Sneekers 4-Mile Road Race

Groton, CT

Sunday, August 17, 2025

My first time ever running this race.  For the past few years, I've been away on a family vacation during this time, and would've been again this year if we hadn't moved the vacation later due to an unrelated conflict.

Although I had never run the race before, I did run much of the course several weeks back, so I had an idea what it would be like.  I noticed that parking would not be available at the start / finish, so I arrived close to 1.5 hours early instead of my usual 1 hour target.  But parking was only 1/4 mile away and it was not an issue, so I had plenty of time for a 2-mile warm-up, and to get back to the car.  The bigger issue was the weather today, as it 75°F at start and climbing on an open sunny course and in high humidity.

Mile 1:  After changing into race shoes and a dry singlet, I walked with plenty of time to reach the start and listen to race instructions.  This would be a gun start and chip finish, so I made sure to get very close to the start (2nd row).  We had the full width of the road to start, and even though this quickly narrowed (kind of like Clamdigger), I never felt crowded in.  Mile 1 is pancake flat, the only mile in the race which is flat.  After 1/2 mile, we make a right turn onto Thomas Road, and this is the first of many sections that is just wide open to the sun, especially as it goes through a marshy area.  Somewhere in this section I caught and passed Dave Goodrich.  Mile 1 split 6:06.

Start of Sneekers 4M 2025 race.
I'm in second row, far right, behind Linda Spooner in yellow.

Mile 2:  And now the hills come in.  Nothing crazy, but noticeable with about a 130' hill climb over the next mile.  On the hill Paul Trehern from SoundRunner goes past me.  I'm often ahead of him, but I'm also pretty sure he's not 60 yet, so I don't fret over it.  There is one section of road where we are coned off to the far right, but I still have plenty of room the few times I need to pass someone.  Mile 2 split 6:33.  My slowest of the race, but makes sense to me given the hill.

Mile 3:  I am really feeling warm now.  This is my least favorite mile, as a lot of it is in an industrial area and all open to the sun.  We have about a 50' drop, followed by, well, a 50' hill climb.  The worst turn on the course comes up, as we have a sharp turn of more than 90 degrees onto a busy road (Benham), and I can't help but to run into traffic.  There is a person to my left even further into traffic, and a car driving fast does move further into the middle of the road, but still it's an uncomfortable turn onto an uncomfortably busy road with no cones to separate runners from cars.  Mile 3 split 6:27.

Worst turn on the course.  Not because of the ugly industrial
areas and parking lots you're looking at (although that doesn't help),
but because of how awkward the angle is (more than 90 degrees),
and that you just naturally veer into traffic as you're racing.
It think the GPS exaggerated how far I went into traffic lanes
before reverting to the right hand side of the road, but it
does show the point.

Mile 4:  And this was my favorite mile on the course!  Not only because it was the final mile, not only because here you actually did have cones separating the runners from the cars, but because it was a big downhill finish!  After about 1/4 mile meandering through neighborhood streets, you begin a fast descent on an elevation drop of more than 100'.  At the start of the descent, a runner goes by me from rival Sound Runners.  Not so fast, this downhill stuff is my territory!  I quickly retake him and a few others on the downhill stretch and as it levels out for the final 1/4 mile, I just step on the gas to cruise to the finish and stave off other challengers.  Fast Mile 4 split of 5:43!

Final result:  24:56.  26th of 199 overall, 1st of 20 in age group.  Full results here.

Team results:  We were way off on Men's Open team results, 2.5 minutes off on Masters,
but won the Grandmasters and less than a minute off on Seniors.

What I liked about the race:

• Registration page / info:  Great info here, including course map.  Well done.
• Club FB and club e-mail promotions:  Well covered and timely, including impending price increases.
• Certified course:  Fantastic.  We’ve all had our share of running short courses, and that isn’t fun or fair.
• Course Map:  Very clear and easy to follow.
• Parking:  Very efficient, ample and safe parking, close to start/finish, nice to have cheery Paul A (a/k/a "A to Z") as parking marshal.  Top marks.
• Check-in:  I wasn't sure how it would go seeing the old style paper check-in, but it was quick and efficient.
• Bib and shirt:  All fine.
• Price point:  Very reasonable price (and that's even with me missing the first price increase!).
• Volunteers:  All that I encountered were cheerful and helpful.  (As a minor note, just to include all my observations, the one exception I saw was a young guy in a safety vest halfway up a driveway on Benham Road waving his flag in circles; he could have been put to better use on an actual course turn that was unattended).
• Porta-jons:  With 4 units for 200 runners, I never saw a long line.
• Race start / remarks:  All good.
• Police:  It was nice to have Groton City Police at the two intersections where you crossed traffic.
• Downhill finish:  I really liked this!  Fast, and the coned lane to run in made me feel comfortable on a somewhat busy road with cars coming at you.
• Timing company:  Always love it when the SNERRO crew times and Way announces!
• Water at finish:  Loved the ice cold water in kiddie pool at finish!  BUT when I finished my cool-down, the cold water was gone and it was just very warm left.  Could be good to have more ice water, especially as I wonder if the cold water was gone when back-of-the-packers were finishing.
• Watermelon:  Fantastic summer offering!
• Awards ceremony:  All went smoothly and efficiently from my perspective.
• E-mail with link to personal results:  Nice!  I need to talk to Melinda to figure this out for races I direct.

What I didn't care for:

• Course:  This was described on Mohegan Striders FB as a "scenic" course, but personally and respectfully I just can't agree.  It's mostly an open sunny course, with a number of industrial and non-descript sections, and other than the marsh / cove on Thomas Road, there were no water views.  That's OK for a local race, but now that it's a USATF-CT race and runners are coming from farther away, wouldn't it be nice to showcase some of the truly scenic areas we have in SE CT?
• Difficult, borderline dangerous turn:  The turn from Morse Ave onto Benham Road is greater than 90 degrees (not desirable) and also not protected.  Is it possible to use a side street that avoids this awkward turn?  Or if not, is it possible to protect this turn with cones separating runners from vehicles?  I was running with a few other runners veering into the road while a vehicle was moving fast very close to us.  No near collision or anything, but certainly uncomfortable.
• Finish area / awards area:  Hanging around on a hot summer sunny morning on exposed hardtop pavement in a parking lot is just not attractive or fun.  There are a lot of hot summer races around (think New Haven or Branford or Blessing of the Fleet [RI] or Kelley Half), but the finish / awards / food area for those are all at parks or beaches.   And I don’t think it’s the best look to finish right by an adult video store.
• Trinkets / gummies:  Just not my thing, but that's a subjective item and the least consequential, as I don't go to races based on awards.  Maybe others love them.
• Race communications:  All of the other USATF-CT races I've run over the past year e-mailed out pre-race communications a day or two before, and/or post-race communications on the day of the event.  It's not a huge deal, but just a nice touch.
• Race start time:  Given that it's mid-August, is it possible to move it up earlier?

To be fair, some of the items like course and finish area might be constrained by sponsor commitments.  Overall, it was a good race.  But was it one of my favorites?  No.