Baystate Marathon

After the Ragnar Trail Relay at the end of June, I hit a low point in motivation...I was down and out, I had no desire to run and just wasn't into it.  I ran the Blessing of the Fleet at the end of July and "the not being into it" showed.  I totally gave up at 4 miles and just got though the race.  The week after that I ran the Run 4 Kerri 4 Miler and rebounded a bit from my piss poor Blessing and this got me a tad more motivated, so motivated that I said fuck it, I am going to sign up for Baystate, so that night I took the plunge and signed up.

The week after Run 4 Kerri, I jumped into the Bobby Doyle 5 Miler since it was a rare appearance of a USATF-NE Grand Prix Series in RI.  This race went way better than expected and from there on my training for Baystate was ON.

I ended up racing a few more times between Bobby Doyle and Baystate.  On August 22nd, I ran the Pour to the Shore "5k" Beach Race put on my Two Roads Brewing Company.  After that I put my focus on having good long runs and consistent training, nothing over the top, just solid paced long runs and decent mileage around 75 to 80 miles a week with a random 100 mile week that just happened thrown in there.  The confidence builder race came on September 19th at the Wicked 20 Miler in Salem, MA.  I was originally thinking of racing the 1/2 marathon there, but in the end I thought doing the 20 at goal marathon pace would be more beneficially and definitely a good indicator of exactly where I was with fitness...and hopefully a confidence booster.  All of that came true, which you can read about HERE.  After that I had a couple more solid long runs and two "supplementary races", the Fool's Mile and one week out, The Grog & Dog Jog.  Needless to say, I got a good mix of long runs, speed work and eating under my belt.

The Grog was one week out and other than a few PT trips to make me feel better about all of the lingering sorenesses I have been having and the random new ones that kept creeping up, I only had one more hurdle to overcome before race day....BEERVANA.  Beervana is my favorite beer fest and I have gone the last 5 or so years in a row...when signing up for Baystate, I didn't know Beervana was two days before!  Long story short, I went, behaved myself and drank pretty damn responsibly and got to bed at a normal hour and did not sabotage my race!

Me, Mark and Scott at Beervana

Race weekend.  Saturday was pretty uneventful, I got my bib #, hung out in the hotel room, ate, hung out, and went to bed.

Sunday morning...BRRRR...it was cold.  About 30 degrees when we headed over to the Tsongas Center.  Chilly for hanging out outside, but perfect for racing a marathon.  Everything went well pre race.  Pop-Tarts in the AM, parking, bathroom stuff...all good.  Even the off hamstring pains I was having on Friday and Saturday seemed to be behaving...so all that was left was 26.2 miles.

I will keep the race stuff pretty short...


0 to 12 miles Dave and I pretty much ran together every step of the way, I stopped REALLY quick to take a leak at 6 or so miles.  I caught up pretty quick, without going too fast to do so, and Dave and I were catching a pack of three runners that went out with a larger pack early.  We caught and passed them right around 9 miles and then after the water stop near 12, before going over the Rourke Bridge, I got a small gap on Dave.  I got over the bridge and starting this 10 mile loop for the second time.

12 to 20 miles...after I realized that Dave was not going to come back up beside me, I knew I was on my own.  There was no one in sight in front of me and I had a lot of work to do.  I went through the 1/2 marathon in 1:18:57, pretty perfect for my goal of breaking 2:40, but with half of the race to go, I knew anything could happen and it usually does.  There was a slightly stronger headwind from 16 to 18 or so than on the first loop, I had been hitting pretty much right under 6 min miles and then had one that was a 6:04, which made me slightly nervous for a second, but I reminded myself there was some wind and it was still under the 6:06 pace I needed.  Before heading over the Tyngsboro Bridge for the second time, I could see an orange singlet and was happy that I was reeling a runner in.  I think I was in 7th at the time and went by this guy around 19.  I went through 20 miles in 1:59:19, give or take and had just run a 5:46 and 5:49 for mile 19 and 20 and was pretty excited that I felt pretty darn good.  I was getting into my stride and feeling strong.  I thought at this point that 2:40 would happen and that I just needed to hold it together.

Right after 22..

20 to 25 miles...after seeing the 20 mile split and feeling that I could reach my goal, I think I had some confidence that made the next few miles roll pretty well...I dropped mile splits of 5:45, 5:49, 5:46 for the next three, this included the point where I almost got run over by the Wicked Witch of the West!  After 23, I could see two runners in front of me and they were coming back fast, I passed both of them pretty quick and thought I was now in 4th place.  I headed around the corner and could see one more runner pretty far ahead, but I was still moving good.  Miles 24 and 25 were 5:54 and 5:55 and I found myself moving into 3rd place right at the 25 mile marker.

