Wahaneeta Trail Race (Sep 23):
8th annual Wahaneeta, and I think I've run every one of them. This is our smallest race with the field size typically between 30 and 50. (2020 was an exception with a field capped at 75 due to COVID state restrictions and with almost no other races going on, we got the 75.)
It was a rainy morning, but it turned out to be just light sporadic rain instead of the forecasted heavier rain. Still, I'm sure this turned some people away, as 30% of the registered field did not show. The Niantic Bay 10K was also scheduled (rescheduled) for this morning, and they actually cancelled it because of forecasted rain! That just seems absurd to me, and they rightly received a lot of criticism on social media for their poor decision.
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| With a wetter summer this year, there was actually a stream crossing! Still very shallow, but I'll take it. |
We occasionally consider ending the race due to small field size, but the consensus this year seemed to be that people liked the small intimate trail race atmosphere. A young guy named Brinik showed up and not only stole the show, but would figure prominently in the remainder of the fall trail series.
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| Small field for this year's drizzly race |
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| Finishing up the first loop, running as an island |
Well, I had no expectations of overtaking Brinik, but I figured I could go after Nick. Not even close. I couldn't even keep him in sight. Nick finished in 2nd, about 30 seconds behind the leader. But I was more than a minute behind Nick.
Results: 22:51, 3rd out of 30. Full results here.
With the rainy morning, we moved the post-race food and awards indoors to the cabin, and I have to say that turned out really well. The cabin was warm and it was a real fun atmosphere. My faux pas was not checking that our printer was out of black ink, and I wrongly concluded we couldn't print results because of it. Jana suggested I change the font color to a color other than black, and try reprinting. Voila! Results in green worked just fine. I'm pretty sure I would have never thought of that on my own.
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| Fun atmosphere inside the cabin |
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| For overall winner's prizes, one of our WLT board members baked two apple pies and decorated them nicely for fall! |
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| My brother Scott (left) from Georgia was visiting RI for one day at the end of a Boston business trip, and despite not bringing running clothes, he wanted to get in on the fun as well. Said RI trails were nothing like the trails near his house (Augusta). |
Run for the Pumpkins (Oct 7):
This is a race that we took over the administration from the town and now co-host with them. We switched this from a fledgling road race to a 5K trail race in 2015, added an 8K option in 2017 in an attempt to garner more interest, and then with some course restrictions due to a wetlands violation issue, revamped the 8K into a 10K in 2022.
Two big changes for this year were 1) we snagged Jersey Mike's as a sponsor as they donated enough subs to feed 125!, and 2) we provided nice tech caps to runners.
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| Tech cap giveaways! |
The 10K starts two minutes before the 5K. Otherwise due to a more difficult first and slower first section for the 10K, where the course merges it would put fast 10K runners behind slower 5K runners on a narrow technical single-track. Last year we ran this race in a monsoon with many flooded sections, but this year the course was bone dry.
Our small 10K field of 22 got off with no issues, ahead of the much larger 50 runners in the 5K. Similar to the Wahaneeta run, Nick led out with a ringer sitting on him for the first few miles. Brendan Atkins, last year's Grills 10M winner, and Nick, eventually both pulled away from me and I could only see them on long straightaways. On the Yo Mama trail (about 1.5 miles in, along the solar field) after a switchback I could see Thomas McLaughlin behind me, then Lars and Todd Gregory, but I had a good gap on them.
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| Start of our 10K race, Nick in white, and I'm in darker orange singlet AND orange cap about two places to his right |
Sometime after crossing over the Woody Hill Marsh, Brendan took the lead for good. Similar to Wahaneeta, I knew I wasn't catching the leader but had my sights on Nick. With several more switchbacks on the Leaning Chimney trail, I could see him several times and unfortunately he saw me as well, so there would be no gradually sneaking up and taking advantage of any unintended slowdown he might have. Even though I could see him, it's deceiving on how far ahead of me he really was. The only thing I was certain of was that by the time we got to the Hansel & Gretel trail, with just over a mile to go, I had gained on him.
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| As in past years, we had decorated some of the course beforehand with a Halloween theme |
With about 125' drop in elevation in the last mile, this should work to my advantage, and it did in terms of narrowing the lead, but unfortunately not quite enough to actually catch him. Nick finished 1:20 behind the leader, and I finished just 14 seconds behind Nick for third place. Again. The next runner was almost six minutes behind me.
Results: 49:36, 3rd overall. Full results here.
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| Finish. We had setup the canopy over the finish line to protect the clock from rain, but we lucked out as the rain didn't materialize until the afternoon. |
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| Awards table was festively decorated for fall |
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| Having Jersey Mike's subs for all runners was a big hit (except that next year we need a few vegetarian subs) |
Grills Trail Race (Oct 28):
This was our 3rd consecutive year running the Grills Trail Races, with a 10-Mile and 10K option. In the first two years of the race, parking was a limiting factor and we limited to 75 runners in 2021 and 100 runners in 2022. Both years we sold out. The only way we got the cars to fit in 2022 was to "jam them in" to the complaints of several runners. This year we were lucky enough to secure additional parking from Joy Fellowship Church 1/2 mile down the road. Their new parking lot is great, claims to host 80 additional vehicles, and they also offered runners use of their "real" and very clean bathrooms. So, we lifted capacity restrictions, and unfortunately registration numbers declined slightly to 95.
