Read Karen’s account of her journey up to Bar Harbor, Maine, this past weekend to run in the Mt. Desert Island Marathon.  It’s an inspirational story with a very happy ending.  For those of you who may have never run a marathon before, it’s only a matter of time before you will.  Read Karen’s report to get a real “taste” of what the experience is like.

Jim and I arrived in Bar Harbor in the late afternoon on Friday. We spent Friday and Saturday enjoying the town’s shops and restaurants and just relaxing. Businesses all throughout the island had signs that said “GOOD LUCK MDI Marathoners” placed in their windows. It was very welcoming! There was access to Acadia National Park from our motel property, so we went for a nice walk on carriage roads in the park. It was post-card beautiful!

At the pasta dinner Saturday night the race director, Gary Allen, made us all feel very at ease with his humor. He talked about the hilly, challenging course and urged us to make sure that our goals for race day were realistic. He then introduced the first guest speakers, Stephanie Tait and Matt Hill of Run for One Planet. These two very interesting people run a marathon each day as they make their way across the continent to gain support for environmental causes, one step at a time. You can check out their web site to learn more at www.runforoneplanet.com  

Stephanie and Matt will be running right through Salem next weekend!

Then Sheri Piers spoke. She was the 16th finisher in the women’s marathon trials, and lives in Maine. Sheri is on the cover of the May/June 2008 issue of New England Runner magazine. Very inspiring speakers! The evening finished with Gary telling us all to “Go to bed!”

Marathon morning was chilly. I was quite cold at the start, glad that the race is so small that Jim was able to stand right with me until the end of the National Anthem to keep me warm (and to take my fleece when it was time to run). The race started and so did the rolling hills. I like my hills “rolling” so I was pleased with the terrain. My kind of race! The scenery was unbelievable! The sky was the brightest blue, and the foliage brilliant oranges and reds. There are mountains and water everywhere in MDI; ponds, lakes, streams, and many coves and harbors along the coast. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera!

The first half marathon zipped by as I enjoyed every bit of scenery. I had been keeping pace for a 4:30:00 finish (My “ambitious” goal!) I wasn’t sure I would be able to hold that pace in the second half of the race. At 18 miles I was STILL on pace for 4:30:00, and I was still feeling good. But I also knew that miles 19 through 25 were mostly uphill. In my mind, I was expecting “HILLZILLA” or something. (Yes, running Lake Winnepesaukee was still fresh in my mind!) I was relieved to find that the hill wasn’t as bad as all that! I was running pretty strong, and then I hit a rough patch after mile 23 for about a half-mile. I just focused on getting to mile 24 for some Gatorade, and when I reached it I realized that I was only a little over a minute behind 4:30:00 pace! I decided that I was gonna go for that 4:30:00 finish. I picked up my pace and began passing people, which gave me confidence to keep it up. As I came past the 26-mile marker, there was Jim with a rather surprised look on his face. We had figured I would be finishing closer to 4:45:00, so he wasn’t expecting me so soon. He yelled for me to “GO!”

Somehow I managed to make up 2 minutes in that last 2.2 miles!

As I crossed the finish line, a volunteer wrapped me in a Mylar blanket then led me to a chair where she took the chip off my shoe as another volunteer gave me a cup of water. A high school boy placed the medal around my neck. Another nice volunteer gave me my “Finishers” tee shirt, then led me to the tent with food. I grabbed a few nibbles and met up with Jim.

I was feeling so proud of myself! I exceeded my best-case goal, finishing in 4:29:08, which is a huge improvement over my Carlsbad marathon finish time of 4:47:52. I left Mount Desert Island with a very satisfied sense of accomplishment. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have been able to run in such a beautiful place, and grateful that my body (and mind!) stayed strong. I know it sounds really sappy, but it really did feel like a journey of sorts. I look forward to doing this marathon again. Next time we plan to bring the family and stay longer!

Susan Keezer, Kathey Moskal, and Allison Rourke all traveled to Dorchester this past Sunday to run in the Boston Firefighters Memorial 10K.  This was Susan’s first 10K and a PR for Kathey.  Great job, ladies!

