Workout Wednesday 8.22.18

A few weeks my family got the opportunity to go up to Maine, visit family and participate in the Beach to Beacon 10K! This, is a short but hopefully helpful review for anyone interested in participating in this race!

I'll be talking about transportation, the course, the finish line and my overall impressions!

Transportation: I'm going to start with the negatives first. The first hurdle for me was getting to the state, much less getting to the start line! Coming from Texas, we ended up flying to Boston then driving in to Portland. It takes a while to get to Maine, but once you get there, it's worth it! The landscape and the people are so amazing and we loved getting to see everything!

Actually getting to the start line was also a challenge. Had my aunt not been our guide, I think it would have been a lot more stressful. The race started at 8:00 AM and we left the house at 6:15 AM to make it there on time. There are different designated parking spots and then they bus you to the starting line. The process was fairly efficient, but there are a lot of people that participate, so it takes a while no matter what! Traffic was very bad as well. We ended up walking a mile (or so) to the start line past cars just parked on the road.

Getting back, there was a line for each parking area. Thankfully, we had the short line. Even so, it took a while to get on a bus. 

In my head I felt like I had definitely spent triple the time getting to and from the race than actually racing. That was kind of a pain but it's consistent with my experience in point to point courses rather than races that start and end in the same spot. 

The course: This is where this race really shines! The course follows the road through these beautiful little Northeastern towns. There were much more houses along the course than I expected, but this made the race much better. There were so many spectators! Lots of people came out to support runners. It was very humid, and people had their water hoses rigged to ladders to spray runners on the road and keep us cool. There were so many encouraging and funny signs and lots of high fives and hugs for anyone who wanted one! The first sight of the ocean was breathtaking and we loved getting to see the architecture of so many beautiful houses along the road. We felt we got a great and authentic taste of Maine, which is one of the many reasons why we love running in new places!

The finish: The finish was a mixed bag. You end in a park of sorts and it's fun to see the scenery. I obviously didn't do my research, but it was only at the finish end that I realized there is no medal at the end! So don't do this race if you are only in it for the bling. Once you finish you actually go up a hill to the finish area. On the other side of the hill is where all the vendors and food tents are. You can see the bay from up there and the view is beautiful!

There was plenty of snacks and food at the finish. An ice cream truck was even giving away free popsicles! This was a welcome treat after such a humid race. We didn't stick around very long to see all the other vendors, but the Dunkin' Donuts line was pretty long and it seemed like they had lots of fun things to do and see!

The downside? Cell phone service was pretty much non-existent. I don't know if there were too many people trying to use the towers or if it's just a dead zone. So meeting up with family post race was a challenge. There were several people asking the DJ to announce that "so-and-so is looking for you, please meet them at this location." The DJ ended up just saying if everyone was missing someone, to just meet at the flagpole. So if you do this race, make sure you have a good plan to meet up post race!

Final overall impressions: This race was great. It was fun, low key and enjoyable despite the humid weather. The people along the course and the views make up for the transportation inconveniences. Honestly, if I had to do it again, I would stay at the finish line area and enjoy the vendors while I waited for the lines to die down for the shuttles. 

We made a video if you would like to see some of the race and the course! Enjoy!

Workouts this week:

• Monday: Strength Training with Dustin
• Tuesday: Walk and Abs
• Wednesday: Off
• Thursday: Walk and Abs
• Friday: Strength Training with Dustin
• Saturday: Walk and Abs
• Sunday: Off