Monday - 0 - HOWEVER, I am officially registered for the "Beast of the East" half marathon scheduled for Sunday, 9/13 in New Hampshire! This looks like a great prelude to the Cat's Tail...
https://www.facebook.com/kismetcliffruns?sk=timeline&app_data
Tuesday - 0
Wednesday - 4.6 - Gay City State Park trails. New jobsite means new trails to explore! This job takes me to Manchester, CT, known back in the day (which, by the way, was a Wednesday) as "Silk City," and it was well-earned. My boss (and neighbor and friend) was born and raised in Manchester, and had the lowdown on the city. The Cheney family were icons in the silk industry, and virtually made Manchester in its early days. The house we're working in was built in 1899, and most likely a duplex built for employee housing, as were many homes in the area. Some reading here:
http://textilehistory.org/CheneyBrothersSilk.html
So I'm planning a run in town, and I want to include some of the historic sights of Manchester. Nothing like getting a taste of the town by running it!
Thursday-Friday - 0 - Got a fantastic workout by deconstructing a second floor bathroom in the hot, humid air for two days, ripping out walls and floors and hauling the debris down to the truck. I changed out my shirt every time it soaked through, and went through 4 shirts each day, sweaty bastard that I am...153 pounds and counting...
Saturday - 4 Miles - Warmup, and Shore 2 the Pour 3-Mile Beach Run (Or, "Runs With Turtles for Beer"). What a fun event! As friends Beth and Jeff noted, they'd be hard pressed to drive 90 minutes to run a 5k, but damn was this worth it, and it's a fundraiser for an Audubon Preserve, which was part of the course. I left the house at 8, and rolled up to the beach/park in Stratford an hour early. Plenty of time to get situated, and check out the setup that Two Roads had going on. Picked up my race bib and tech shirt, and ran into the TNT crew for the race, which consisted of Bob, Jackie, Mark and Scott, who was running his first race of the year! He's usually on the other side of the lens, but jumped in on this at the last minute. Great call.
We ran a short warmup of the last half of the course in reverse, noting the wind direction and rising heat...
At 10:45 the race started, and there were nearly 400 runners ready to rock (I'm guessing it was the beer?). The first mile was as expected: with the breeze, hot and crowded and very soft, gravelly sand. I stayed with Scott, and as we reached the dirt trails near the point, we hit the loop part of the course and I passed a few people. Bob had opened up a fairly sizeable lead over the #2 dude (who I think was the guy who passed us in the parking lot and said something about "there's my competition," but I may have misheard that). I stayed close to Scott, and dodged runners coing the other way after the loop. Back onto the soft sand, there was a brisk headwind, but it felt really good. I took a higher line than Scott, gained some ground and passed him at around mile 2. The last part of the race involves more beach but firmer sand, a turn onto a really soft and uneven stretch of sand along an inlet, and some short dirt singletrack before a sprint to the finish across grass and sidewalk. I passed a couple of kids 1/4 mile from the finish, and one of them came charging past me in the last 100 yards. I sprinted alongside him as fast as I could, but realized he had faster legs and the advantage of youth...so I finished 29th out of 360+? Totally happy with my race, too!
Post race, I found out that Bob had won handily, by over a minute. Jackie finished 16 seconds ahead of me, Mark a second ahead, and Scott just behind. We replayed our race recaps over a couple of pints (5 available, I sampled the 'Lil Heaven Session IPA), served to us by the Two Roads crew out of their vintage Airstream trailer! They also showed up with a "Beer Bus," a restored vintage school bus, and a restored VW panel van, circa 1961-ish? Much better shape than mine, for sure...need to address that.
Bob's 1st place got him a growler trophy, good for a free fill at the brewery, and a tasting/tour for 10. Awesome. As I was anticipating a long drive home (95N, summer, Saturday), I said my goodbyes and headed toward my truck, but not before being stopped by the kid who sprinted with me at the finish, who thanked me and said it was the highlight of his race. Very cool!
Great race, and I'll be back next year!!!
You'll figure out the balance the rest of us 'worker bees' figure out... have fun with the Beast of the East! Stratford seems far to drive for a 3 mile run... however sounds worth it!
ReplyDelete^^^^^^^like Beth said
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