As I write this there are 5 days and 11 hours until the gun
goes off for the Falmouth Road Race.
What does Falmouth and the Road Race mean to me? Well this year is the 42nd
running of the road race, and as anyone who knows me well, 42 is my lucky /
favorite number. It also means
that there is a journey from Captain Kidd’s in Woods Hole, along the coast,
past Nobska Lighthouse, along Surf Drive and into Falmouth Heights. It is a race that captures everything I
love about Cape Cod. Along the
course I see where our rehearsal dinner was, on 5.24.2012, and run past the
chapel where Danielle walked down the aisle. I run by the beach where I have brought two of my nephews to
try and teach to skip rocks at a young age. The course was always there, 30.9 miles away from the house I grew up in Plymouth, MA was
the starting line for the Falmouth Road Race. I drove over it a number of times as a child, drove past it
for work when I worked at the shipyard in Rhode Island and had to go write up
hot work permits for our welding crews working on the NOAA vessels. It was always there, staring at me,
like a painted line on asphalt would.
The Falmouth Road Race grew in popularity during the 90’s. More and more people were drawn to
arguably the 7 most beautiful miles of any running race. While running at Mass Maritime Academy,
Coach Ryan brought us in the school van many times to run the course. And whether running it with a teammate
or running it solo, in the pouring rain as we did once our sophomore year, or
on a sweltering day where the sweat poured from our brows and stung our eyes
for the final 5 miles, the course always meant something to me.
The first time I ran the race, was in 2003, as a bandit. I had no intent on running, I was there
to cheer for a neighbor and a friend, and figured I would capture the race
standing across from the lighthouse about mile 1 with my camera, as I like to
do. When I saw my friend
struggling so early in the race, I got overwhelmed with emotion, and ran the
remaining 6 miles with my flip-flops in hand, in kaki shorts, smiling, after
experiencing one of the greatest races ever. My only time every being a bandit for the race. I tore up the bottom of my feet so bad
from that emotional moment when I forgot about what I was doing to help out a
friend and experience the joy of what was this race.
To get a bib for Falmouth, you need to get one either as a
resident, a taxpayer, or win a bib number thru the lottery process. I tried several years in a row post
college and never got selected. I
was discouraged. How could they
deny me a chance to run this race I always thought? I stayed away from it for almost a decade. I resented the fact that people got to
run this race, some of them I felt did not deserve to run, some were doing it to
brag, others were trying to challenge themselves on a distance further than a
5k, and then there was me, who I loved that course, and I couldn’t seem to get
a number.
When in January 2013, Danielle and I purchased the home we
like to refer to as Hydrangea Hideaway, in East Falmouth. With the purchase of the home came many
projects, but one of the more meaningful ones was that as a taxpayer, we were
guaranteed a bib number in the Falmouth Road Race.
The year before, Danielle and I applied for the lottery and
got in. However just a couple days
before the race, Danielle in a company softball game took a screaming line
drive to her thigh while playing infield, and couldn’t even comfortably
walk. She was heart broken and
could not participate, a decision she made the morning of the race. The swelling refused to go down, and no
painkiller seemed to take the edge off.
I felt terrible, running that day alone, knowing she would be at the
finish line, regretting all the events that led up to her not being able to
participate in the 2012 Falmouth Road Race.
2013 as tax payers we got in, and she beat me., beat me like
a drum. 2013 was a year when I was
trying to find myself as a runner once again, I had lost focus and drive to run
over several years, and as I tried to ramp up my training it was enough for my
now wife to beat me by several minutes and make me rethink my whole return to
running thing. Running had been a
part of my life for so long, while I was never really good at it, I considered
myself above average, and I found I could do it without much training, and
usually not injure myself.
Then in late 2013 something happened. My brother Adam, as many of you know,
has cerebral palsy. Asked me to look up a website of an organization of people
that pushes people in wheel chairs for races. He said he had a friend that was going to do the Falmouth
Road Race the following year that way.
You could tell Adam was interested the way he posed the question. When I asked him, why he had not asked
me to try and push him in a race before, he kind of looked at me in a puzzled
manner, and thought why he had not to this point.
As you know
Adam & I are brothers. We make up two of four children in the Hill family,
myself being the eldest and Adam
being the youngest from Plymouth, Massachusetts. Adam was born prematurely with
cerebral palsy, which has drawn this family closer than most. Being total care,
and a wheel chair user since before most children can walk, Adam has been a
supporter of all his siblings his entire life. While growing up Adam would be
in attendance at all of our athletic events, cheering loudly from the
sidelines. Races, soccer games, basketball games, and Friday nights at the BMX
track. Adam always supported us
from the sidelines, and never did anything but give us praise after no matter
what we thought the outcome was. He
continues to do it to this day for his nephews.
