I’m writing this letter to you on July 4th. Happy Birthday America! I’ll take this opportunity to look back on a memorable race experience, the inaugural Red, White and Blue 6.2. Back in 2013, UVRC member and Lebanon Recreation director Paul Coats decided to add this race to the local slate to celebrate the 4th.

For this first edition, the race started at 11am, leading into Independence Day festivities on the Lebanon Green. The festivities were nice, however weather was an issue. The day dawned warm and muggy, and got more so as the day progressed and the sun beat down. Off we went from in front of Lebanon Town Hall, down to the Rail Trail and out to Riverside Drive. There we went on Mill Road for a bit, out to about halfway through the race. I remember running pretty close to Laura Hagley for this portion; at the time we were pretty comparable runners, she was probably just a bit faster.

After the halfway point, we came back to the Rail Trail, and then a straight shot back to the finish line at the end of the Rail Trail. At this point the weather really nailed me; maybe also the effort of trying to stay close to Laura. My splits were 10-15 seconds slower on the return miles, despite the gentle downhill for those three miles. Needless to say, Laura ran smarter than me, and gradually disappeared into the distance. I finished in 39:56, 2nd in the 40-49 age group behind Rob Edson, and well behind Laura (first woman).

After the race, we got the race shirt, with a tie-dying station ready to go. I dyed mine red, white, and blue for the occasion, and you can still find me wearing it on a Fourth, many years later. It was a pretty brutal race with the weather, but a good time with many of my UVRC friends. More recent editions of the race moved to a more sensible start time, and I ran a respectable 38:09 the next year (2014). Sadly the race was cancelled this year (2020), but Nancy and I just returned from a nice run on the course.