Eastern States 20 Miler - Race Report

The Eastern States 20 miler sounded like a good idea when I registered. But between dealing with my cat dying, a cold from hell and a nasty weather day – I quickly had second thoughts.

Justin came by my house at 6am to pick me up for the ride up to Maine. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast – egg, bacon and cheese on a bagel. When we arrived at the casino (where the parking was) – it was raining pretty good and it was cold. New Hampshire cold is a special bone chilling cold. We hopped on the school bus for the ride to Traip Academy to get race number and shirt and wait for the start. We had quite a bit of time before the race.

The weather never seemed to want to behave – cold, windy and rainy - great day for a 20 mile long run. After a good stretch – we headed outside to get acclimated and to get ourselves to the start. The start reminded me of The Blessing – a bunch of people hanging out at an intersection – and then people just started to run.

Justin and I kept a good pace in the beginning – 8:48 first mile. We knew it was too fast – but figured we can adjust. We passed from Maine into Portsmouth, NH and I felt pretty good. At mile 7 we took a planned walk break for about a minute or so – gave us time to eat a granola bar and have some Gatorade. We kept the 8:50ish to 9:10 pace for the first half. Around mile 10 (or so) – Justin pulled ahead of me (or I fell back – or both). This is when things started to fall apart for me. Thinking back on it – I really don’t remember much except – I was cold and wet and pretty miserable. I took another walk break at mile 14.

Just before the 16th mile marker I felt the urge to vomit – twice. I was able to hold the urge back. At that point I decided at the next water station to give in and get medical help. However, as I got to the water station – there weren’t too many people there – and I couldn’t see anyone that looked medical in any way. I walked the water station –drank my water – and started to jog. I figured I couldn’t walk to the finish line from there as I would just be out in the cold for too long and that jogging would at least keep me relatively warm.

I jog/walked for about a half mile – and then someone (Max) passed me and said some encouraging words. So I decided to catch up with him and try to finish with him. We jogged/ran together for most of the last 3+ miles. I felt he was helping me along – but he said I was helping him along. It was good to have him there to talk to and distract me from the pain, cold, and wet. We ran by the parking lot where we had parked – part of me was hoping to see Justin standing there as I contemplated just calling it there. But I really didn’t want a DNF. Once we crossed over the last bridge – I just couldn’t bare to run anymore – things went gray for a second – so a bit after mile 19 I started to walk. My knees were in so much pain at this point – running wasn’t an option, jogging didn’t help, walking didn’t help. The long, cold, wet walk seemed to take forever – and I was passed by around 40 or so people.

I saw the finish line and was able to pick up a light jog. Justin was standing on the corner (with a blanket some nice lady gave him to keep him warm). As I finished – he handed the blanket to me. Twenty miles done – sort of.

I felt horrible – violently shivering, muscles going crazy. Even with the blanket on – and back on a warm bus – I just couldn’t stop shivering/shaking. After I put on some dry clothes – and sitting in the warm car for about 20-30 minutes I finally stopped shaking. We stopped to get food at 99 – after that I started to feel relatively human again – but in the need of NyQuil for my cold.

All in all – a pretty miserable experience. Stage 1 hypothermia is no fun. I felt very discouraged for the rest of Sunday. Today – I’m feeling better and am looking forward to getting back at it on Tuesday.