The Hangover 10K

Today on 1/1/11 (I have been wanting to write that all day) I ran the Hangover 10K in Salisbury, MA. This race is part of the Will Run for Beer Series, 6 races in the seacoast area of NH. (We actually ran into NH today) If you run 5 out of the 6 races you get a jacket, we'll see how the schedule goes. We left the house around 10:15. I was the race driver today. I always leave a little early because I hate being late....we were not late and in fact we were over an hour early. Michele and I grabbed our numbers and Gail registered. T-shirts not so great, off white cotton with some writing on the front. Seems like they could have had tech shirts, but oh well.

We went back to the car for awhile, chatted and laughed and at 1230 we headed over to use the bathroom and get to the start. The race was packed. You were signed up for both the 5K and the 10K, it was your choice as to what to do. We had already decided to do the 10K. Finally, it was time to start. There was no chip or anything so we started our watched when they said go. I could not even tell you where the actual start was. The beginning was so hectic....helllll00000 I have nothing against walkers and jog strollers, I do/use both, but if you are in a race start in the back. There is nothing worse than tripping over a stroller at the beginning. It took us a mile to get into the tempo and then we finally settled into our pace. We ran between 8:15 and 8:30 then we hit mile 4 where about .3 of the race was on the beach. I have to admit I am not a sand runner and found this part kind of distracting. Once we hit the pavement we were back in stride. Around mile 5, Michele felt like she was having an asthma attack and told us to go. I was reluctant to leave, but Gail took off and I followed. Sometimes it is worse if people stay with you and I could tell Michele wanted me to go. I started passing people, even these two guys with great legs who were talking about doing IronMans. Pretty impressive...I thought. We turned the corner and then we were in the chute. No chip meant they were encouraging everyone to stay in order and using the clicker. I kept walking and then realized that the IronMan with the nice legs cut in front of me. I wish that I had more guts because I would have said something. That is just really cheap....aaarrgghhhh....Anyway I finished at 54:10. I would have liked to PR, but it just wasn't happening today. They had beer after, but were out of water and there was no chowder as promised, but oh well we went to Christo's and got a slice of pizza.

All in all a fun New Years spent with friends. Good luck in 2011 everyone, hopefully you meet all of your goals!