by Mike Lesshafft
Manchester, NH
November 2009

I would like to tell you all the great things about this marathon, but there really weren’t any. I must admit that it is partially my fault. This marathon has an early start for speed challenged runners. I fit this elite category and took advantage of the early start. I started at 7:20 AM with about 50 other marathoners. The rest of the 326 marathoners (there were a lot of half marathoners as well) did not start until 8:50 AM. Not a bad head start. But unfortunately the volunteers were all scheduled for the later start. The first water table with any water was at mile 7. However, they did give us a map in case we got lost. Little did I know how important that map would be. I got lost 3 times. That may not surprise you, but the course was supposedly “well marked,” which I found out means little orange arrows tied to sign post at the various turns. Fortunately only one of my miss-directions cost me much time. I went a city block out of the way and back. The other two were minor corrections thanks to some on-lookers. So it affected my overall time by less than 5 minutes.

Since I had the early start there were very few spectators on the course at all and I ran the first 24 miles of the race pretty much by myself. Not a fun run, especially when I am used to talking while I run. However, I was “technically” in 3rd place up to just after mile 18 when I was passed by the lead runners. I kept getting passed the rest of the race. This was disappointing as well. Fortunately, as best as I could tell, only three people that started with me finished before I did.

The course was very pretty but very hilly. Stay with me on this as I explain the course elevations. The course was 60% up hill, 20% flat, and 20% down hill. Now how can that be you ask? Well the up hills were very long and the down hills were very short and very steep. One mile up hill climb was countered with about a 100 yard steep decent. Almost too steep to run.

As for the finish, that too left something to be desired. The medal was well, the smallest medal I have ever seen. I don’t proclaim to have that many medals, but when you need a magnifying glass to read “Finisher” then it is a small medal. Definitely not worth running 26.2 miles for. In addition, when I finished which was only 3 hours and 30 minutes after the official start of the race, they were already out of bagels. There were some rolls and water left. No Gatorade at all. They were giving out some new drink that sounded very promising. Something like miracle milk, not sure of the real name. The label read well, but it tasted like Pepto-Bismol. I had that confirmed by another runner. I did get a nice 15 minute massage after the race. That was probably the highlight of the day. I hate to sound negative but these are the facts as I saw them. Again, as my wife would say, it was my fault. Of course she says that no matter what happens. But I was the one that opted for the early start which led to most of the above issues, except for the cheap little medal, and skimpy food at the finish. I don’t know about you but food at the finish is a key point to any long race.

If you need a New Hampshire race to get 50 states, then this one is for you. Just don’t start early and don’t set your expectations too high.