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FLRC Newsletter - November 2004 |
| Wellfleet Fourth of July Race: Thirtieth Anniversary (it started the same year as our Ithaca 5&10!) | |
On July 4 I headed off on my bike to the annual Wellfleet 5-mile race. While the race has been a happening event for 30 years, this was my seventh in eight years. As always, it was already getting hot at 7:30 in the morning, although not as brutal as some years. It would eventually hit the mid-80s that day, but humidity was low and so it never got unbearable. It was a four-mile ride to the town pier where the race would , and I was fairly warmed up by the time I arrived. Good thing, because I had misread the starting time and the race was heading off in 20 minutes. I easily picked up my number and T-shirt—the shirt is the best part outside of the running of this race. It is always a beautiful shirt with an original work of art printed on it and no sponsors of any kind. Gathered at the starting line were more than 400 other runners, many local to the lower Cape Cod, others from all over the place vacationing in Wellfleet, Truro, or Provincetown. To my surprise, I looked over and spotted Gillian Sharp wearing her FLRC singlet (what a good club member!). Before I had time to go over to say hi they were making announcements for the start of the race. As this was only my second race after spending five months recovering from a running injury, I was nervous and my legs appeared to be ready to ignore all my training. I had in fact been running on the Cape on roads, trails, and sandy beaches for the past 10 days, had practiced this race course once on foot and once on bicycle, and had eaten all the right things for days (including lots of fish). Despite my fears, as the gun went off my legs started to move. Cautious about overdoing it at the start, I set an easy pace and began counting the hills out and back. There are nine hills—five ascents and four descents going out and the opposite coming back. The hills become steeper as one runs out to the turnaround, making every climb a bigger accomplishment. This was the best way for me to mark the race, as I knew my mile times were not going to be stellar since I had yet to get my speed back from the previous year. But running is what I have done for 22 years and so, once again, one foot in front of the other, I ran.
The scenery on this course is wonderful—views of the marshes, the coast, and Great Island with birds flying and singing the entire way. It was low tide, so the beaches seemed to melt into the bay waters. Then up my last hill for the way out and around the corner to the turnaround at the base of Great Island where I was surprised to see yet another runner from Ithaca, Gerrit VanLoon. Suddenly the race I had always considered mine, as I was the only Ithacan there, had become a community event. After getting over the fact that both Ithacans were going to beat me in the race, I marveled at the enthusiasm of runners. We will go anywhere anytime to run. I was also struck by the running friends I had made over the years of running this same race—they were people I saw once a year, and always out of breath with sweat pouring, yet were friends nonetheless. Memories of my first marathon in San Francisco in 1985 came back, because that was the first time I experienced race friendships—the folks you run alongside during a race, sharing the special moments, only to realize afterwards you never knew names, ages, or even political tendencies.
The race to the finish line was long and hard, climbing the hills again and staring right into the sun. The crowds are never very big for this race, and many stand by quietly although I encouraged them to yell and cheer (I don’t care if you don’t know my name—tell me I am doing great!). As I neared the finish line, I gave my last push so I could look strong in front of my kids and grandfather. My ending time was not a record of any sort, personal or otherwise, but I was still thrilled to have run the race—a race I would recommend for anyone out at Cape Cod in early July.
After the five-mile race, there is a 1.4-mile race for kids up to 14 years old. As it would turn out, there were four kids from Ithaca in the race. My two kids, Adrian and Natasha, Chris Van Loon, and Gillian Sharp’s son, were competing. It is a small climb for the way out, 0.7 miles and then a turnaround and back to the finish line. As this was the last year my son Adrian could run the race, as he was 14, he had been training in hopes of winning the race outright. However, standing next to him at the starting line were two young men who clearly had the advantage of longer legs and bigger builds than his. I was worried and started to try to think of how to console him if he didn’t win. I went to a good spot to watch him after the turnaround and encourage him to give the finish a little extra push. He came around the bend of the coastline road and to my disbelief nobody else was in sight. He had the competition whipped. He raced alone to the finish line with a time almost a minute ahead of the second place runner. Natasha also ran well, although having injured her ankle this spring, her race was closer to mine—the goal was to finish well rather than to race well. Chris Van Loon won for his age group and came in tenth overall—great with hard competition. The kids have their running friends, and we looked for them during the race cheering each one in. My grandfather beamed—an 89-year-old who daily walks a mile at a time and loves watching his family race. We all stayed for the awards, as Adrian needed his moment in the sun. Then we headed home for more fresh fish and runs on the beach.
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