I started
emailing everyone I could think of to see how we would go about getting some
kind of racing wheel chair. I even
found an email address for Dick Hoyt online, and took a chance by emailing him
randomly our story. The hoyts put
us in touch with some great people.
There was the organization called Ainsleys Angels http://www.ainsleysangels.org , and then another
called Team Hoyt New England http://www.teamhoytnewengland.com , which specialized in making custom chairs to
model after the Hoyts very own.
They set us up with a fundraising page, and some tips for success, and
we went to social media to try and generate the interest for the chair. With a price tag of $4800 we knew it
would be a steep hill to climb. I
went away in January to Army basic training seeing that we already had a couple
hundred dollars donated in the first couple days, and when I arrived back home
10 weeks later, We had grown past $1000 already. The masses started to realize that a customized Team Hoyt
racing chair would mean the opportunity for Adam to experience just what it
means to take part in a big race, and hear the roar of the crowd once we cross
the finish line. And while I have done many races over my 35 years, including
more than 40 marathons, as I grow older I realize that Adam deserves the
independent feeling that we take for granted and feeling of euphoria that comes
with finishing a race. So from where we began in January 2014 as we started
raising funds and the interest was almost overwhelming from people who wanted
to help the cause. In just a few months we were able to raise enough money for
the racing chair. All along we have said that, we would like to make the
Falmouth Road Race our first race as a tandem that will be sure to draw cheers
from the crowd as Adam gives them a thumbs up the entire way to Falmouth
Heights.
So we got this
amazing chair in July following the fund raising, and met with Mike at Team
Hoyt New England. His outfit did
an amazing job, and we were able to choose everything from the color of the
rims to the color of the pain job for the frame.
The day after
we picked it up, I had to go away for training with the Army for 16 days, so
the chair remained still, in the garage.
And living 90 miles from Adam, the ability to try and practice after
work was not practical. So a
couple weeks ago I was able to take off early on a Friday and head home. We picked Adam up and we tried out the
chariot for the first time. After
pushing him in a wheel chair for almost 30 years, at different times, to
deliberately try and go fast, well that was an odd sensation. It’s a different feeling from ever
running like I had in the past.
And while I may not be in the shape I was when I was 20 years old, I
felt strong in doing so. That was
until we had to go uphill. Adam
feels like every bit of 140 lbs or so when going up a hill, no matter how
awesome the wheel chair Mike and his team built. So there will be some getting used to for sure.
That night, our
buddy Infa invited us to a race he was working, the Beat The Heat 5k in
Pembroke. With a 7am start time,
it made for an early morning. We
had to figure out how to put the chair in the van, and still leave room for a
couple of passengers. But like
anything, it will get easier with time.
We showed up at this small race that was raising money for the school lacrosse
team. We felt it could be a good
opportunity to try the chair in a race environment, before 10,000 + people in
Falmouth a couple weeks later.
The damn
morning had a light mist from time to time, and the police on detail ended up
moving one of the barrier marking the course, which made for the majority of
the approximately 100 participants to go the wrong way. Long story short, the race was almost 6
miles for us when all was said and done.
We were not disappointed it was a very well run race, and everything was
flawless by the race director and staff.
Just that one small hiccup.
In the end it was good training for Falmouth we assumed. It was not quite as long as the
Falmouth Road Race, however, it was longer than the 5k distances we originally
set out to conquer. A couple
observations came from that first event.
Adam was quiet for the first time in like his entire life, for a lot of
it. If you know Adam he LOVES to
talk. During the day before when
we spent 30 minutes practicing or so, he would not stop talking or asking
questions, which is innocent and fine, but when big brother is sucking wind, struggling
for breath, it makes for an awkward conversation. Especially when Adam must have asked 10 times if I was ok,
because of my heavy breathing.
And the second
observation, Adam asked me probably 8 times during the race (of less than 100
people) when we were going to pass someone. He really enjoyed passing people. But I don’t think he realized the effort I was exerting to
go the speed we were traveling at that moment.
While this
entry turned out to be much longer than I ever intended, I want to give a few
words before signing off. In 5
days and now 10 hours We are prepared to toe the line in the Falmouth Road
Race. We will put forth the best
effort we can do make all those proud that helped with the raising of funds for
the chair, and we hope the Falmouth Road Race becomes an event that can be
special to both of us following our participation this coming Sunday.
Thanks for your
support and follow our journey, as we get closer to starting The Falmouth Road
Race on August 17, 2014, Thumbs Up!
