Sunday, November 4, 2012

Marathon #32 (state #20): Manchester City Marathon, NH

4:07 finish, 392/705 place overall. This was a last minute sign-up due to Hurricane Sandy. I was registered for NYC the same day, but in the aftermath of the storm, there was much uncertainty about whether the race would happen. Despite repeated media statements that the race would go on, I became skeptical due to increasing protests coming from people who claimed the marathon would be insensitive to the victims or would take critical city services away from the relief effort. Even if the race were to happen, I wanted no part in an event with so much negativity surrounding it, so I signed up for Manchester as an alternative. I would be able to check off another state and have a good excuse to travel somewhere with electricity that didn't have debris all over the streets. The course itself was unremarkable, with numerous hills and not much in the way of scenery, but with NYC ultimately being canceled (the announcement came as I was driving up), it ended up working out.

Race map and details