The 27th Annual Wachusett Mountain Race (3 Mile & 10K)

Wachusett Mountain Race (3 Mile & 10K) in Princeton, MA
May 25, 2019
This race is part of the USATF Mountain Series, I ran as a Gate City Strider.

I'm halfway to Mountain Goat status. 3 completed, 3 to go.

I'm not sure where to begin with this race. My family joined to cheer me on. 

It wasn't raining! Apparently I signed up super early, as I got bib number 3!

I'm glad I opted out of leggings at last minute or I would have over heated.

The first half of the race was a 3 mile hill climb and that was the USATF scoring portion. The second half makes the race a full 10k. To be honest, I'm not sure I've earned my team any points. 

Official finish photo at the end of the 10k!

The first 3 miles I powered my way up with the help of a GLRR member whom I've run with at races in the past. 

Race friend. We played interval tag at Gate City Marathon last year.

On the way up, a man on a cycle commented that I had the "best race outfit", some where on the way down I realized he was saying "nice butt" in more polite terms. 

My down the mountain time was much slower than expected. I messed up a bit with gu and electrolyte pill timing and realized I needed a bathroom, and there were none to be found, unless you count all the trees. I've never learned that skill though. Running made it worse, so I power walked my way down. 

Epic pre-race portopotty line!

I did not consume any of the hundreds of gnats swarming on the way down. I'm sure I was a sight to see waving my hands in front of on face. 

Hal's and I pre-race silly photos

It was great seeing my boys at the bottom when I finished the race and thankfully the epic portopotty line had cleared. 

Jack and I doing pre-race silly poses.

The views were amazing! I would run this race again just for the views. 

The camera really doesn't capture how fantastic this was and it wasn't raining so I could actually see.

I'm skipping Cranmore for family plans, next race is Mt Ascutney to start off my birthday weekend of races.

Looking at how short this post is, I guess my statement, the worse the weather, the better the stories.

I'm fundraising for The Youth Council, please consider donating as a birthday gift to me. 

Race Schedule 2019 - Update

A while back I posted my race plans. I just completed the first half marathon planned, and thought an update was in order.

My bibs on the wall of my adjusting room at the office.

Race List

Completed
Jan 1 - Peanut Butter Chip Chase 5k - Finisher with Family spectating
Jan/Feb - Freeze Your Buns 5k Series
Feb - Fudgicle Series
February -Taji 100 Virtual - Finisher
Mar 16 - LebRec Shamrock Shuffle 5k - Finisher
Apr 7 - Nashua Soup Kitchen 10k - Finisher
Apr 20 - Sleep Hollow  Finisher
May 5 -  Pack Monadnock- Finisher 
May 19 - Gate City Half Marathon - Finisher
May 25 R - Wachusett Mtn 10k - Finisher
Jun 8 R - Ascutney Mountain
Jun 9 R - WRT Flat and Fast 5k  My 42nd Birthday!
Jun 13 R - Hollis Fast 5k Path Of Life team
Jan 14 R - Flag Day 5k Amherst
Jun 23 - Capital City Classics 10k
Jun/Jul - Mine Falls Trail Series
Jul 7 R - Loon Mtn - Finisher
Sept 1 R - Greylock - Finisher
Sept 22 R - Granite State 10 Miler
Oct 20 R  - Baystate Half marathon - Finisher
Nov 3 R - Cambridge Half Marathon Unofficial Finisher

Planned (if there is an R next to race name, I've already registered)

Nov 16 R - Wolf Hollow 10 mile Thank you Striders!
Nov 22 R - Great Gobbler Thanksgiving Race
Nov 24 R - Novemberfest (May miss due to cross country race)

Dec 8 ? - Mill Cities Relay (Awaiting team placement with Gate City Striders)

On June 27th I have the opportunity to rappel off a sky scrapper if I can raise at least $1000 for The Youth Council(I'd love to raise more, they are a fantastic organization doing great things). Help make my 42nd birthday EPIC, donate on my fundraising site. 

Gate City Half Marathon 2019

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Gate City Marathon, Half and Relay in Nashua, NH
May 19, 2019
This race is part of the NH Grand Prix, I ran as a Gate City Strider.

I did not ask my husband to edit. You have been warned

Lessons Learned: Don't shave the day before a race and actually follow a training plan.

