Winnipesaukee Relay Race weekend

This was a nice short week. I had Monday off for Labor Day and I took today off to head to New Hampshire for the Fred Brown Lake Winnipesaukee Relay Race. The race is this Saturday and is a sixty-six mile course around the entire lake. I’ve never run it before but many of my friends have and tell me it is a lot of fun.

This is the 24^th annual running of this race and it is sponsored and managed by the North Medford Club. The race starts at 8AM at FUNSPOT, Weirs Beach, NH. I have no idea what FUNSPOT is but it sounds like one of those summer arcade places where whiney kids hang out playing pin ball.

The North Medford Club is the second oldest running club in America, Founded in 1933 by the legendary Fred Brown. This, right off of their website. They sponsor a summer and winter series of races, so I am going to have to find out more about them.

I am running leg 5 of this relay which is listed as a 10.8 mile course with “Some small gentle Hills”. We’ll see. I once saw a race in Breakheart Reservation in Saugus where the course was described as flat and fast. Anyone who knows Breakheart can LOL now.

The Melrose Running Club will have four teams this year. I’m told that we do the run for fun and there is no pressure. Some people work the race into their schedule as their speed work or maybe even a long run if they are training for a half marathon.

Something happens to me on race day. I become very focused and when the starting gun goes off so does a little switch in my head which lights up my competitive circuits. I will run my 10.8 miles as hard as I can and I will eat up those gentle hills. We probably won’t win any medals or anything, but I’m going to stretch my legs a bit and leave it out there on the road.

As Runner 2.0 I have a pretty good idea of what I’m getting myself into. I know how to pay attention to my body and how to eat and hydrate. By paying attention to my heart rate and exertion levels I’ll be able to push hard but save enough juice to finish strong. Since I’ve been running in the heat all summer, even a warm day should not be much of a problem.

I’ve recently signed up with Twitter. If I can figure out how to send tweets from my 3G phone I will try to post some updates over the weekend. Otherwise, I’m off the air until some time on Sunday.

Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

© Andrew nagelin 2012