The Wicked Running Register July 2012 • Priceless
EST. JAN 2010
Race Review East End 5 Miler – July 22, 2012 – Lowell, MA Shannon Downey
Those that know me understand that I am not a fan of hot weather. In fact, I hate it more than anything. I’ll take snow over 90 degrees any day. So what would possess me to run a race in the middle of summer that starts after 5:00 am? It’s all about the swag, baby! As my hubby Billy and I prepare for our first marathon in Chicago, we are aware of the possibility of scorching temps and no shade. So I thought it would be good to try to acclimate to the heat by running more outside of my comfort zone. I saw an article about the East End 5 Miler on coolrunning.com and thought it would be a great way to test my mettle. Oh, it was a test alright! This was probably the most challenging course I’ve ever run. This was the East End 5 Miler’s 27th running, but it’s been on hiatus for the last 5 years. It was always a very popular race due to the challenge of the course, the weather and the party afterwards. It’s always held towards the end of July (except for the last year before the hiatus) and it has a ridiculous start time of 10:30 am. But the swag was great – great running hat, t-shirt (sponsor logo free), finisher medal that doubles as a bottle opener and personalized bibs!
I felt like an elite runner, despite my less-than-elite time. Also, the party had plenty of food (hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, pizza) and all runners got two free beers. Trust me, we needed it after the course. About the course: It starts in a very deceiving manner. The first 1.75 miles is completely flat and wonderful. Despite the heat and the fact that we had run a 10 miler the day before, I felt great for the first part. Then, as I approached the 2 mile mark, I could see that it was elevated. Looked like a small hill. Just after the 2 mile mark, the course turns and heads into residential neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that are all hills. Like, every part is a hill. If you weren’t running up a hill, you were running down a hill. Rolling hills. Steep hills. Little hills. Just plain hills. This went on until you hit the 4 mile mark. Then the road seemed to flatten out and I thought I was in the clear. Until I hit 4.25. At that point, the course starts a steep uphill again for a solid half mile. Finally (finally!) when you reach 4.75, the course flattens out and there is a slight downgrade at the finish. Despite the fact that I ended walking at least 2 miles of the race and my time was junk, I actually really liked this race! It wasn’t huge, about 225 runners completed it. It was very well organized — there were water stops at 1.5 and 3.5 and plenty of water at the end. The
volunteers were fantastic, cheering us in and assisting in traffic stops. The party was great, as was the swag – I love my bib! And Yankee Timing did a great job with paperless chip timing. There were clocks at every mile and our split times were listed in the results. It was a great way to identify which miles I ran and which I walked. Also, at the end of the race, there were no sheets of paper taped to the side of the building. Runners could walk over to the timing truck and your name, number and time appeared on a video screen when your bib was scanned, much like when you ran over the mats at the checkpoints. It was cool to see the latest race technology in action. Despite the heat, I will definitely run this one again. But next time, I’ll train for hills :-) I give this 4 out of 5 cats.