Running Free

Well, I'm happy to say that I ran the Baystate Marathon this morning and beat my previous best time (set in Chicago last fall) by eight minutes. The forecast all week was for sunny but cool temps today and it was dead on. I got up at 5:40, got dressed, had a quick bowl of cereal and was on the road by 6:20. I got to downtown Lowell by 7 and hung out at Tsongas Arena until about 8, when I headed over to the start line. It was 45 degrees out, which was great. I had originally planned to try and keep an 8:45 per mile pace for the whole race, which would have brought me in at 3:50, my goal. But I got into a comfortable groove doing 8-minute miles and stuck with that for about 15 miles. I slowed down to 9-minute miles for a while and then picked it up again for the last six miles or so.

My right calf had been bothering me the last few weeks and I really worked on it a lot in the last couple of days, but it was never a problem during the race. I had some small issues with my left ankle and the occasional side stitch, but nothing serious. I was really psyched that I felt good enough to push myself harder the last few miles and finish strong.

The race is two loops through Lowell and Tyngsboro, ending up by bringing runners into LeLacheur Park (home of the Lowell Spinners baseball team) and around the warning track before getting to the finish line. My final time was 3:46:42; I probably would have broken 3:45 if I didn't have to use a porta-potty around mile 4 (too much liquid before the race, I guess).

There was a strong headwind for a bunch of the race and there are way more hills on this primarily flat course than in Chicago, but they didn't slow me down. My friends Steve and Molly surprised me by driving by and cheering me on around mile 10 and then at several other points before meeting me at the finish; that was very cool.

I was very impressed with the race organization, especially for a race with only 717 runners (782 ran the half-marathon). The post-race spread was great: hot soup, biscuits, fruit, candy bars. I stuffed my face before leaving. A photographer for the Lowell Sun newspaper took my photo while I was in the food line and asked me for my name, so I might be in the paper tomorrow. It'll probably be pretty hideous because I had some serious dried sweat all over my face. Oh, well.

I came home and celebrated by watching the Patriots kick some Dallas butt, which is always nice to see. I'm pretty sore, but not that bad. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. It'll be nice to get back into my regular routine of three 5-milers during the week and a long run on the weekend of 7-10 miles. But I won't do much this week.

As for my next marathon, I'm toying with the idea of running Boston next spring, but I might opt for something flatter to see if I can improve on my PR. For now, I'll just bask in the afterglow of this race.

Gimme some bullets:

• Friday night, I headed into Boston to catch Queens of the Stone Age at the Orpheum. Met up with my friend Rob and we skipped the first band because they sucked out loud (they were so bad I didn't even bother to find out their name). But the second act, the Black Angels, were excellent with some serious psychedelic drone rock, and the headliners kicked butt as usual. We were up in the balcony and everyone stood for the whole set, so it was hard to see everything on stage; I was only able to see frontman Josh Homme by looking between various taller folks in front of me (the curse of being short!). But the band sounded great and were seriously tight. They ended with a killer version of Song for the Dead. Good stuff.
• Here's a new one: Apparently, this California dentist believes rubbing the breasts of female patients is a viable medical technique. Stay classy.