The Antiques Roll

Lots of my friends from Cliff’s Antiques were racing on the weekend in either the Bridge Mile or the Natal Day races. I want to give a shout out to the ones I saw.

On Sunday, Leah ran in the open female bridge race and turned in an excellent performance. She was 3rd overall, and when I saw her at about the halfway point, there was nobody even close behind her. Too bad she couldn’t catch the leaders – but given that she’s a marathon specialist, I’d say she did awesome.

On Monday, the husband and wife team of Nick and Meg braved the 2-miler despite a late night on Saturday at the U2 concert in Moncton. Nick’s result wasn’t even close to where he’s been and where he’ll be again (he ran the 6-miler last year at a faster pace), but he’s had a very tough year with injury, illness, and work/school. He did, however, get my vote for best dressed Antique for his cocky sport sunglasses and his compression socks. Rock on!

Meg turned in a solid performance after running the 5k in Windsor last weekend. She wisely left the compression socks at home. With any luck, she’ll run with the Outliers in the Rum Runners Relay again this year.

In the 6-miler, Rayleen (see the photo from the Chronicle Herald above) turned in the best performance – she won the women’s race by a wide margin. With Denise out, she’s been the fastest woman in the province from 5-10k this year. I was hoping for a season of battles between her and Erin, but Erin got unlucky with appendicitis, so it’s just been Rayleen eating up the awards. Nevertheless, Rayleen will not be racing on the Timex team this year – in fact, a lot of fast runners are making it a point to avoid the event this year – but more on that in another post.

Kenny also turned in a solid performance, considering he’s been splitting his energies between running and triathlons. It wasn’t his fastest 6 mile ever, but it was good enough for top 10 and a spot on the Timex team. He’ll be the only Antique on the team this year. There’s a story about that – but I’ll save it.

Miche was very brave to run after a big night at U2 on Sat. More than that, she had to make it back to town early Sunday morning to supervise the kids’ bridge races. But she’s tough as nails and still managed to turn in a solid performance over the challenging Natal Day course.

I may be missing Antiques who competed over the weekend – my apologies. These are just the folks I ran into or saw.

I saw Denise at both the Bridge Mile and the Natal Day races. She got to be one of the starters of the Natal Day race, but that’s little consolation considering how hungry she was to compete. It broke my heart to chat with her and to see her on the sidelines when she should’ve been making her comeback and challenging Rayleen for the title. Natal Day was Denise’s race. But despite all the crazy setbacks, Denise’s fire still burns – and I still wouldn’t be surprised to see her back on the roads running in top form. She’s been dealt a crappy hand for the moment – but those darn blood clots have to thin out eventually! I do think of her often when I’m training – I learned so much just from training with her – and my thoughts are with her as she recovers.

The body is so fragile. All the more reason to run hard... with gratitude.