355     Allison Rourke     55:03     8:53 pace

453     Kathey Moskal     57:15     9:14 pace

683     Susan Keezer       65:09     10:30 pace

Last weekend we had two Wicked members, Danny Leadvaro and Sharon Tassel, run in the ING Hartford Marathon.I  They had their own Wicked support team there also:  Sarah Hayes and Maria Ramirez.  Danny ran a very impressive first marathon with a time of 3:39:47 (8:23 pace) and Sharon also ran extremely well, finishing in a time of 4:36:49 (10:34 pace).  Sarah and Maria ran with Sharon for the final five miles.  Thanks go out to Sarah for providing the pictures.  I’m not sure what caused Maria to be sitting on the ground with a pained expression and a nasty cut, but she most definitely qualifies for the “There Will Be Blood” award. Also, for the record, I tried and tried to get Maria “to stand up straight” but “she” wouldn’t cooperate.

Great job!

As was reported previously, Wicked members Bill Morse, Jay Curry, and Dan Cooper recently took on the challenge of the Vermont 50 miler.  Read what Bill and Jay have to say about this extraordinary experience. Bill Morse:

Jay, myself and Dan all finished in good spirits,physically spent but unscathed/uninjured, and Steph ran a very impressive 20 mile leg to anchor her relay team–Team Kokopelli–with friends Brian and Claudio who flew in from Seattle for the “Vermont Weekend”. Jay finished at about 10 hrs. 25 mins. I was about a minute or two behind him and Dan was just over 11 hrs. I think that I can speak for all that we had a fabulous time. We had great accommodations in a quaint/spacious Vermont hideaway less than a mile from the race start/finish, delicious home cooked meals, and enough running through the hills and dales of Vermont to last a very long time. The weather was great for 90% of the race–overcast low 60’s. T-shirt or singlet and shorts were perfect even at the 6:40 am start. A couple of downpours came in later in the day but stopped soon allowing us to keep the body from cooling off too much. The views, despite the mist and clouds were non-stop spectacular. We passed many, many spots that could have made perfect postcards. The fall foliage was in typical Vermont splendor. We had glimpses of sun, an occasional breeze, and even a rainbow arching across the landscape later in the day.

This was my second 50 miler (Stone Cat in 2002), Dan’s second (Vt. 50 last year), and Ironman Jay’s first. We started out running together with a threesome of very talented “ultra” ladies from the GAC club. We knew that their long distance resumes could help to get us through this feat. Soon Jay surged ahead and Dan and I hung back with the GAC group. The pace seemed comfortable to me but by the marathon distance it began to feel too slow. I’m not sure why but by the time our group reached the 6th aid station at 30.2 miles I was feeling great and was ready to kick it up a “notch” to see if I could catch up to Jay who I had heard from Steph’s team passed through the 6th aid station about 20 minutes ahead of us. I left the aid station a little ahead of Dan wondering whether or not this was a foolhardy thing to do–I still had almost 20 miles to go and Dan had been a pleasure to run with for the first 30 miles. Why change what was working? Maybe I was becoming delirious but off I went!! As with the entire 50 mile course I immediately encountered a massive hill close to a mile long. The GAC ladies were in front of me but were walking. I ran most of this hill passing the threesome for the last time in the race. I ran more and more of the uphills eventually catching Jay by the next aid station. We were able to run with or near each other to the finish offering encouragement to each other especially as we left the last aid station. A strong downpour just before we hit aid station # 9 turned the single track sections into very slick mud. I took one “face plant” when my toe caught a root. I recall swearing alot over the last five miles because of the mud which just added to the misery of burning “quads” and calves. After all the hills, the mud, the downpours and penetrating aches over the last 10 miles, the sight of the finish line was beyond words. The feeling of accomplishment will hopefully continue for days and weeks.

So what is next for some of Wicked’s endurance “lunatic fringe”? You’ll have to ask Jay. Within minutes of finishing he reminded me that we just ran a time that would qualify us to enter the lottery to run the Western States 100 Mile Trail Race in California next next June. NOOOOOO WAAAAAAY!!!

–Bill

Jay Curry:

