/21- 6.8 miles. It's safe to say that my legs were trashed on Friday so I did an easy, slow 5.2 mile trail run with Phoenix on the low mountain bike trails. I've always considered this a good recovery run on less hilly trails, but I'm delusional. It still ended up with 720ft of elevation gain. Haha. It was really warm and humid for this run so Phoenix made a lot of stops in the brooks to cool off along the way. She was pretty good except she cut the trail so much (shortest distance from point to point as opposed to the trail; still following me but on a different route) that I sometimes had to call her back because she was too far away. She did a lot of chipmunk chasing but only twice did I have to threaten her with the word "leash" to get her back. Funny that this works. She hates the leash so much that to her it's a "bad" word that gets her back to me faster than just calling her to come. Haha. Ran just over an hour even.


I stopped at the Conway Library on the way home to get a book and a pass for the Squam Lake Science Center to save us $15 on admission. Noticed a sign for a teen program at 2:30 that afternoon. Movie and pizza. I was surprised John actually said yes to going when I mentioned it to him. I thought it would be a good way to maybe meet some other kids since he's so isolated all summer. Fortunately, there were other kids who showed up, some whose mom I knew, too, so he was happy to be there and ended up having a good time. I have to work this coming Friday and can't take him, but I told him that he can walk or ride his bike there or else I'll make him go to the Friday Night Vertical Race. Haha. Funny that that's a threat to him, when for me it's fun.

I took the dogs on a walk while he was at the library. I finally checked out the new trails along the river that parallel the Conway Rec Path. They were nice. Sadly, at some point I lost my Native sunglasses!! I didn't realize it until I'd been gone from the walk for over an hour. Ugh. I didn't have time to go back and look for them, and there were so many people on the trail that I was sure someone took them. So sad because I loved those things. Had them for over 3 years, too! And even more sad since they aren't replaceable. I used a $100 gift certificate to buy them; no way could I spend $100 on sunglasses. Bummed me out, but at least I had my running Tifosi glasses to wear.





Since John had gotten zero exercise today, I did make him try the Friday Night Vertical Race finally. I told him he could just hike it and that if he got too tired or if it was too buggy to just turn around. I told him to message me when he turned around. I always carry my phone for these races to take photos after and so that John can get ahold of me. But tonight I had a 3rd reason since this was after my watch completely died. I needed it for my Strava app.

Tonight's course was back to the same as the first one. I really hoped I'd run it faster since the first one was the day after I did the Warner Trail. I did end up doing it almost exactly a minute faster, but my legs were still total junk from the day before. Funny, the kid whom I mentioned in my Big A 50K post who didn't want me to pass him showed up tonight. He's a nice guy, but I still ended up passing him about half way up and beating him. Fortunately, he did not try to stay with me this time. Haha. I ended up finishing the 1.6 mile climb as the first woman in 21:30. 996ft of elevation gain. Andrew got some great photos of everyone tonight.



Ryan Murphy and me modeling the singlet. I'm too old and big to make a great model.
Once at the top, I hung out waiting for John. He never messaged me so that meant he hadn't quit. I was surprised! I finally called him, and he told me that he was still hiking up. So I waited awhile and then finally decided to run down to meet him which wasn't far from the summit. So I hiked back up with him. He was last, and everyone else had gone down, but he didn't care. I was glad I'd talked him into using Strava so he had his time at the finish. He was kind of into it. I watched him take his phone out of his pocket just before the finish so he could stop the timer then he walked to the view, titled his hike and saved it. I took some photos before we hiked down together.

John finishing the hike up Black


He was walking backwards a lot on the way down.
After we were done and out of the horrendous mosquitoes, we grabbed pizza and then the raffle started outside...in the bugs! John refused to go out there. I wanted to refuse, but I didn't want to miss the raffle. I won a baguette for QOM and then thankfully John's number got called for the raffle. I had to pick for him and snagged a really nice Craft men's tank. I could have been a bad mom and chosen something for myself instead, but I'm a good mom. Haha. Even though he said he hated it and never wanted to do it again, it was still good for him because he actually chose to finish it even though he didn't have to. He got pizza AND won in the raffle. So a lot of positive experiences thrown in with the negative ones. I just wanted him to try it once, and he did. So even if I drag him with me this Friday, I'm not going to make him hike it. Full Results



Saturday, 6/22- 9.5 miles. I planned to hit 60 miles this week and by Saturday morning, I had 19 to go! That meant I had to put in an effort today. I really didn't want to with the next day's 5k, but I knew I'd be hard pressed to make it up on race day (and I didn't). So I took the dogs on a run up Heavenly Hill first for 1.4 miles. Chill cut it short as always. Haha.

