Newport Half Marathon

Newport, RI

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Signed up for this race just three weeks prior.  My spring marathon plans fell apart due to my procrastination and lack of motivation after a family tragedy.  But it was time to get back out there; if not for a full marathon then at least for a half.  I had a decent run three weeks ago at the Eastern States 20 Miler, and it was time to test my mettle in a half.  I also had some unfinished business in the half, as I had run the Vermont City Half Marathon last October in 1:20:01.  A huge PR for sure, but oh so close to that magical threshold of sub-1:20.

So which half marathon should I run?  I was looking for something close enough this time that I didn't need the extra travel time and cost of a hotel, as I just had that at Eastern States, and will have a few travel races this summer plus hopefully a travel full marathon this fall.  I also didn't want something super hilly, but moderate hills would be fine.  In the end, obviously, I chose the Rhode Races' Newport Half.  I had run this course in 2017 with Tommy 5K, as the half marathon course is the first half of the full marathon course.  In my opinion, the first 13.1 miles are much better than the last 13.1, as the latter has two cone turnarounds, two OABs, awkward parking lot turns after the halfway mark and when finishing, and much more hills.  The former has none of that.  Newport it is!

Newport Half route.  With a SW wind, first 6.5 miles were generally into
the wind, final miles were with the wind.

Expo:  Went with Jana to the small but efficient expo and bib pickup the day before the race.  It was held at the Wayfinder Hotel, directly across the street from the old Newport Jai-Alai (more recently a casino).  Goodr was featuring running sunglasses and a new running shoe company called Dash Shoes was also there.  Dash Shoes was giving away GU packets and had one of my favorites (Vanilla Bean), so I talked to them for a few minutes.  It's always nice to have my bib ready to go and attached to my race singlet the night before.  Besides, in this case, the organizers had warned of long lines if you waited to race morning to get your bib, and they would charge you $15 for the privilege!

Race day:  With the designated parking lot (Aquidneck Industrial Park) just one mile from the start (Easton's Beach), it made sense for me to skip the shuttle bus and use this as my warm-up.  Since it had already warmed up to 50° upon my arrival, I opted to skip the logistics with a gear check and just stripped down to my race kit (short shorts and a singlet, as usual) and headed out.  Arrived at the start line just before the marathon start (7:30am), with would precede the half-marathon start by 15 minutes.  Caught up with photographer Scott Mason, warmed up a little more, final bathroom stop, a few strides, and into the starting line crowd.

Just the day before Jonny Eckel asked me what time I was looking to run.  I thought about it, mentioned my 1:20:01 at Vermont last fall, stated I didn't think I was in as a good of shape and that I would be real happy with anything sub 1:21.

First half:  The announcer was explaining the pace groups were starting at 1:30, but if that wasn't fast enough, at least one of the runners on the front line was looking to run sub-1:10 today (he did) so you could latch on to him.  Something in between?  Lining up in the second row felt right to me.

Start of the half

The gun went off and scads of young runners blasted past me.  We were into a headwind from the get-go, with the wind 17mph out of the SW.  I was in maybe 20th place as we started our way up the first hill on Memorial Boulevard, past the start of the Cliff Walk.  Then two other runners that I was between slowly but surely went past me:  on my left, a tall runner in a gray long sleeve cotton sweatshirt!, and on my right, a runner carrying a phone in his hand and something bulky in his left pocket that bounced up and down when he ran.  I know I shouldn't judge runners by what they wear / carry, but it is often a good judge, and I discounted both of them, only to notice them pull ahead and be out of sight after the next couple of miles.  Continuing uphill, the lead woman went past me.  I was a little concerned with so many runners going by me so early, but just reminded myself to run my own race.  Mile 1 split 6:15.  Not good, but I also knew this was one of the hilliest miles.

Climbing up the very first hill.

Turned left off Memorial Boulevard.  Heading south now, so still in the wind, just from a different direction.  Re-passed the lead woman.  Passed two more runners on downhill.  Mile 2 split 5:46, but I have to discount that a bit as it's biggest elevation drop on the course.

Early in 2nd mile, after repassing
several runners that overtook me on first hill climb.

In Mile 3, we're running right along the water on Wellington Avenue.  I'm now running into marathon back-of-the-packers.  Mile 3 split 6:13 - not good.  In Mile 4, I recognize the start of the Christmas 10K course, and we'll mostly be following this scenic course for the next few miles.  Side note:  after two years of not running, is that race defunct now?  In the end of Mile 4, we turn into Fort Adams.  I have to go wide to go around the increasing number of marathoners now.  I attempt to take my first drink at the water stop coming up, but it's just clogged with back-of-the-pack marathoners, a good number who are walking or stopped.  Ugh.  Frustrating.  Can't risk the time loss and I continue on without any water.  Mile 4 6:03; OK - that's very close to target pace.

In Mile 5, heading back out of Fort Adams, the marathon "clogging" got worse.  I presume these are now mid-packers, but back on the main road (Harrison Road at this point) they're taking up more than the entire right side of the road that we're supposed to be running on.  I run on the left side of the road as I feel I have no choice, but it's awkward a few times, such as when a truck comes and then a police motorcycle and I have to cut back into the masses for a few seconds.  Mile 5 split 6:14.

