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By David Alden-St.Pierre
I did it. My first
marathon. These things are long!
 I’ve
attempted this race two other times, and bailed at the half-way
point (it’s two loops) both times. The first year I
tried the Stone Cat I feel that I was in excellent shape to
run the whole thing, but we got about six inches of snow the
night before the race. The start was delayed more than an
hour, and my pace was slow because of the conditions. Did
I mention the six inches of snow? Did I mention the fantastic
fall/slide/recovery I had when Tim’s ass flung me away
like it had a force-field? Anyway, I essentially ran out of
time, so I called it a day at 13 miles. The next year, I was
not in very good shape, and when the half-way point came up,
I decided that I could call it quits and still be able to
go riding the next day, or I could forge on and be in a heap
of pain for days on end. Shortly after that, Karl and I were
chowing down pancakes at the Agawam diner.
So this year, I was somewhere in between.
Not in as quite good shape as I had been the first year, but
better than last year. Because of travel and being sick, I
didn’t have a long run longer than 15 miles done. I
figured I could do it, but I had to be smart.
 I
was ultra conservative the whole first lap, walking when I
wanted to run, and running slow when I wanted to go fast.
This was tough because even though I’m admittedly slow,
I HATE having people pass me (my typical strategy is to start
near the back and then slowly work my way forward, this lets
me completely ignore all the truly fast runners that are gone
from “go,” and I get to feel fast by passing people).
I walked up hills, I watched by heart rate and adjusted my
pace accordingly, and at the end of the first lap (15 miles),
I felt good. I hadn’t even been out of breath.
The second lap was different. I wanted to
pass all those that passed me on the first lap, and I knew
that I could expend some energy because I was feeling good.
Plus, I had Luna, super speed dog, to pace and motivate me.
Yes, my dog ran 13 miles with me. Luna had an adventure when
we were set upon by a team of sled dogs. Of course there was
a team of sled dogs training by pulling a dude on an ATV,
and of course the dogs were VERY interested in Luna. The guy
on the ATV was yelling at the dogs, but they followed Luna
and I into the woods. Fortunately, their harnesses kept them
from following us in through the trees. After that, Luna was
FREAKED. She was eventually calmed down at Aid Station #1
by some cheese and she could have run for the rest of the
day.
Anyway, the second lap went well, but the
last couple of miles seemed to go on FOREVER.
 All
in all, it was FUN, FUN, FUN. My
time, which is SLOW, was officially 5:26, but according
to my GPS, my “moving time” was 5:13 (that takes
out the times at aid stations or being attacked by sled dogs).
That’s good enough for a mid-pack finish (the winning
time was 3:30). My GPS also reports that the race was a little
more than 26.2 (27.68 miles), and that it had a total of about
2,500ft of climbing. Boo-ya! Check it out here.
Will I do it again next year? Will I go for the 50? Tune in
next year to find out…
I HAVE to thank my wonderful Jean
for getting up at 4:00AM with me to hang out in the cold while
I ran around in the woods for 5+hrs. Thanks to Rob
& Renee for sticking around to see me finish too. I've
also got to thank Dave & Wes at New
England Running Company for helping me out with my last
minute shoe emergency. And finally, thanks to everyone at
the G.A.C. for putting on such a great event. The volunteers
were awesome.
PHOTOS
1. Luna and I bringing it home
2. Luna waiting to go
3. Pre-race
(from L to R): Rob Bousquet, a dude who's name I forget, Karl
Wiedemann, me...
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