Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler

2009 - February 14th

Todd and I spent the weekend on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard. It may be a stretch to say that it was romantic, but we sure had fun. Every year Todd runs the Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler in February and this year it just happened to fall on Valentine's Day weekend. While Todd runs the race, I shop at the Black Dog Tent Sale. Then I run the three miles from the start to the finish line.

We usually don't leave until Friday afternoon, but this year I dropped the dogs off at the vet in the morning. On our way out of town we stopped at Quilting by the Yard, a quilt shop in Vernon. When we got married two and a half years ago, instead of having everyone sign a guest book I made quilt blocks and asked them to sign the blocks. Before our first anniversary I had sewn all the blocks into a beautiful quilt top. I don't quilt well enough to be able to finish such an important quilt on my own, so I planned to take it somewhere for the finish work. A year and a half later I finally took it in.

On Martha's Vineyard weekend we stay at The Inn on the Square in Falmouth. It is a nice hotel and just a block away from the Palmer Avenue ferry parking lot where we grab a ride on the shuttle to the ferry terminal. On Friday night we usually we go to La Cucuina Sul Mare for dinner, but since we have gone gluten free we needed to find somewhere else to eat. Todd's best friend Chris lives in Brewster, about an hour from our hotel. We made plans to bring our rice pasta and eat with him and his family. We hadn't seen them since the raft race last summer. Todd enjoyed playing Wii Sports with Becca and Quinn.

On race morning Todd was apprehensive. The last two years he hasn't been able to finish the race and he wanted desperately to finish this year. We had breakfast and left the hotel early in order to make the 8:30 ferry. There are two ferries and it turns out that we took the nice one over in the morning. That meant we would be traveling in steerage on the way back. Todd drank hot chocolate and chatted with the other passengers, trying to pass the time while I worked on a quilt.

We arrived on the Vineyard with plenty of time before the race. The weather was good with a forecasted high of 40 with a light wind. I quilted in the playhouse while Todd stretched and warmed up. I also walked over to the Black Dog Tent Sale. Finally it was 11:00 and the race began. Todd took off in second place and I hoped for the best. For variety I planned a six mile route this year. I didn't realize it ahead of time, but the last three and a half miles of my route followed the race course. Half way through my run I was surprised to see the 17 mile mark and my first water stop!

The finish is at a grade school. There are showers and plenty of food for the racers. After I finished my run I changed clothes and finished the quilt I was working on. Then I walked out to the finish line just in time to see Todd come screaming by. He wanted to finish in under 2 hours 10 minutes and when I looked at the clock as he ran by that was only a few seconds away. He did very well, finishing eighth overall and second in his age group. Afterwards Todd got cleaned up and we hung out at the school waiting for the awards ceremony. Then we took the ferry back to Falmouth and headed home. Another fun Martha's Vineyard weekend.