The Brunswick Marathon, January 1, 2020

The gang at the start                                                                                  photo: Kelly Parker

Frank Dwyer is surging, and I go with him. Kelly Parker and Larry Orwin fall back a bit. It feels good to run fast (fast being a relative term); we'd been climbing for quite some time; now we're past the iconic Brunswick water towers and have nice, gradual downhill here on Minor Road. It's also nice that unlike other parts of the course, there's no ice or crunchy snow here. Even though I know I can stay with Frank, at least for a while, I also know that I would pay later.

Even though I'll probably pay no matter what, I wise up and ease up and rejoin Kelly and Larry. Maybe Frank will also come back to us. Yeah, except that it's Frank, and Frank doesn't do that.

Three 6.55 mile laps into the four-loop Brunswick Marathon course, it's getting warmer, and eastbound sections like this one are just fine. The ice and snow around Brunswick High School and through Hopkins Park have been treacherous. But as far as I can tell, all twenty-five or so of us have managed to remain vertical. This is important to me since it's my race, and I wouldn't want to lose anyone. Runners who wind up with broken bones or fractured skulls tend to not return to run the same events in the future.

Said ice and snow have taken a lot out of me, however. All that slipping, sliding, picking up of feet, short baby steps over time and distance have made it tough. And then there's the wind. It was in the twenties at the start, and now it's in the thirties. But the west wind is strong, and those westbound parts of the run have been pretty brutal. Okay, enough excuses.

Larry finishes that third lap strong, but I'm not too far behind. He surprises me by announcing that he has to leave; I'd thought that he was in for the whole shebang. Kelly, tapering for Disney, is done as well. Now I'm alone as I begin my fourth lap. Frank is up there somewhere but is nowhere to be seen. I do spot a few of the other folks. It's been fun to reverse direction every loop and see the other runners on the course.

Last year I finished in 4:18. That's a slow marathon time for me, even now that I'm in my elder years. This year, I've been on about that pace, but I know my fourth loop will be a struggle.

It is. I slow to a shuffle and cross the finish line in 4:37. Frank beat that course record and established the new one at 4:16. All in all, seven intrepid runners managed to complete the entire marathon. Besides Larry and Kelly, a bunch of others also participated.

Good way to start the year.