The white Mountain Milers Half Marathon
Oct. 29, 2000 - North Conway NH
by Papa Bear
My wife and I just came back from a nice weekend in New
Hampshire. Interestingly, there seemed
to be a line around the Massachusetts boarder where we passed from fall into
winter. We last saw the sun somewhere
in southern New Hampshire and didn't see it again till we got to Connecticut on
the way home. And there was snow!
Not just flurries but 3 to 6 inches just
north of where the race was held.
The race is held every year in late October in North Conway, where
on a sunny day you can see the top of Mount Washington.
But as I said there were no sunny days this
weekend so we didn't get that glimpse.
The area is called the Mt. Washington Valley, and except for a mall of
ugly factory outlet stores south of town, it is a beautiful New England village.
And in spite being nestled in a mountain
valley, the course is very flat. I
highly recommend this race.
As we drove into town on Saturday, the temperatures were in the
low 30s and we had just come through some ominous snow flurries.
Worse, there were some very gusty winds and
3 to 6 inches of snow was forecast for race day.
I had several coolmax shirts and some cotton gloves but I was way
under prepared for this type of weather.
So we drove down to the ugly mall (for once I was glad it was there) and
found some stuff at a Nike store and at a ski shop so that when I was done, I
had some tights and a warm hat.
Race morning arrived with the temperature at 32, but no snow yet
and the wind had dropped to merely occasional gusts.
It looked like the gods had been a little kind (only a little).
So about 400 of us got off at 10:00 AM and I
felt pretty good. I actually took my
gloves off at mile 4 and ran without them until the wind got quite cold around
mile 9.
My goal was to do a 1:40 and I started out pretty well, averaging 7:30s
for the first 5 miles. At mile six I
got lazy (or perhaps to be more charitable, lost concentration) and I started
falling off the pace. I used the oldest
trick in the book: I would pick someone slightly ahead of me going slightly
faster and slowly reel him or her in one after another.
At mile 10 I fell off again and I did a
mental calculation that I would need to do 7:40s from there to the end.
Unfortunately it was getting rather cold at
this point and I foolishly dropped my hat when I was maneuvering it. Damn!
Since I just paid good money for this hat the day before, I went back and
picked it up and then carried on, loosing precious seconds.
The next couple of miles were tough and by
the steep little bitch of a hill under the railroad trestle at mile 13 I was a
little shy of my goal with not enough space to make it up.
I saw the finish line clock turn over from
1:39:59 to 1:40:00 but I was still a ways from the finish (good eyes!).
I crossed at 1:40:20, only slightly
disappointed. You might say I was in
sight of a 1:40. Anyway I'll take it.
At the awards lunch, we had hot soup, homemade herb bread and
brownies. Wonderful! I found I was 5th in my age group so that
was very satisfying. I also bumped into
Kathleen Nitschelm, a founding Flyer, who had come with her family from her
home in southern New Hampshire. She
managed to claim first in her age group.
Congratulations Kathleen!
On the way back we ran into some locally heavy snow and it wasn't
till we hit the Merritt Parkway that we saw the sun again.
As I look out my window and see the sunlit
crowds watching the Yankees parade, I almost wonder if it all really happened.
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