Maple Leaf half-marathon and 5K: our hometown race

Yesterday 38 women from my running groups over the past 5 years joined about 1000 other people to participate in the Maple Leaf Half-marathon and 5K in Manchester, VT. This is our local half-marathon, supported by the Manchester and the Mountains Chamber of Commerce, the local Lions Club, and our local running group, the BattenKill Valley Runners. One participant said we must have had almost as many volunteers as we did runners, and they're not far off. This event is truly a community effort, with fire departments, rescue squads, high school sports teams, community groups, and dedicated individuals volunteering their time and energy to put on a quality race.

This year I volunteered with the organizing committee, helped out at registration on Friday evening, and started Saturday morning by placing orange highway cones, no parking signs, and race direction signs along the route. Then came helping out at registration, answering questions from visiting runners, cheering on the walkers who started at 8am, placing volunteers holding pace signs for the 9am running start, and directing the 5K runners onto their last turn before the finish. All of this before 10am!

I spent the next 3 hours cheering on the half-marathon runners and walkers as they finished their race. Among the 1000 participants were 35 women from my running group. Once a member of Training for More, you're always a part of this fun-loving, energetic group.

some of the group before the race start

I watched women with big smiles speed up as they neared the finish. Women who joined hands with their friends, finishing the last few steps of the 13.1 miles together. Women I haven't seen all summer, who gave me a big smile and even stopped for a hug before they crossed the finish line. Women who struggled with blisters, cramped calf and hamstring muscles, and stomach issues but kept moving forward. Women wearing our team hat, visor, or t-shirt, or wearing a shirt from one of the many races we've done together. Women running with their husband or fiance. Women running with their children. Women talking, smiling and laughing, taking pictures and video. Women walking and running to set a PR, continue their quest to become a half-fanatic or reach a new moon level (you have to read about it to believe it), to support the local race and the charities it benefits, to encourage a friend, to demonstrate to themselves that they're strong and healthy, and to have fun. 

I started running in college because I was in Army ROTC and that required running - lots of running. I kept running because friends encouraged me to run, I craved the peace and quiet of running in the country on little-traveled roads, and running allowed me to eat just about anything I wanted. When I started the Training for More group, I expected fewer than 10 women to join, and I never expected it would expand into an ongoing, cohesive group of women who never cease to amaze me.

We didn't have a specific training group for today's races, I didn't organize group runs, or send out email instructions. They did it all on their own, or together in small groups. As each of them passed me on the course with the finish line in sight, I cheered, clapped, and shouted encouragement. Once they finished their race, we gathered together and continued cheering not only for women in our group, but for every person who came by. Congratulations to each of you who finished your race yesterday. Wear your finisher's medal with pride!

Running with Mike

Mike and I first started running together when we were dating while in college at the University of Vermont. Instead of going on a date, we'd meet to run for a study break, typically late at night. We'd run through the streets of Burlington, head down to Lake Champlain, and wind our way back up the hill toward campus.

Mike really doesn't enjoy running, and once we left college he pursued other athletic interests while I continued to run. While our kids were young he'd run with them in the kids' races while I ran the 5K. As the boys got older, they all would run/walk the Running of the Turkeys 5K together. Mike's volunteered at countless local races but his day-in-day-out exercise turned to the gym.

Today we ran the local 5K route from the Rec center, a fairly flat loop through Manchester. It was Mike's idea, since the gym is closed for Labor Day and he wanted to get some exercise. He doesn't love running the way I do, doesn't get into the flow of feeling the sun and wind on his face or into the pattern of footsteps rhythmically pattering out a beat on the sidewalk. He listens to music to take his focus off his breath and his body, which makes the run bearable but hinders conversation. We don't need to talk to enjoy running together, falling easily into a companionable pace.

As we finished the 5K loop, Mike talked about possibly running a local 5K race this Fall. Maybe he'll even run periodically instead of always using the stationary bike at the gym. We've known each other for 34 years, and have learned that adapting to change and finding a common thread in our lives is part of the crucial glue that binds us together. We don't need to run together regularly, or even more than a few times each year, to reactivate the running component of that glue.