I didn't want to waste too much time so I opted for a road run, but chose Potter Rd since it was dirt. I ran very easy for this one and stopped multiple times to check Amy Bernard's progress as she was near finishing Grandma's Marathon. She was on track for a sub-3 finally so I had to keep checking. Since I was carrying my phone (in place of my broken watch), I was also voice texting with Christin Doneski as I ran. Haha. Finally one last notification for Amy to see she had done it! 2:58! Finally. So many years of trying. It actually gave me chills to see that. So happy for her. She trained her ass of for this one, and I'm glad it finally paid off.

Needless to say this was mainly a run of padding miles. Haha. I only did 6.1 as opposed to the 8 I had planned. I remembered my sunglasses and decided to run 2 more there to see if I could find them. 49:40 moving time for the 6 mile run.

View from Potter Rd
Made the drive to the Conway Rec Path and slowly ran another 2 miles to no avail. No sunglasses. So sad! 18:29 for this run in mourning.

My main goal for today was to get John to the lake to swim. It was really warm out so the beach was packed today. A lot of the every year regulars were there. Sadly one of them is a guy who's there with his kids every year. He's always really friendly, but I'm going to assume his girlfriend is the jealous type because he pretended like he didn't even know me. And she kept making him do PDA. Gross. Haha. We stayed for a few hours and then went home. With the nice breeze, I was actually able to sit on my deck and play stick with the dogs for awhile.

Sunday, 6/23- BHZ 5K- 6.2 miles. This race was once again part of the New England Pub Runner Series and since I enjoyed it so much last year, I definitely had to go back. This would be my 3rd time doing the course since the winter Bamboozled IPA Pre-Game 5K is exactly the same, and I did that one in 2018. It's a just a fun time, and it feels like coming home a little bit since I used to live in the area. Although I'm not doing the whole Pub Series, I still enjoy doing this one and Doyle's. I will probably hit one more this year as well. I was going to do the Narragansett one...until I saw it's $48! No thanks! Too bad, though, because everyone is so much fun.

I had no idea how I would do in the race. I've hardly touched road running in almost two months. My only speed work is the Whitaker Woods 5K trail run. I definitely wasn't in shape for a 5K, but I love them. While most people I know from the trail and mountain stuff were at the Gunstock Ascension race, I opted to drive 2.5 hours for a 5K. Haha. But honestly, that Gunstock race had ZERO appeal to me. Timed race where you only run uphill then take the lift down. Omg. The sitting on the lift would have destroyed me. That didn't sound interesting at all. And good thing I didn't go because I would have had to deal with hours of glares from my mortal enemy. Haha. Amazing how we've managed to avoid each other without even trying except for once for over 3 years now!

Our morning was way too early, and we were on the road by 5:15am for the drive to Weymouth, Ma. I arrived a little after 8am. It was already heating up. I so wanted to wear just a sports bra, but I had to wear my waist belt during the race to carry my phone. Without a watch, it was the only way to record it. Yes, I'll admit it. I want to have all of my activities recorded. But I didn't want to take a chance at having any photos of me wearing a waist belt in a 5K. Haha. So I had to wear a singlet. I chose my Run the Whites singlet over Six03 because Tom Hooper pissed me off earlier in the week. Haha. Tom and I get in tiffs all the time, and they only last about a week, so we're good now. He was mad I didn't wear the Mt Washington Six03 singlet he sent me for the race. Well, he DIDN'T send it to me. If he had, I would have definitely worn it. And every time he's sent me something, I've always acknowledged it. He refused to believe me that I never received it. Either he didn't send it or it got lost. But either way, I'm not lying. I never got one. So that made me mad enough to wear my Run the Whites singlet for the 5K instead of Six03. Passive agressive. I know. Haha. I'll wear my Six03 singlet at Escarpment.

So anyway, I did a 2 mile warm up on the course. My tendons and plantar fasciitis had been achy since Mt Washington, but I actually felt pretty good this morning, with it completely gone after the race. I saw a lot of familiar faces as I got back to the race area which was nice. Emer O'Donoghue, Mimi Fallon, Kim Ionta, Steve Houde, Paul Hammond, Fitz and Michelle, Amanda Watters and Mike McGrane. It would be a fun post race. I took Phoenix out for a short .7 miles. The car was way too warm when I got back so I started it up to give sleeping John and Phoenix some cool air while I raced.

I walked up to the start with Emer and then moved closer to the start near John Gorman. I really should have moved up more since I got stuck behind slow people right away. These people really shouldn't have been this far up, but I shouldn't have been so far back. It took all the way up the driveway hill and another good 1/10th of a mile to get around people to where I felt I should be. Most of the first half mile is all downhill before it turns for a long gradual uphill lasting about a mile. The last two times on this course I went out fast on purpose since my tendons have always slowed me down on the hill. Much to my surprise, I hit the hill and didn't slow down! I felt fine and really strong. I was actually able to power up it!! Yay! I started passing a ton of people, too. I was psyched. The only downside, though, was that I had taken the first mile out so fast to make up for this so it kind of bit me in the ass, but I don't care. I was just happy to be powering up this hill finally. As we crested the hill and started our way back, Fitz was in his usual spot taking photos, and wouldn't you know it? My singlet had ridden up in the back exposing the waist belt. Dammit! Hopefully, he didn't get any good ones of me. Haha.