The other big change we instituted for this year was a pizza truck. This was a long process after one vendor pulled out, and another just over the line in Stonington rightly got fed up with all the extra permitting and money he would need to spend to meet RI and Westerly Fire requirements as there is no reciprocity across state lines for mobile food establishment licenses and fire inspections. We eventually hired A Mano Pizza of Newport, and it all worked out great!
Obviously I'm biased but I think this is one of WTAC's best races, if not the best, largely because the race is ten miles long and entirely on dirt.
On the downside, we started the race at 63°F and it was up to 75° when I finished. Not ideal for a race in any season, and certainly not on a late October morning. This would be a warm race.
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| Start of Grills 2023 Trail Races |
10K and 10-Milers start at the same time, and the first mile is all pretty flat on mostly double-track before the work begins in hillier and somewhat technical terrain. Just before the course split a mile in, and before we go across the bridge and onto tight single-track, there was some jockeying for position. Adrian Massie was leading at the course split, and trail newcomer and road master Liam Hillery went past us several of us to move into 2nd. I went just head of Nick and behind Andrew LePage, who was in 3rd.
Once across the aluminum Polly Coon Bridge and onto the technical section of the Tomaquag Trail, I was right on Andrew's heels, but sensed him slowing on the more technical parts. I bided my time on a long climb, and then on the downhill called out, "On your left!" and went past him. As I did, I told him I knew he would pass me back again once we got off technical terrain. Which he did, but I was surprised it wasn't until about two miles later. I saw him for a while, but by now we were on flat and easy trails, and he soon was out of my sight.
Back on the Westerly side about 5 miles in now, I grabbed a water from the only water stop. Cold and tasted great in the heat, and was only mildly annoyed that volunteers weren't handing out the water and you had to go over to the table and grab it yourself (we did get this rectified after I called it out). A couple more miles in and I started to catch the 10K back-of-the-packers. No issue at all at any time; I simply called out ahead of time and they gave me plenty of room to go past.
The lollipop race-track section was added only to get the 10M distance, but I like it now because it's the only chance in the race where you can gauge where your competition is. I could see the two leaders (Adrian and Liam) on their way out of the racetrack as I was on my way in, and then just before I got to the racetrack itself, Andrew was exiting the racetrack just as I was entering it. What I couldn't figure out is that I never saw Nick at all here, and the only thing we could both later guess is that he and I were both on the racetrack (it's only ~500m long and separated by birch trees and scrub bushes) at the same time in opposite sides.
The view at the top of Big Hill was really clear. For the rest of the race, I passed a number of 10K runners, but never saw another 10M runner. Every person I came upon was friendly and gave me room as I called out. I was so dehydrated, hot, and wanted the race to end.
As I came to the finish line, I was fully aware that my time would be off from last year, but I had no idea it would be almost seven minutes slower! Ouch.
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| Glad to be finished. |
Final result: 1:15:56, 4th overall. Full results here.
My time would have gotten me 9th place last year, instead of the 2nd that I actually got, but the heat had the same effect of a much slower time this year with every runner that I spoke to. Andrew was 2 1/2 minutes ahead of me, and Nick finished just 40 seconds behind me.
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| Good representation from WTAC today |
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| Pizza was great! Margherita pizza and pepperoni were offered to all runners and volunteers. |
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| Similar to Run for the Pumpkins, our registration table / booth was nicely decorated for fall |
Li'l Rhody Runaround (Nov 19):
Well, this one didn't go according to plan for me, but I dealt with it with much better grace than I feared I would. This would have marked my 20th consecutive Li'l Rhody, but as I had broken my rib the previous week on a really bad fall, it wasn't to be.
As usual, for the hours both before and after the race, I stay busy as Race Director and the time flies by. It was during the race itself that I feared I would have regret from not participating and would sulk. To try to combat that, I decided to go out on the course and watch and cheer on runners, and take some pics. It worked. Unlike the 4M course, the 8M is pretty accessible by car in several places.
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| I was able to see runners and take a few photos at several different places on the 8M course. |
We had 247 finishers between the 4M and 8M courses, and that's the highest number since 2014, so that was pretty exciting. And we had lots of compliments on this race and the series overall.
On the downside, we had some saboteurs that attempted to ruin our race by removing many course marking flags and moving a sign to point down the wrong path. We caught and fixed the misplaced sign just before the race, but did not notice the missing flags on another section. Fortunately, the flag mayhem only caused a few runners to temporarily go off course and everyone was able to finish and seemed to stay positive about it, but it's something we'll need to ponder for next year.
That's a wrap on the 2023 Fall Trail Series. We had 23 runners who participated by running in 3 or more races this year, which is three more runners than last year.
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