In Mile 6, after a few miles heading due west, we now head south towards Brenton Point.  The wind is still not our friend here.  Mile 6 split 6:14.  Again!  Ugh.  If I keep running 6:14s, I'll end up running 1:24:xx.  In my mind, I'm already starting to write my Strava description of "not my day".   Two-thirds of the way through Mile 7, we FINALLY round Brenton Point and get favorable winds.  It is instantly noticeable, as we go from that headwind in your face to feeling no wind at all as is typically with a tailwind.  

Second half:  With a tailwind now, I'm hoping for some redemption to come my way, but wondering if it's too late to salvage this race.  At the next bend, I gain a little more satisfaction as sweatshirt boy comes back to me!  He's still wearing the long sleeve cotton sweatshirt, and perhaps not surprisingly, I see it's now soaked in sweat.  I catch and pass him and saunter on.  Someone is also pounding out some AC/DC on the side of the road here, and this certainly helps my motivation.  

Related, did you see the very recent news showing that surgeons perform
more accurately and faster when listening to rock, and especially so
under the test case of listening to AC/DC?!!   During my cancer excision
surgery, unfortunately "elevator music" was playing.  Hopefully my future
surgeons in my old age will be listening to Angus!
---
How about a study where Jeff runs a half-marathon where every mile
someone is playing classical music (or any genre other than rock),
versus a half-marathon where every mile AC/DC is being played?
I smell another PR!

There are still many marathoners for me to pass, but other than the occasional official pace groups that I have to run wide around, the marathoners are starting to thin out.  Mile 7 pace 6:11 - still not where I want to be, but I remind myself that 2/3 of this mile was run into the wind right along the ocean.

Passing mostly marathon runners at about Mile 7

Love this shot by Scott Mason along the ocean in
Mile 7.
(Race organization added on their logo and provided
it to me, so I assume they compensated Scott.)

Miles 8, 9, and 10 are all due east along the water.  The marathoners continue to spread out and are no longer an issue at all, as most are single file and easy to pass.  At the end of Mile 10, there is a very slight uphill and as we turn away from the shore and head due north.  I pass two runners, one of whom looks familiar, and once I hear one of them pointing me out as a trail race director, I suspect and later confirm it's David Andrade of Fall River, who ran our Grills race and was running his 4th marathon this year.  Mile 8, 9, 10 splits:  5:55, 6:02, 6:09.

Ten miles down, just 5K to go!  And I feel good as we go past the southern end of the Cliff Walk and head north on Bellevue Avenue now.  It's go time!  I don't care for the cement surface of Bellevue Avenue, but as it's only 3/4 mile, it's not a negating factor, either.  As I approach the end of Bellevue Avenue, I notice I'm gaining on the same guy with the bulky bouncing pocket and phone carrying that went past me in Mile 1!  He is running together with another young guy.  Both are almost exactly half my age at age 29.  Mile 11 split 5:59.

Start of mile 12.  At the start of a small downhill (about 20'), a 20-year old easily goes past me.  I'm not catching him, but it's a perfect opportunity to fall into his wake and ride it downhill past the two 29 year olds.  Bulky pockets doesn't have any visible reaction, but his companion looks at me with a hint of surprise, as in "Where did this old man come from?".  Two miles to go.  Don't let up now, and don't let them retake you!  Mile 12 split 5:54.

Early in Mile 13, we turn right onto Memorial Boulevard.  Cresting the hill, the beach and finish line are in sight!  I push it as hard as I can, and I'm passing a few more marathoners as I turn into Easton's beach parking lot for the final push and sprint on the boardwalk along the beach.  I come up on yet another 20-year-old half-marathoner, this one in a BC singlet.  I'm clearly gaining on him, but I don't have enough runway and finish just ten seconds behind him.  Mile 13 split 5:40.  I'm momentarily confused as I see the finish line clock ticking "1:34:xx", until I realize I have to deduct 15 minutes for the later half-marathon start.  That translates to 1:19 high, ticking towards 1:20.  Sprint, man!

Sprint to the finish.

Done!  Yes, I have a new PR!

Final results:  1:19:46 (6:05 pace), 11th place of 1,564, 1st in age group (of 88).  Full results here.

Super psyched to not only notch a new PR, but finally for the first time ever to run sub-1:20!  Such a great feeling.  

I quickly got cold hanging around the beach area with open winds, and as I was told it would take about an hour before they had awards ready, I took the bus back to the industrial park, retrieved my car, and hung out at one of my favorite coffee joints on the island, Custom House.  The time flew by as I enjoyed my coffee and scone while checking results and Strava posts, and then I drove back to the race, opted to park illegally for just a couple of minutes and risk towing or fines, picked up my award, and headed home, with a big smile embossed on my face!

Shirt is pretty bright, but I wear a lot of
bright shirts, especially when running solo on roads.

Medal, bib, and award:
a nice embossed cutting board.

Close up of medal, with Newport Bridge.
I don't need another medal, but it's nice.

What went well:

• Using RaceSignup for registration.  Not just because WTAC uses it now, but it's neat to see all your upcoming and past races on this site.  This race also used it to post race photos and results.
• Expo and check-in.  Small, but efficient.
• Pre-race announcements.
• Punctual race start.
• Police presence and cordoned off lanes on busy roads.
• Race finish.  Barricaded finish and announcement by name of runners finishing.
• Bus transportation:  frequent and easy to use.  No ridiculously long lines like Boston.
• Quick results posting.
• Free race photos.
• Quality and attractiveness of bib, shirt, and medal.
• Race event specific shirt (i.e., separate shirt for full and half marathoners).
• Picturesque course with much of it along the ocean.
• Surprisingly being able to pick it up and run sub-6 miles in the last few miles of the race.
• Strong finish and pushing the last miles paid off and got me a PR!

