Manchester Road Race - 75 Years of World-Class Racing!

               It has been a busy last week and a half. Thanksgiving Day was wonderful in a number of ways. To start out, I competed in the famed Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving morning. It was a very exciting race due to the fact that they were celebrating their 75^th anniversary, which called for a lot of fanfare complete with a pre-race flyover by a plane that was used in the Berlin Airlift. The race was a huge celebration of the history of road racing.  The first woman to ever compete in a professional road race was there to run, 50 years after the first time she ran the race! She even wore the same garment that she wore 50 years ago – a blue dress. Yes ladies, a dress! It was really awesome to see all the history surrounding the Thanksgiving Day race, and on top of that it was a great success for me. The course is 4.7 miles long with a huge 1 mile hill in the second mile. The race went out, and in my head I was thinking “man, I am in 6^th place and this pace doesn’t feel comfortable.” The mile clock loomed and I looked over to see 4:58. A little yellow light bulb lit up in my head “well, that is why the pace didn’t feel good. Now I will just settle in and use as little energy as possible to get up this huge hill and then I will let the legs fly!” Up the hill we went. I held on to the back of the pack and worked up the hill, towards the end passing the majority of the girls in the pack.  Once at the top we made a hard left turn and started down the hill we had just climbed. I moved to second place, dueling it out with one other girl for a short distance, but once I finally got in front I never saw her or any of the other girls again. I was looking ahead for SallyKipyego who went out really hard and stayed there the entire race. I could see her a ways ahead, but for the time being I was running with a group of two guys. As the race progressed I was still feeling pretty good, but the guys I was running right behind were starting to slow down. I didn’t want to have to cut my stride and slow down to go around the two men…so I did the next best thing, gave them each a love tap right at their center of gravity, a.k.a. their hips, and they moved to the side and I went right between them. The next mile went by uneventfully, I caught another man who obviously took exception to being caught by a woman because every time I made it to his shoulder he would put in a quick sprint and be 5 meters ahead of me again. I largely tried to ignore him and just continue to run hard, trying to see if I could make up any time on Sally. Finally 800 meters to go, and the guy next to me was brought sharply back to my attention because – and I have to admire his competitive spirit – he began to dry heave….once, twice, three times. I swerved far to the right so as to avoid any type of substantive eruption and began to surge for the finish. Soon the finish line loomed, I crossed it still in 2^nd in a time of 25:02. Another success!

                After the race I quickly cooled down and jumped straight into my host family Bill andCarol Oneill's car. Carol whisked me away to catch my flight that was scheduled to take off only 2 hours and 10min after I finished the race. I flew to Tennessee where my husband and I spent a few quality days with my family celebrating Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for, I have a truly blessed life and consider myself very lucky. Thank you to my family, friends, and all of you who have joined me on this journey. And, the many people and organizations that make my life as a professional runner possible - Team USA Minnesota, Road Runners Club of America, Life Time Fitness, Twin Cities in Motion, Ron Wayne at Mizuno, and many more.   

                Now, as I am writing this blog I am sitting in Las Vegas, getting ready for the Rockand Roll Las Vegas Half marathon – The Strip at Night! The race starts at 5:30pm, so the strip will be fully lit up. It should make for a fun race. Can you imagine it?!  I am using the race to test my fitness and see where I am in my preparation for the OT Marathon. I will keep you all posted and let you know how it goes, stay tuned!