R and J in the USA

July 4, 2024

Last year’s Independence Day found us at the 4^th of July fireworks on the National Mall in Washington, DC. This year’s Independence Day found us at another fitting event – the Run for Freedom in the Live Free or Die state of New Hampshire.

The Run for Freedom was put on by the Greater Derry Track Club, with proceeds from the race benefitting Liberty House, an organization dedicated to empowering veterans facing homelessness and other challenges. Liberty House provides substance-free housing and assistance around everyday needs to help Veterans get back on their feet, regain their independence, and build stable futures. They provide vital community connections to empower homeless and struggling veterans on their journey to independence and self-sufficiency. Their transitional program is designed to offer a hand up to veterans who face significant challenges, such as substance misuse, insecure housing, post-traumatic stress, mental health issues, and unemployment. They also work with hundreds of veterans from the wider community, providing essential assistance such as food, clothing, transportation support, camping gear, and referrals to other community services.

Liberty House began when Annette Paczosa gifted her family home to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in honor of her brother, Harold. Private Harold Paczosa was one of 600 US servicemen killed when a German U-boat torpedoed the troop transport ship USAT Dorchester in the Labrador Sea in 1943. Annette’s only requests with the donation were that the house be used for military veterans and that a memorial stone honoring her brother be maintained at the house. Don Duhamel, a retired Air Force sergeant, partnered with the Manchester VFW to create Liberty House at the Paczosa’s family home.

It was nice to participate in a 4^th of July event that supports those who put themselves out there to preserve it.

The race diverged from Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, where Robert Frost once taught. It was a fast one, at least for the front runners. The top two finishers came in under 16:00, the top six finishers came in under 17:00, and the top eleven finishers all averaged under a 6:00 per mile pace. The top female finisher came in at 19:50, a 6:25 per mile pace.

In addition to being fast, the race was big. With 450 runners, it was our biggest one to date. Julie finished 7^th out of 48 in her age group and 115^th overall. Ryan finished 26^th out of 51 in his age group and 131^st overall. Julie beat Ryan yet again, but he is narrowing the time gap.

Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds

It being July 4th, we were psyched to do some running for freedom. After the overtraining signs started to show up during the Massachusetts race, Julie finally got the picture and gave up training with a pace goal and focused the time between the Massachusetts race and our arrival at the starting line in Derry, NH on resting and recouping. Other than going for a mile and a half swim in her favorite swimming spot in the world, Walden Pond that she had no business swimming since having not done any serious swimming for years at this point (which is why she needed to stop every couple hundred yards), Julie focused on resting in the intervening week, going for only 2 fairly short and very easy going runs. This plan paid off and she found a renewed strength and a MUCH more relaxed heart through the rolling hills of Derry’s Run for Freedom. She finished this race in 25:48, that is a full one second faster than her Massachusetts run a week before. Thanks to all the resting and recovering of the week in between, however, she did it with an average heart rate of 135! With a max heart rate of 144 compared to Massachusetts average heart rate of 164 and max of 191, she considered this a HUGE win.

During the race, there were clearly many participants representing a local running club. A gentleman that was holding steady in the zone of Julie’s pace yelled out cheers of rather intense encouragement to his fellow running club teammates as we all closed in on the end of mile 3. “Nobody passes us til the finish line! You hear!?”, he growled somewhat intimidatingly to his fellow runners with Julie and a few other outsiders very much in earshot and the targets of this call to arms. Julie wasn’t sure how to play that moment since she knew she had plenty left for her push in the last .12 miles. She sped up and finished those final meters between mile 3 and what constitutes a 5K at a 6:57 pace, passing almost everyone in that clump of folks in the running club. At the start of the last 500 meters there was a mildly steep uphill that slowed everyone down and had Julie huffing and puffing on the final stretch. The gentleman who had issued the battle cry that Julie had already completely disobeyed and the only one of the clump she hadn’t yet passed was now visible and about 50 meters ahead of Julie with the finish line maybe another 100 meters beyond. Not sure whether to offer genuine condolences for what she knew she was about to take away from him or to swing the other way and do some subtle or in-your-face gloating as she approached this gentleman whose battle cry had been not so subtly directed at her and a very few others that had been nearby, she chose the middle ground and just put her head down, ran her own race and put in her usual kick to sprint over the finish line, leaving him unceremoniously in her proverbial dust. It was a finish line that offered many sweet, satisfying and different types of victories for Julie.

Ryan’s run strategy and experience has been fairly consistent race to race and this one was no different. While Julie’s consistency from race to race lay in the zone of the times she is finishing in with a wildly varying race strategy and experience to deliver on them, Ryan’s consistency is in his race approach. Each race he is showing up, not trying to be a hero and just letting his body loosen up along the miles. But what is changing is what that loosening up is producing with each race. While he is still crossing finish lines with Julie already there to cheer him on, the gap is narrowing and he crossed this finish line a mere 45 seconds after Julie.

So for now, the tally stands at 7-1. It sure seems like a nice lead coming into our 5Ks in 50 States (and one federal district) for Julie…but Ryan Gallivan has taken some lessons from cool Joe Montana, and he is not only not bending to the pressure, he’s not even noticing it.