What could have gone better:

• Charging $15 to pick up bib on race day seems unfair.
• Starting half-marathoners 15 minutes after full marathoners was disadvantageous to half marathoners near the front of the pack.  I had to either skip fluids at Mile 4 water stop or come to a stop amidst the back-of-the-packers walking and lose time, and then I subsequently had little room to run around scads of mid-packers.
• The headwinds (obviously out of the race's control).

Weekly Log 18-Apr to 24-Apr-2022: Lost Mileage

Monday:  0

Intentional complete rest day.

Tuesday:  5

Today's CCC work was reminiscent of a Cub Scout
project:  BYOD (bring your own drill) and
build birdfeeders to place at Avondale.

Different sizes of birdhouses and holes for
attracting different types of birds:
bluebirds (left side), wrens (right side), and
kestrels (not pictured).

Westerly, RI.  Post-work windy Wahaneeta run with Brady.

Continued work on replacing outdated and efficient
bathroom exhaust fan.  Got to the step to connect the new fan
to the duct in the attic, and the instruction indicated to make
sure the duct vented to outdoors.  Followed the duct pipe
back and found it goes nowhere!  
---
We just had a new roof put in, and eight full pieces of
black moldy plywood removed and replaced.  This must
have been what causing the mold!

Googled and found this validation.  Ugh.
My father always taught me, "If it it's worth doing something,
it's worth doing it right."  So I'll be replacing all the duct work, and connecting
to an actual outside vent (which is only about five feet away!).  It's just a
shame that the original contractor cut corners and didn't have my father's ethic.

Wednesday:  5

Post-work run at Grills with Brady.

Thursday:  3

Poor planning on my part.  Planned to run 6-8 road miles in Mystic as part of picking up race awards from Kelley's Pace.  Underestimated amount of time to take care of other Clamdigger-related tasks along the way, and got to Kelley's Pace ready to run roads only to find out I had only brought trail shoes.  What a dunce!

Ran local trails until I ran out of time, picked up the awards for Clamdigger, and headed home for a work meeting.  I have nothing to complain about with my very flexible work hours, but I do look forward to the day soon when work meetings are in my rear view mirror.

Friday:  4 run, 2 walk

AM:  Pre-work walking of the proposed new Cottrell southern loop trail with WLT staff member, making minor adjustments based on feedback to date.

PM:  Post-work run at Yawgoog with Brady.  Beautiful day in the 60s and sunny, yet not a soul out there.

Saturday:  5

My first and likely only time visiting UMass Lowell,
for Matthew's track meet.

Apparently this is a problem here (MA rest area
on I-495); otherwise, why the sign?
(For the record, I complied.)

PM:  Late afternoon with Brady.  Dirt roads at Burlingame North and North Camp.  Added in some pickups towards the end on North Camp road.  I explained to Brady I'd be running on and off pickups and he could choose to run what he wanted.  He opted to run each of the pickups alongside me.

Sunday:  4

Clamdigger 5K.  Write-up to follow.

Weekly mileage:  26 run, 2 walk

Weekly synopsis:  Pretty pathetic.  I had a lot of other stuff going on, including a lot of prep work as RD for the Clamdigger races, but it's easy to make excuses and it comes down to a time management issue.  Now that we're past the Clamdigger and I have no races the next two weekends, my excuses are gone and as long as my mileage returns to at least 55, I'm fine with this one really sub-par mileage week.  It really is time, as well, to start getting longer runs in before Laugavegur in mid-July.

Weekly highlight:  Run at Yawgoog with Brady.  Great trails in there, and had the place to ourselves.

Weekly lowlight:  Paltry mileage.

Weekly Log 11-Apr to 17-Apr-2022: Easy Week into Newport Half

Monday:  0

First total rest day in over a month.  Felt good.

Tuesday:  2 walk, 1 run

AM:  Westerly, RI.  CCC.  Worked as part of a crew clearing the first trail at WLT's newest preserve, Cottrell Preserve.  Pretty but wet piece of property that could eventually connect to Whitely and Westerly Town Forest.

PM:  Westerly, RI.  Super short run with Brady at Wahaneeta.  Just squeezed this one in between finishing work and heading to Cranston to watch a presentation by Projo writer John Kostrzewa of "Walking RI", where he featured many different trails across RI.  Caught up with John briefly post-presentation.

Wednesday:  11

AM:  Westerly, RI.  Late morning 6-mile solo road run on a loop from Avondale to Watch Hill.  Inaugural run in 2nd pair of NB Rebel 2.  Felt great right out of the box!  Now if only they hold up longer than the last pair (285 miles).

PM:  Richmond, RI.  Trail run with Brady from parking lot at exit 4.  Out NST to Browning Mill Pond; back on Arcadia Trail.  Was quickly reminded how technical this section is!  Fun, but very warm at 65°.

Thursday:  5

Westerly, RI.  Early evening group run into Woody Hill before monthly WTAC board meeting.  Group of four.

Friday:  4 walk, 3 run

Westerly, RI.  Met up with WLT staff at 8am and walked, plotted, and flagged potential trail for southern portion of Cottrell Preserve.  Some neat features and erratics that we did our best to incorporate, while trying to avoid wet areas.

