I woke up at 5:40 AM. I noticed that my darling wife, Christine, was on the couch. I did the dishes from the previous night and then tried to wake her. She told that she had trouble sleeping during the night and was groggy. I knew better than to try to wake her and let her sleep. I quietly got ready. It was 55F so I just wore shorts, an old Medved Madness tech shirt, calf sleeves and my blue Salomon SpeedCross 3 trail shoes. I pinned on my race bib, made sure that I had my water bottles filled, put some HammerGel in the pouch of my 10 ounce hand bottle, put a change of clothes in my gym bag, kissed Christine and headed out at 6:55 AM. I arrived down at Hopkinton Point at Mendon Ponds Park around 7:15 AM. I got a pretty close parking spot ... one of the benefits of getting to races early.
I said "Hi" to lots of trail running buddies who were running the race: Mark Monachino, Rob Tyler, Chris O'Brien, Chris Patterson and Andy Ciaio. Amy Lord and Prem Kumar were volunteering and were greeting runners. I wandered around before I got out for a 0.7 mile warmup run, link here. The weather was 55F, 51% RH, 5 mph SW wind, sunny.
I lined up a bit farther back at the start while the color code of the flags was explained: blue flags and blue/white streamers were for loop 1, pink flags and pink/black streamers were for loop 2 and red flags and red/black streamers for loop 3. This was my sixth time (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and this year) running the Medved Madness so I knew the drill.
And ... we were off! I tried to hold back and run easy. My unofficial plan was to try to stay with Andy for a while since he said that he was not going to go out hard.
The first loop had a small stream crossing, a bog area with little mud but holes that I had to careful of, mud and hills. Oh yes ... and the course leads into Hundred Acre Pond for about 50 feet just before the end of loop 1. I was about 50 feet behind Andy when I got up to it. Splash! Splash! My trail shoes were soaked and full of water which made running hard work. My Garmin time for loop 1 was 42:26, official time was 41:42, distance was 4.81 miles, 8:40(!) pace. I had a lemon/lime Gu and a drink of water before I headed back out.
The second loop had mud and a lot of open grassy trails with no shade. It was warming up and so did I. I resorted to a run/walk when I needed to. I only had a 10 ounce water bottle so I had to conserve my water and use the water that I found at the self-serve aid station. I remember running and running through parts of MPP that I don't often run through. On and on. My Garmin time for loop 2 was 1:22:48, official time was 1:22:31, official loop 2 time was 40:49, distance was 8.91 miles so loop 2 was 4.1 miles, 9:57 pace.
The third loop was long and longer because I was tired. I estimate that it had warmed up to at least 70F. I just told myself "run the flats, run the downs and do what you gotta do on the ups". I remember just running and running. One highlight was seeing runners from another race heading towards me for about 1/2 mile about halfway through this loop. Luckily they were following pink flags. I remember walking up Cardiac Hill and seeing the dual pink and red streamers on the trail on top. I knew I was almost done so I willed myself up to a run and kept it for the 0.3 mile to the finish. I heard Amy tell me to go around the tree and to the finish line. My Garmin time was 2:18:18, my official time was 2:18:16, official loop 3 time was 55:45, distance was 14.41 miles so loop 3 was 5.5 miles, 10:06 pace. My splits were: 8:51m 8:43, 9:29, 7:57, 9:23, 9:27, 9:55, 9:33, 11:23, 10:24, 9:40, 8:52, 10:10, 9:55 and 11:10 over the last 0.41 mile.
I was hot and thirsty. I am sure that I made a couple of people nervous when I staggered a bit before I had a bit more water and potato chips. A bit of shaved orange mango ice from xx helped too. The catered chicken dinner by xxx also helped. Mmm! I sat with Andy and Chris Patterson. We all agreed that it was a bit hot and that we were glad to do done! The memory of running with subzero wind chills in February was still fresh so we were careful not to complain too much about running in 70F weather in May
The results were up later that night. I did pretty well, 53rd out of 129, link here. I was 8th out of 21 in my M50-59 age group, link here. My splits were: 8:51, 8:43, 9:29, 7:57, 9:23, 9:27, 9:55, 9:33, 11:23, 10:24, 9:40, 8:52, 10:10, 9:55, 11:10 over the last 0.41 mile.
I left after the awards and went straight home. I had made up a plate of leftover chicken, ravoli and salt potatoes before I had left and presented it to Christine when I got home. She appreciated it ... plus there was enough for leftovers later.
Soon ... my legs were up, I was drinking coffee and checking out my email and Facebook. What a way to spend a beautiful Sunday morning!
Other runners had wonderful exploits during the day. Joe Ciecierega (4:06:46) and Tina Pellegrin (6:23:28) ran the Pittsburgh Marathon. Steve Levitsky (3:50:55), Rob Wilder (3:50:00), John Muoio (3:37:49), Kathy Reardon (4:23:50) and Frank Quattrone (3:49:59) ran the Mississauga Marathon. Frank, who will turn 60 next year, needed a 3:55 and BQed by 5 minutes!
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