Arnold Mills 4-Miler

 

Cumberland, RI

Thursday, July 4, 2024

I had heard of this race, but never ran it nor really expressed any great interest in it.  My motive this year was solely that it was one of four races in the new RI Grand Prix.

We did hear from several of our members that Cumberland was "too far" to travel for a race.  Seriously.  But fortunately, eight of us WTAC'ers made the approximately 1-hour trek "all the way" to Cumberland.  I was fortunate enough that my support team of Jana and Brady accompanied me.

Bib pickup was the old style at Blessing, where you first went up to one table to look up your name and get your bib number, and then you went to a second table to tell them your bib number and they got it for you.  Except that it really wasn't clear and the folks in line in front of me at the second table didn't know their bib number and had to be sent to the first table.

I went on a warm-up with Justin and Brady, handed Brady over to Jana, and was ready to go.  I saw Scott Grandfield briefly, and he encouraged me to go for an age group win (Note:  this would be my final race in my 50s), but cautioned that I'd need to watch out for "Magill".  I've heard of Chris Magill, but don't know personally know him.

Race start and Loop 1:

I lined up just a few rows back with Nick A.  We would start with a short 30' climb which Nick called a "sissy hill"!  Indeed it was barely perceptible and not an issue.  Despite a starting field of 716 and no seeding, the start was on a pretty wide closed road (Nate Whipple Highway"), so I didn't have any issues with getting boxed in and as to the few noticeably slower runners ahead of me, I was able to easily pass them on the left and continue my way up the "sissy hill".

Loop 1:  the upper loop - 1.2 miles
Loop 2:  the full outer loop - 2.3 miles
(plus .25 miles from the start,
. 25 miles to the finish)

Start of the race.  Really wide road for first 1/4 mile.
All pics by Jana, unless otherwise noted.

After 1/4 mile, the short hill ends and we make about a 135° sharp turn.  I recognized Chris Magill, but only because he's a local favorite (and past winner) and spectators were calling his name.  I caught and passed him and saw Scott on the sidelines cheering me on.  The rest of Loop 1 is flat, and was uneventful.  There was a clock at Mile 1, but the time seemed off, which confused me so I just focused on my own watch split (5:56) and continued on to finish out the loop.

Loop 2 and finish:

As we start the second loop, we quickly come up on the back-of-the-pack walkers.  There are cones dividing the closed road, and the walkers are staying to the left, so they're really not an issue.  EXCEPT for the woman walking a dog that's in the middle of the road.  The dog is a seemingly friendly golden retriever and is leashed, but in this case it actually makes matters worse as the dog is several feet away from her and there's the potential to get caught in the leash.  As folks know, I love running with my dog, but dogs don't belong in a 700+ person road race, especially where runners have to overtake walkers!  I have to go pretty wide and am glad to be past this potential obstacle.  At Mile 2, I am glad to see the walkers turn off (as they're still on the shorter Loop 1).

Mile 2 split 6-flat.  Slower than I would like.  

Mile 3 is a net downhill, only by 30' but it's gradual and fast.  Towards the end of Mile 3, I am very surprised to catch and pass Dan Hawkins.  It's almost always the other way around.  Dan is in his 30s, so my race is not against him, and I remind myself to run my own race, even if he retakes me (he doesn't).  Mile 3 split is a 5:38.  Faster than I planned for sure, but there's only one mile to go now so it's fine.

In the final mile, there are several sprinklers that I run through and appreciate.  Temps are in the mid-70s and it's open sun on this stretch through a neighborhood.  There is a slight hill taking us up to where we parked at a school, and I'm feeling pretty good with a 1/2 mile to go and familiar with the finish now.  A final sharp turn and then I kick as best I can on the short downhill to the finish at the fire station, three seconds ahead of Dan.

Coming into the finish line.

(From race video)
You can see Jana (in white cap) and Brady on far left.

Finish line photo from race website.

Final result:  23:17 (5:49 average pace), 1st in age group (of 48), 35th overall of 716.  Full results here.

I looked at the clock, and it showed high 22s!  Wow!  I am shocked.  UNTIL I look at my own watch results and see 23:16.  What?  Another clock that is wrong.  Ugh.

Look at the clock time, as I cross the finish line.
Wow!  Except it's wrong.  By about 30 seconds.

What went well:

• PR*!  
• 2nd overall age-graded (second only to overall winner Ben Drezek at 87.7%).
• 1st in age group.  By almost a minute.  That's a good note to finish off on with my final race in my 50s!
  
  

  

  Collecting my race winnings:
  $25 to Marathon Sports
  (to add the $25 Marathon Sports gift card
  I won at Branford)

  
  
• Not sure what happened with Mile 2 being slow (could that have been due to the interaction with and running wide around walkers and dog?), but the rest of the miles were very consistent, especially when comparing using GAP (grade-adjusted pace).
• Great showing by WTAC!  And we took 2nd place in the RI Grand Prix, so far.

  

  Team WTAC today (plus Brady!)
  Left to right:  Dave, Heather, Meriden, Nick, Justin, me, Brady,
  Bob S, Josh

  
  

What could've gone better:

• Race turned off ability to see other participants ahead of time.
• Race check-in process was inefficient and confusing.
• No chip timing mats at start.  (Gun start, chip finish).  
• Clocks at both Mile 1 and finish were off by about 30 seconds.  Race officials realized the issue and adjusted the finish time clock, but long after I finished.
• I don't love the 2-loop format, if only for the reason that runners need to navigate around the walkers.  It wasn't terrible; just could've gone better.
• *And of my biggest gripes that I only learned post-race:  the course is NOT certified.  My GPS showed 3.99 and random sampling I did of other Strava posts showed many were less than 4.00, some were exactly 4.00, and very few were longer than 4.00 miles, which is really what I would expect to find on an accurately measured course.  So is this really a legit PR?