Westerly, RI.  Followed up the Cottrell plotting effort with a very short and slow run at Grills Preserve with Brady.  Funniest moment was after I opened the rear passenger door to let Brady out, I went to the back of my car to get something out, then seeing Brady out of the car, went to shut his door and found a Black Lab puppy in my back seat where Brady normally stays!  Turns out it belonged to a female biker that was in the Clivus unit.  It's all good; just an unexpected surprise!

Wore my Peregrine 12s for only the second time.  Uncomfortable, so may take a few runs to break them in and get used to it.  Time will tell.

Saturday:  15

Newport Half Marathon.  Write-up to follow.

Sunday:  10

Charlestown, RI.  Easter morning trail run with Brady at Burlingame.  Legs sore from yesterday's race, but just mildly.  Kept it slow and easy.

Weekly mileage:  45 run, 5 walk

Weekly synopsis:  A great week!  Planned lower mileage week, and that may have contributed to my successes on Saturday in the half-marathon.  Clamdigger 5K next weekend, and then three weeks to successive race (Mystic 10K on May 15; potentially Shad Bloom the day before).

Weekly highlight:  Newport Half Marathon!!  See my write-up shortly.

Weekly lowlight:  Nothing!

Weekly Log 4-Apr to 10-Apr-2022: Shoe Woes & Shoe Rotation

Shoe woes:

I absolutely love my NB Rebel V2s.  Lightweight (7.2 oz), springy, responsive, superbly comfortable right out of the box.  The retail price is $130, and just about all sellers price at or very close to that.  Call me cheap, but I have trouble paying full price for shoes.  So when I found this week if I bought two pairs of Rebel V2 shoes from a particular seller, I could buy them at $62/pair, I'm in!

The very next day after ordering two more pairs,
I find this!  At 280 miles, I'm getting close to the 
rule of thumb of replace every 300-500 miles, but seriously? 
Googling online (as opposed to a paper Google search?)
reveals that a number of runners commented
"excellent shoe", "love it", etc, but many (not all)
have experienced this issue with the upper tearing and separating.
Supposedly this will be addressed in V3 due out in the fall.

Meanwhile, I've introduced the Prism V2 into
my road shoe rotation.  Heavier than the Rebel V2
(9.4 oz), more of a stability trainer, I am hoping
this will be a decent addition.  Not the love
I'm feeling with Rebel V2, but in the same FuelCell
family as the Rebel V2 and Speedrft (which I do
not like).  Comfortable shoe.

So how many shoes should I have in rotation (for a given surface)?  How many do you have?  Reading online suggests 3 is the minimum optimal, and not for all the reasons that I thought.  One site stated "Training in a range of shoes give a diversity in the same way that changing running surfaces (road, trail, grass, treadmill) reduces the repetitive part of repetitive stress injury risk from runners that run on the same surface all of the time."  

OK, that one is the reason that I follow for shoe rotation.  But what I had no idea of and was repeated on several sites was the additional reason that with so many foam-based shoes nowadays, it takes 24-48 hours after running for the foam to decompress, and the longer the shoe itself has to rest, the more this can extend the life of the shoe.  Huh.  Who knew?  Probably everybody but me.

I like this chart!  I'd like to get the RC Elite V2 (carbon plate), but I typically only
buy shoes on discount and I just can't pull the trigger on a $230 price tag.
Ordered the A9 to try something different (retail $100, purchase price $74).

Monday:  8

AM:  Charlestown, RI.  2.5 miles solo.  Between meetings, I snuck out for a run on Burlingame roads, but I frequently tend to underestimate time for runs, and needed to cut back mid-run.  Promised myself I'd get out there again in the afternoon.

PM:  Charlestown, RI.  5.5 miles Burlingame trails with Brady.  Yay, I actually got back out here.  Campground trails were in great shape.  I was not.  Just no pep.

Tuesday:  2 walk, 8 run

AM:  Westerly, RI.  CCC monitoring, finishing up Grills Preserve.  Today we monitored the borders south of Bowling Lane, mostly behind houses, and hauled out five full bags of trash.  One resident came out and was positive; another clearly angry with me for taking a picture of her vehicle parked on private WLT property.  Was able to take the high road and diffuse her stream of profanity, but she came out with keys in hand to move the vehicle and clearly knew she was parking on WLT land.  I explained I'm just a volunteer doing my job of annual required monitoring and documenting encroachment on our borders as part of accreditation, and she scowled and went back inside.  Not sure why some people only look at situations from their own myopic view.  I was tempted to ask if it were her property, wouldn't she want to know how people were using it, but I'm certain that would not have helped.

Just a portion of the garbage we bagged, loaded into my car,
 and hauled off our property today.  As is always the case,
when we encounter nature on Land Trust properties,
there is no issue.  It's when we encounter
(a small percentage of) humans that things go awry.

Noon:  Charlestown, RI.  Solo Quonnie loop from Dave's Coffee.  Great weather and a great run, but unfortunately had to cut it a bit shorter to hightail it back home for a business meeting.

Wednesday:  6

South Kingstown, RI.  Dreary run at DuVal.  Typical perimeter route, with Brady.  Mid-40s, gray, wet, breezy.  The upside to the weather is there was not a soul there.  According to Strava, this was my first visit to DuVal in eight months!  Can that be true?  It's really a great place to get in technically, hilly trails.

Thursday:  10

Exeter, RI.  Late afternoon run at Arcadia with Brady.  Parked and started from the hunter check station for something different.  Mount Tom Trail => Escoheag => Breakheart => Penny Cutoff => Shelter => JB Hudson => Mount Tom.  Nice route.  Felt out of shape.  Need to get more runs in like this (hills + some mileage).  As I was running past Frosty Hollow Pond, I heard my name called, turned around, and it's Crutch!  Really good catch-up and talk on respective families, upcoming races, etc.

