FIT Turkey Trot Trail Race

Cumberland, RI

Thanksgiving Day, 2020

Thanksgiving Day.  Perfect for a Turkey Trot.  Only we're in a pandemic and races are [nearly] impossible to find this year.  Won't be running the Pie Run (Newport County) this year, nor any of the Turkey Trots in CT that we had checked out, as the former went virtual and the latter were all just canceled per order of the Governor of CT.

What to do?  What to do?  With the COVID race cancellations, I was down to three options:

• Millenium Running 5K (Manchester, NH)
• FIT Turkey Trot (Cumberland, RI)
• Avondale Turkey Trot (Westerly, RI)

Each was feasible, but came with their own upsides and downsides (personalized from my standpoint of course):

• Millenium - Pros:  well organized, this would be my 3rd Millenium event this year and complete 26.2 miles, earning me a jacket; Cons: do I really want to drive 5 hours round-trip on Thanksgiving, even if breaking it up Wed night/Thu AM?
• FIT - Pros:  the only real race in my own state, or in all of southern NE for that matter; Cons:  rolling start, purported manicured trails, billed as leaf-blown (I guess some runners would like that, but it's a con to me and certainly doesn't give me any advantage)
• Avondale - Pros:  chance to catch up with running friends on Thanksgiving, super close to home; Cons:  likely an individual time trial, as this was a group run and not a "real" race

So, of course by now, you know which one I chose, but I seriously considered all three.  Woke up at 6am (8am start, 1 hour drive) in the dark and rain.  I knew the forecast, but wasn't excited to even get out of bed, never mind drive and race.  The rain lightened up by the time I got there.  My mood did improve as I lined up amongst decorated Christmas trees!  The check-in line was pretty quick and I picked up my bib and D-style timing chip with ankle strap.  I've only worn those at triathlons in the past, but whatever.

Registration was amongst decorated memorial Christmas trees!

Hadn't worn this type of chip in years.
Was afraid it would be uncomfortable,
but soon completely forgot about it.

There was a 5K and 5M option as well,
but I figured I might as well go for it,
so this is the option I chose.  Based on the language above,
I assumed that 1) I could not start until 8am, and
2) I had to finish my final lap before 10am.
Thus in two hours I should be able to complete 3 laps (15 miles),
but most certainly cannot complete 4 laps (20 miles).

With the rolling start, you choose whenever you want to start in the two-hour window between 8am and 10am.  Since it's all chip timed, your start and end time of each lap are automatically tracked.  

I went for a quick warm-up, where I saw Bob Corsi, then went back to the car to strip down to my singlet and affix the bib and timing chip.  Total warm up of only about a half-mile, because 1) it was getting close to the 8am start, and 2) how much warm up should I really go for on a 15-mile race?

Lap 1 (Miles 1-5):  On the race website (which wasn't the best organized and still doesn't have links to the results over a week later), it said you have to check in after each lap, so I asked the RD how you do that and who do I check in with, and he said there is no need because of chip timing mats at the start and finish of each lap.  OK.  Sure glad I asked.

There was a big group ahead of me waiting to start, so I waited until they had all gone off, plus a little allowance as I guess correctly on their attire that I would soon be passing them.  The RD pointed to where you enter the trails across a field and said after that everything would be easy to follow.  He was right.  While there were never any confidence flags (which I do appreciate), it was easy to follow the leaf-blown (and mostly manicured) trails and every intersection had some type of directional arrow indicating the way.

Starting line with timing mats
(Finish line with its own timing mats was to the right
of the clock and tent)

I went out a little spicy in my first mile at 6:56 and realizing this was a 15-mile race (that was my goal - three 5-mile laps), I backed off just a little bit.  I was passing runners constantly, especially during the first lap (many were just running one lap).  After a mile and a half, you came to the first (of several) splits between the 5K and 5Mile.  The 5K continued on the gravel manicured trails, while the 5-Miler broke off onto a power line loop followed by all single-track return.

After rejoining the 5K back on manicured trails for a mile or so, we went up the first and only appreciably hilly and rocky ascent of the course.  This 80' hill climb I would actually designate as technical, as well as the descent.  The trouble on the downhill for me was passing people and still avoiding some of the rock obstacles, but I'm still glad this part of the course was there.

The 5th and final mile had some bizarre features, including some asphalt sections and after a sharp turn, a swampy area with all dead trees that reminded me of the scene in The Two Towers where Frodo falls into the dead marshes.  The asphalt wasn't good to run on, as it was very old, uneven, and buckling.  I tried to avoid it in subsequent loops.

I finished up my first lap in what was now a downpour.  I asked the RD if there was water, and he gave me a bottle, which I took a swig of, placed in an area I could remember (at the wheel of the timing van), and went back out for Lap 2.

Lap 1 split was 35:31, for an average 7:06 pace.

