Old geyser in Saratoga

The Man writes...early Saturday morning I was up in Saratoga Springs to take part in the Great Pumpkin Challenge run.

The parking lot was a good fifteen minutes walk from the Start, but this offered an opportunity to see a bit of Saratoga Spa State Park, like Geyser Island spouter. The name has it both ways, but strictly speaking this is a spouter (not a geyser), which means the water is cold and the eruptions are caused by pressurised carbon dioxide, not by heat. The surrounding island is made of hardened minerals from the water.

The rest of the park was still in its Fall colours and looked great on a sunny morning. The run itself was in aid of Saratoga Bridges, a local charity that supports people with developmental disabilities.  Nearly two thousand runners took part, leading to a busy, friendly atmosphere around the Start/Finish area.

It was slightly odd not knowing whether fellow runners were doing 5k or 10k (the 10k runners basically just kept going after the 5k finish). Also, there were no clocks on the course and since I had forgotten to start my watch I had no idea what my pace was. So I was delighted to complete the 5k course with a personal best by 45 seconds. (Later, a fellow runner with a GPS watch told me that she thought the course was a tenth of a mile short, which almost exactly matches my improvement!)

Full results are in the link here.  The top twenty finish was a huge surprise, as was the fact that I came first in my age group (and won a glass). Admittedly, the age groups only cover five years so there are a lot of them, and many of the more serious runners do the 10k.

Everyone who entered got a free raffle ticket. Feeling positive after the run, I threw mine into the basket for the Glimmerglass Opera Festival in the absolutely certain belief that I would win.  And I did.