Everything, everywhere, all at once

Sole summer race: Wellfleet 5 Mile Road Race, July 5, 2026   Sept. 8, 2026       When I last left my race rumination in June, our house was about to go on the market. My daughter was seven-months pregnant. So, see you in September.   It’s been quite a summer. Running was about the only stable thing in my life. Thank God for Coach Lisa Levin and her training plan to keep me going in the right direction toward my fall goal race, Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon.   My mental CPU was taxed to the max with all the life changes I was going through, so the only summer racing I did was my annual visit to Wellfleet for the 5 (really 4.9) Mile Road Race on July 4th weekend.   Wellfleet was a pleasant surprise as far as pacing and performance went. It’s always hot and humid, and there are about eight hills on the out-and-back course along the bay. I have done this race 20 to 25 times since the early 1990s and eventually I learned that it does no good to go out fast. The hills, especially the third mile up to the end of Chequesset Neck and Great Island, will get you every time.   This is also one of the few—if any—races where I end up running in just a sports bra on top. Yeah, it’s hot out there.   I paced my effort evenly: 8:07, 8:06, 8:27, 8:07, and 7:51. ‘Happily ended up first among F60-69, in 39:45, and got a nice Tracksmith cap as well as a brief appearance in Tracksmith’s Summer Roads, Episode 4 video.   A favorite tradition of local runners and summer visitors, Wellfleet Road Race truly is the kick-off to the season.       The rest of July and August was a blur of packing, cleaning, arranging movers, selling and donating stuff we weren’t moving, and all the other chaos of transporting the detritus of 37 years in one house to another. Training runs in the summer heat were my primary distraction and source of sanity.   But gears shifted again. On Aug. 6, which would have been my father’s 100th birthday, our first grandchild, Emmett Campbell Larsen was born in Bethesda, Maryland.        My husband and I flew down to be with my daughter, son-in-law and new baby the next day. Since they were staying in the hospital for a few days following my daughter’s c-section, it gave me time for my first 20 mile training run of this cycle, on a typical DC August day. When I finished my Rock Creek Trail trek it was 94 degrees, with a “real feel” temperature of 108. Miles 17-20 were misery, with at least as much walking as slow jogging.   Our son and his girlfriend visited us on Cape Cod for a weekend in mid-August, giving me another breath of summer fun and a chance for those special mother-son chats on the run.       As Labor Day passed and the days now have a hint of coolness, my marathon training is progressing. I’ve had two 20 milers since the swelter-fest in DC. My most recent even included good marathon-pace mile repeats.   Parkruns have been a little perkier too, with a 24:31 at my latest one.   We’re starting to find a place for most of our stuff in the new house. Going through all the boxes of photos and memorabilia (and race medals) in the basement can wait a little as I try to enjoy the “shoulder season” on Cape Cod and the rest of my training cycle.   This Saturday, I’m running the Run to the Rock Half Marathon in Marshfield, Mass., as a tune-up. And then, take a deep breath for the final training push to the marathon Oct. 11.