Reach the Beach wrap up

Good morning! The day after Reach the Beach may be one of my most favorite post-race days. After leaving Dover at 4:30am Friday and finishing RTB at Hampton Beach almost 60 hours later, having a day to relax is truly special. This year’s RTB was both extremely difficult and wonderful. Extreme warm weather with temperatures climbing into the mid-80 to high 80s on both Friday and Saturday we all battled through legs that are challenging even in the best of conditions. Also adding to the challenge was having additional non-supported (no van support) legs added thus no pit stops for hydration. By the time we took over yesterday 12:30pm we were already tired, sore and drained from our previous 2 legs and now we were facing temperatures climbing closer to 90 degree than 80. The latter part of September is not supposed to be ideal beach weather! While our van 1 boasted of personal records on Facebook there was no such sentiments in our van but, instead we all hung in and kept moving our way to Hampton Beach. Without a doubt van 1 had some great runners who motivated each other to run faster, while our van encouraged each of our runners to hang in with the heat and not stress over the end result of their time. Even without the fact that our van’s runs were during the times of higher temperatures I am pretty sure our counterparts in van 1 would have outperformed us. Our team in van 2 was comprised of a group of people that not only had 3 runners nearly 50 and older but, also runners that approached RTB as not so much a race but, something to have fun without the pressure of needing to “kill it.” Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt every runner in our van wanted to do well and even stressed about letting the team down but, the encouragement was constant and no one could have possibly “let” the team down. Each finished leg was met with sincere appreciation and jubilation without any talk of splits, overall time or kills. Timing devices weren’t used to track splits but, instead to help pace us through each challenging run. Personally this was my fifth year of RTB and most definitely my most difficult. I would like to think the reason was entirely the high temperatures but, I am not so sure. My running has not been where it once was going into RTB for the past 2 years and whether that’s because of an aging body, injuries or just not training as I once did, I am not sure. Most likely the combination but, each run was definitely a challenge for me. There are times when I felt like I just didn’t have it in me to run the distance and I had to walk some. Frustrating for sure but, knowing my team wouldn’t care what I did, helped a great deal. However, on the flipside I could not have enjoyed this RTB anymore. To be able to experience this crazy event with both my wife and daughter is truly special. Both are amazing people and I marvel at how they help all of their teammates through encouragement. Also our van had two great first timers that had the perfect attitude. Doug Mackinnon who I have discussed before and the other was Brie Boisvert who I have known since her and my daughter played softball as young girls. Brie’s spunk was definitely a great addition to our van as well as her overall positivity. Throw in Lew and Maria getting us around and we had the best van I in my 5 years of RTB. Once we got done with our finish line activities we got back in our van and went to Margarita’s in Dover and enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing dinner. Soon we parted ways and everyone truly seemed to be happy with RTB 2015. I was for sure and that may bring me back another year. Thanks for having coffee with me and if you ran RTB this year please leave a comment about your experience. God Bless! Mike