Roxbury Race Recaps (2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017)

The Roxbury marathon and I have a love hate relationship.  It’s a no frills, no medal, cold, budget friendly marathon.  There is no finish chute, no bands, no race t-shirts just a small group of hard core crazy runners.  Hey – I think I may be one of them!  The couse is made up of a 9 mile out and back down a dirt road with rolling hills.  On the way back the dirt road has a pretty challenging hill.  Once you’re off the dirt road you run to where the start of the race is and then there are 5 loops which have 2 water stops.  The 2nd water stop has water, Gatorade, Fireball and an assortment of beer.  I guess people like to fuel like race cars – with alcohol.

2013 - The first year I ran Roxbury I wasn’t planning on finishing.  I set out for an organized training run with port-o-lets and water stops.  That year the entry was $15.00.  We ran in a snow storm.  I was around mile 19 and I told Kim “This is my last loop”. He said “Well, I’m finishing so I’ll meet you in the car”. What??? 

So I finished.  The last loop was the hardest.  My face mask was frozen, the snow was making the roads very slippery and I was just plain freezing.  NEVER AGAIN WILL I RUN THIS RACE!  I told Kim.

So, the next summer I signed us up. 

2014 - We had a Christmas party the night before the race and decided that night not to run it.. 

2015 - This year was different.  It was an unusually warm December.  We ran the race with shorts and t-shirts.  It was a beautiful day!  Loved it this year – I finished under 4 hours which is a Boston Qualifying time for me.

So, the next summer I signed us up again...

2016 - So, here I was again at the start of the marathon. It wasn’t snowing but it was colder.  I woke up that morning and told Kim that didn't want to run. I had some friends running with us that I had talked into signing up so I felt obligated.  The out and back was going well.  I had a nice pace as I was running down the dirt road.  Then it happened.  Every runner’s worse nightmare.  My sneaker hit a rock and I went sailing face first on the hard rocky dirt road.  It must have been a bad fall because all the runners stopped and helped me.  “Get her over on the side and have her sit”, they said.  I told them to keep going and I was okay.  I told Kim I wanted to walk a bit and see how I felt.  I started walking and then got back into a nice pace.  My friend Angie was running next to me and the look on her face when she said “wow you have bump on your head” made me a bit worried that I was pretty hurt.  The bottom on my leg felt warm and when I looked down I notice it was bleeding through my running tights.  I stopped at the water stop and lifted up my tights and the volunteer sort of gasped and said “wow, I’m not a doctor but I don’t think you should be running”.  The outside of my calf had just about tripled in size.  I asked how far the next water stop was and he said “3 more miles”.  I decided to keep going. By the time I got to the next water stop the bump on my head grew as well as my calf so the race director told me that I had to stop. He told Kim "Either we are driving her to the hospital or you have to. I cried like a baby.  Not because of the pain, but it was my first DNF.  This was the only year that they had a medal too….

So, it happened, that summer I signed up again. (I WANTED THAT MEDAL)!

2017 - We got quite a few friends to sign up too.  Again, we started out with a FREEZING cold day with roads that were snowy from the previous night.  I ran the out and back – ran past the spot I fell and felt accomplished.  I only had 23 more miles to go!  Yeah!

Because of the cold my clothes got wet from sweat so we stopped and changed at the car which was parked very conveniently in the parking lot near the 3 mile loop.  That’s what great about this marathon.  You can refuel and change clothes during the race if you needed to. We finished and I said to Kim at the last loop “NEVER AGAIN AM I RUNNING THIS RACE!

As soon as I crossed the finish line (2 cones on the side of the road), I said to the guy writing down our time, “Do you have medals this year?  The guy said “Sorry, no medals” Sort of reminds me of "Sorry Kid's Park's closed"!

We’ll see what happens this summer when the registration opens up again.  Will I run it again???

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