I went into November with only 2 states remaining towards my 50 States + DC challenge! The first to be conquered was New Hampshire! The AppleFest Half looked like a great small town race, the only challenge was it was the same weekend as RNR Cleveland - so another double weekend was on the horizon - this time a small town/country race and a large commercial event!
I flew into Boston, rented a car, and headed to our hotel. Marissa arrived a few hours later and we caught up for a bit before calling it a night. The next morning we drove separately to the start as we both had flights to catch to other races, but we met back up there to wait for the race to start. As we sat in the high school gym watching people weigh in for Clydesdale and Athena divisions I commented that I could make that weight. Marissa didn't believe me, so I proved it...only to be entered in the Athena division! We laughed a bit, thought no more of it, and headed to the start line.
We said our good byes and went on our way at our own paces. The race was a really pretty small town race through a lot of New England foliage.
And occasionally through a lot of rotten apples.
But overall it was a really neat race with a good course and a decent amount of crowd support through pretty country roads.
The finish line foods beat pretzels and bagels any day!!
Apples and lots of apple crisp!
I finished up in 2:06:13 with just enough time to run back to the hotel for a quick shower and make my way casually back to the airport before my flight to Cleveland - only to discover I'd actually taken third place in the Athena division!!! I was told "Awards" would be in 20 minutes. I knew it would make things tight, but I'd never won an award racing that was actually presented and thought it was worth it. Of course it kept dragging on and on. Eventually they handed out awards...and third prize for the Athena division was ------ YOUR OWN APPLE PIE!
I took it with me to Cleveland and we all enjoyed it, but I found it somewhat humorous that the prize was fattening food!
Waiting for the pie added another level of 'uh oh' to the weekend though as I BARELY had enough time to go DIRECTLY to the airport. I didn't even have time to fill up the rental car with gas! But, I got my award, checked off my next to the last state, and made my flight!
I got into Cleveland and met Sherry and Krissy at the hotel. We crashed and chatted the next morning at the start area. Sherry and I started together.
The race was a little rough. I did see Sherry about halfway into the race and stayed with her for several miles. She was killing me with the pace but I hung in there. Then somewhere around mile 10 I dropped her and didn't realize it for almost two miles. Oops! By that point I was just focused on finishing. There was plenty of crowd support and it was overall a good race, but the final stretch into a head wind was not fun. I was happy to be finished! (Even though at 2:13:47 it was considerably slower than the previous day's race.) I was even happier to meet up with my Gypsy friends to celebrate!
Hyalker and I showing off our Heavy Medals
RNR Gypsies
More RNR Gypsies
Sherry, Krissy, and I
Finish Hug for Joe
After the race, Sherry, Hyalker, and I headed to the Hard Rock to refuel before flying out.
The weekend was quick, but it was an incredible time enjoying both a small town race and a larger commercial event, country roads and city streets, a race mostly solitary and a race with friends, a rushed turn around and a relaxed celebration after a race. It truly was the best of both worlds and it checked my next to the last state off of my list!
