Run to Win

I got down to the Patriot’s Day 5 Miler today, which is Veteran’s Day.

I’m glad that I got there early; they put me on parking duty and I got to warn people to park higher and higher up the Eastern Prom as the parking lots filled up. Between the race and a boat launch, they filled pretty fast. Once I was basically in the road, there was only 5 minutes left to the start of the race and the few people still coming in were there for the boat launch and most tried running me over rather than listening to what I had to say so I let them head down and not find a place to park.

The race had great weather. It was 44° out and quite sunny. There was a chilly breeze, but the runners did not seem to mind it as much as us folk that were just standing around. The start began over by the East End Beach, and the finish was about ⁸/₁₀ of a mile away near Marginal Way. The trail looks like it is finally getting repaired and is in much better shape than the last time I was over in that area.

I had a front row seat (well, standing position) at the finish line, and got to hit the plunger as each runner crossed the line to mark their time. The general consensus was that the course was a little short, with Ethan Hemphill powering into a sub-25 first place finish. Christine Reaser won the women’s race.

There was a great turn out today; there were around 130 runners for a noon start in mid-November.

(Results)

This past Patriot’s Day, I was running the Boston Marathon in the wake of a Nor’Easter. Up here in Portland, though, the Nor’Easter was in full effect, which caused the cancellation of the Patriot’s Day 5 Miler by the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Greater Portland. It was not safe to hold the race, and while I was running down in Boston the storm was tearing apart the trails and roads here in my home town. There is still quite a bit of damage (especially along the water front) that has yet to be repaired over 6 months later.

The cancellation of the race meant that the longest running race in the state of Maine was going to lose its title to a “young” race that was only a little over half of it’s age. All is not lost, though, because they have finally rescheduled the race for Veteran’s Day!

There will be no entry fee to run, and the course has been modified to avoid having to close down traffic. The start and finish will be near the Eastern Promenade boat launch, and long sleeve shirts will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis. There will still be cash prizes for the top 3 male and female runners.

In order to run, you must fill out an entry form and bring it with you. Registration for the original Patriot’s Day race does not count; you must have a new entry blank filled out when you arrive. The race begins at noon on Monday, November 12^th, 2007. You will want to make sure that you arrive a few minutes early to register and hopefully receive a shirt before they run out.

Click here to download the registration form (pdf)

This week last year I had settled into the house and had time to write quite a bit. All of the news had to do with running, and there were various tips on working out and weight lifting.

• I finally got back to my animated series this week last year. This time, the animation was of my photographer performing a bridge rather than of myself. In general, he’d do the exercise while I set up the camera, and then we would swap positions and he’d snap the pictures. We didn’t get any good ones of myself, so I used the ones of him. I also discussed the benefits of doing bridges after a query from Bud Gibson on the subject.
• The Patriot’s Day 5 Miler is always on the same day as the Boston Marathon (except this year when it got cancelled). Last year was the first time that I ran the race here in Portland.
• I recommended that you always run facing traffic, unless there are local laws to the contrary.
• In marathon news, Paul Tergat got injured and had to scratch the London Marathon, and Lance Armstrong announced he’s running the New York Marathon. Rumor has it that he is running it again this year, as well.
• I continued my thoughts on the New Rules with New Rule #12 (fast vs slow lifting) and New Rule #13 (warm ups may not make you warm).

The results of the Patriots Day 5 Miler are now up at the Maine Track Club’s website.

As I mentioned yesterday when discussing my Patriots Day race, the weather was fairly conducive to a quick time if not a record breaking time. A small bit of headwind early in the race was tempered by a lot of tailwind later in the race.

Ethan Hemphill of Dirigo won the race for the fifth time in a row with a time of 25:38, over a minute slower than would have been necessary to win the $1000 purse for running under 24:30.

Heidi Westerling of New Hampshire ran a solid 28:44, beating second place Kristin Pierce Barry by 52 seconds. She ran on my shoulder through the wind for the first two and a half miles, but I was unable to keep up with her after she dropped a few spare hammers she must have been carrying.

There were 432 finishers.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Maine Patriots Day 5 Miler went off today at noon. This annual race has been a mainstay in Portland for 77 years now. This year is the first time that I have run it.

It was a fun race. The course is not particularly imaginative, but they do close off some roads which makes for a nice run. One person tried cutting through the course but they didn’t hit anybody. There was a fairly monstrous headwind from mile 1 through about 2.5, but the rest of course had that same tailwind or else was not overly effected one way or the other.

I wound up running about 2 minutes faster than I had expected to considering my haphazard training. I even outkicked a fellow Dirigo runner at the end, somehow.