Nipmuck trail marathon race report

We got up at 4:30am and were out the door around 5:45am, and headed to the Nipmuck trail marathon my wife kids an I.  We pulled up to the race site at 7am i signed in got dressed and was ready to go.  At the pre-race we were told the course was going to be muddy to near record rain in Aug. and Sept.

Off we went, it was slow going for the first couple miles single track right from the start.  It was muddy and slick but, not to bad that was until we had about 30mins of torrential rain.  I felt good when I hit the first turn around at 6.2miles.  On the return run the trail was like running in a thick grease but runnable and I felt good I made sure I kept taking my gel and s-caps on a regualr basis and plenty of fluids.  Closing in on the 12mile mark I reached for my s-caps when I noticed they were gone, that took a little wind out of my sails.  I was greeted at the 12.4mile mark with a hug from my kids an wife, I did a sock and shoe change replenished my gel stock and off I went.

The second half of the course was a 7mile out and back, and from what I was told much harder then the first section.  I tried to keep my fluid intake up now more than ever since I had lost my s-caps I was still feeling good.  At the 15mile mark I could feel my self starting to cramp, I kept saying to myself of all the thing to lose the s-caps, I needed them to get through this run.  I hit the aid station at 17.5 miles and was told only about another 1.5 to the turn around but by this time I was starting to suffer.  The 1.5 to the turnaround was the hardest part of the course tons of climbing and rocky train this hurt all the way to the aid station.  I hit the aid station and to my luck they had s-caps so it took a few for my return run.  On the return run I was joined by a woman that was also suffering from cramps in her calf's we ran and hiked together for 3miles.  It was great to have some company we chatted and slowly made our way to the final aid station all the while I kept taking the s-caps and fuel.  We hit the final aid station refilled my bottle with Gatorade and we were joined by 2 other runners.  As we set out for the final 2.5miles my legs started feeling good and I was able to start running again and was happy to be able to finish strong running the final 2.5miles.

I had a great time didn't do the time I wanted but that was ok, I was glad to finish my first marathon.   My goal at the start of the year was to be able to run a marathon and was able to accomplish my goal.  I must say I think I am hooked, had such a good time running a great race with some nice people.  I think I will take a few days off and recover..