20 miles on the Vineyard

Last Saturday was an adventure. I woke up early, picked up some friends, and headed to Cape Cod. I parked the car, hopped on a shuttle to the ferry, then took the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. By the time I reached the island, it was 10:15. The Martha's Vineyard 20-miler started at 11.

I stashed my pocket with jelly beans and chucked my backpack on a bus to meet me at the finish. I chatted with my friends, Colin and Ariel, whom I had convinced to come race. They had never run more than 14 miles, but are planning to bandit the Boston Marathon so decided a 20-miler was inevitable. And why not at beautiful Martha's Vineyard?

The weather was fantastic. Mid-40s. Maybe a few clouds in the sky, but mostly sunny. It was windy, but it was a tailwind for the first 8 miles along the shore. Not bad.

Mile 1 - 6:26 oops, too fast.
Mile 2 - 6:34 caught all the ladies by this point.
Mile 3 - 6:37 much better. Ran with a biophysicist that I'd met on the ferry. Nice guy, but by the sound of his breathing I knew he wasn't going to stay at this pace. Poor guy.
Mile 4 &5 - 12:58 somehow I missed the mile marker. Biophysicist dropped back and Mike from my team, the Greater Boston Track Club, started running with me.
Mile 6 - 6:35 picking out my future summer home.
Mile 7 - 6:39
Mile 8 - 6:48 still feeling pretty good.
Mile 9 - 6:35
Mile 10 - 6:42 Another GBTC guy, Ken Ross, catches me and Mike.
Mile 11 - 6:40 turned away from Nantucket Sound in Edgartown. Now running into the wind - boo.
mile 12 - 6:45 Mike and Ken take turns leading, shielding me from the wind.
Mile 13 - 6:42 There are some gentle hills here, and for the next few miles.
Mile 14 - 6:37
Mile 15 - 6:48 There is a hill here and the wind gusts are strong as we run by an airstrip.
Mile 16 - 6:52 Clinging to Mike and Ken. I know if I run alone, I'll fall apart.
Mile 17 - 6:48 A few guys from a competing club team catch up. One of the guys ran this race in 2007, the last time I ran it. He reminded me that we'd run many miles together during that race, and then I'd dropped him with a few miles to go. His friends said something like, "Don't make her mad." Ken surges forward, Mike drops back, I carry on. Pretty sure I'm a little delirious by now; I think I even called Mike "John." Sorry.
Mile 18 - 6:30 Freshly motivated, I drop Mr. Bitter-about-2007 again.
Mile 19 - 6:45 This mile was so long. When will this end?!
Mile 20 - 6:39 Cross the finish, hobble to a high school locker room and hot-shower myself back from my hypothermic state to reality again. Grab a bowl of minestrone soup and wait for Colin and Ariel. They finish around 3 hours and are actually happy to have come (yea!).

We stuck around for prizes (which turned out to be tiny medals) and then barely caught the ferry back to the Cape. Glad we caught it for many reasons, but mostly because Ariel needed to attend her own surprise birthday party that night. :)

Because I drove our friends, I didn't have room in the car for Scott, Bruce, and Phoebe. They spent their Saturday fine-tuning their Mario Kart skills.

Photo via http://www.mvtimes.com/marthas-vineyard/article.php?id=9608