My 4th consecutive Paine to Pain is in the books! It was Nick's 11th(!!) - Eric recognized him, and the other runner, at the start as having lined up for all 11 editions of the race! Weather-wise, the 100% humidity made for some tough going. On the bright side, last year we had the same 100% humidity, but on and off rain as well! But the weather didn't take away from another great day on the trails! As always, this is a fantastic event.
One of my favorite moments was coming off the trail and heading uphill on the small road portion that connects the course to the next trail head - and hearing Green Day's "Know your Enemy" cranked out by the roadside band. That was pretty great.
As for the race, I did not get off course in Saxon Woods like I did at the course preview 2 weeks ago. But even with no bonus miles, I still missed a sub-2 hour finish (2:02:50). I'll blame that, conveniently, on the brutal humid conditions - haha! The 10 miler I ran yesterday may have also contributed my less than fresh legs. Although that run did include parts of the course - and I took a few pre-race pictures (you might say). I especially like the one in front of the row of empty porta-johns (echoing Eric's similar shot when they were delivered to the site last week).
I include a couple of the memorials to Thomas Paine, which most runners don't have the opportunity to see (as they are located up the road, on North Avenue). A descendent of Thomas Paine was ran the race as well. He began a hour before the official start. Very, very cool - and a gave him a shout out when I caught up to him.
Here are the preliminary race results from the race website.
I'll add a link to the photos as well, when they're posted.
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