On June 13, I ran the 4th race of the Mainly Marathons New England Series. This is a six-day series that includes marathons in each of the six New England states. I didn’t do the entire series. I just did the Vermont race.
I’m working on finishing
my 5th circuit of marathons in all 50 states, and I needed one more Vermont marathon. There are several marathons in Vermont, but
most of them conflicted with other plans.
This race was the best schedule fit, but I needed to be able to recover
sufficiently to run a marathon just 11 days after the FANS 24-Hour Run. It’s only the second time I’ve run a marathon
this soon after a 100-mile effort. On
the plus side, this race didn’t have any time limit. If I had to, I could walk the whole way.
This was a fly and drive
trip. The race was in Springfield,
VT. I flew to Hartford, CT the day
before and drove to my hotel in Brattleboro.
From Hartford, it was about 75 miles to get to Brattleboro.
When I arrived, it was
too early to check into my room. While I
waited, I explored the town. This is the
Creamery Covered Bridge in Brattleboro.
I didn’t need to pick up
my race packet until the next morning, so after checking into my room, I had
time to do a workout at the hotel before dinner.
I had an early dinner at
an Italian restaurant that was withing walking distance of my hotel. Then I went to bed early, in anticipation of
getting up early.
I slept well at first,
but I woke up around midnight, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was still awake at 1:30, when I started to
hear a loud repetitive beeping. I
couldn’t tell for sure where it was coming from, but it was too loud to
ignore. I was about to get dressed and
call down to the front desk when the noise stopped. I went back to bed, but I was never able to
get back to sleep.
This was the third
straight night that I didn’t get enough sleep, but I didn’t dwell on it. After getting up, I just focused on getting
ready for the race.
The race started at 6:00
AM, but they offered a 5:00 early start for people needing more than six
hours. I felt like I was recovering well
from FANS, so I took the regular start.
The drive from Brattleboro to Springfield took about 30 minutes. I needed to pick up my race packet before the
race, so I wanted to get there by 5:30.
When I arrived in
Springfield, I could see the course from the highway. I could see runners who took the early start. I was surprised how many there were. Between the marathon and half marathon, there
were about 170 runners. At least 100 of
them took the early start.
The temperature at the
start was in the low 50s, but the forecast high was in the 80s, and I expected it
would be at least 70 degrees by the time I finished. I dressed for the warmer temperatures that I
was expecting in the second half of the race.
I wore gloves for the first hour.
The course was a short
out-and-back along the Toonerville Trail, which is a rails-to-trails path. For the marathon, we had to run 12 laps. The start/finish area was gravel, but most of
the course was paved.
Like all Mainly Marathons
races, they had a single well-stocked aid station in the start/finish area. We each brought our own bottles, which we
could keep on the table while we were running.
Besides water and Gatorade, there were cookies, candy, sandwiches, and
other food.
I felt like I was
sufficiently recovered to run a marathon, but I wasn’t ready for an all-out
effort. I started the race at a pace
that felt comfortable. I wasn’t too
worried about my time.
The trail was in between
the highway and a river. We often got
good views of the river from the trail.
Our best view was at the turnaround, where we could see these waterfalls.
In the first few laps, my
pace was somewhat erratic, but I was averaging about 10 minutes per mile. The course was relatively flat, but I started
to notice that I ran faster as I approached the turnaround, and I found the
pace to be more tiring after the turn. I
started to suspect that it was downhill before the turn and uphill coming back.
My only breakfast was two small cookies,
so I felt I needed to take in more calories during the race than just
Gatorade. I occasionally paused at the
aid station to pick up something to eat.
That forced me to either slow down or walk while I ate, so those miles
were slower.
For the first half of the
race, I was running by myself. I knew
some of the runners who took the early start, but they were each in the middle
of a lap when I started. I wasn’t able
to run with anyone who was going at my pace.
After six laps, I was
half done. So far, my average pace was
just a little bit slower than 10 minutes per mile. I wasn’t sure if I would run the same pace in
the second half. Already, it seemed to
be taking more effort to run at the same pace.