Friday:  6 run, 1 walk

AM:  Westerly, RI.  Walked the WLT's newest property, Cottrell Preserve, with four other Land Trust folk.  Reviewed a proposal for trails, which I'm hoping can be slightly modified to take in some more hilly aspects.  It's tough because this property is quite wet.  Possible future tie-in with Westerly Town Forest and Whitely Preserve.

Came back home, and Jana pointed out this
guy sunning himself in some mulch in our
front yard.  Beautiful!  Decided to leave
him be.  It looked like he had already done
so much work to get himself coiled up
like that.  Do you suppose that's for warmth?

PM:  Hopkinton, RI.  Run with Brady at Yawgoog.  Narragansett Trail and then Tippecansett up to Dinosaur Caves, over to Hidden Lake on the Freeman Trail (flooded), and back via the west side of Yawgoog Pond.

Saturday:  7

Charlestown, RI.  Early morning run with Brady on the VG loop.  Last night's weather forecast mentioned scattered showers, but we really got caught in a downpour.  It was fine, and the last couple of miles the rain stopped completely.

We drove up to UNH to watch Matthew run a 5K, only to sit around in a rain delay with torrential rain and thunderstorms, and then to have the meet finally cancelled!  As Jana mentioned, at least on the bright side, I got a pair of shoes.  I had written above in this post about rounding out my road shoe rotation, and today I took care of my trail shoe rotation.  At the Eastern States race check-in, the local running store in Portsmouth (Runner's Alley) gave us all a 15% coupon.  Probably not enough on its own for me to go back to the shoe store and use, but in addition, this week I received a $30 gift card to the same store for my age group placement.  OK, now we're talking.  

I was really impressed with Runner's Alley for the depth and breadth of shoes for what I'll call "advanced runners".  At a number of local running stores, I'll find a dearth of trail shoes for example, and certainly very few if any more expensive shoes.  There were several carbon fiber shoes there, as well as a nice mix of "higher end" competitive running shoes.  I was also pleasantry surprised to see the running store packed with customers; I had to wait until a sales rep freed up.  I ended up buying a pair of Saucony Peregrine 12, which I had read up on and are a full ounce lighter than the 11.  Retail price $130, but between the coupon and gift card, I scored $50 off!

Sunday:  16 run, 1 walk

AM:  Hopkinton, RI.  For something different, I had mapped out a route starting from Grills Wildlife Sanctuary and including a series of rolling hills.  Ended up with over 1,000 feet of vertical gain.  Average pace 6:51, and every fifth mile harder (5:58, 6:07, 5:51).  This was a good run for me.  Hilly and challenging, and mostly on the comfort of quiet roads.

In the afternoon, I finally got around to at least starting spring yardwork, which for today was mostly cleaning up leaves and sticks in the yard.

Really, you can't play with your ball on the grass instead of digging
up mulch in our beds?  Hard to get angry with him.  It's just mulch.

PM:  Westerly, RI.  Post-dinner walk with Jana and Brady, at Avondale.  I probably had one too many helpings of curry cod at dinner, and it was good to walk it off a bit.

Weekly mileage total:  61 run, 5 walk

Weekly synopsis:  Happy with the mileage and varied efforts this week!  Probably a bit lower mileage middle of next week going into Newport Half on Saturday.  Mostly trails this week, but got in some good road runs as well.

Weekly Highlight:  16-mile road loop on Sunday.  Despite being hilly and challenging, I felt really good on this one.

Weekly Lowlight:  Dealing with angry people and littering people on WLT property.

Eastern States 20

Kittery, Maine

Sunday, March 27, 2022

I had signed up for this race over two years ago!  In fact, it was back in late 2019 that I signed up.  This was the last of my COVID race holdovers, as the 2020 race was deferred to 2021, and the 2021 race was deferred to 2022, and finally the 2022 race actually happened!  Yay!

Jana, Brady, and I arrived the afternoon before the race, checked in to an AirBNB apartment right across the street from the ocean, on the race route on Route 1A in Hampton, and then went to pick up my bib, shirt, and a couple of vanilla GU packets from Runner's Alley in downtown Portsmouth, before meeting Matthew for a pasta dinner.  While they did offer packet pickup the morning of the race, I just feel better the more I can have prepared the night before a big race.  Back at the apartment, the three of us took a stroll along the beach before going over race day logistics, entering addresses into GPS, and turning in early.

Have bib; ready for tomorrow.

Bib and shirt pickup at local running store.
(From race FB page.)

Race morning:  Got up about 7, and had plenty of time with an 11am race start.  Woke up before my alarm, took Brady for a walk, and was really glad I did NOT wear my race shoes or socks, as I got sand in both pairs of socks and shoes I wore.  Breakfast was oatmeal and a bagel.  Not very exciting, but it's pretty routine for me, so stick with what works, right?  I had originally planned to just run to the bus shuttle start, but as the Winnacunnet High School was two miles away from where we were staying, Jana drove me there instead.  As I intentionally arrived towards the end of the two-hour bus loading window, I just got on a bus right away.  

The bus was pretty much full, but no one sat next to me.  Must have been the smell.  Once the doors closed and we were en route, I was noticeably bothered by the cacophony of so many concurrent conversations.  I hadn't experienced that before, but maybe because I really haven't been in large indoor or enclosed groups in over two years?  Fortunately, the bus ride was short and we disembarked at Traip Academy, Kittery, Maine.  It's still more than 1.5 hours to race start.  Now what?