Observations from the Race

Going through transition with Phil

Started race with two friends, Phil and Susanne. Susanne was running her first half marathon and she finished strong long before I did.

Managed to stay with a fairly big pack of people for the first few miles, sometime around mile 3 or 4 Susanne was doing much better and took off to chase her goal time.

I liked the new course and how the first loop overlooked the second loop.

The course support between NPD, volunteers directing runners, and water stops was great, but the water stop ahead signs near Greely Park(Concord St side) were a bit early for the actual water stop location. We were running along wondering when it would appear.

The weather was unpredictable as to be expected, and while last year was ridiculously hot, this year turned cold and wet. I was happy to see that silver blankets were being handed out at the end.

Once again drinking Tailwind Rebuild* after a race reduced the feeling of eat all the things hours later.

I have no idea why in my head a half marathon is "no big deal" and should be easy. It's not easy, it's not a minor feat, it's hard and even on my 3rd half it was still hard.

Robbie, Phil and I. All smiles before the start

I need to go back to over dressing for the weather. I foolishly shaved the day before and ended up with tiny dagger like hairs on my inner thighs, then I wore one of my shorter skirts. My friction defense application wasn't doing much good even after three layers, once it got cold and started to rain, the goose bumps sealed my fate to chafe.

Please donate to my Youth Council fundraiser and help push me off a sky scrapper in June. For every dollar you donate I'll go walk a floor on a stair master, you'll be helping encourage my mountain training.

Climbing For Charity

Make me climb! For every dollar donated between May 14th and June 1st, I will climb 1 floor on a stair master machine. The Brady Sullivan tower is 24 stories high. How many times can you make me climb the equivalent stair cases? 

If you donate $25, I will climb 25 floor on one of these challenging machines.

Donate $200 and I'll climb those 200 floors, but it may take a few sessions to get them all in. 

Donate Here!

Your donation will be going to a great cause, The Youth Council and you'll be helping to encourage me to train for those mountain races. I'll post pictures of the climbing screens as proof your floors were climbed. 

Over the Edge

A week ago I was asked to jump off the Brady Sullivan tower to raise money for the Youth Council here in Nashua.

That's sounded scary, downright terrifying in fact, so of course I to agreed to do it.

Donate here! (edited link to 2020 fund raising page for new jump!)

I've had sometime to read up more on what the youth council does and I'm asking you please donate to their cause. This is much more than me having a exciting opportunity to rappel off a sky scrapper, this is about kids at risk.

Stock photo from Pixabay

One of the big programs they have is a court diversion program. This program allows for first time offending juveniles, children, who have committed only minor offensives. To face consequences outside of the court system. Last year only one participant failed to complete their contract, with the program. This in my eyes is huge, as this program helps children who have made a single bad judgement. Because that is exactly what they are, children who made a single mistake. It helps them to not suffer lifelong consequences from a single foolish mistake. After that the program helps to reduce the likelihood, of a second offence.

That alone is fantastic, but this is why it strikes me.

Did you get surprised by the recent college scandal? Where you shocked that wealthy people, used their money to buy their children into colleges, they might not qualify for?

If you search enough you'll also find that wealthy people hire lawyers to make charges against their children go away or have their children face minimal penalties for felonies. It's almost a joke in this country that the better your lawyer are the less likely you will get in trouble. Now I can't speak for what happens at home between the parents and the child for consequences, but those wealthy children rarely have to worry about future back ground checks for jobs.

Me in 1995 for Senior Prom

I grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. I can't name names as the details have been forgotten in time, but I can tell you bored rich kids get in trouble. They make as many bad decisions as any other kid, sometimes more. They will have to cross a serious line, before they even have to do more than apologize to the police officer at the scene. The police know that arresting those kids would only cost the town, and county money, when the city fails to prosecute against a high priced legal team.

The Youth Council program allows children without family money to avoid LONG TERM consequences of  bad decision made with the inexperience of youth. The kids don't get away with with their crime, they still have various tasks to complete as part of the program. They get a chance to learn from their mistake, and to become better members of society. Not every youth can sign up, juvenile officers from the Nashua, Hollis, Merrimack, Hudson, and Litchfield police departments forward arrest records to the program. Where the program processes the records for the best candidates.

If you're still not sure the Youth Council Program is a good idea, imagine the amount of tax dollars saved by the future years of these youth not becoming repeat offender adults.

