Shipyard Old Port Half Marathon

Portland, Maine State #40

The Shipyard Old Port Half Marathon

Getting closer:

As you can see... and count, I have just a handful (two handfuls) left in my 50in50 journey.  It is nice to see the map changing colors.  Last weekend was Maine and next weekend is Vermont, so I will have knocked out all of those pesky little New England states... unless you consider Maryland as a New England state... and I do not.  Anyway, just a few more to go.

Maine was nice.  I went all alone and had very little fanfare. I flew in the evening prior to the race and just made it to the packet pickup about 10 minutes prior to it's scheduled closing.  Packet pickup was walking distance to my room, and the race start and finish were in between, so I was able to get a good visual of where I needed to go the next morning as I walked to my studio apartment.

I stayed in an airbnb studio apartment.  It had a kitchen, bathroom with shower, and a living room/bedroom.  Plenty enough room for just me.  Across the street was a drug store like Walgreens or CVS.  I think it was a RiteAid.  I stopped in there to get some water and ingredients for a pre-race meal - pasta.  It was very low key.  I talked with the family, watched some silly game show and went to sleep.

4:00am was wakeup time.  A light breakfast, and my personal plumbing routine, then walk to the start.  The race started about 7:04am.  The weather was fairly nice.  The temps were mid to upper 60's during the race.  The sun came out around mile 11 and it warmed up pretty quickly. The course started and finished in the "Old Port" section of Portland.  The first two miles were mostly uphill and the following two miles mostly downhill. The next seven miles were pretty flat and included a section on Back Cove Trail and went around the lake.  There was a significant hill at mile 11 and then started a gradual downhill around mile 11 to the finish...  Although the finish was down a cobblestone road, which was surprisingly difficult to run on, especially when you are tired.

Shipyard was/is apparently a brewing company that must have been the main sponsor for the race.  There was a major emphasis on the beer.  The course was relatively scenic.  The paved trail and the roads were in decent shape, only a few potholes and such.  I was happy that there was no significant elevation as we were on the port at sea level.  I still did not perform as well as I intended, but it was a better effort than the last two races.  My official finish time was 1:45.  Hopefully I will get back to the 1:30's SOON!

Maine is a pretty state, at least what I saw of it.  Portland is a large town for Maine, but small in comparison to some of the big cities that I have visited recently.  The cooler temps were enjoyable, but I am only imagining that it gets biting cold in the winter.  I do not think I could handle the long, cold winters.  

The below pictures are some random pictures of the race in action, taken by the official race photographer.  I  placed them here so that you could get a feel for the race.  If you look very closely at these pictures, you will just barely be able to make out that I am not in them.  

 As I mentioned, Maine is a scenic state.  There are lots of little lighthouses and scenic ocean views, shown below for your viewing pleasure.



Overall, I enjoyed this race.  It was in a nice environment, there was decent fan support, especially at the start and finish area.  There were plenty of water/hydration stops and port-a-potties.  The course was well marked and the very few potentially tricky spots were well manned and managed.  There was a post-race food and beverage area and post-race party.  I looked for it for a while and could not find it, so I went back to my room.  After I got all cleaned up and packed up, I walked back that way to do some trinket shopping for the family and I did find the after-party area, and it was still going on, but I did not participate.  I DID, however find myself a nice greasy mushroom swiss burger as a post-race meal and then I went shopping.  The two long lines I saw were for beer and a local donut shop.

State #40 complete.
 

Next race is Waitsfield, Vermont in the Mad River Valley.  The Mad Marathon which calls itself The World's Most Beautiful Marathon.  July 5-7.  I'll let ya know.  

Grand Teton Half Marathon

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

state #39

Vacation Races Grand Teton Half Marathon

There is no easy way to get to pretty much anywhere in Wyoming.  Jackson Hole is not the most difficult part of Wyoming to get to, but it is not simple and it is definitely not inexpensive.  The flights were fairly steep.  Probably the most that I have spent on airfare so far.  Maybe they just don't want people to visit there.  They might find out that they like it there and want to stay.  I will say that the mountains were beautiful.  ~ of course, there were periods of time during this race where I could not see, so maybe those parts were not so pretty.  The pictures, however, as you can see are very nice.

