While I visit my family in Maine every year, I haven’t always been able to run a race wile visiting. I have done the Beach to Beacon a few times, but its popularity has made it difficult to ensure an entry. This has made it somewhat hard to plan a visit incorporating a race.
This year, however, I ended up arriving in Maine on July 15th, the start of the Yarmouth Clam Festival. It features numerous healthy (kayak, running, and bike races) and unhealthy (fried foods) activities. I signed up for the Class Festival Classic 5 mile race.
I woke up early, as I always do on a race day, and was pleased that the weather was nice and the temperature was just under 60 degrees. Having been running in the sweltering conditions in Florida, I was looking forward to some cool running.
I picked up my race packet and strapped the chip to my leg and was ready to warm up. I’ve used all sorts of race chips over the years, but this was the first time I used on that attached with a velcro ankle strap. I actually found it the least annoying of the chips-I didn’t have to mess with my shoe laces or worry about the sticky plastic strip failing to stick.
The race had a good turnout, as I could see at the start. A bit tired from traveling the day before, I took off at a conservative pace and focused on running consistently. The course was all paved and had several relatively small hills. The master’s record for the course is apparently 25 minutes-I ran 26 minutes on 5 mile cross country courses when I was in my 20s. I didn’t run that fast this year, only crossing the finish line after 33 minutes. Since this is my old 10K (6.2 mile) time, this shows that age (and bacon) can be tough on speed. The winning time was just under 25 minutes, which was rather impressive.
I am looking forward to running it again.
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