Run to Win

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by a woman from the Portland Press Herald about my habits listening to podcasts, particularly the Phedippidations show produced by Steve Walker.

The article was published in today’s paper, and despite the article not being about me (it just includes a few quotes), a picture of me is taking up about 1/3 of the front of the inside section that it appears in. A small sidebox appears on the front page of the paper that tells folk to look inside to read the story, which to my mind means I made the front page, right? Both pictures are above the fold, even.

Very exciting for myself, and hopefully of at least marginal interest to you.

Maine Today.com has the picture on it’s home page (at least for the moment). Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear on the article itself. The home page article is not going to last very long, but here is a screenshot that you can click on to get a larger version.

The Portland Trails 10k (the Trail to Ale) is this Sunday, beginning at the East End beach below Munjoy Hill. Anybody in the area that is interested in a traffic- and road-free race that ends at the Shipyard Brewery’s back door should make a trip over for it. The middle 5 kilometers is mostly on a gravel path, with a paved trail making up the first and last few miles.

As a bonus, a photographer for the Portland Press Herald will be there to take pictures of folk who listen to the Phedippidations podcast. If there are any Mainer’s that listen to the podcast and would like to speak with the lady from the Press Herald writing the article (whether you are running the race this weekend or not) then shoot me an email and I will forward you her information. Alternatively, they will also be at the Ogunquit Lobster Dash on Saturday.

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.