Sat down on the gym floor and waited.  Caught up with the
few fellow Rhode Islands I recognized.

With 45 minutes to go, I went out for an easy warm-up of just over a mile.  The start line is 1/2 mile from the school, so I went to check that out and used a bathroom in a coffee shop to avoid the long, long line back at the school.  Came back inside, ate a bar I had packed, stripped down to race attire, bundled up my gear drop bag, dropped it off at the appropriate bus where unlike Philly, there was zero wait, and headed to the start.

At the start line, I caught up with Mike Daniels.  The temp had warmed up to 47° by now, so I felt warm enough standing around in short shorts and a singlet, but the wind was in excess of 10mph from the west and was forecast to increase in strength and mix in some winds from the south (our general direction today).

First ten miles:  As the police were getting ready to temporarily shut down the road, I lined up in about the third row.  The gun went off, and 468 of us headed directly into the headwind.  This continued only for 1/3 mile, before heading south.  In less than a mile, we crossed the Piscataqua River into New Hampshire.

 

Leaving Maine,
heading into New Hampshire
(pic from race FB page)

I quickly latched onto a pack of eight.  This proved to be positive in a number of ways.  Other than one turn, the course really was not marked at all, which wasn't necessary for most of the race following Route 1A, but it could've been an issue early on in downtown Portsmouth when the leaders of our pack all of a sudden made a hard left and I had to correct to catch back up to them.  

The pack leaders clearly knew the course, and at least half were wearing a running singlet of the local Portsmouth running store, Runner's Alley.  I mentioned that I would try to hang with them until we got to Route 1A (Ocean Boulevard), which was about 4 miles in, especially as they were mentioning specific runners that got off course early in the race in past years.  Yikes.  They responded by saying they were targeting a pace of 6:15-6:20.  OK, I may hang a little longer as that sounds appropriate for me.  I guess?  Having never run a 20-miler before, it seems it should be somewhere midpoint between my most recent half (6:07 at Vermont) and my most recent full (6:29 at Philly).  

Most of the guys in the pack knew the first two overall runners, who we could only see for a mile or two.  But they did not know the 3rd runner (Daniels), who we could see for about four miles, and they were questioning if he was legit, as purportedly he was telling them he would be running sub-6s for the race.

About five miles in, our pack started to show some chinks in the armor.  One guy split off and took off ahead, and the guy at the back of the pack dropped off.  The remaining six seemed to fairly evenly carry the load, with alternating pulling at the front.  I was grateful to have the safety of the pack and occasional protection from the wind, so I was happy to pull for a while as well.  Occasionally we had to drop to single file when the shoulder narrowed, but most times it was double file.  The conversation was entertaining, the miles were clicking by and a bit faster than I had planned for, but I didn't want to run as an island.  Just before ten miles, the joke amongst the group was asking if they could switch to a 10-mile option.

Start to mile 10 stats:

• Average pace:  6:08
• Fastest mile split:  6:02 (twice)
• Slowest mile split:  6:13

Second ten miles:  It was right around ten miles when the pack fell apart.  Two guys went ahead as we went into the headwind in Rye on a bend around a cove that jutted inland.  One guy went ahead of me and I did my best to stay with him.  Over the next mile, I caught and passed the 3rd guy in our pack, putting me in 7th overall, but I never could catch the two leaders of our [now dissolved] pack.

Miles 11 and 12 were slower at 6:15, which I attributed to me running alone, but this is what I had loosely targeted anyway, so I was fine with that.

In Mile 13, we ran into the 1/2 marathon back-of-the-packers.  They had started at the same time as us 20-milers and they were running the last 13.1 miles of our course.  There was plenty of room to pass them and they didn't impede me (yet), but the only issue I had, as I've written in other races with multiple distances, is that I feel like I am running faster than I really am only by virtue of passing so many people.  That could just be me, but I've had that sense before.  Entering the town of North Hampton, we make the only turn off of Route 1A, as we're on Willow Ave for 1/2 mile of quiet roads past church gardens, and at this point, I can see one of the two leaders of our original pack and even the two of them have split up now.

As we re-enter Route 1A in Mile 14, there is a rare downhill drop (40') and the sweeping views right along the ocean here are absolutely gorgeous.  At Mile 15, as we enter Hampton, two police cars stop traffic in both directions and have us cross from running the right to the left-side of the road.  Two guys fly past me like I'm standing still.  Uh-oh, have I slowed down that much?  Are scads more about to pass me?  We go past the apartment where we stayed at North Beach, and this gives me the momentary notion to stop and just go inside the apartment.  (Jana and Brady have checked out by now, but I still have the entry code committed to memory.)  My pace at this point has slowed to mid 6:20s.

In Mile 17, just before reaching the Hampton Beach area, we head west (into the wind) for a short period, and it feels brutal, as the gusts must be over 20mph.  Even when we head southerly again, there are occasional gusts out of the south (i.e., headwinds) as well.  Mile 17 is my slowest at 6:36.  Ugh. 

Mile 18 feels better, which might be because there are buildings around us at Hampton Beach blocking part of the wind.  We have a full lane available for running here, as there are slowly rolling police cars with lights keeping vehicular traffic out.  My biggest issue here was that three rather large people were crossing from the beach across the road on a crosswalk, and only looked right (in the direction of traffic) and not left (in the direction of racers).  I don't exactly have much energy at this point, but yelled three times to get their attention.  By the time one noticed me and alerted the other two, I was pretty close to them.  No contact, but an awkward weave between them.

