Leading Off: Time Goes By

Eight Falmouth Mugs. During the pandemic, runners ran at home and there were no mugs.

In 2018 I ran the race of my life in Falmouth on Cape Cod. The 7-mile route from Woods Hole to Falmouth Heights was not only the best time in nine eventual tries at this event, but the best pace of any race I had ever run, with one exception.

The 'exception' was the 'Fast 5k' in Hollis, New Hampshire, where they bussed runners to the top of a hill, and everyone ran down. Hard to beat that pace, hard not to trip over your own feet as well.

At that Falmouth event six years ago, I was at my peak. I was only 67, the day was cool and not humid, and I knew that my conditioning was going to help me set a personal best. I just knew it.

The additional motivation I had was to beat an 11-year-old girl, the daughter of a volunteer, who had bested me the year before.

Imagine training all year to beat an 11-year-old?

The photo below is great picture of me taken during that event. The runners are about less than a half mile from the 'no breeze' zone of the race and are running past the iconic lighthouse. I am a little hard to see, but I am the one in the ugly pink and blue singlet, swearing under my breath at some chatty folks to concentrate and get out of my way. I am right behind a guy who shouldn't be wearing spandex, and just ahead of an 11-year-old-girl, and I am flying. Not sure you can tell that from the photo?

I am hoping that my tenth Falmouth Road Race next Sunday isn't my last race.

My training this year was way down. Plus, I am not running a half-marathon or a marathon this fall for the first time in eight years, so there is no pressure on me to continue to train. And, as a side note, those aches and pains seem to be more frequent and more intense. My lungs are strong, my legs, not so much.

I am still wearing Hoka running shoes, a new version that is illegal in competitive races. It is not like running on pillows, but they are certainly soft, and more worn down than I anticipated.

The Skyward X. The sneaker boasts a “supremely plush experience” and has been specially engineered to “help runners enjoy every step,” per the company’s April press release.

“We increased the stack height and completely reimagined our use of elements like PEBA foam and carbon fiber plates, typically associated with race day products, to create a super running shoe that provides core runners with a supremely plush experience for their daily miles,” shared Colin Ingram, the Vice President of Product and Apparel at HOKA.

To deliver on these lofty promises, the Skyward features a 48-millimeter stack height and a revolutionary suspension system, nestled between two layers of foam. Such a tall boost level is banned by World Athletics, which requires the drops to stay at 40-mm drops or less to compete in any timed road event.

Last year I almost finished ahead of one of the brothers of the fraternity I advised at UMass.

The kid is permanently grateful that he finished slightly ahead of me because he would never live it down. I did pass him during the race but slowed down to have some photos taken with friends cheering me on along the route. (At least that is my excuse).

The good news on my 'readiness' is that the past two Sundays I have run a seven-mile training run and could still walk on Monday.

In several courses that I facilitate for clients, elements of "Readiness' are an assessment of confidence, commitment and motivation while performing at a sustained, acceptable level. I think I have a high level of readiness for Sunday, but we won't know if I perform again at a sustained acceptable level until I have that first frozen yogurt bar at the finish line celebration.

And of course, one of the best parts of running this event is the money that is raised for a worthwhile cause, and I am proud to be part of the 'Breathe Team' for the third year in a row.

Here's the story of the momentous 2018 event where a personal best, and besting an 11-year-old combined for a great day.

As I tell anyone who will listen, the 7 Mile Falmouth Road Race has been my personal Super Bowl each August. Running it for the first time in 2015, at the time, was the achievement of a lifetime for me, considering my age and the late start I had with this running thing.

It was a huge fundraiser for the non-profit I was dedicated to as well, raising six figures over the years as volunteers and staff ran as members of the 'charity' program.

7 Miles with 12,000 others on the shores of Cape Cod with free frozen yogurt bars at the finish? Are you kidding me? Who else gets free frozen yogurt bars after a race? 

It took me almost an hour and half to complete the course the first time and stay out of the medical tent. But I was hooked.

The day after that first race, I started planning for the next year. Seriously. I tracked everything I did all year, gearing up for the event using (surprise) an Excel spreadsheet to help. I tracked every run, every distance, my average heart rate, maximum heart rate, average pace, pace per mile, etc. (I still do).

I try to leave no detail to chance. My socks, my shoes, my shoelaces, my hydration, my nutrition, my playlist, my knee wrap, my foam rolling, my strength training, my warm up, my sleep, my damn toenails even get attention, and no guy pays much attention to his toenails.

So, picture me, with 365 days of preparation, hundreds of miles of training runs, emery-boarded toenails and all, standing at the start line with 12,000 runners on an unusually cool August morning 20 yards from the Atlantic Ocean, with adrenalin pumping through my veins. (It wasn’t really pumping pumping, and I think it is arteries anyway, but I’ve always wanted to use the phrase ‘pumping through my veins,’ and now I have).

My fourth personal Super Bowl is about to start and…..an 11-year-old girl starts taunting me. (I know that line surprised you.) 

Delaney is the daughter of a friend who is also running, and I might have challenged this young lady earlier in the morning because I was still hurting over being beat by this young girl when she was 10 years old the year before, running her first Falmouth Road Race. 

Anyway, the challenge was on. I now had the edge I personally needed to excel: the opportunity to defeat an 11-year-old.

This particular 11-year-old quite frankly won the trash talking contest before the race because my vocabulary was.....SEVERELY restricted. Vocabulary is limited when trash talking with an 11-year-old. Lots of words were unavailable to me.

Now before you get too judgmental about my attitude, why don't you run 7 miles with a ten year old and see how you feel when you get beat? It is a serious ego blow, and you don't have to be a manly man to be devastated by such a result.

You also have to give the kid a lot of credit for picking on me, I mean for running that far that fast. Probably no one reading this could run that far when you were ten.

With a little help from the weather person, who delivered a cool, low humidity day: I knew I was going to set a personal best before the race even started. With a great year of training plus being motivated by taunting from an 11-year-old, I was able to run the Falmouth Road Race in the astonishing (to me) time of one hour and twelve minutes.

Let me expand on that: everyone was astonished. Why astonished? That’s 17 minutes faster than my first time, and ten minutes and 32 seconds faster than my previous best. The first year I ran this event, I was hoping to have at least one person finish behind me. 

On my fourth try in 2018 according to the official records, 4,073 runners finished behind me. Four-thousand, seventy-three.

Oh, and one of the 4073 behind me was an 11-year-old. This photo is the view she had of me for most of the race.

Unfortunately for me, the following year, perhaps motivated by being embarrassed by a senior citizen, she finished slightly ahead of me.

We haven't faced off in a race since then. She quit while she was ahead.

Support the 2024 Breathe Team here.

Delaney is off to Belmont University in Nashville this month, so unfortunately, we will not compete in the Falmouth Road Race.