Please donate to this program, and if you are reading this knowing you are one of those children that benefited from the uneven playing field of socioeconomic classes, toss in a few dollars.

Stock photo from Pixabay

Pack Monadnock 10 mile Mountain Race

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Pack Monadnock 10 Miler in Wilton, NH
May 5, 2019
This race is part of the USATF Mountain Series, I ran as a Gate City Strider.

After I finished before I started on the walk back down.

Mountain race number 2 is complete. 

Last big fight of the game.

This was the closest I've gotten to a DNS(Did Not Start) in a long time. The day before we hosted my sons birthday party at the house. I ran a table top role-playing game for the kids. Realms of Terrinoth*, part of the Genesys system*, for those that are curious.  My son wanted pizza and funky shaped mac&cheese. I'm allergic to dairy. While I did not touch or eat any of it, the smell in the air pretty much set my adrenals on high alert, DANGER, DANGER. I could not sleep Saturday night and I felt completely off on Sunday morning when I got out of bed. My stomach was off. I ate half the amount of food I intended which turned out to be helpful. I swear I had 3 bathroom trips before we left the house, a stop at a gas station on the way(it was only a 45 minute drive), and then 2 more before starting the race.

For my non-endurance racing friends, we want several bathroom trips to happen before a race, that is much better than needing a bathroom during the race. Though even with that knowledge I was getting worried, and I didn't know if there were any porta-potties on the course.

I'm sharing my stats for this race if only to be honest. When I was planning on the race I was thinking 2 hours or 2 hours and 15 minutes. The morning of, I realized, I'd either have the PR of a life time or a hot mess of a disaster. I honestly ended up in a very happy middle ground. In the end I took 2 hours and 45 minutes to go 10 miles uphill. I did that with tummy issues, and essentially on an empty stomach. I consumed 3 1/2 clif bloks*(I had to spit on out because my tummy was not ready for food yet), and 2 endurolyte pills.

Finisher photo from the race. How was I not looking at the camera?

Pack Monadnock offers a sunshine start at 8:30am. I opted for that as I had no idea if I could get to the base of the mountain within 2 hours and would rather not chance it. I was amazed by the number of early starters, and suspect several just wanted to start early to be done earlier. The 30 minutes was added to our official time. Right before the whistle, my friend Laurie said, no big deal just a 15 minute mile and we'll do great. Listening to that, and knowing the last time I ran 10 miles was in April 14th and that was very flat. As I hadn't warmed up before the race. I treated the first mile as a warm up, and kept my spreed slow as well. At some point Laurie and I realized we were going at about the same pace, catching up, passing and then catching up again. I asked if she minded if I ran with her, I'm an introvert. So it's easier to ask if someone wants to put up with me, than worry the whole time that I'm a burden.

Selfie with Laurie!

Asking was the best decision of this race! Laurie and I had a great time chatting the whole way, encouraging each other and taking pictures, pointing out the sights. The course is beautiful by the way. A race I thought I was going to run solo, and just power through to check it off my list, became a very pleasant and fun experience.

In hind sight I wished I had climbed to the top to get a picture up there but I'm not sure I would have been OK with stairs at that point. 

I danced too close to hypothermia at Sleepy Hollow, so I over dressed for this race. About 2 miles in Laurie helped as I took off one layer of shirt. The Skirt Sports Toasty Queen Skirt* were perfect for me. My legs stayed comfortable and warm the whole race. Which means for most normal people the leggings would have been way too warm. I'm a little sad that I'm still running in my winter gear in May, but the raw rainy cold is almost worse than the dry freezing cold.

There were some hills, or really only 1.

If you are up for the distance, consider this race next year. As a back of the packer the course was fantastic for support, the 30 minute early start helped as well. Even the fog added to the experience, though no promises you get cool fog next year.

Look at he scenic view! We were in the clouds, I mean fog.

Just posing with a sign, showing off my purple tights.

This was a challenging race due to the distance and near non-stop climb. It was also my first point to point race which lead to some confusion as to where my husband should wait for me. While I was running, he was having pancakes in Wilton with our boys. After the race we stopped by an adorable candy shop and the boy got to watch a machine cut and wrap fresh caramel.

Watching the caramel machine

On the same thread of doing crazy hard things, I'm rappelling off the Brady Sullivan Tower in Manchester, NH to raise money for the Youth Council, please donate to my page and help push me over the edge. More on that in an upcoming blog for sure!