25 to the finish.  To my surprise, I was still running quickly, I was able to run the last down hill HARD and went through the 1 mile to go with confidence, I knew I would now not only break 2:40, but also break 6 minute pace!  My legs were pretty tired with a 1/2 mile to go, but I was cruising, I came around the final corner and sprinted all out to the finish, 57 seconds for the last 0.21875.  I had FINALLY broken 2:40 and not by a few seconds, but by 3 mins and 45 seconds!  2:36:15 net time and 3rd place overall.  My old PR (2:40:47) was from the National Marathon in Washington DC from 2009 and this was only my third marathon PR in the dozens that I have run.  Starting with marathon #1, here is my progression.

2003 - Hartford Marathon - 2:56:02
2005 - Hyannis Marathon - 2:46:45
2009 - National Marathon - 2:40:47
2015 - Baystate Marathon - 2:36:15

Dave finished in 6th place in 2:43:55, faster than Cox in the Spring, but a slight wrong turn cost him about a minute.

Full Baystate Results

After the race, we headed to the Lowell Beer Works which is right near the finish and had a few beers and some food to celebrate the hard work.

Check out some Level Renner Coverage of the race!

Wicked 20 Miler

Over the last few weeks, I was looking at possibly running the Wicked 1/2 Marathon as something to race before the Baystate Marathon. I thought about it more and more and then decided I didn't feel like racing a 1/2 marathon, but trying to run marathon pace for 20 miles seemed like a good idea. I thought it would be a beneficial training session, if it went well I would have some confidence going into Baystate and it is definitely the type of run that is a lot easier with others around and having fuel on course. Training has been going pretty well, but having this long effort would be the best possibly indicator as to what I might be capable of in 4 weeks.

I decided I didn't feel like driving up to Salem at 4am on Sunday morning for the 7am start, so I left on Friday after work. I arrived around 8pm and grabbed some food and a beer at the British Beer Company. It was right around the corner from the hotel and a safe bet, since I have eaten there many times. I was in and out of there, back to the hotel and in bed by around 10pm.

Race morning, up at 5am and off to the race site around 20 mins away. I was a bit surprised to see the amount of cars when I got there, since I was just about an hour early and it seems people get to races later and later these days. However, all was well, there was plenty of parking and the bib pick-up was easy, leaving me time to check out the sites with the sun just rising. It was a cool morning, but it was humid.

Collins Cove

I did a short warm up of just over a mile...waking up the aches and pains that have been developing from training, everything seems to feel better after some running around, so I was good to go. I got over to the line and no one seemed to want to be on the line. This was a bit surprising, since there is a 10 miler and the 1/2, along with the 20 that I was running.

The nice part about the race was that they used different colored bib's so you could scope out your competition. There didn't look to be many "faster looking" people, but I did notice Erica Jesseman, whom has run under 2:39 for the marathon and I have battled with her in a couple races in the past. She was also standing with a runner that looked pretty quick. Other than that, it was anyone’s guess as to what would happen when the race started...and as it did a 1/2 marathoner was out like a rocket and I went out pretty easy and within the first 200 meters, it was pretty obvious there was not going to be too many people in front of me.


 As we headed out on the 2 “loop” course, I saw one 20 miler ahead of me, but that was short lived. Erica and her buddy were right behind me and within the first ½ mile there were only around 4 or 5 runners from the shorter distances ahead. A kid in a black singlet pulled up beside me before the mile, he had a 20 mile bib on and within a minute later Erica was with us too. We had gone through the first mile in 6:18, which was right where I wanted to be, not too fast, but not too far off the 6:05 goal pace. There was a lot of traffic to run though and a few small ups and downs as well. On the first longer downhill, Erica and black top dude gapped me and I let them go. I felt it was too early to be running that pace, if I was to stick to my plan. I did not know exactly what “that pace” was, as I decided not to hit any mile splits in the race and just go off feel like I have been in all my runs and just look at the overall pace here and there, but I just knew it was a tad faster than I wanted to go at 3+ miles in to a 20 miler. The way the course works, is the ½ marathoners did one big loop, the 10 milers did a slightly shorter loop, turning around 5 miles in and the 20 milers did the 10 mile loop twice. This information became important less than 2 miles after I was gapped. They had about 150 meters on me when we got to the 5 mile mark. I noticed others going straight, they went straight, but I also noticed an arrow to go around an island, where there was a water station and like 5 volunteers. I was almost by this island when one volunteer yelled, “half or 20?” in which I said 20 and then had to quickly make the turn that he didn’t make the other two take. I tried yelling at them, but they didn’t hear me. Erica’s friend/teammate was right behind me and he also yelled, but it became clear a little later, that they did not hear us. I am not sure how much further they ran, but they must have added on about a half mile.