I also expected it to get warmer in the second half.
The course was well-shaded. I knew it was warming up, but as long as the
sun wasn’t on us, I still felt fairly comfortable.
There was one wheelchair
athlete. During my 7th lap, he sped by
me as we were getting closer to the turnaround.
He slowed down coming back from the turn. That confirmed my suspicion that if was
downhill before the turn and uphill after the turn. You couldn’t actually see it. The difference in slope was fairly subtle.
From that point on, I
made a point of picking up my effort after the turnaround, to make sure I wasn’t
slowing down. I found myself speeding up
before the turn and then speeding up some more afterward. That led to my running faster in that lap.
Early in my 8th lap, I
finally noticed that it was getting warmer.
The sun was getting higher in the sky, and there were places where it
was shining through the trees.
During that lap, I
noticed that a faster runner was coming up behind me. He would’ve passed me, but I sped up on the
downhill section before the turnaround.
Then I sped up some more coming back.
I had my fastest mile so far.
I eventually discovered
that the guy behind me was a member of the 50sub4 club, so I eased up just
enough for him to come alongside of me.
Then we ran together. We ended up
running together for several miles. His
name was “Mac,” and I learned that he’s also form Minnesota, and he has done
the FANS race. As we continued talking,
we discovered we both live in the same city.
I didn’t realize it at
first, but Mac was on pace to break four hours.
He was a lap ahead of me. That’s
the only reason we were able to run together at this point in the race.
I had a bottle at the aid
station that was filled with Gatorade. I
expected to have to stop and refill it at least twice. I finished eight laps before I needed to
refill it. I questioned whether I was
drinking enough, but it never seemed to hurt my race.
As I continued running
with Mac, we started recording mile splits that were faster than nine
minutes. I was now running at least a
minute per mile faster than I was in the first half of the race. Somehow, our conversation made the pace feel
easier. It quickly became apparent that
if I kept running with Mac, I would easily run negative splits.
My 8th and 9th laps were
my fastest so far. I still had three
laps to go, but Mac just had two.
Halfway through the 10th lap, I started to question whether I could keep
up with him for another lap and a half.
As we started Mac’s last
lap, I fought hard to keep up with him.
After that lap, he was done. I
still had to run one more lap on my own.
Without Mac setting the
pace, I slowed down. My first mile
without him was about a minute slower than Mac’s pace, but it was still faster
than my average pace in the first half of the race.
After the turnaround, I
noticed the soreness in my legs as I started running slightly uphill. I still kept up the pace though.
After the course leveled
out, I saw a red building up ahead on the other side of the highway. I remembered seeing this building near the
beginning of each lap. I was within half
a mile of the finish.
By the time I reached the
red building, I saw other landmarks that I knew were close to the finish. I could almost see the last turn.
I came around the last
turn, ran past the aid station, and finished the lap. My time was 4:13:22. I was roughly nine minutes faster in the
second half.
The finisher medal had
three pieces that linked together.
Runners who did more than one race in this series had longer chains of
medals.
Everyone received the top
and bottom pieces. In between were
medals for the individual races. For today’s
race, I had a choice of two different Vermont medals. One was an older style. The other was the new style. Both were in the shape of Vermont, but the
new style had icons for different things Vermont is know for, such as cows,
covered bridges, and maple syrup. I
chose the new style.
After the race, I spent
way too much time talking to people in the finish area. By the time I got back to the hotel, more
than two hours had elapsed since I finished.
After a race, I usually
skip lunch and eat an early dinner. I
was too hungry for that. I didn’t have
much to eat before the race, and the snacks I ate during the race were no substitute
for a meal. I had to get cleaned up and
change clothes first, but then I went into town to eat a late lunch.
The food I ordered was
way more filling than I expected. At
this point, it’s not clear if I’ll be eating dinner. My late lunch may have been a very early
dinner.
Lack of sleep didn’t
bother me during the race, but I started to feel it after lunch. I had a bad case of the afternoon
sleepies. I spent the whole afternoon
resting at the hotel.
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