bay great half marathon

NEWMARKET — The scene was relatively quiet on Saturday, a hundred or so runners milling about a makeshift Sport Expo inside the high school gym, and kids making noise on their fun run.
That won’t be the case this morning, when some 1,500 runners — plus their entourages and race fans — converge for the second running of the Great Bay Half-Marathon, an event that will burst the seams of this town of 7,000 and effectively usher in spring.
The Great Bay Half opened to rave reviews a year ago, when some 1,730 runners and walkers took part. The scenic, 13.1-mile course hugs the edge of the Great Bay estuary in Newmarket and Durham before returning to town.
“It seemed to build momentum out of nowhere,” said Durham’s Mike O’Brien, the defending champion. “It got a good buzz and people just seemed excited to do it.”
Aside from complaints from some residents, who didn’t like having the edges of their lawns used for overflow parking, things ran pretty smoothly for a first-time event of this size.
“It was like we’d done if for years,” said race director Mike St. Laurent, who owns Loco Running in town. “I got blasted on a blog. I called the course ‘moderately hilly.’ They said, ‘This is really hilly.’ But that’s about it.”
The expansion from race to weekend-long event has also given the Great Bay Half a cache not found in most local road races. Dick and Ricky Hoyt, the father-son wheelchair team of Boston Marathon fame, were on hand Saturday to greet runners and will compete today.
Also, some members of the U.S. military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are running in the half-marathon “virtually.” Race officials will mail them a bib and finishing medal if they can complete a 13.1-mile run sometime before Monday, at their convenience.

seacoastonline.com


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