Well,  Sunday morning, Steph had us up at 4:30am so we could start getting our stuff together, eat, and get down to the race area by 5:30am for the pre-race meeting. The weather was in the low 60’s and a little humid, no rain though, just a light mist. After hearing the pre-race meeting, we went back to the car to sit down and relax before our 6:40am race start. The race started out on a cement road for about a 0.5 mile before turning onto a hard packed dirt road. The group of some people from GAC, Dan, Bill, and myself were all together for about the first 4 miles of road before turning onto single track. Once there, we noticed some people scurrying about on the trail either standing still or running back toward us. We then heard them scream “BEES!”. Great, some people got stung and there was a swarm of bee’s buzzing around this trail. So basically we went into a full sprint and went through them without getting stung. After a while, the thought of running 50 miles was starting to set in. I started to really focus on my breathing, keeping myself loose, and on my pace. In the beginning I was running everyone else’s pace, but thanks to Sal and the ultrarunning book he gave me, I learned that each person needs to run at his/her own pace, too fast and you’ll burn yourself out, too slow and you will have trouble going fast later on. Before I knew it I was running by myself. The course was beautiful, lots of great single track, nice dirt roads and plenty of scenery. I met some very nice people on the trail including a guy who climbed Mt Everest back in 1992. That made for some interesting conversation from about mile 20-30. Around mile 30 I started to have some stomach problems. After thinking about what may have caused it, I remembered that the water I went to drink at the last aid station was actually HEED. I heard some runner calling it HEAVE and that they were having the same problems as me. So it was tough to eat from about mile 30-45. I was just surviving on water, coke, ginger ale, and chicken broth from the aid stations. It was great, I would drink these things, run great for about 2 miles, then start to fade until I got to the next aid station and repeated. Around mile 35 or so, I heard a familiar voice say, “Time to start racing boys,”  IT was Bill.  We ran together pushing each other every step of the way. He was hurting, I was hurting, but we kept each other in check. We finally made it to the last aid station and it started to pour out. The rain  made the single track trails  very slippery. This is where I started feeling better. I was on slippery single track that  really helped me to focus. I forgot about the pain  in my legs, my hunger, and I basically just let the finish line pull me in. We did a short climb up Mt Ascutney(about half way up), traversed the mountain, then began a 0.5 mile descent to the finish line. I felt really focused on finishing, just thinking to myself that 6-7 years ago, after running my first half marathon, that I was never going to run anything over a 10k again, and here I was running a 50 miler. These races really test a runner to see what you are made of. You have to dig deep within yourself to find out what you are made of. It was great having Dan, Bill, and Steph there as well. Dan, stay off the road and away from apples. Seeing some familiar faces out on this race was very comforting. I think that is why I enjoyed doing these past 2 ultras this summer. However, next summer my focus is on Ironman Lake Placid, an ultra of a different sort.

My goals of finishing, meeting new people, enjoying the scenery were all accomplished. My race time was 10hours 36 minutes. I can’t believe that I ran for that long. Bill, Dan, Steph and her team all finished this race in one piece, no injuries. This race was a lot of fun, but not as hard as I thought. The aid stations were all well stocked. My only complaint was that they gave us tote bags for a prize. Not that exciting. I thought that the Jay Mtn. Marathon (33 miles) was much tougher and took more out of you. I remember in that race that at mile 28, I was done running. However, my legs still felt pretty good on the flats and uphills at Vermont; the downhills were a little tough until the end.

See you on the trails

Jay

A special report from Karen Giroux, roving reporter for WRC, on her and fellow Wicked

runners’ experience at today’s Applefest Half Marathon in Hollis, New Hampshire.

Results:

Fred Bollen 1:56:45  8:55 pace, # 3 in age group!! (he won an apple pie that
he didn’t claim–I woulda claimed it….)
Karen Giroux 2:01:17  9:16 pace (a PR on this course by 4+ minutes!) Damn I
couldn’t break 2 hours…grrrr! This is the 5th year I’ve run it.
Eileen Dunn 2:04:34  9:31 pace (and the farthest she’s ever run!)
Melissa Jaynes 2:06:38  9:40 pace (awesome job! I think it’s a half marathon
PR, but you’d need to check)

This race is hilly! It’s also “sneaky” since the first half of the race the
hills are “rollers” that go down more than up. Then that all changes…. The
second half of the race goes more up than down, with an evil hill that just
keeps on going from mile 9 to mile 10! Then you run past where the finish
line is about a mile and a half before you get there (you can hear it, you
can see it, but it’s not where you think it is!) Oh yeah, and there is
another good hill on the way back to the finish line, too.
The weather was perfect for a fall race, cool, crisp, sunny and a little
breezy. The foliage was beautiful on the really scenic course this year.
There was the usual bagpiper at the start of the hills. The high school kids
man the water stops. This year we were treated to themes of “Grease”,
Christmas, and “cowboys and Indians”.
Then of course there is the post-race spread with all sorts of homemade
apple treats, especially the applecrisp made by the “townies”. This race is
very well organized. There are even showers available to use after the race.
This was the 26th year. (and the shirts are nice this year! Grannysmith
apple green half-zip tech shirts!)
By the way, Fred’s wife gets the “best cheerleader ever” award! She is the
nicest, most sincere person!