Manchester City Marathon

Manchester, New Hampshire

	Time/ Pace	Div.	Div. Pl.	Gen. Pl.	Ov. Pl.	Bib #
Owen	4:37:31 10:35	Male 50-54	25/ 32	273/ 377	363/ 566	1155

Written by Owen:

I had signed up for this race in 2020, but it was cancelled due to COVID. Malissa's brother, Michael recently moved to Manchester, New Hampshire. When I learned that is where he was moving, I floated the idea of signing up for this race again, since it was the only one I was missing on the East coast.

Our flight was late in the day, so we had our normal "Family Night". Ali is at school in Chapel Hill, so it was just the boys and us. Normally Malissa cooks a great meal, but since we had to leave for the airport, we had Chick-Fil-A. Around 5:30pm, Mike (our son) took us to the airport. We had a short layover in Baltimore, and arrived in Manchester shortly after Midnight. Malissa's brother Michael picked us up at the airport and we went straight to bed. He has a really nice home a mile from the start line.

It was really nice having two full days after arriving before the marathon on Sunday. Friday we ran some errands, like Goodwill to buy throw-away clothing for race day, a grocery store, etc. Then we ate lunch at the Red Arrow Diner, then dinner at The Farm Bar & Grille. Malissa said it's the best clam chowder she's ever had.

Saturday we had almost nothing on our agenda, other than to drive to the running store where the packet pickup was. It was a nice store, with lots of people there picking up their bib and shirt. We had sandwiches at Michael's house for lunch, and watched football. For dinner, we went to Giovanni's, where I had ziti with maranara, Malissa had eggplant parmesan, and Michael had stromboli.

Michael's house is only about a mile from the start, which was really nice. Because it's November in New Hampshire, the race didn't start until 8:50 AM. I typically eat two hours before a marathon, so I got up at 6 and had a bagel and a banana. We all got ready and drove to the start about 30 minutes before the scheduled start time.

The race started, it was quite cold (about 40°), but I had a great plan and slowly shed my gloves, hoodie, and beanie. I felt good, but my lower back pain I've been experiencing was definitly noticeable. I just focused on logging one mile at a time. Before I knew it, I was at the halfway point, which was back at the start/finish, so the half runners could peel off and finish.

At about mile 16ish, there was a skinny path that had a river on one side, and apartments on the other. The side with the apartments had a chain link fence right next to the path, the side of the river had a picket fence. All of a sudden I noticed there was ankle deep water on the path for about 25 feet. There was nowhere to go, other than through it. I was FURIOUS! Wet feet is how blisters form. So I scaled the picket fence and tried to just slide along, with my feet on the bottom rung. That worked for about 10 feet, but then overgrown trees or shrubs made that impossible, so I jumped in the water and made as big as steps as possible. My feet were drenched. What an epic failure by the race organizers! By some miracle, I didn't get blisters, thank goodness.

Other than that, the race was really organized and well done. I noticed things I would have done different, but nothing major like the steeplechase section. For example, all of the aid stations had things in the wrong order (in my opinion). Most runners I know prefer to get their gu (if taking gu), then gatorade (if taking gatorade), then water, then in about 100 yards, the trash can. This way you can take things in order, and not have to hold one while you get the other. Every stop was completely backwards so I had to juggle multiple things, and litter because the trash can was right at the stop. Another example of something I'd do different is the course itself. We repeated several paths multiple times, and ran toward the finish line two separate times (one at halfway, and again at mile 25.5. That was cruel, only to have to turn and run a half mile before returning on the other side.

Manchester was beautiful, the course was well supported, and overall a great race. I need to dial in my fitness so I can finish stronger, but a totally successful race, nonetheless.

Monday was a full day of travel back to Charlotte, since we had a 3.5 hour layover in Baltimore. It went smoothly, though.