September 12 and 13, 2026 were the days I ran states 31 and 32...Vermont and Rhode Island. And I had two of my favorite people come with me. My mom and sister! We had a great time together and they put up with me taking time to run for two days. Well, Jennifer actually ran with me part of Saturday.
Saturday was my Maple Half Marathon. It was a small race. There were 154 people running the half and about that many running the 5K. Jennifer, without any training, signed up and ran the 5K! She did awesome!
We ran together for about .75 of a mile and then she turned off to finish her 5K.
After we separated, I ran through the town of Manchester and started up a oneish mile slow incline. It was doable, but when I turned off to circle back to the finish, there were lots of rolling hills. But also very pretty mountains and scenery!
The long stretch of a slight uphill
What goes down goes back up!
The bottom of the hill at mile 8
Even though mountains are not what I usually run, it was enjoyable even if it was slow going. I met a nice girl from Albany and ran with her for a few miles. And then we hit the famous mile 8 of the race. It was uphill for most of the mile and on a dirt road. They had an aid station at the bottom of the hill where the people told us good luck! And then they had one at the top where they told us that it was downhill from there. And it mostly was. I made it to the finish with a not great time, but considering hills, 2:42 is normal time for me at this point in my running career. It felt good to finish and have mom and Jenn cheering me on!
Twins for the day!
After the race, I changed but did not have time to shower as we needed to get to Rhode Island for the next day's race. Or at least we thought we were on a time crunch. But time crunch or not, we got ice cream in Manchester! We had talked to a lady at the ice cream store the day before when we were not hungry for ice cream, but today we went to get maple and vanilla swirl soft serve. I admit I didn't know if I was going to like it, but it was delicious. It was almost like eating a caramel sundae. So glad we took the time for our last maple tasting of the trip.
We made it to the packet pickup just before they closed for the night, so all seemed to be going well. But no, that would not be the case. I had booked a quaint looking New England motel for the next two nights. Good reviews on line. Nice pictures of the place. But then we arrived and the pictures lied. We were not real comfortable with the place but were trying to make the best of it. And I needed a shower. But thank goodness mom had to go to the bathroom first, because that gave us the case for being able to leave and get our money back. When she flushed the toilet, the sewage backed up into the tub! So gross! We got out of there as fast as we could.
Still not showered and trying to find a place for the night, we drove into Mystic, CT (where I honeymooned) and ate at Mystic Pizza. It was our second night of pizza, but oh so good!
We ended up in a nice hotel in the presidential suite. It had a sitting room and a jacuzzi in the room! Kind of funny, but the room worked out great.
We were just getting ready to get to sleep when I got the text that the race had been canceled due to possible thunder and lightening and flooding. There were 2000 people signed up! I don't know what most others did, but there were many of us who showed up at the beach Sunday morning to run anyway. And not to complain, but there was no lightening or flooding. It did rain, however, the entire time. By the time I finished, I could not even turn off my watch because my fingers were wet and pruny. And there was no dry spot on me. It wasn't too motivating to run by myself most of the way (I ran with a group for a mile or so but they were 10 miles ahead of my mileage), and the rain made my clothes heavy, but I finished and got state 32! My time was less than 3 hours, but as stated previously, I could not stop my watch right away.
My on course race photographer only got one pic before she headed to breakfast!
Here are some of the pics I took while running. It really is a beautiful beach, but I was using my phone that was in a plastic bag so the pictures aren't the best. And it was cloudy!
My selfie while waiting on Jenn and Mom to get back after getting lost
My official finish line medal picture. I ran part of the real course, but not the whole thing. But I did run 13.1 miles. And even though I got the medal before I ran, I wouldn't open the package until I had finished my half in Rhode Island!
That's the running part of the trip. Stay tuned for our other fun adventures!
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