Postcards from the Road

Just when you were mourning the end of your summer travels, three postcards from travel races to cheer you up!

Gideon Bautista on the New Jersey Marathon:

Distance: 26.2 miles
Date: April 29th, 2018
Location: Monmouth, NJ

Favorite race moment: Getting called “banana man” while not even wearing the costume by people who couldn’t have possibly known I race in banana costumes.

Favorite CHRC moment: Going to the “OG” (Olive Garden) & Toys R Us the afternoon before with Big Dave, then play-testing “Wheels Up”, a board game designed by Spencer McCormick (like an aviation version of Ticket To Ride!), and other board games at Megann’s!

    


Walt Walker on the Broad Street Run:

Distance: 10 miles
Date: May 6, 2018
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Favorite race moment: It was my 10th BSR, which meant that I no longer had to enter the lottery for the race. I automatically qualify now. More importantly, it also marked 10 years of me running, which gave me some time to reflect on how much I’ve developed personally and physically. I ran that first race in 90 minutes. Now, I’m down to 68 minutes.

Favorite CHRC moment: There were ten of us that stayed in a house for the weekend. We spent all of Saturday and Sunday together, and I enjoyed sharing with the team the neighborhoods and the memories where I grew as an adult. Also, they were able to experience firsthand why the Broad Street Run is one of my favorite races.

    


Kay Naito on The North Face Challenge – Bear Mountain Half Marathon:

Distance: 13.1 miles
Date: Sunday May 6, 2018
Location: Bear Mountain, NY

Favorite race moment: Getting to the last aid station and seeing that Joey was still with me, still running at planned pace despite obvious pain; crossing the finish line with him, and then later seeing his brother and girlfriend make it across the finish line as well, totally fine and happy (I had been worrying about how they were getting through their first Half-Marathon on this course, in the rain)

Favorite CHRC moment (if you traveled to/ran this race with CHRC): This is maybe not a “favorite” moment or necessarily about being with CHRC; but an important memory I have from the race.

The Bear Mountain 50K had been my goal spring race – it was going to be my first ultra marathon, and I’d planned to do it alongside Dave Gibbons. Early in the winter, I pulled my hamstring at a race finish and I had been pushing the recovery for several months. It hadn’t been going well and I dropped to the Half-Marathon event. In April, I doubled down on healing. To stop myself from feeling frustrated about this race, I focused on running this with my husband, his brother, cheering for Dave and all the others who ran in this North Face Challenge.

At one point in the race, I felt a wave of grief over my body. About a year prior, I had been so strong, completing the Breakneck Marathon with CHRC in 7.5 hours. Here, I was not even certain about finishing a Half Marathon at my desired pace. Not long after, I was overcome with gratitude for the strength in my body I felt just then; the club members in CHRC who helped me get through the months of so many starts and stops in my training; and the experience of running as witness to someone else’s finish line.