Patchouli...and childbirth

Beach to Beacon went well for my wife and I survived spectating with my two kids (with the help of my buddy Jamie). Kelly finished where she thought she would at just over an hour. This is a tremendous time for a working mother of two who, for the most part, sacrifices her running time to support her husband's fanaticism. With the exception of weekend runs, her training is limited. I am working on that by trying to coax her towards a Fall marathon, but we may have to opt for a half. We'll see.

Speaking of my wife, she is what I describe as a "happy runner". Every race she runs she does so smiling. No race ever gets her down nor does she allow an overeager pace to drag her down into the depths of "last mile despair". She finishes feeling as strong as she started, and enjoys every second of her opportunities to join the scores of other recreational and happy racers like herself. This should not come as a surprise to me as I witnessed her birth both of my beautiful children with the help of only a midwife and no drugs or medical intervention. Zero. Au natural. Never once did she ask for any relief. This is why I am always embarrassed when people tell me what an amazing feat running 100 miles is. One thing to note is that I often don 't get this comment from women early enough in motherhood to remember the birth of their children.

So on to my training. This morning I met Jamie, Brian (a crewmember from the VT100), and Blaine at 6 AM out at Pineland. When all was said and done we ran exactly(!) 10 miles courtesy of Jamie (who has to run even training runs). The pace was pedestrian at around 9:20, but at Pineland this pace feels like sub-6s at some points. I kept a nice low heartrate so the run was a good reintroduction to longer distance training. The horseflies were out in force, even given cooler temps and a nice breeze. Blaine pulled out some secret Windham farmer's market bug spray with patchouli which he swore would protect us. Well, apparently there is no escape from the Pineland Pests! Even Brian, who swore off the herb for chemicals (DEET), had swarms eating him.

One thing I found fun today is that our group consists of a bunch of wordsmiths. Jamie's blog is first rate and Marathon & Beyond is publishing an article of his in their next issue. Blaine can't stop his flow of words. I know of no one else who can produce as much writing as this guy. I dabble in words with this blog, the Maine Multisport website, and a longer piece I am writing on how running saved my life for a larger publication to carry (hopefully M&B will bite as I really respect their periodical). The only humble one amongst us was Brian. He didn't mention his writing talents on our run, but I will say here that he is a top notch "haikuist". Hopefully I can convince him to share some with a larger audience!

All for now. Off to the beach to bask in the glory of another wonderful Maine day!