Beach to Beacon 10K Race Report

Another race has come and gone. This has got to be the most exciting and well run race I have ever participated in. It is elite with runners from all over the world competing. This race was also the first time I was away from Emmylou for the night. Both girls stayed in NH with Luke and his mom for the night while I met Maggie and Emilie, an old friend from high school days. I drove up to meet Emilie and her two friends for dinner in Portland, ME. It was wonderful to see Emilie again - it had been nearly 20 years! Emilie has been one of my original inspirations for running and it was great to give her a big squeeze in person.

After dinner I drove to Kennebunkport, ME to meet up with Maggie to stay at her friend, Krista's place. What a place! Right downtown Kennebunkport for the night with such awesome company it was hard to put myself to bed at a reasonable time - 11pm. I had a second, light dinner on the porch and dessert of chocolate ice cream with fresh blueberries sprinkled atop.

After a good night's sleep we woke at 5am to enjoy coffee and my standard race breakfast of toast with peanut butter and a banana. We arrived at the race in Cape Elizabeth, ME at 7am which gave us plenty of time to get ready and use porto potties for the 8am start. There was big talk of heat and humidity, but truth be told, I did not feel it until halfway through the race.

I know, I need a new running shirt. Sponsors?

We lined up near the 8 minute mile pace marker in the sea of participants - nearly 6000 all told. Mags and I wished each other luck and we were off. I was feeling good so I started off at a 7 minute mile pace and settled into 7:30 pretty much right away. There is so much excitement to this race. I loved the fact that I was always surrounded by hungry runners. I was passing and being passed all the way until the end of the 6.2 miles.

The first 3 miles felt good. Near mile 3 I had that familiar slow down feeling, but was able to knock it down. It was hot and my face felt like it was on fire. Every mile there was a water station and I grabbed a cup and sipped a bit and threw the rest over my head and down my back. At one point there was a spectator with a water hose and I spread my arms wide and he doused me with the cold and refreshing shower. Saint. Speaking of spectators, this race has got the best. Between the locals and the vacationers it was a wild ride of motivation and congratulatory remarks. Names are printed on the bibs so "everyone knows your name". I raced on the left side of the road sometimes jumping onto the dirt to make a pass. At mile 5ish there were loud speakers blaring a swing song of some sort and I jumped up to do a happy-go-lucky toe tap and the group of onlookers went wild. This pushed my pace and overwhelmingly connected me to the crowd's energy.

I was obsessing a bit about my watch, trying hard to make it to the finish line in under 50 minutes. At mile 5.5 a spectator saw me peek at my watch and called out, " Brooke! Don't look at that watch again. Just run it home to the finish!" It was awesome! I did just that even though it was an act of discipline, but it was the best advice I got all day.

The hills. A lot of people warned me about the tough hills. I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell you the hills were hardly detectable. I guess compared to my mountain grade at home in AZ they were small. In fact the worse hill was the one after the finish line that they make you climb before they will give you water. Cruel joke.

At mile 6 you enter the finish line shoot (long) and there was a hill there, but it was so close to the finish that I kicked in the turbo and barreled up it. I crossed the finish line in 48.40. It felt good. I was tired, but damn it felt good! I underestimated my capability for the race. Because I have been such a slacker with training I didn't think I had an "under 50 minutes" in me. I was wrong and I think I could have PR'd had I put my mind to it. I was just 50 seconds off that. The race was such a feel-good race I will not miss this one in the future.

My splits were:

Mile 1 7:33
Mile 2 7:50
Mile 3 7:43
Mile 4 7:53
Mile 5 7:46
Mile 6 8:03
.2 6:54

After the race I met up with Maggie, Emilie and Emilie's friend, Susan, for awesome post-race food under the tents. They had bananas, watermelon, blueberries, greek yogurt, juice boxes, brownies, snickers and more! Lovely. We tried to stick around for the awards ceremony, but ran short on time so we chose to head for the shuttle buses and our long trip to Portland, through traffic, for lunch. We met up with Maggie's wonderful parents for Flatbread Pizza. If you've never been to one make it a priority. Delicious!

Then I bid farewell to my friends with plans to meet up again for a race in the future!