Race Report for the Fourth Annual 4 on the 4th

Last night I worked in the ER from 3pm-3am. I got home shortly after 4am, checked the weather forecast for the morning and managed to get to sleep a little before 5am. When the alarm went off at 6:30 for my race, my first thought was, “You have got to be freakin’ kidding me.” April and I got up, got the kids dressed and headed to Northampton for my Fourth of July Road Race. I was looking forward to it because it was being put on by my local running store and more importantly because my friend Val was going to run it with me.

I told my wife before the race that I was anticipating having my ass handed to me today because I expected a lot of really good runners to be there. When I got there I did the usual pre-race size up of the other runners and my fears were confirmed. I have this unofficial rule that I use to judge the potency of the crowd I’ll be running against. I call it the iPod Rule. It works like this - the number of iPods on the starting line is inversely proportional to the seriousness of the competition.

Now before I get blasted in the comments section, let me clarify. I sometimes wear an iPod and sometimes I don’t. I’ve also been beaten by more than my fair share of earbud toting runners. There are plenty of really fast runners who show up on race day with an iPod, just like there are plenty of slower runners who show up without. My iPod Rule cannot be applied to the individual, but it does work well when talking about a population. Well, today’s starting line was very sparse when it came to iPods, so I knew there was lots of stiff competition. It was however densely populated with many shirtless and rather stinky runners. This brings me to another rule. We’ll call it the Pit Rule. The Pit Rule says this - yes, it is early, and no, it doesn’t make sense to shower before a race, but if you can take enough time to smear on some Body Glide, you can certainly use an equal amount of time to apply some damn deodorant.

Anyway, about the race. The field was smaller than I expected, but given the number of 4th of July races, I guess many fields are small. There were 131 finishers. The course wove through downtown Northampton and the residential areas between Childs Park and King Street. There were some hilly parts, but nothing too bad. There were race officials at each of the mile markers yelling out splits and there was one watering station at mile 2. Pretty straight forward stuff.

The race course was well marked and there were police at all the major intersections to direct traffic, but towards the end of the race I witnessed the scariest thing I’ve seen yet. An old man in a blue sedan pulled out of his driveway and hit one of the runners. Then he just drove off. I’m doubtful he even knew what happened. I fully expect to read about him plowing through a farmer’s market someday. To the runner’s credit, he did a rather athletic looking jump/slide across the hood of the car, and was apparently unhurt. Plus now he has one hell of a story.

Not many frills - no swag bags and no children’s activities. But, instead of the usual cotton t-shirt that nobody wears on race day, they gave out nice lightweight tech shirts! Yay!!! After the race, they hosted a breakfast, but many people including myself left early to go begin their holiday.

I did well considering the lack of sleep and how I was feeling. I finished the four miles in 29:54 (7:29 min/mile). Val did well too. She gutted out the hills and had a strong finish with a big smile on her face. Her husband Glenn, my wife April, my girls and I probably woke up the neighborhood with our loud cheers. Val is a better runner than she thinks. She’s got good form and an efficient running economy. She is running with me and a few other friends next weekend at a Twilight 5K, and she is one half of a team that is competing with Justin and I in the Mud Hog Race. I’ve been trying to get her to sign up for more races, and today I planted the seed to get her to do a half-marathon with me in September. She’s not the type to back down from a challenge, so I’m optimistic.

It was a good morning. Below are some pics (pardon the camera phone quality). Click to enlarge.

Val and I before the start

My finish

Val, McKenna and I after the race