Bobby Doyle 2025

Narragansett, RI

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Having struggled recently trying to remember details as I write race reports from six weeks ago, I actually smartened up on this one and am writing it on race day when I actually remember stuff!

This race served as the USATF-NE 5-Mile championship.  I have run this race several times before, but I have never run this course before as it's a new course this year.  The change was forced by Point Judith Country Club as they no longer allowed the Bobby Doyle race to run on their private Windermere Road as the race had been run there in the past few years.  I don't know the background of what precipitated this, but regardless it's a shame.  I don't love the new course, but it also wasn't as bad as I feared.  More on that in a bit ...

New 2025 course:  no cone turnarounds,
but a fair amount of OAB and three more turns than last year

My usual goal (not always met) is to get to races 1 hour early.  In this case, knowing from past experience that bib pickup lines and bathroom lines have been long, we opted to get there at 7:45am, which we were successful at.  Parked at the high school for the short walk to the middle school, where packet pickup and race finish would be located.  (Note:  we didn't really have a choice in where to park.  It seemed that parking marshals filled the middle school lots first, and then had subsequent car arrivals park at the high school.  Very efficient, by the way.)

Bib line was pretty short, and the portajon line was pretty long, but not horrendous.  Was thankful for the earlier arrival, but if I were to run this race again next year and if it were again a USATF-NE race, I would opt to arrive even earlier.

After a 2-mile warmup with Brady, I turned him over to Jana and we headed to the start.  Ran a couple of strides and lined up about ten rows back.  I catch up with a few runners I know, and when asked about my time goal, I mention that anywhere between 31 and 32 [minutes] I'll be happy with.  Had I run this race last year when I was running faster, I might have attempted the M60 course record of 29:56, but I feel that window has passed.

Mile 1:  It's a crowded packed start, and as the race starts, I get elbowed and pushed.  Norm is right behind me, and says, "Looks like you are really getting pushed around, Jeff!".  Indeed.  Norm passes me, and I remind myself to run my own race.  It's basically the same first mile as Blessing of the Fleet, downhill on South Pier Road to Ocean Road.  I watch Norm move ahead and tuck in just behind Scott Grandfield, both of them my age group competitors.  Again, I remind myself to run my own race.

Start of 2025 Bobby Doyle
I'm probably about ten rows back

Mile 1 split 5:43.  That was a bit spicier than I planned, even for a downhill mile.

Mile 2:  After a very short distance on Ocean Road, we turn inland and begin the only perceptible hill.  We are in open sun now, and with a temp at start of 74°F, it feels like about 80° here to me.  I am surprised to catch up to David Principe here.  I run beside him for most of the mile, dodging and passing other runners along the way.  We are only supposed to run on the left side of Kinney (the shaded sylvan road I'm used to from the Blessing), and it's coned off as runners will be returning on the right side, but a number of runners are seemingly slowing down here (as I'm not speeding up!) and they're in my way, so since no runners have come back yet, I occasionally cross the yellow line to go past them.  Wow, that was a long run on sentence.

Mile 2 split 6:10.

Mile 3:  As we make a left onto Old Point Judith Road (running in opposite direction as Blessing Mile 6), looking to my right, I can just see a RI State Police vehicle coming from that direction with flashing lights.  I had hoped to see the top runners coming at me, but the timing didn't quite work out.  I am dreading the next right turn, as it's puts us onto the infamously sunny and hot and worst part of the Blessing course (Rt 108), BUT it's only 1/3 mile and nearly completely shaded this time of day, so no issue at all.

As we make the right turn off of Route 108 and onto Kinney, we are at the highest point of the course.  At the turn or just after, I'm happy to hear Chris G call out to me, and I see "18:22" on a clock at the 3-mile marker.

Mile 3:  Glancing at photographer Chris Garvin
as I hear my name called.  Kinney Ave.

Mile 3 split 6:13.

Mile 4:  Mile 4 is pretty much entirely the length of Kinney Ave.  Shaded and a very slight downhill.  I can still see Dave P in front of me, but again I'm just running my own race, and actually feeling pretty good here.  Sometimes you can just tell when you're going faster, and in retrospect now looking at my splits, I did pick it up just a bit.

Mile 4 split 6:06.

