Day 128 - I awoke to the sound of thunder, how far off I sat and wondered...what the heck was I doing being up 4 hours after I had gone to bed?
This was the start of a marathon weekend of race timing. First in Alton, NH at the Big Lake Half Marathon for New England Timing, and then the New England Season Opener Tri in Hopkinton, MA for Bay State Race Services. I am now officially a race timing mercenary.
The weather was wet, cold, and miserable as I made my way north to Alton Bay.
I got to the race site at 7AM and quickly got the finish and start set up for the 900 person race. I ran into Andy S., Steve M., and Mike T. setting up their own equipment for the race.
The weather cleared up a bit before the start, but it just got worse and worse as the morning wore on.
The rain was steadily falling throughout the 3 hours of the race, but we managed to stay dry under the timing tent. Everything went smoothly considering the conditions.
Scott Rowe broke his own course record in winning the race. Jimmie C. and a few other familiar faces also crossed the finish line.
My crew and I quickly broke down the finish after the final finisher crossed in about 3 hours. It was already 2PM by the time I began my nearly 2 hour journey back to Lowell. This would give me about an hour to say HI to Rachel, eat something, and take a quick nap before heading down to Hopkinton to set up part to the triathlon for Sunday's gig.
I got down to Hopkinton by 6PM, and the sun even made a cameo appearance! I worked with the crew down there to get most of our equipment in place and tested before nightfall. The rest of the set up would take pace early Sunday morning.
I decided to go out to dinner with the crew, down in Milford, before heading back to Lowell. There wasn't enough room at the local hotel to accommodate all of us, and I drew the short straw to drive back down to Hopkinton early the following morning.
We finished dinner at about 9PM and I excused myself to get home as soon as possible to get my run in before the day expired at midnight. I didn't get back to Lowell until about 10PM. Joy. Another late night run.
The weather was a lot nicer than earlier in the very long day, with temps in the low 50's. I dressed moderately, expecting it to warm up quickly as I planned to put in a tempo run.
I felt really out of it throughout the 5K run, like I was dreaming, mainly due to the lack of sleep. Traffic around Lowell was light given the time of night, and the crummy weather of earlier. I always enjoy running on nights like these after some rainfall. Everything just feels crisper.
I felt much better after the run and quickly fell asleep the moment I laid down...only to wake up again in 4 hours to repeat it all over.
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