In Mile 19, as we cross a water channel from Hampton into Seabrook, we are relegated to a cement sidewalk lane on a bridge.  The problem is there are a number of [slower] half-marathoners here, and I no longer have room to pass.  Compounding the issue is some are to the left side of the narrow bridge lane, and some are to the right.  So I have to do a bit of weaving, and sometimes call out "On your left!" and other times "On your right!".  One woman yelled back that she thought I should be on her left, not her right, but I mumbled that I was just doing my best to get through and plowed ahead.  In Seabrook now, the winds were once again battering us as it was all open marshlands around us, but I knew the end was near and kept pushing.  In the distance, I could see cones and a police car with flashing lights at the Massachusetts state line, and I assumed that was the end of the race.  It was!  Almost.  The race didn't end on Route 1A, but instead turned off very shortly into a non-descript neighborhood and ended.  Done!

Coming towards the finish line.
Note the "Welcome to New Hampshire" sign
behind me, as I'm just barely into Massachusetts here.
(Pic courtesy of Jana)

Mile 11 to Mile 20 stats:

• Average pace:  6:22
• Fastest mile split:  6:15 (twice)
• Slowest mile split:  6:36

Final results:  2:06:04 (6:14 pace), 9th overall of 468, 2nd in age group.    Full results here.

Should I be leaning this far over?

Finish line!  Note Matthew and Brady at nine-o'clock in pic.
Race photographer pic.

Someone was happy to see me!

There was another old guy in age group that beat me by 16 seconds, albeit he is six years my junior.  

Nice medal!

And shirt.

Areas that went well:

• Pre-race pick-up at Runner's Alley was very well organized.
• Bus shuttle and race gear drop went off like clockwork.
• Tri-state race concept was pretty neat!
• Course was generally very scenic.  And flat!
• Results were posted real time on timing company site.
• I was lucky to get in with a good pack of runners for half the race.
• I ran (and slightly beat) my goal of 6:15-6:20 average pace.
• Nice medal and shirt.
• Free professional finish line photos.
• Bonus:  upon finishing the race, for the first time in my life, I saw a snowy owl!  It was perched in a marsh alongside the road.

Areas that left room for improvement:

• Website went months without any updates.
• If you go to the website even today (9 days post-race), the race is still referenced to in future tense, and there is no link at all to results.
• My e-mail to Race Director with a race question went completely unanswered.  And I e-mailed him a year before the race actually occured!
• The bathroom lines were ridiculously long.  There were only 5 porta-jons (for almost 500 runners) and a single men's stall and urinal inside, with access to other bathrooms inside roped off and a custodian yelling at runners that tried to go to other bathrooms inside the school.
• No mile markers on course, and almost no course markers.
• While I had the advantage of having a full lane to run in throughout North Hampton and Hampton, when we came back to Hampton Beach for lunch, the police were gone and the mid- and back-of-the-packers were relegated to the cement sidewalk for miles.
• The cement lane on the bridge into Seabrook was clogged and limiting, although to be fair, I don't know what the safe alternative would have been.
• Inconsistency on instructions.  The website indicated that post-race there were would be "pizza, snacks, and drinks" at the high school, but since there were already some fruit, snacks, and water at the finish line, I wanted to confirm with a race official before going "out of the way" back to the high school.   I was told there was no more food back at the high school beyond what was here at the finish line.  Glad I asked (and hopefully got the right info!); went out to lunch instead.
• Apparently did not apply enough BodyGlide, or at least not in all the right places.  Had an annoying abrasion and chafing in my right underarm that hurt and took about four days to go away.  Lesson learned.  I hope.
• My last ten miles were much slower than my first ten.  I can only blame so much of that on the increased winds and the pack falling apart, and have to take responsibility that I didn't run a smartly paced race.

Weekly Log 28-Mar to 3-Apr-2022: Planning for the Next Stage of My Life

Monday, March 28, 2022.  The day was here that many of us dream of:  retirement, or more specifically, setting retirement in motion.  After planning for about a year, and consulting with professionals, I nervously reviewed my prepared remarks a few more times before meeting with my manager and her manager.  I announced my retirement with my desire to have it effective June 30th to give plenty of time for any transition, and politely and respectfully tendered my resignation.

I was very upfront that my decision was entirely due to the desire to have more time to enjoy life, that my own father died from cancer at almost exactly the same age I am now, and when I was going through my cancer surgeries last year and five months of weekly hospital treatments, it truly gave me a different perspective on life.  Yes, my father had a very different kind of cancer, and yes, I'm recovered, but we truly never know how long we have.  As my father's brother said to me, no one ever sat on their death bed and wished they had spent more time in the office.  While my brother's suicide this year didn't influence my decision, it did remind me of the fragility of life.

I didn't know how the conversation would go, but in typical form, my management team was congratulatory and very supportive, as they have always been.  They even left open the possibility of me working part time and/or coming out of retirement in the future.  Such a class act and great company that I'm proud to be associated with.

So now what?  In three months, I will join the ranks of the 2.4 million baby boomers who since the advent of the pandemic have opted for an early retirement.  At a high level, the next stage will include swapping out corporate work for more volunteerism, and swapping time in the office for more time in the great outdoors.  Stay tuned as I continue my life journey!

