Clarence DeMar Half in Keene, NH (#16)

I have run races through wineries (Sonoma, California), Civil War battlefields (Shepherdstown, West Virginia), and through construction tunnels (Hoover Dam, Nevada). Now I can add cemeteries to the list.

Running the Clarence DeMar Half Marathon in Keene, New Hampshire gave me the opportunity to run through the Greenlawn Cemetery (among the buried is Major General Simon Goodell Griffin, who died January 14, 1902. Griffen commanded the Sixth New Hampshire Volunteers during the Civil War). That might have been the visual highlight of the race as this beautiful late 19th century cemetery, comprising rolling hills that melted into the countryside, guided us between mile 10 and 11 for the final stretch to the finish line at Appian Way on the campus of Keene State College.

Running into the cemetery, we were met by several families cheering us on and the unforgettable image of 8–10 young children each standing on separate gravestones clapping for the runners. It made me smile as we whooshed up the hill onto North Lincoln Street.

Let me walk it back 10 miles to provide some background to race. I was trying to fit in five races in 2016, so the Clarence DeMar Half provided a good opportunity for an overnight trip to Keene. Less than 2 hours outside of Boston, I took a late Saturday afternoon flight out of Baltimore. My son, Eli, happened to be moving to Boston that weekend to start his first post-college job. We flew up together with his extra bags. The flight was easy, but we arrived around 7 pm to a Disney-like line at the Budget rental car counter. Eli jumped in an Uber to get to an appointment for an apartment he was looking to rent. Apparently, Budget was out of ready-to-go cars. I ended up waiting in line for over an hour (Budget/Avis has been removed from the Todd Miller 50-state running tour).

So much for my leisurely carbo-loading dinner. I had a quick meal at a Panera off the highway. I was staying at a small inn in Harrisville (all the local Keene hotels were sold out), about 20 minutes from the race start. I pulled into the inn about 10:15 pm. Marie, the inn owner, met meet at the door. As I headed up the stairway to me room on the second floor, a middle age woman was headed down in her pajamas. Home away from home.

My alarm went off at 5:45 am. After a wake-up shower and a pre-race breakfast of yogurt, half of a bagel with peanut butter that I bought at the grocery store the previous evening, I headed to the car for the 20-minute drive over to the Keene State College gym to pick-up my bib and connect with the race-provided bus to the start. I hopped on on the last bus to the start that left a little after 7 am.

The race began near the Surry Recreational Dam just outside of Keene. The temperature was in the low 40’s and the fog was so thick I could hardly see the lake that we were standing right next to. I chatted with a group of guys (a couple of us were wearing Hoka shoes. One guy warned me that “they will split in half after 300 miles!”) who were also trying to stay warm.

We congregated at the start line near 8:00 am. The music blaring and the announcer said we were having a simultaneous start with the full marathoners (poor souls!). No gun (I am not sure they use them anymore), but the small crowd of runners began moving forward fairly briskly as we crossed the start. I usually start slow, but I decided to go out a bit quicker this time and was huffing and puffing accordingly. My first 3 miles were 8:03, 7:56, and 8:04. Somewhere over those early miles I connected with a couple of runners, one runner (in my age range) who lived in Keene and another runner (much younger) dressed in a tutu, who was home visiting from Madison, Wisconsin.

These days my race strategy is to glom on to a pace team or group of runners who can help carry me through the miles, particularly miles 6–10, which is the grinding part of the race. The course followed an assortment of tree-lined paved roads, winding streets through leafy New England neighborhoods, and a small number of high traffic, non-descript roads.

Besides the cemetery and a park we briefly ran through, there weren’t any other notable landmarks on the course. My strongest memory was the fact that the woman from Keane that I was running with, Maribeth, seemed to know everyone in town. Mile after mile, people shouted out her name (“Hi Maribeth!”). In addition, her Mom and some friends were following her in a car through much of the race (“Way to Maribeth and friend!”). We ran by her high school classmates, teachers, neighbors, etc. At one point, she said we were running on her old cross country course. The fact that she was wearing a tutu added a bit more whimsy to the run.

At about 11 miles, Maribeth was slowing and I still had energy and was able to pick it up to run 8:00, 7:52, and 7:28 for the last three miles of the race. I felt bad leaving my running partner, but I still had some kick and wanted to finish. Mile 13 was painful and seemed to go on and on. Still, when we made the turn off Main on to the Appian Way finish on the Keene State Campus I could hear the crowd. There was a large crowd on both sides of the finish and I would have to say it was as thrilling as the Boston finish (Boylston Street is incredible, though almost overwhelming). It was a bit confusing at the finish because there was a large finish-line looking blue timing pad that the runners crossed, but the actual finish line as another 25 yards away (watching other runners after I finished, I noticed most of them completely stopped before being told “No, it’s the next one!” by a race official). The first finishing line read your bib so the announcer could call your name (“Congratulations Todd Miller of Chevy Chase, MD — Go Badgers.” I had submitted a quote during registration) as you crossed the real finish line.

The after race party was great as the food (vegetable soup, fruit, etc.) was really excellent and the weather was perfect. I stayed around a bit to watch the first marathon runners come in (Neal Graves won the full in 2:38:51. Haley McMahon won the women’s in 3:06:20. Gregory Lange won the men’s half 1:18:28 and the women’s half went to Carli Davis in 1:28:24).

I finished overall 63rd at a pace of 8:03 and finishing in 1:45:30. Not a PR, but my best time in over a year. The good news is that Dick Karvonen (Winchendon MA), age 70, beat me by a minute coming in at 1:44:34. Good news because I still have 34 states to go and birthdays are flying by. Maybe I will borrow Maribeth’s tutu for the next one.