The Lord of the Pringles: Part 3

For weeks now I've been asking myself, "What is it about this year's Boston marathon that's special? What can I say about it that makes it stand out?" Now I see why it seemed like a hard question. Foolishly, I was comparing Boston '01 to my other 23 Bostons when I should have been comparing it to the other two races I've done in Massachusetts this year!

So here's a quiz: What makes the Boston marathon (April 16) different than the Fresh Pond 5 miler (February 10...part of an every Saturday series) and the Westfield/Empire One Running Club 3 mile XC (May 21...part of a Monday night XC series)?

Answer: Boston is the only one I didn't win! What a statistical outlier! If only the 1900 people faster than me hadn't shown up!

Yes, I set all sorts of personal bests in copping first place overall of 14 runners in Westfield. This race was conveniently located just a little south of the Mass Turnpike as I drove home from a day spent at a teaching workshop at Bentley. However, getting my ID and parking permit and all that stuff at Bentley took longer than I thought it would, and the traffic was pretty slow out as far as Rt. 495 and thus the personal bests included:

1.) MINIMUM TIME FROM PARKING CAR (6:28:30 pm on my watch) TO START OF RACE (6:30 on entry form, about 6:32 on my watch). Fortunately I got dressed to run while waiting for my Bentley ID to print. I was sure I wouldn't make it, but traffic cleared out after Worcester and I got off at the Westfield exit at 6:13 feeling pretty good. It turns out that Stanley Park, race locale is much farther through town than I thought and after one nearly disastrous wrong turn and some vague directions from the only person I saw on the street (for whom English was a very 2nd language) I was cutting it pretty close. I saw people in singlets gathering, parked near them, ran up and handed a guy with a clipboard $3, signed my name on line 14 of the entrants list and said, "Do I have time to run behind that hedge before we start?" He said, "Yes, we'll wait" and they did. I would estimate the total distance I traveled on foot after a 2 hour drive to the start of the race was under 150 meters, also probably a record low.

2.) LEAST KNOWLEDGE OF COURSE IN A WINNING RACE. (Zero...a record that will never be broken.) As I paid my $3 I did find time to ask, "Is the course marked?" The race director, a laid back guy named Rick, said, "Sort of...how fast are you going to go?" I said, tentatively, "Maybe 6:30 pace?" and he said, "Well you'll probably have somebody to follow then. It's just around this field, then down the hill, then there's sort of a loop in the woods and then back up here. It's pretty obvious." When another guy and I got back from the hedge, Rick took a couple of other crowd questions like:

Q: "Where's the mile mark?"

A: "Once you go right at the bottom of the hill it's about where the stone wall ends" -- and we were off.

It was clear to me that it would be better not to be the leader in this race. I just hoped I could keep the top group in sight: some looked quite swift.

3.) BEST POWER MOVE IN A RACE

About 100 yards into the race, I found myself behind a guy that I think runs like me. He was too heavy to be really fast, his form was awful, he was talking to everybody, and he seemed perpetually about to trip and fall as we went around the trees that marked the perimeter of the park field. He was clearly a local, judging from pre-race conversation, so I stayed with him. About one minute later a young guy with crew cut, tattoo, yellow shirt and shorts longer than some bridal gowns went by us. I felt good so I stayed with him as my isomorph faded back. Yellow shirt guy led us down the hill, past the director and into the woods. We were 6:34 at the end of the stone fence and I felt great. I wanted to pick up the pace but didn't know where we were going. A couple of attempts at conversation were brushed off with grunts from yellow shirt guy.

Just then a young guy with black tee shirt with sleeves removed and a shaved head came by. He passed me and yellow shirt guy and opened a little lead on a steep down. I caught him as we made a noticeable right hand turn pointed out by another volunteer. In a few gasps he managed to make me understand that we were now on a loop in the woods that wasn't too hard to follow, so I made my PPM (Patented Power Move) and zipped ahead of him. My watch read 10:00 as I pulled away. The course was beautiful here, wood chip trail in a forest setting, slightly rolling. Reminded me of the nice part of Seneca Park in Rochester, one of my favorite upstate XC courses.

There was only one questionable turn. I slowed and looked over my shoulder, but both black shirt guy and yellow shirt guy foolishly pointed left and sent me in the correct direction. I was about 30 seconds ahead.

Then it was hang on time...back up the hills, past the race director who said "2nd left is a trail that will take you to the parking lot and you'll see the guys working the finish." (You can tell I wasn't going too fast if people can say all that on the way by!) I tried so hard not to look over my shoulder. Here comes the finish...yes! W! I looked back to see black shirt guy about 20 seconds back, and some other guy I'd never seen edging yellow shirt guy for third about 20 seconds farther back. I hoped to see the local equivalent of Diane Sherrer with a notebook and a photographer, but no such luck!

I did a nice two mile cool down, had a glass of Gatorade, and got my prize...a choice of a can of Pringles or a KoolAid Slushee mix. I took the Pringles. I had a brief and pleasant talk with a few of the locals and was back in the car at 7:20.

Highly recommended if you're ever driving through Westfield on a Monday!

-- Rick Cleary