Would I do this race again, well not exactly but you NEED to get out here and participate! Will I do the 5k next year? Totally! I sort of tricked Richard into doing the 2.5k, he was not excited about it. It was his very first race ever and even though the metal rod in his leg is bothering him he’s up for it again next year already.
A bit about the race: Truthfully I don’t know a whole lot about it. It seems like one of those probably good cause ones and some of the pens and banners were branded with Active East Hants and it was held by the county parks and recreation department. The website is a press release that gives start times and a helpful hint not to bring your best shoes. So instead I’ll tell you how I came to run it. I wanted to do the shinier Not Since Moses Tidal Run but the start time means that we would have to leave here at 3am or stay over and it’s already expensive. I saw this one on Atlantic chip, it’s a 90 minute drive and my friend lives in Noel, bonus!
Parking and weather: The weather was perfect, 21 and sunny but not much wind. There is plenty of parking at the Burntcoat Park for the race to grow by leaps and bounds. Only thing is it’s so rural that it’s passed addresses and cell phone service is spotty. When you get onto Burntboat Road, which is paved you make a right at the very nice dirt road to the park. If you reach an intersection you’ve gone too far. Siri will take you there but she might also abandon you for periods as well. The first three turns after you leave the hiway don’t say Noel or Kennekook so it’s best to print off the directions or screen shot them. Also don’t expect to get a lot of info online, like at all.
Cheer squad: OMG OMG best squad ever! Richard came as always and even participated this time!!!!! Mind you I half tricked and 1/8th guilted him into it. My friend lives up there, occasionally runs and is a volunteer fire fighter, she rocks! I asked her about it and if she wanted to do it with me, she said it’s mostly rolling around in the mud with race numbers and then she and the other firefighters hose you down so she was out, plus it was three days after my birthday. Before there was any info online or a way to register I was checking and talking about it. This combination might have led Richard to believe that it wouldn’t be a run at all plus some guilt. Anyway I registered myself for the 10k without much info and asked him if he wanted to do the 2.5, he said yes and picked the paid option since he wanted a shirt and a medal.
He was not excited no matter how many times I asked him on the way, even when we stopped to by him sneakers at Walmart without steel toes. Well I started at 11 and did four laps of the course and they did the last one. While he cheered for me at every lap, had his breath taken away by the scenery and had fun. He’s even up for it again next year. Some of the pictures in this post are his.
Not a big deal right, well it sort of is. Four years ago he had a bad dirt bike accident and broke his lower leg in four places, classic spiral fracture. He had a metal rod inserted into the bigger bone along with 4 screws. It bothered him terribly and the screws were backing out so he had them removed 18 months ago but they left the rod. Everything is fine now but the screws prevented the rod from moving up and down in the bone and his surgeon advised him running might bother him, jumping off staging does. This race is as short as you can get and on soft terrain so it was a good place to test the theory but chances are it would at least be achey. There wasn’t a chance that he could really harm himself to the point it needed further attention but once it acts up he can feel it for about a week. It’s a dull throb now and where one screw came out its swollen very locally so a 2.5k was a big deal for him as active as he is. We ran on Saturday, it hurts then and Monday but now he’s pretty much back to 100%
Richard finished before me and actually ran back to the last volunteer about 400 m, waited for me and finished with me again, and took what turned out to be one of his many videos of the day. Even though his leg was sore. I LOVE this guy!
Course: Okay so AMAZING doesn’t come close to describing the beauty but it’s also why I might not recommend the 10k. You’re running a 2.5k loop through the park, twice for the 5k and FOUR times for the 10k. As you can see it’s stunning as it’s on the tidal shore at the point where the tides are the higher in the WHOLE world! But… four times around the same loop is at least one too many for me, I’ll do the 5k and two loops next time. The course is really well marked yellow where you can run and orange where it’s slippery. Where it’s marked slippery just walk, that mud and seaweed makes you feel like your skating! Soft ground and heavy muddy and wet shoes makes this a tough course. There is a free option (no medal or shirt) or $30 for the 2.5 and 5k and the 10k is $50.
Logistics and support: Plan to be self supported on this one. Bring your own water and fuel if you need it. There is a cooler at the start/finish/lap line with a few bottles of water and that’s it. But I think there were 4 or 5 volunteers stationed on the 2.5 k course should you get into trouble. About 60 people participated over all, mostly kids and 5k racers and a total of 2 in the 10k, me and they guy that beat me. It’s pretty well organized but in the rain 10k would be brutal! Timing was once again done my Atlantic Chip and we wore ankle chips.
Race goals: Have fun and try to make sure Richard has fun too! But the scenery stole the show so pictures were a priority!
Swag: Standard small charity race stuff plus some chamber of commerce type stuff. A nice yet cotton shirt, a decent medal with a basic ribbon, some East Hants post cards, info, pen and a $40 gift certificate to hello fresh (an online food delivery deal.)
Results: While I either came in second in my event, was the top placing female in the 10k or came in last place depending on how you look at it. Officially I finished with a sad time of 1:29:31 making it my slowest 10k ever. But my GPS say it was 11.2 km. You have to walk a lot of it and this isn’t a race for a PR. Richard came in 4th over all in the timed 2.5k with a time of 22.22 out of 8 people.
Looking back: Amazing, would love to do it again, ideally with Richard if he’s up to it. But I would do the 5k and two laps not four with would be even harder if it happened to be raining. As always a big shout out the the volunteers on this one!
Sweat Sweetly 