Brunswick is probably best known as the home of the soon-to-be-closed Brunswick NAS. It's a nice little city with a nice little downtown, op the coast from Freeport. As LC was working, I needed a race, as this one started at 9, and the nearest one to this was two hours away at Bucksport (worth going for the name, anyway), Brunswick it was.
For just the 3rd year, this is a well-done race. Starts out near the college (Colby or Bowdoin, I always get them mixed up) goes through downtown, past the ME Turnpike and US 1, and down along the river separating Brunswick & Cumberland County from Topsham ("oooh, tops of ham - n' yuk, n' yuk, 'n' yuk, n' yuk") & Sagadohoc County. It's an out and back, with the only tough part coming up from the river. A little past two miles (on this uphill part), the woman about ten yards in front of me went off to the grass, and got on her hands and knees. As I went by, I asked her if she was OK - she responded by throwing up. She apparently pre-loaded by drinking a lot of Coke.
My finish in the standings was mediocre - for the first time in I don't know how many races, I didn't get in the top 3 of my AG - or even the top 10. But the time was respectable - 28:20.54. I didn't push myself, but even if I had, I wouldn't have gone up much in the results. The second half of the race I passed 6 to 8 runners (including the throwing up lady) and only got passed by one. Sometimes you can have a good race, but there are just a lot of faster people with you. Those things happen.