Lap 2 (Miles 6 - 10):  This was the rainiest lap, as it was an absolute downpour for most of the lap.  As a plus, I had the confidence of knowing the course and what was coming up, as opposed to the first lap, where without confidence flags or mile markers, I repeatedly felt I had made a wrong turn.

It was interesting that when passing certain runners in this lap (and the next), I could remember that I had passed them earlier.  Sometimes it was because they were running the 5K course slowly and I had passed them again on my 5-mile course, and other times it was because they were running multi-laps.  Sometimes they remembered me as well, as I heard more than once something to the effect of "he's passing us again".

Finishing up my 4th mile of the lap (9th mile overall), I heard my name called, and looked over, and as I saw the runner running away from me (as we were on different miles of the course that just happened to intersect), I thought I heard "It's Bob xxxx".  (His last name isn't really "xxxx", but I just couldn't make it out.)  Only later in the day did I learn from an e-mail from him that it was Bob Segal, a runner from Providence who just recently ran Rhody and said I was easy to recognize because I was only the person out there in a singlet in the rainstorm and not bundled up like most other people.

Lap 2 split was 37:01, an average pace of 7:22 (a minute and a half slower than Lap 1).

Lap 3 (Miles 11 - 15):  Early in this final lap, the downpour eased up to a steady but light rain.  But the legacy left in its wake was the trails being flooded in a number of places, especially on the non-manicured trail sections.  By now obviously I was totally fine running through the puddles, some of which were ankle deep.  What I thought slowed me down even more were the sections that were just mud, as well as the rocky climb in Mile 4, which was now a tad slippery.

However, knowing this was my final lap and feeling tired but not out, I pushed it in the last couple of miles where I could and finished up my 3rd lap half a minute faster than my second.

Lap 3 split was 36:25, for an average pace of 7:17.

Final results:  1:48:59, 2nd out of 26 multi-lap runners.  Full results here.

As I crossed the finish line for the 3rd and final time, someone called my name and came over to say hi.  It was Way Hedding!  What was he doing way up here in Cumberland, RI?  Oh, of course, races in his home state (CT) were completely cancelled, so this might actually have been the closest real race on T-day for him.

Yep, a muddy trail race for sure.
Or at least the final lap was.

I collected my awards, and then thought about doing a cool-down on the course and snapping a few pictures, but I was completely drenched and mud-covered, and starting to get cold, so that's enough.  Besides, it is Thanksgiving Day, so good to get home with family and help prepare our Thanksgiving feast.

I figured that I was one of the top finishers, if not the top finisher.  No, I'm not conceited, but rather basing that on the fact that while I passed many, no one ever passed me during the race.  You race who shows up on any given day and I thought that today perhaps no one faster than me bothered to show up.  

So after getting home, I was surprised to see the results and learn that I finished second, not because anyone ran faster than me, but because one person ran more laps (4) than me (3).  How is that possible?  Did he really finish in less than two hours?  No.  Well, when the instructions stated to start on on or after 8am and "run the 5 mile course as many times as possible before the 5K wave at 10:00am", I can only take an educated guess that my interpretation of above as "run and finish as many laps before 10:00am" was incorrect and the real meaning and allowance was to "run and start as many laps before 10:00am".  

Second overall in multi-lap option, not because of speed,
but because of number of laps run.

It's easy to say that I had known that, I would have simply run a 4th lap, but that's a Monday morning quarterback speaking.  It really was time to get heading home.  Let me wrap up this post Tommy 5K style:

What went well:

• It was my first time running in Cumberland and first time on the Monastery trails.  If it hadn't been for this race being the only game in town in southern New England on Thanksgiving, I don't know if I would have ever made it out here.
• I had chance to talk to the RD and it was clear he put a lot of time and passion into this race, and was friendly and helpful to me.
• He was right in that it would be hard to go off-course, as every intersection was well marked.
• The block of wood award was really unique and interesting!  (I don't know where I'll put it; maybe start a man cave or an awards wall in my garage like Mikey B?)
• The organization and timing, from check-in to awards to support, was really quite good.
• Most importantly, I had fun out there, pouring rain and all!

Interesting award, to be sure.
Now what to do with it?

What wasn't optimal:

• The website isn't optimal.  As mentioned, there is still no link to results (race was two weeks ago now; I wouldn't know where to find results if I hadn't happen to ask the RD at event), the "Upcoming Events" page still starts off with an event held back in October, and the course map and description (which I studied for this race) was of last year's course and not this year's.  This threw me off in the first lap and contributed to me thinking that I was off course.
• This is just a personal preference, but having now run 12 "real races" during COVID, and this being my first rolling open start, my clear preference is for the staggered seeded wave starts of the other 11 races I ran.  No knock on the organizer, and in fact huge kudos to them and to any organization holding a real running race in COVID times, but the downsides to me are 1) I really had no idea where my competition was in this race, and 2) passing so many people who started earlier than me, while motivating, wasn't pushing me to run harder.
• Now with this race completed and COVID running restrictions only getting tighter, I feel a let down coming as I don't know when my next race will be.