Despite fading in this mile which should have been the fastest, I gave an all out effort and still passed the guy who had been in front of me on the last very slight incline. Less than a quarter mile to go and I heard someone on my heels. I didn't want to look back, but out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw it was a woman. Oh hell no! I was in 3rd. Somehow, I had something left so I surged ahead. With .1 to go to the finish. I took the right turn and heard someone yell out, "Go Rita!" It was a woman, and she was right behind me. Thank you for this being a downhill finish or I never would have held onto 3rd. I finished just 4 seconds ahead of her in 19:37. Definitely no Westfield 5K time but I was actually pleased with it. Slightly faster than last year and perfectly consistent with my 5Ks for the last 2.5 years (I was still running sub-19 5ks until I got high hamstring tendinopathy). For doing zero speed work and nearly zero road running, I was happy with this. I'm actually faster than I was over the winter. All of this slow mountain/trail running really hasn't hurt me much. So yay!

Terrible photo, but so far the only one from during the race.
I caught my breath then walked back to the car. With only 2.5 miles to make 60 for the week, I debated whether to just do it or not. Finally settled on not because I was here for the post-race fun as much as I was here for the race. So I changed clothes then walked back to brewery....to find a very long beer line. Grrr. It was kind of annoying since it wasn't moving, but it turned out that the keg had kicked so it slowed things down. Finally, they gave up and just started giving everyone cans. I was happy with that! I had a bribe to get John out of the car. A mobile frozen yogurt/ice cream stand had set up for the post-race stuff. Yay! John came out and got his ice cream. I was happy to get him out of the car this year. Except....he got his ice cream and went back to the car. Boo. I snagged a photo first, though.



The rest of the time would end up being a blast. I hung out with Emer, Fred and Mimi first. Then Mimi and I joined Kim Ionta and her husband, Chris, who was hilarious. In fact, they're both really run. And Kim is on fire this year with her running. Ran an 18:58 today at age 55. I started racing her 4 years ago when I was much faster and could beat her. Now? No way. Not even close. So good for her. Glad I got to hang out with them and funny that they're from Marshfield. Something always leads me back to Marshfield. Haha. Omg. We had so much fun. Fred Ross took a lot of photos to prove it.

Mim, Fitz and Emer

Fred captured me taking the above photo. Haha.


I can't stop laughing at this one since it looks like a dance ritual. Kim was trying to get a photo of me but we kept moving because of the sun.




Finally, they shut the outside party down and all that was left was me and this 80+ year old guy with whom I had been chatting with for the last 20 minutes. He was actually really cool, and I enjoyed his stories. He offered to buy me a drink, but I had to head out. Figures all I end up with is the old guy. But honestly if I were in my 70s, I'd go for him. Total catch. You can tell he was a riot back in the day. Chris, Kim's husband, made it his goal to come up with someone to set me up with. Haha. He told me I was too intimidating and scared guys off, but that he'd find me someone. Hahaha. It was funny. I don't think it's going to work, though. Just saying.

John and I drove down the street to Marathon Sports after the race. I did this last year since I can use my Runner's Alley gift certificates there. Marathon Sports is a MUCH better store so I always hold on to them. Between two Runner's Alley gift certs and two Marathon Sports gift certs, I had $95. While I could have held onto that and gotten a new watch after I got paid, I still couldn't have afforded one at full price so I just bought a bunch of little things that I needed, including a new pair of sunglasses. Only $25 ones this time. Worked out my spending down to just 3 cents shy of $95. Not bad!

I purposely put my reflection in the glasses.
The drive home was way too long, but I made sure we got a walk in as soon as we got into town. Picked up Chill from the house and took a short walk at the Albany Town forest. Half of the walk was bug hell, but the part by the river wasn't bad.




Another good week for me. Unfortunately this coming week (now) is going to suck with the extra shifts I had to pick up. 67 hour work week over 4 days is brutal. Running will take a bit of a backseat. I'll be lucky to hit 40 miles, but sometimes life does that. Haha. I need a "new" (used off eBay) watch for running so I'm doing what I have to do to get it done. Cranmore Hill Climb on Sunday will be fun. I signed John up for it, too. It's short and on the service road. And he can take the lift down. Loon Mountain Race is the following weekend, and I'm feeling pretty fit for it. We'll see where that lands me in finish place during a non-championship year.

Just came back to proofread this post and I got an email that my shift tomorrow is cancelled. Grr. So scratch what I said about all of that. Might try to pick up something else.

This song is speaking to me right now. It looks my job could be no more by next March so it's time to make a forced change. I'm thinking this is a good thing, but it's scary. And I'm not confident in my job skills for something better than waiting tables. But I NEED something better. The lead singer said this song is "about taking responsibility and doing what you can to change your life in a new situation."