I don't know who this guy is/was, but I am betting he was faster than me. lol

I did not allow Valerie to go with me, because I am certain that she would not want to leave.  She can be stubborn sometimes and I dislike having to drag her through the airport to go back to the sauna or sudatorium that we call Florida.

I left out on Friday afternoon directly after a full day of work.  We flew to Denver and I had to rush through the Denver airport to get to my flight on time.  Most of the plane was in the same position as we were running late out of Tampa and we apparently had to take a longer route due to all of the tornadoes and inclement weather around the country that had to be in our original path.

Knowing that I would not be able to make it early enough to get to the packet pick-up, I paid an extra $20 to have them mail me my bib and shirt.  So, I was already checked in for the race and had no need to go to an expo or whatever packet pick-up they had set-up for this race.  I got in just before dark and rented a car.  Dark, btw was not until about 9:00 - 9:30pm.  Budget Rentacar did not have a desk or kiosk at the airport, so I had to take a shuttle to the rental car building... which passed right through downtown Jackson Hole and one street off where my hotel was.  It was a very easy drive from the rental car place, and I found my hotel easily, checked in and went straight to sleep.  The race started at 6:30am, but we had to be at the shuttle at a crazy 4:45am.  According to the information supplied by the race director there were three potential shuttle pick-up venues.  I chose one that was right in downtown Jackson Hole.  That way I could simply walk from my hotel.  All that would have been great except that the shuttle arrived at the starting location just after 5:00am.   Did I mention that the race did not start until 6:30am?  Did I also mention that it was about 36ºF outside?  So, we had to stand around in the cold for well over an hour.... waiting.  Some of you may be aware that waiting is not one of my favorite past-times.  Oh well, c'est la vie.  It was cloudy... maybe foggy a better descriptor, but I think it was actually a cloud that was covering us in moisture and preventing the soon to be rising sun from warming us.  I drank hot water to warm my hands and innards.

I suspected that the elevation would be a bit of a factor for me as the race started at 6100ft and rose to 6400ft by mile 11, so I decided to start slowly and hope that I was feeling well and potentially pick up the pace as I was able.  I started at an 8:30 pace but ended with 8:15 for mile 1.  Mile 2 was 8:18.  I was feeling more fatigued than I normally would for an 8:15 pace, but thought I could manage to maintain that. Somewhere in the middle of mile 3 I got a little dizzy and a headache.  Ending mile 3 in 8:49.  From there, it did not get any better.  I am just not yet prepared to run at altitude.  It is as simple as that.   I thought there was some potential that I could train harder and be in better shape and maybe run slower than I would have by a little bit, but still run fairly well.  That did not happen.  For me it was a bit of a disappointment.  I finished 1:57.  I only wish that I could report here that I took time to view the beautiful scenery and stopped to take pictures, etc...    Below are a few pictures that I pilfered from instagram and facebook that were taken by others.

  This last picture is not me standing at the photos spot at the finish area.  I am aware it is someone else.  I have no idea who it is, just that it is not me.  I put it here so you could see what it looked like.  If you really want to, you could imagine me in the photo, or photoshop, or print it out and draw me in there.  Whatever helps you.

After the race, I had the entire day to drive around and see the area.  It was pretty low key.  I had no agenda, but just drove and looked and stopped when I felt like it.  I drove over to Jackson Hole ski resort and drove around the race course to see all of the things that I missed while I was running.  I toured through Jackson and ate when I felt like it, shopped for the kids and browsed many of the shops.  I was not in any hurry.  I did not have to be anywhere or do anything in particular.  After I got some dinner, I went back to the room and watched a movie.  I know, I am boring, but I thought a little rest would be good before I went over to Seattle to work for the week.  Just what I needed.  It would have only been better if my family was with me.

Next race is Jun 22 in Portland, Maine.  I have only 12 more races (11 states and Washington, DC) and 12 more months to go.  Here is a graphic of where I stand in my 50 in 50 in 50 quest.

