The day before this race, Friday, Doreen drove to Dover with her parents. I went for my Friday run directly after work, and then drove to Dover by myself without first going home. I packed all the supplies I needed in the morning. I had a rotten meal at the Newport Pizza Hut – service and the food stunk, still makes me mad – and eventually made it to Dover around 9PM. Race started at 8AM the next day. We spent the night in my in-laws camper.
The day of the race, Saturday, I arrived a little after 7AM, and happy to see Gary Larson again. With his niece and another runner, we did a 10+ minute warmup:
At 8AM the race director, George Rolleston, called everyone together and fumbled through the funny, but pertinent story about letting someone know if you DNF. There were 87 people signed up. If someone is not accounted for at the end of the race, desperate measures will be taken to find the person, including calling their home number and telling them, ‘YOUR <relationship name> IS MISSING!!!!!’
Everyone then got in line,
and we were off.
Of the 87 runners, 15 to 20 got in front of me at the start, including Gary Larson and his niece. I ended up passing all but four. Pretty high placement, and actually won my age group, winning a subway gift card!
Mile one 7:14, mile two 7:23, mile three 7:32, and last .1 miles 35 seconds; total time 22:44; overall pace 7:20. Not really a well executed race. Even pace is the way to go, and this was not that. However, I am happy with the last three years times:
Year Total
2015 22:44
2014 23:17
2013 23:26
My training is going well.
During the last 3/4 mile of the race, the young (less than 15 year old) runner in front of me stopped at Winter Street, turned around, looked at me, and threw his arms up in the air. I gestured ‘go left’ and yelled “left! left!”
When I got to the turn and started running down Winter street, I yelled “take the next right!” The runner stopped, turned around, and started running back to me. Oh no! I said “Stop Stop – you were right!” I pointed to the next turn and said “that’s the next turn.”
We did that the rest of the race. Poor guy probably lost 30 or more seconds, and ran several extra yards. Poor me could not catch him even with him running in circles every few seconds.
At the end of the race, this picture was taken of the people who came 5, 6, and 7th place in the race: a 70 year old runner who will be doing his 100th half marathon on Thanksgiving day (6), me (5), and Gary who also turned 70 this year (7.)
Here is a picture of me waiting for the awards:
Here are the results
A very surprising announcement was made at the end. Next year’s race will have a new course, starting at the High School not the YMCA. This was the 18th year in a row this course was run, and I have done it 8 times. Oh well, nothing stays the same. Maybe next year’s course will be similar to the High School Cross Country course I ran back in 1982.
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