beach 2 beacon 10k

tyler was supposed to write this blog post from his point of view but he claims hes just soooo busy with work and he might not have a recap to be ready until the weekend and and and... too bad buddy. this recap is going up today (im already three days later than i wanted to be with it!)

as always, the beach 2 beacon 10k race last saturday did not disappoint. this was my 10th year running it (they really should have given me a medal i think, obviously) and for the 10th time i loved every step of the 6.2 miles. i love the place, i love the people, i love the feeling of starting and finishing another race. i wish this race happened every month!

i knew that this year would be a little different since we now live a lot farther away from the race start than we have in previous years, and everything takes a lot longer with a baby. i also was supposed to get in an extra 6 miles on top of the race for marathon training so i had to logistically figure out how to do that as well. i set my alarm for 4:15am, wanting to be ready to leave the house by 6:15. we were going to bring duke to my moms and had to pick up our friend jamie on the way, so we decided we would take two cars. henry was still sleeping when my alarm went off, so i went out and got 2 of the miles done (nothing like warming up 4 hours before the races starts!). the air was humid but cool, i knew this was going to be a great race day. i packed up all of henrys stuff for the day, made coffee and oatmeal with granola, and we headed out pretty damn close to 6:15. all was going to plan!

since i grew up in the town that the race was in (cape elizabeth), i knew the back way to get there and bypassed the backed up traffic along the casco bay bridge from portland (many people only know one way to get to the race, and it gets pretty congested). when i got to the start line there were already busses dropping people off and although the papers said my parents street would be open until 7:15am, the police didnt want me driving down the road (it was 6:45!). luckily they let me down and i got to my parents house. a short time later i got a call from tyler that they wouldnt let him down the road no matter what he said. they parked the truck there and i ended up having to go and pick them up, dog and all. this was not part of the plan and i was getting nervous that we were going to be late (i like getting to the start at least 45 mins ahead of time to try to find people!)

we got back to the house, dropped off the dog, and got ready to leave for the start again. i texted michelle and we found each other (blog fail, no photo!), and although i didnt see many of the people i had wanted to meet up with before the race started, i did see a lot of people i didnt know were going to be there (many of which i havent seen in a long time!) so i was happy with that.

waiting for the race to start

stop go. stop go. stop go. (me and allie)

when the race started, me, allie, jamie and ty all started running together and allie and i just talked and talked and talked. she was taking pics and we were smiling and just having a great time. as we approached mile one (which seemed to fly by!) we decided we wanted to take pics at all the mile markers:

mile 1

after weaving across the street, through runners, avoiding the water stop... we decided we werent going to do that at every mile. we waved at the spectators along the course and just kept chatting throughout the miles. on the turn at mile 3 i turned around to find ty and jamie and couldnt see them. oops. we kept running until mile 4 and then jamie caught up with us, which meant ty was all alone. i had told him i would run with him so i stopped on the side of the road and waited. i was afraid i would somehow miss him but then i saw him on the other side and crossed the street to met up with him. he asked why i had stayed and waited for him and i told him i wanted to run and finish the race with him. he kept saying go on ahead, dont wait for me, etc etc... in my head i kept saying "would you just shut up, i want to run with you". (as youll soon find out, i should have taken off and left him in the dust...)

shortly before mile 5, right at my favorite part of the race (ocean view), i heard something coming up behind us. i turned around and saw a moving lighthouse coming right for us! i pushed ty off onto the sidewalk and moved over, and yup. a lighthouse. freaking. PASSED US. i told ty "oh no, this is NOT happening!" but it did. and we never caught back up to him. ridiculous. have you ever been passed in a road race by a lighthouse?! (side note: why cant i stay in the very very back end of the pack and run with my baby jogger but a LIGHTHOUSE can run in this race? i find that slightly unfair...)

seriously.

the hills (and im talking HILLS!!!) start at mile 5, and there seems to be about 100 of them (theres really 4, maybe 5). and after youve already run 5 miles you really dont want to power push up the hills... but we did. ty did an awesome job, the spectators cheer really loud (and even lie, some old man said "its all downhill from here!" LIAR!), and there was even a lady out on her front yard grilling bacon and yelling "beach to bacon!" and handing out bacon to runners. sadly we were on the wrong side of the road for this, but it made me smile. as we ran down into the park i started to feel really emotional (go figure) and knew i was about to start crying. we powered up the last hill and i put my sunglasses on so that no one could see me bawling my eyes out haha. i pulled myself together as ty and i headed closer to the finish line. the electricity from the crowd along the last half mile is amazing and i just tried to take it all in. suddenly i noticed that ty was picking up the pace. i looked at him and he had an odd sort of smirk on his face... id seen that face before. he was up to something.

about 100 yards before the finish line ty kicked it into full gear and sprinted ahead, dodging people left and right. i tried to keep up but couldnt get my legs to move fast enough, and that jerk crossed the finish line ahead of me! i looked over to him and he had a shit eating grin on his face. see, i should have left him in the dust long ago! i had crossed the starting line just ahead of him but he still beat me in the race by .1 second. unreal. (but as ty would say, everyone who sees my time knows the truth haha) xo. the finish line pics from marathon foto are pretty priceless (actually theyre probably $50)... ty has the biggest smile and i have this look of wtf?! haha. its love. (id also like to say that ty looks like he is having fun! someone please remind him of this next march when it comes time to register).

my original plan was to then run back to my parents house (just under 4 miles away), but when i finished i could feel that i was pretty chaffed (tmi) and i had forgotten to put on or bring any body glide, so i decided against it. i ran around the park until my watch read 9 miles for the day, and went and met up with the boys waiting for the shuttle bus back to the truck at the start line (we usually stick around for awhile and then the lines are really long and take forever, but we went right over there instead and got on within about 15 minutes). apparently there were cops everywhere and bomb sniffing dogs at the start, and snipers at the fort for the awards ceremony... i somehow missed all of that and not once did the bombings from boston cross my mind. these races are not going to be tainted in my mind. i love running and i am going to continue to do so without fear.

finish line

lets see if i ever run with you again!

i dont know if you can see it but the 3rd sterling to run this race was a henry!

and he came in 17th place overall. clearly not related to him.

until next year...