HAWAI'I

State #38 Hawai'i

Hibiscus Half Marathon

Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i

In my previous blogs I have talked a lot about goals.  If you have read any of these posts you will likely understand that I am rather goal oriented in my life and as it pertains to running.  It is not at all uncommon that my goals change over time.  In most instances, I achieve my goals and continue to "raise the bar", effectively increasing the goal to be able to achieve more and more as I progress.  There are a few instances, however where the goal changes altogether into a new direction.  

As you may recall, I have goals and mini goals, and then new goals.  Concerning the 50in50in50 goal, I am on track and projected to complete this goal by June 2020.  Hawaii was state #38 and it is now complete.  One of my mini goals for this "project" was to run 1:30 for a half marathon which is a 6:52 per mile pace.  So far, I have only been able to muster a pace of 7:21 per mile which translates to 1:36.  I, by no means think that this is bad, but it is not quite enough to achieve the goal of 1:30.  At this point I still have twelve more races (13 if you include Washington DC.) to be able to achieve this goal, but it appears as if I am not progressing as rapidly as I had hoped.  It is possible that I am not going to be able to achieve this goal in the time frame that I have allotted.  I certainly have not given up, but I am facing the reality that it may not happen.  This is a tough pill to swallow, and I will continue to work toward this goal, but it seems that I will have a significant amount of work to accomplish this goal.  Maybe, just maybe it is possible that this goal may need to change.  As I type this, it just "sounds" like a copout.  I guess we will have to see.

One of the goals that have snuck in to this endeavor is to spend some time enjoying the different parts of the country as I travel around, especially when I bring my family along with me.  There was no way that my wife and kids were going to allow me, without a fight, to go to Hawaii without them... and I very much enjoy having them along.  So, off we went to Hawaii.  Valerie, the kids, my mom and Grampi.  We decided to spend a week on Maui prior to the race in Honolulu.  Aside from the snafu's of traveling American Airways to Hawaii and being trapped in Tempe, Arizona far longer than anyone would hope, we really had a great trip.  There was a fair amount of relaxation as well as a bit of adventure.  For an entire week, we were on vacation.  There was no race, there was no work, there were no pressures of our everyday lives.  My mom secured a beautiful house for us all right on the beach.  We could not have asked for or imagined a more beautiful venue to spend our time.

The sunsets were nothing shy of incredible.

We went on a waterfall rappel trip where we rappelled down three separate waterfalls and hiked through the forrest.... somewhere 1/3 the way up the road to Hana.

We took another tour, a sunrise tour up to Haleakala.  We arose early, and when I say early, what I mean is 2:30am.  We took the tour bus up to Haleakala and watched the sunrise.  It was spectacular.   

From there we road some mountain bikes back roughly 26 miles down the winding roads from the mountain top to Paia.    It being an extremely small world as it relates to the people, we happened to see our former next door neighbors on Maui - Steve and Ellen Short.

  We explored the beach and saw all sorts of critters. 

We had a private tour in some nice snorkeling spots, with some cliff jumping.

One of the reasons for this trip, aside from vacation and my race, was Keeley's graduation.  Keeley was given the option of participating in one of the homeschool group's graduations, pr having her own, "private" graduation.  As you might imagine, she chose to have her graduation ceremony in Hawaii.  We had a nice little ceremony at sunset on the beach.

In all, we had a very nice time.  I do not believe that any of us were terribly happy to leave.

Of course there was a race on O'ahu, so we packed up and headed over to Oahu and spent the day ond evening on Waikiki Beach and at the Marriott.  The next morning we got up and walked over to the start of the race.    The race was not my best.  Although I did train every day while we were in Maui, I was not able to keep the pace that I had intended.  The temperature was about 75ºF at the start and began to rise from there.  The sun comes up early this time of year, although if I am being hones, I am not certain the heat and/or humidity had much to do with my lack of performance.  Maybe I was still on vacation.    I was able to finish, with a time of 1:49:49.  Not exactly what I had hoped for, but  in retrospect, I had a really nice time in our 50th state for a week and am happy to have had an opportunity to spend some good quality time with the family.

As I type this, I am in Jackson, Wyoming after my next race (state #39) that was yesterday.  The Grand Teton Half Marathon.  I am on my way to Seattle for the week, and I will update you on this race later in the week.  Spoiler alert... ELEVATION!!!! UGH!!!!.