So, now I was leading. Erica’s teammate Ryan pulls up next to me and him and I fall into a good rhythm together. It was good to have someone to run with (half the point of doing this race and not doing a solo long run). It got me into a nice race groove. We had some small talk, but I am not a big talker when racing. Turns out we are both running Fall marathons, he is running Hartford and was doing this race as a “tempo run” as he wanted to run 2:30 at Hartford. The middle miles, while running with Ryan seemed to be a bit quicker. I knew we had to be going just under 6 min pace at the slowest, it turns out we were, with splits of 557, 553, 558, 551, 556 from 6 to 10. We were together running through the start finish area, seeing the time on the clock at 1:00:12. Nice…even though I wanted to run 6:05 pace, which is my hopeful marathon pace, I also had an A+ goal of breaking 2 hours. If I could run strong though 15 and feel good, it looked like it was possible.

Ryan and I started out to do this loop again. We would see lots of runners coming from the other direction and would also pass lots of runner, between that and dodging cars, it kept things interesting. Ryan started pulling away a little bit around 13 miles. It was just enough to keep me going though. He had a tiny gap, but I was still able to work off him and now get into my own groove. This was good for me, because I will likely end up alone at some point at Baystate and will need to work through some rough patches etc. We came into the 15 mile spot, which would be our turnaround, this was good mentally, one more leg to run, 5 miles back to the finish.

On our return trip we finally saw Erica, and black singlet kid. She had a slight gap on him and we had a pretty good gap on them. At this point, I was just waiting for any slight downhill, my legs were pretty tired, but my energy level was high. I was pretty drenched from all the sweat, being such a humid day, but I had taken my two gels and had some water and Gatorade and felt like I was fueling pretty well. No cramps, no stomach issues, just some heavy legs. I never felt bad in the last 5 miles, but I was working a lot more now, counting down the miles, looking for mile markers. I tried to work the small downs, getting any momentum I could, especially knowing the last mile or so, was a gentle uphill back up to the finish. The hill is not steep, but it looks long, as the road is open with no tree cover and it was getting a bit warm too. I felt like I had a bit of an upswing in pace from 18 to 19 before hitting the uphill and I was just looking at the time on my watch assuming I would be right at 2 hours, counting down the mins to go. Eventually, I could hear people yelling and YAY, there is the finish area! I came around the corner with time to spare finishing in 1:59:52. I was about a minute behind 1st place. Full Results  I was pretty happy. I still felt pretty good, just tired. I grabbed some water, sat in the car for a few mins, trying to dry off and then I set out for a short cool down. My legs felt pretty good on the cool down.

Waiting for the awards took as long as the race did! But I came away with $200 bucks, a drawstring bag and a finisher’s medal.

The take home...

After the race, I had one thing in mind, Far From The Tree Cider. Any race I do, I look for a brewery or brewpub. In this search, I found a local cider mill. They were set up like any small brewery, tastings and growler fills. I had some time to kill before they opened at 12pm, so I grabbed a chocolate coconut iced latte from a coffee shop called Jaho Coffee & Tea, it was delicious. Then the walk to Far From The Tree began, it was about a mile away, I stopped at some of the Salem attractions, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial and The Burying Point, which is the oldest graveyard in Salem (1637).

Eventually making my way to the cider mill, tasting were $3 for (5) 1oz pours. They had 8 ciders on tap and you could choose (5). They were all pretty damn good. I think my favorites were the traditional dry cider and a smoked pineapple and jalapeno cider. The jalapeno was very very subtle; I think that’s why I liked it.

Far From The Tree

Cide list

Goodness to come

After some samples, I made my way back to the car with a stop at Tavern in the Square to have a beer…in a BOOT! I then stopped one more time at Joha for another latte and then back to Warwick I went.

Spaten Oktoberfestbier

All and all it was a super successful race, now back to the grind for the next 4 weeks until Baystate.