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Monday:  1 walk

Westerly, RI.  As for running, this was a planned day off after yesterday's Eastern States 20-mile race, but I did sneak out to Wahaneeta late afternoon for a 1-mile easy walk on the trails with Brady.

Tuesday:  3 walk, 2 run

AM:  Westerly, RI.  Weekly CCC volunteering.  I opted for working with a team of four to monitor the Grills Preserve section north of Bowling Lane.  I am enjoying using the new WLT apps to show current position against all WLT borders, and an app to monitor issues.  Unfortunately, there is a perennial issue with dumping in this area, especially from several abutters.

PM:  Westerly, RI.  With Brady, late afternoon on local roads.  I intended to run 4 miles easy, but my legs told me they weren't ready after the 20-mile race.  Cut it back; try again tomorrow.

Wednesday:  6

Hopkinton, RI.  Trail run with Brady at Canonchet Preserves.  Zero human sightings.  Since when has the Narragansett Trail been extended south from Stubtown to Lawton Foster North, via Table Rock Trail?  This was all new (and exciting!) to me.

Now this is a big blowdown!  On the Canonchet Trail.

Today is Happy New Bike today.  It's been a long time in coming.  I had been looking to replace my 2006 Giant OCR for the past few years, but it never came to fruition.  Part of the delay was due to supply chain issues from COVID, as just last year when I inquired about a new bike, my local bike shop was pretty much empty of inventory and I was told that bikes that were coming in then were ones that customers ordered ONE YEAR prior!  And to be fully truthful, part of the delay was my hemming and hawing over spending the money.  I finally rationalized the cost in my overly analytical head by thinking of the bike not as a one-time cost, but amortizing it over a ten year period.  OK, now I can accept spending a few hundred dollars per year on the bike.

Fast forward to spring 2022, when I got a call from the local bike shop owner asking me to come in and talk to him if I was still interested, as while there were still inventory and supply chain issues, there were limited bikes available at Giant USA distribution in California, and I could order direct from them.  Choices, sizes, and colors were pretty limited, but it all came to together.

We had previously narrowed down to two specific models:  TCR Advanced and Defy Advanced 2.  The TCR is more of a pure race bike, and after comparing the two, and discussing realistically how many races I expect to do (pure bike races - zero, triathlons - two to three per year at most), I went with the Defy, with a slightly wider tire and more comfortable ride.

It took less than two weeks to order and get the bike delivered to the bike shop, put together, and have my existing accessories (aero bar, water bottle cages, SPD pedals, computer, etc.) transferred over, as I traded in my old bike.

Traded in my 16-year old Giant OCR 2.

The new ride:  Giant Defy Advanced 2 - carbon.
Even with all the accessories installed, comes in 25% lighter
versus the OCR 2 (23 lbs vs 29 lbs).

I'm already loving many new (to me) features, such as internal cabling, while other newfangled features (such as disc brakes and tubeless tires) I'll have to figure out and get used to.

Thursday:  9

Westerly, RI.  Late afternoon trail run with Brady, at Wahaneeta / Woody Hill.

Friday:  10 run, 15 ride

AM:  Stonington, CT.  Solo run to/from Mystic Y.  Ran the same route I did last week incorporating much of the Mystic 10K route, except that this time I turned it into a workout with a 2-mile hard session (6:08, 6:01) and a 3-mile hard session (5:54, 5:46, 5:57).  Worked hard on this one.

PM:  After signing off work for the day, the weather was finally cooperating enough for me to take my bike for its virgin ride.  Easy coastal spin.

Saturday:  3 run, 15 ride

Westerly, RI.  Early easy run with Brady on a mix of roads and trails at Champlin Glacier Preserve.

Westerly, RI.  Group ride with Justin P and Bob K.  Great catch-up with both, especially Bob, whom I seldom see, and is new to biking and swimming and looking to do a couple of tris this summer.  A little cold (38°) and windy (14mph) for me; looking forward to warmer rides.

Sunday:  5

Planned to get up early and run long, before volunteering.  Yeah, right.  Set my alarm for 5:45am, got up, noticed it was dark and cold, and I was still tired from a long day yesterday.  Back to bed.

I firmly believe in giving back.  Give your time to your community, to those less fortunate than you, to running, to conservancies, or whatever is important to you; just don't take it for granted.  So when WHS senior and WTAC member/volunteer Jake Serra reached out to me with an idea to put on a 5K for his senior project, I was all in.  We get a number of requests like this each year, but what differentiated this one was that Jake already had volunteered so much for the WTAC last summer, he had a plan first and resource requests second, and his passion exuded as he discussed his thoughts.

Set up our WTAC clock and finish flag,

and then headed to my assigned spot on the course
to serve as course marshal.

Charlestown, RI.  Post race after putting our gear back in storage in Dunn's Corners, I headed to Ninigret Park.  I pulled in and couldn't believe how many people were there.  It's all good, as there were flag football and soccer games transpiring, as well as some sort of disc golf competition, and parks are supposed to be used by active participants.  But for me, it meant no running the fields I had hoped.  Just as well as I had some stomach distress (no details!), so I'll be back another time.

Weekly mileage:  35 run, 31 ride, 4 walk

Weekly synopsis:  Lowest run mileage in quite a while.  In fact, since November, the week after Philly.  I'll call this a recovery week as well, after Eastern States 20.

Weekly highlight:  From a running perspective, the 10-mile workout run in Mystic.  From a life perspective, setting my retirement plans in motion.

Weekly lowlight:  Not getting the miles in.