New Gloucester, Maine
Saturday, May 28, 2022
This was my second running of the Pineland Farms 25K race. Being very far behind in race write-ups, this will be abbreviated. You'll find a more detailed write-up and pictures from last year's race here.
Whereas last year we stayed a hotel in the Lewiston area, at this year's price of $300+/night, we opted for camping instead. After dinner at one of the very few restaurants around for miles, we got to Bradbury Mountain State Park at dusk and quickly setup the tent.
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| Our campsite. I'm glad I went back to a full size wagon, as between folding down the rear seats and the cargo box up top, I have plenty of room for carrying supplies. |
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| Our accommodations. Very functional and inexpensive. |
Got up reasonably early, cooked oatmeal and toasted a bagel for breakfast. Packed up, broke camp, and headed to the race. Unfortunately, unlike last year's 43° start, this year the temp was 66° and rising, with 90% humidity to boot. Went for a 1.5 mile warmup at a slow 8 minute pace. Was feeling it already, especially as we're not yet acclimated to warmer weather.
Race start: Lined up in the second row at the start and took it out relatively easy, trying to conserve. At about two miles in, I hear "Hi Jeff". Did I hear that right? Nobody knows me here. And then the lead woman, Brigid, goes by me, and I remember her pushing me last year and we had caught up afterwards. She stayed ahead of me for a mile or so before I went back ahead of her on a downhill. Soon afterwards, another guy comes right up on me. I opened a little gap on him on the downhill, but on the next climb, he came right back up to me and went past handily. I looked at him as he went by to gauge his age and then uttered that since he wasn't in my age group, he could go past me. He chuckled and said he had started slowly and didn't think I had anything to worry about in my age group as no one else near me. He was soon gone and I was running as an island.
Coming up on a water stop at Mile 6, I took my first of two GUs. Oddly the trail did not go past the water stop and I would have had to have gone considerably out of my way (25 meters?) to get to it. There was a volunteer there standing on the side of the trail - is she holding cups of water? No! I asked her if there was any garbage container here, and she said I can just give it to her. So I got rid of my empty GU packet at least.
Onwards. Sans water. The temps were in the 70s by now. I was starting to pass runners from the other races that started earlier (50K and 50M), but no one was passing me. Finally at Mile 9 I get to another water station and this one is right on the course, so I stop there for a moment. I got three cups of water, and took a 3 Musketeers mini bar, but it was all melted and I couldn't get it out of the wrapper as it stuck to it. Onwards.
As I left the water station on a 2-way traffic section in an open field, Matthew came the other way towards me. I was trying to gauge where he was position-wise, but really had no idea as I didn't see anyone near him. My remaining five miles were about the slowest of my entire race, as I was slowing and wanted it to be done. Finally I was relieved to hear the announcer's voice which told me I was getting close. Very happy to see that finishing line.
Final results: 1:53:10, 5th out of 121. 1st in age group. Slower than last year by 2 1/2 minutes, at least partially attributable to the heat and humidity. Full results here.
Besides Brigit, the next person was seven minutes behind me. And the next runner in the 50s age group was 27 minutes behind me!
Caught up with Matthew post-race and got water. The Mexican food truck had yet to even arrive, the hamburg/hot dog grill had zero non-red-meat options, and the awards ceremony was at least an hour away. Neither of us had any desire to hang around, so we promptly left and got a "real lunch" at a restaurant on the way home.
This race is nice, but after two consecutive years, I'm ready to move on and try something different.
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