so...a little on the late side here, but figured I'd post some visual proof of the race from two weekends ago now, courtesy of my own personal paparazzi: Guido Geneseo.
This here is a shot of about the half-way point in the "downtown" of Cape Elizabeth. I love the patriotism of the Cape Fire Department--Go Big or Go Home, right?
And the proof is in the pudding here. And no, that wasn't a 
fat joke. But, I suppose this is proof that even fat guys can run. And run a bit faster than slow, to boot!
All said, this was a great experience. Still a little giddy about how well I did in comparison to my expectations. But getting back into training mode is proving to be a little on the trying side.
Having said that, I'm optimistic (perhaps falsely so) about both the Portland Trails to Ale 10K sponsored by Shipyard at the end of September as well as the 1/2 marathon in Conway at the end of October that I'm still trying to psyche myself up for. (More to come on this point.)
But all things being equal, I feel like I've started to embrace being a runner. 'Course this would've been immensely helpful say, 18 years ago when I was hating track and the long road workouts in the cold and the icy "track" workouts on a makeshift track in the school parking lot. But, I guess better late than never, right?
OK, first off some major thanks are in order. To all the volunteers who made the Beach to Beacon happen today--thank you! You're the best and I'm in absolute awe of your efficiency in moving and cleaning up after over 5,000 human machines! Truly amazing! Special thanks to each and every person that handed me or sprayed me with sweet sweet H2O! Honestly, I never realized how much of a difference water makes while you're running (I never ran any kind of distance race before, so lay off, huh).
Next, to all the spectators who cheered us on--a big fat Thank You! Never realized how much of a boost that simple cheer and that beautiful sideline enthusiasm can make. Really, I felt like I had a can of NOS in my back pocket every time I came into a group of spectators. Thank you for turning out!
To Julie Lake for carting our sweating, stinky hides around--thank you! You're the best and it's been far too long since we've seen you! Glad to have you back in our lives! And to Guido for making the long haul up here to the North-country wilds just to take a picture and slap me five--meant a lot! And I know Becca appreciated talking to you after her accident!
So, by this point, you know that the Beach to Beacon is over, I finished and I had a great time and am exceptionally thankful for all the people along the way. Really, I don't know if all races are like this one, or if B2B is an exception (and I mean that doubly in the sense of "exceptional") but DAMN! what a great event! And for how awesome everyone was, I feel like I need to commit to volunteer in some future year should I be denied entry.
And as long as I'm giving shout outs and mad props, I need to give a mad-dopeness award to my lovely wife for a truly Herculean effort. For anyone who doesn't know the back story on this one, Becca & I registered for this hootenanny together with the intention of training together and of using this race as a motivator to start getting back in shape. Well, as the cosmic whoopie cushion would have it, B got sick not too long ago. With a heaping helping of pneumonia. As in double-barreled. Yup. Both lungsacks. And at the same time, even. Needless to say, that put a little bit of a crimp in her stride. AND...then, after getting past the worst of the lung-buttery goodness, she was exposed to and tested positive for the old oink-oink. Yup. H1N1--the so-called Swine Flu.
So again, Becca has not really been able to train for this race. And then (yeah, as if that wasn't enough, right?), after she decided to walk the course so that she could at least finish, take this as Day 1 to train for another race, etc. her walking partner wound up in the ED last night. So, as we approached the stat line, Becca was resigning herself to having to walk this thing alone. But big thing here was that, in my humble opinion, I thought it took great big sacks of juice to step up and say "the past two months have pretty much sucked from a health point-of view, but eff it--I'm going to finish this thing any way I can." Big-ass awesomeness, right? Made me really proud, anyway, and if the rest of you disagree, you can flip the eff right off.
So, and this I was not there to witness, but Becca linked up with a couple of other gals that were walking the course and they were walking together, making good progress...until...wait for it....the girl walking directly behind my wife, gets run and knocked over by some kid on bike not paying attention. All three girls went down and needed tending to. The girl in front of Becca wound up in the back of an ambulance en route to Maine Med for her injuries. Becca, after getting cleaned up by the paramedics on scene, refuses to go to the medical tent and decides to walk back to the car to wait for us.
After doing the math, we realized, after the fact, that Becca actually completed the full distance of the race, just not all of it on the course. So, the sum up to this part of the race coverage: my wife, still recovering in one lung from pneumonia (yeah, it really takes that long to get over, believe it or not--just ask someone who's had it) and injured still managed to do 6 miles, give or take. In my book that's pretty awesome. And I think it deserved extra-special mention, since if you look at her name on the site, you won't see a completion time since she never crossed the finish line. In my, somewhat humble opinion, she won her own race.
Anyhow, watch for us on the Trail to Ale 10K that we start training for this week. Race is September 29th (I think). We'll be there and running our hindparts off for that beer at the end.
And finally, all that nervousness must have just channeled into my running. In the end, I had a great race, had a lot of fun, and finished in what I think, again in my humble opinion, is a very respectable time, especially for a beginner.
Results: Gun time - 1:20:06
Net time - 1:13:26 (in other words, the time from when I actually crossed the start line)
Pace - 11:49
Which is to say, better than the 12:20 pace I expected based on my last distance run. All in all a good day for a run. ...but next time, I'll remember to actually use the sunscreen...
fat joke. But, I suppose this is proof that even fat guys can run. And run a bit faster than slow, to boot!
