Grills Trail Race 2024

 

Westerly, RI

Saturday, October 26, 2024

4th annual Grills Trail Race!  The race started small in 2021 with 53 finishers, and has held steady with higher numbers these past three years with 89, 77, and 88 finishers.

Between a long line at the bathroom and a Race Director that got started a bit too late on race announcements (note to self for next year), the race got started four minutes late.  Liam Hillery and Robin Hewson have been winning recent WTAC trail races, and both took off well ahead of the rest of the pack.  Adrian Massie was also right there in the mix, but unbeknownst to me, he was running the 10K today (he had another race the following day).  I followed them and Nick Alge, and was running alongside Matt Sweeney.  Sometime before the course split Ben Q flew by me, and I went just ahead of Nick before entering the Polly Coon bridge for the 4-mile Hopkinton section.  Running up the hills on the Tomaquag Trail, someone was right on my shoulder and I couldn't shake them.  I thought it might be Matt.  Fortunately, on the downhill technical section, I was able to shake whoever it was.  After crossing the Tomaquag Brook bridge and entering the woods again, I was able to glance back at a hard left turn.  Bright orange shirt, but it was neither Matt nor Nick.  (It turned out to be a young guy from MA named Lucas who unfortunately had a medical issue just before the finish line.)

And we're off

The rest of loop was pretty uneventful.  I never saw anyone behind me nor ahead of me for the rest of the loop.  Re-crossing the Polly Coon bridge back into Westerly, Dave Goodrich, who was serving as course marshal, gave me encouragement.  I passed through the water stop (Mile 5) and saw a woman on the ground grabbing her ankle.  I asked if she was OK, and she indicated she was (rolled ankle) and I sauntered on.

Ran the fun yellow trail along the river, and coming back for the first climb up Big Hill, I started passing a few back-of-the-packers from the 10K event.  Descending back down, I was looking forward to the race-track section because that is where you see the competition immediately ahead of behind you.  I was frankly shocked as I saw no one when I entered the race track trail.  Making my way around the race track itself, I saw Nick on the opposite side.  Uh oh.  Running back on the race track itself now, I saw Matt and Sandy Spitler, but both were a way behind me.  It was Nick I was worried about.

Powered my way up the final (and harder) ascent of Big Hill, running afraid that Nick would catch me.  Passed quite a few more 10K'ers in the final two miles, making my way as quickly as possible around them (many were so polite they pulled off the trail for me) and onward.

Final result:  1:13:45, 4th overall, 1st in age group.  Full results here.

Ended up finishing just over a minute ahead of Nick.  He said I sped up in the last few miles, but it could be that he slowed.  Or maybe a little of both?  Ben Q was a full seven minutes ahead of me, and Robin and Liam (who finished in that order separated by just two seconds!) finished almost ten minutes ahead of me.  Yeah, that might be way I didn't see them on the race track lollipop!

Plenty of food this year, including Jersey Mike's subs

and several different varieties of pizza from
A Mano pizza truck of Newport

Anyway, another really fun low-key Grills race in the books.  So many compliments received, including these few gems that I pulled from Strava:

• Beautiful course!
• Big hill was indeed a big hill. Apple cider after a run tastes fantastic.
• Perfect New England day to run in the woods! Great race, great people! 
• Perfect morning for this race. Ran better than last year. 3rd in AG. Thanks to Jeff, Jana, CJ, Kim, Fran, Heather and all the other WTAC volunteers for putting this race on. Great day! 
• Beautiful day and a really nice course to boot. Complimentary pizza and subs was amazing.