The race

When I woke up Saturday, the temperature was in the high 40s, with a strong wind and very heavy rain. I almost decided right then to blow off the race, but a little later the rain stopped and the clouds cleared up. I decided to go ahead with it. When I left the house, it was 53° and calm. Of course, by the time I got to the park, the temperature there had dropped more than 10° and a light rain had started. So, it was a generally uncomfortable morning, and I had shown up in shorts and a t-shirt.

The course was slightly hilly, kind of a rolling course, through the middle of Mendon Ponds Park. The race itself is an old-fashioned one, with no chip timing, no bands, not even a finish chute--place is determined by tearing off the bottom of your number and putting it on a safety pin. A step back to the days of the "popsicle stick" races of my youth. After the race, at the awards ceremony, prizes were handed out. The race was sponsored by Viagra, so the prizes were very funny.

the men's winner got a viagra wall clock. The women's winner got a large basket of chocolate. When it was awarded, one of the women in the crowd called out "that's defeating the purpose!" Further awards weregiven out, including two hospital gown-type smocks in blue with the Viagra logo. Sadly, next year, generic Viagra will be available, so the items will probably not be available. A different sponsor will have to be lined up.

My time in the race was 22:14, which wos good enough to put me in 7th or 8th place overall. I'm not sure of my place, because I lost count of the people ahead of me in the last half-mile. I've been looking for pictures and results, which were supposed to be online within a few hours of the end of the race, but I haven't found them yet.

Leaving the park after the race, I noticed the first signs of a migraine. I hadn't had one in at least 5 years,but when it hit, it wasn't really too bad. I got home before the headache hit, so it wasn't too bad. I'm pretty sure that it didn't have anything to do with running, though. Running today, I didn't have any problems.

UPDATE:

I found the pictures of the race. Here are two pics of me in the race. (I'm the bearded fella Number 748)



In the first half mile.



After the halfway point in the race.