Around the Lake Marathon

I signed up for this one at the very last minute, when the weather forecast looked good. I needed a Boston qualifier and was only three weeks into my (condensed) training. I figured I'd do my 20 miler there, and if I felt good, I'd have the option to keep going. But I felt good (enough), kept going, and got a Boston qualifier with room to spare. Those 12 and 24 hour ultra runners shamed me into continuing :-) I've never run a race as part of an ultra before, and the was pretty cool and inspiring. It also gave the whole event a different vibe, which was nice. I was worried about the night start (9:00 p.m.), because I'm a morning, not evening, person, but the adrenaline kicked in. We also had weather about as perfect as it gets in July  temps in the mid to high 60s, I think. The humidity was high, but it's July. Also, the weather usually gets worse with each hour of a marathon. Here it got better, since it was later at night. The course: You have to be mentally prepared for the fact that you're going to run around something 8 times in a row (plus an add on loop at the beginning). A GPS watch also helps tremendously, because otherwise you don't really know what mile you're on, except when you complete a lap (and those come at odd intervals, like 10.35 miles and 15.53&). I was pleasantly surprised that the sidewalks were as smooth as they were, because in New England, we have some crappy sidewalks. I didn't NEED a head lamp, but I was glad I had one. I didn't know how the battery would hold up, so I would turn it off for a bit and then turn it back on for the dark parts. I should have worn reflective gear, but I figured I'd be on the sidewalk the whole time. In reality, I spent a fair amount of time out in the road, because pavement is so much softer than the concrete sidewalk, which wore on me after a while. There were 2 aid stations per lap (at the finish, and water halfway around). The finish had a lot of stuff, and Heed to drink. I was really glad that I brought my own fluids after trying the Heed, which I had never had before. I just brought a folding chair, put six bottles of Gatorade on it, and grabbed one each lap. That was also where I would have discarded my head lamp if I decided I didn't need it. A lot of ultra runners had tents and/or coolers set up&very different than your average road marathon. You can't compare this to Boston/New York/Chicago, or even Baystate/Hartford, etc. It's a totally different animal. But if you're like me and you need, say, a Boston qualifier at this time of year in New England, it's probably the best option out there. I can't imagine any circumstances under which I'd fly in from out of town to run this marathon, but for what it is, it's great. The course was faster than I would have expected. I would have thought night running would slow me down (I usually feel fast but run slow in the dark), as would just running on sidewalks instead of out in the roads with the masses. But this is a pretty fast course, especially if the weather cooperates. I usually only run Boston, so it's the only thing I can compare it to, but this is a significantly faster course than Boston. There are essentially no hills (though I swore some popped up on that last lap&there are very minor elevation changes throughout the loop, but nothing I'd identify as a hill). There weren't many spectators, of course, but it was fun to go through the finish area each lap, where people were cheering, and I was also happy to see the water station people and one random group cheering on each lap. I started out at about 3:30 pace and slowed down a bit, but I was surprised to have people near me or people to chase for most of the race. It was only the last lap where I wondered where everyone had gone (and even then, I was still lapping people who were walking, probably as part of the ultra). As long as you know what you're getting intosigning up to do eight laps around a place that I would just rate as average for running during the daythis is an awesome race. And the monotony is more tolerable in the dark&I found myself looking forward to certain landmarks, like 'that's the trash can I threw my bottle in on the last lap!' or 'there's the little dirt path where you can cut this corner.' The Somerville Road Runners do an excellent job with this race, in my opinion.

I thought I'd really enjoy doing another night marathon after Bangkok in 2009, but the 3.2 mile loop course kind of wore on me mentally...completely screwed up my pacing so that I ended up almost 30 minutes slower than I had planned, but with zero cramping and sprinting the last 2 miles...go figure! Pros: nice laid-back vibe among runners, organizers, volunteers & sparse spectators. Course was mostly flat. Cons: very hard to stay focused on this course...ended up zoning out for much of it. Lighting not 100% consistent...headlamp recommended, esp. if you like to use dirt paths whenever available alongside the paved path.

Plenty has been said about this great race over the years, but this year truned out to be an unforgetable experience. For many who were alseep at that hour they missed a specatcular Double Rainbow. Sure there have been double rainbows before but this was at the lake where both the rainbows seemed to touch the water surface and the reflection made it a continuation into two almost complete circles. You felt like you were running right through these circles.Heavenly experience!!! If there is anyone who took pictures of this spectacular event, please, please send them to me at arniejames@hotmail.com It'll be very much appreciated. Thanks. As usual the race was great but the food dept took a nose dive as compared to the years gone by. Oh, well, the rainbows made up for lousy food. So next year, since they can't bring the double rainbows back, I guess they'll have to improve the food. At least I hope they do. Ramen Noodle soup? come on!!!