A Two-Race Weekend

This was a weekend packed with racing. With that in mind, we headed to Ryan's parents on Friday evening in preparation.

Race #1: Merrimack River 10 Miler

Saturday morning, after not much sleep and finally waking up about 30 minutes before we were supposed to hit the road, Ryan and I made our way over to Andover to run the Rivah :-) On the way there, Ryan reminded me that this was my first race post-baby, and also first race in over a year and a half. Yikes! So no pressure :-)

We arrived to find the parking lot filling up fast. After a quick trip to the port-a-potties, a few laughs listening to the race director yell out "28 minutes", "27 minutes 28 seconds" and "Hurry up! Don't make me put a time restriction on these port-a-potties!" and a quick hello to fellow Trail Monsters Ian, Jeff, Four, Erik and Floyd, we were off into the woods.


Gotta go through the mud! (Photo credit: Scott Mason Photography)


Chugging along (Photo credit: Scott Mason Photography)


Focused (Photo credit: Scott Mason Photography)

I got a bit caught up at the start behind the masses as we all funneled into the single track and through the mud, but as we made our way along the river, I settled into a good pace, passing a few people here and there and moving along pretty well. It was a great day for the race - sunny and not too warm, not too cold. It was a bit windy along the river's edge, but overall, the conditions were nothing to complain about. There were patches of mud, but the course was in good condition.

I did my best to run hard on the flats, and then keep up the momentum on the short and steep hills in the middle of the course. I'm still a bit tentative on the downhills, but I didn't lose too much ground to anyone around me on the hills, and managed to pass a number of people on the uphills, so I felt pretty good about that. As I was nearing the powerlines, the lead runners, including the winner, our friend Kevin, started to head back toward the finish. This is one of the fun things about an out-and-back course for a mid-packer like myself - I actually get to see the fast runners race! It was fun to cheer for and get cheers from my fellow Trail Monsters as we passed each other too!

I finished in 1:25:31 (90/220), a 5 minute PR on this course from 2008, so I was pretty psyched! All the other Monsters had great races too - nice job everyone! Full results here. (*Somehow they neglected to list me as a Trail Monster, but I was proudly sporting my TMR singlet like all the other Monsters!) All in all, a good run on a fun course, and a nice way to start off my 2010 racing season.

We didn't hang around for the raffle, as we needed to get home to Sam, who was being entertained by (or entertaining) Ryan's parents, sister and brother-in-law. We also had to get ready for Irene's 60th birthday dinner, which was lots of fun and good carbo-loading for Race #2 of the weekend!

Race #2: North Shore Wellness Fair 5k

What better way to celebrate your 60th birthday than by running your first 5k? Or for that matter, your first race ever, when you've never really exercised, let alone run, until recently? Go Irene go! Ryan concocted a plan to find a 5k for Irene to run - and found one in Salem this weekend. So, we were up early for the second day in a row to head to a race! But this time it was the whole family. We loaded into two cars and made our way to Salem. It was a bit of a crunch for me, trying to feed Sam, go to the bathroom and get ready to go, but we all made it to the start line on time.

Sam and I were running with Irene, while Ryan paced Meghan.

Sam gearing up for the race

At the start line

Ryan and Meghan made their way into the middle of the pack, while the three of us hung at the back with the rest of the stroller crowd. Irene was pretty nervous, but when the race started, she took off running! The course wound through the streets of Salem, with the route being mostly flat with a few hills. Irene did great, mixing running with walking and keeping up a great pace. Despite being intimidated at the start, she settled in well and was in great spirits the whole time. Irene was very excited with her pace at the first two mile markers - it was so great! Sam and I kept pace with her the whole way, trying not too push too much, but to encourage her as we ran along. Of course, it was Sam's first race too, but she didn't seem to think much of it - she slept most of the way :-) Irene finished in 46:08, when she had hoped to finish in an hour! Awesome :-) And Meghan came through in 26:28 for a great race too! It was lots of fun to help Irene with this race, and we're so proud of her for doing it, and doing it so well!

All in all, a great weekend of racing and lots of fun!