Mile 5:  My watch beeps and displays "4 miles" just as I turn onto Gibson.  This is again a very slight downhill short section.  As we round the corner from Gibson to South Pier for the stretch home, I'm thinking we have half a mile to go and am dismayed looking at my watch to see 4.3 miles.  I'm hoping for any kind of landmark to break up the remaining 0.7 miles with a slight incline, but South Pier is kind of non-descript until you get back to the school.  I'm pushing hard, even passing a few runners, when I see a "1/4 Mile to Go" (or something like that) as we get to the school field.  The rest is a blur as I do my best to "kick" to the finish.

Just before the finish

Final result:  30:32 (average pace 6:06), 256 out of 1,018 overall, 5th out of 60 in age group.  Full results here.

So against my goal of 31-32, for once this year I ran quite a bit faster than I expected.  Obviously, my goal was somewhat arbitrary, so I decided to dive in to the stats a bit more:

Geek stats:

• Number of runners ahead of me at 3-mile split, but finished behind me:  10
• Number of runners behind me at 3-mile split, but finished ahead of me:  2

(In other words, I improved my position from Mile 3 to Mile 5 by 8 places.)

Age Grade Results:

Subjectively, I felt this race went really went for me for this year.  But how could I measure this
objectively across multiple distances I've run this year?  And then an idea popped in my head!
Age-graded is a formulaic leveling across ages and distances.  I included all certified road races
I've run this year.  This resulting chart reaffirms my gut reactions:
Boston Marathon was by far my worst performance this year,
I ran well at Clamdigger, 
and my best performance was at Bobby Doyle!   

Sure, I'm not forgetting that I finished 5th in my age group at Bobby Doyle, but other than NYC Half and Boston, this is by far the deepest and most competitive age group field I ran in this year.

Race performance take-away:  After this analysis, I am feeling even better about my performance in this race.  Maybe this will be the proverbial "lighting a fire under my a$$" that I need to end my wallowing self imposed torpor and get some training and confidence in my racing.  I have no illusions of battling against Father Time and I'm also not saying I'll ever best my 2:47:57 marathon PR from three years ago, BUT maybe, just maybe, with a little guidance and a better attitude, I can still (or once again?) be real competitive in my age group.

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I'll wrap up this race report with my own personal take on pros and cons:

Pros:

• Pre-race e-mail communication was very good.
• Parking was very efficiently managed.  Parking marshals were great.
• Course is USATF certified (it is a requirement of races in the USATF-NE races).
• Price was really good at $25 for a 5 mile certified course.
• Race is popular and super competitive.
• Course was closed to traffic.
• Fun post-race get-together with food on athletic fields.
• Ice cold water at finish!
• Refreshing fire hose at finish!

  

  Post-race mingling on athletic fields

  

  That fire hose was very refreshing!

Cons:

• Registration site:  I had never even heard of GetMeRegistered, and it's not the friendliest, including that you can't see who else is signed up, and there is seemingly no provision for posting results or photos.  I think you can't beat RunSignup for road races, and then you also have the advantage of being able to see all your registrations in one place for multiple races you've signed up for.
• Results site:  RaceWire is OK, but not the easiest to navigate.
• Environmentally friendly:  Or rather lack thereof.  Paper registration day of, plastic cups at water stations.
• Website refresh:  The race website itself is good, but two days post race, it would be nice to see some mention or photos of the race that took place, as well as a link to results.
• Check in process:  Unlike many races (especially of this size) using more modern and efficient processes including check-in on phones or computers, this race still uses paper check-in and you have to go to a table according to the letter your last name starts with.  I ended up waiting in an albeit relatively short line, but there were other tables that were empty with idle volunteers.
• New course:  It actually wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't the clean loop of the former course with fewer turns.  (Understandably a course change had to be made.)
• Shirt design:  I know this is subjective, and I certainly don't need more running shirts, BUT at least to me this is a pretty ugly shirt destined for the scrap pile right away (either next clothing clean-out / donation or wear it to the starting line of a colder late fall / winter race to keep warm pre-race and then discard it)
• Generic bib:  Obviously not a deciding factor in the race, but in a race of this size and depth, it would be nice to get a bib that actually referenced the race!

To each his own,
but not for me, thanks

I just don't find the RaceWire results platform to be
very appealing or easy to navigate.  And yeah, that pace
might be just a little bit off!