Bethanie Brown is a senior at Waterville HS. She ran XC for the first time last fall, and had some success. Brown finished as the runner-up, she would go on to finish 5th in the New England championship. That was just the beginning of what was to come during the track season, as indoor Brown earned All-American honors in the 2 Mile, and capped off the outdoor season with a state all-time best for 1600m. follow Bethanie as she prepares for her 2012 XC season.
A few weeks ago my dad handed me an article from the Morning Sentinel about Title IX and Joan Benoit Samuelson. It was basically a really brief biography, and it talked about how she had been the first women’s Olympic Marathon winner. A few weeks later, I thought I recognized the face of the lady next to me at the beginning of the 4th of July L.L. Bean road race in Freeport. But I wasn’t sure. Would I really recognize her from that photo? She was up at the front, and she really looked like the photo I had seen of her, although the photo I had seen was only a headshot, so I had pictured her a little taller than she actually is. But into the race, I was sure of it—this lady was Joan Benoit Samuelson. She headed out into that race like she meant business…so I followed her, because, well, I knew she had a lot of experience, and I figured she knew what she was doing. She would be a good person for me to follow during my first 10k! I just hoped I wouldn’t die during the race, because 6 miles is a long way to race…twice as far as the 5k I recently did at Nationals, and I thought that was long!
Going into the race, I actually wasn’t sure whether I was going to just run the 10k like a workout, or race it. I didn’t do any road races last summer, and I signed up for this one because I had regretted not doing any. On the morning of the Fourth of July, I got up at 5:00, and by 5:30 my family and I were on the road so that we could arrive in Freeport at 6:30, which was the time we were told to be there even though the race actually started at 7:30. On the way down, I seriously wondered why I had thought getting up that early and racing was such a good idea. But I drowsily ate my breakfast in the car, and being there early was actually good, because it gave me plenty of time to find the starting line (afterwards I wished I had taken the time to find the finish line!), find a bathroom, etc.
When the race finally started, I don’t think I really had a choice. I was going to race it. I couldn’t bring myself to go slow. Plus, I was pretty sure Joan was the lady in front of me, and I thought it would be fun to chase her. It seemed like everyone we passed said, “Go Joanie! Wooo Joanie!” By then, of course, I knew it was her. We didn’t start out too fast, but we passed a lot of people who had. Every time she made a move, I went with her. I liked the 
pace…for a few miles. Then it started to get a little harder, and when she made a move, I decided I liked the pace I was already going. So off she went, and I just kept on chugging away. I had a watch on, and it would have told me how far I was into the race, but I wouldn’t let myself look at the watch. I had a feeling seeing the time might scare me. I thought to myself, “I’ll look at the time, realize I’ve only been at it for 10 minutes, and that will just make it harder.” But maybe I should have looked at it sometime near the end, because when I saw the finish line, I sprinted, and then, because my sprint felt so energetic, I knew I should have started sprinting earlier. There had been one mile marker that said “Mile 6”, but at that point, I wondered to myself, “How far is .2 miles?” because I couldn’t yet see the finish line, and I had no idea where it was. I actually shouted to a guy across the street during the race, a couple minutes before the 6-mile mark, “Does it end soon?” His answer was: “Yep” with a chuckle. I didn’t really think it was a very funny question at the time, and realized later that a better way to have worded my question would have been, “WHEN does it end?” I have a feeling that if I had worded it like that, I would have received a more satisfactory answer.
After the race, I actually got to meet Joan. I waited in line to get her autograph on my race number, and afterwards Peg Elmer, a friendly lady from Florida who I met in line, took my picture with Joan. She thought it was cool that I had run with Joan in the race and gotten fifth place, so she asked for my autograph on the front of a race poster. Apparently, Peg comes to Maine every year to run this race and to get something signed by Joan. I also gave her my e-mail address, so that she could send me the pictures. I was really lucky to meet her, because I didn’t have a camera with me, and would not have been able to have my picture taken with the first women’s Olympic Marathon winner.
Erica Jesseman was the winner of the 10k race, and after the race, she congratulated me on breaking her high school 5k record. I got her autograph too!
In the end, I was really glad I had gone down to run the road race. It was a really great experience, and looking back on the race, I think I would like to do the 10k again sometime. Maybe I’d start getting used to the length, if I did it again!
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