Bobby Doyle Summer Classic: USATF NE Championship

Narragansett, RI
Sunday, August 9, 2015

Had never run this one before, and between being a rare chance to test my mettle against my 5 Mile PR of 30:02 and one of the last chances this summer to race together with Matthew, I threw in my hat (in addition to a Jackson, a Lincoln, and a Jefferson).

This year's 8th annual edition was no ordinary one, as it took on the additional status of being the USATF New England championship 5-mile race, and thus drew esteemed and decorated harriers from all of the six New England states.

We arrived about an hour early, and as soon as we got out of the car, it was crystal clear to me that this would be a race like no other I had ever participated in.  If you look around at the starting race of almost every race I've ever done (including marathons), you see varying physiques and running attire anything from lightweight running singlets to runners with their bibs pinned over a cotton zipped up hooded sweatshirt.  Not here!

Look at the physique and uniforms of these runners!
Do I even deserve a running spot at this race?
(As usual, thanks to Jana for [nearly] all the pics here)

As far as the eye could stretch, the sight was teeming with lithe runners all seemingly clad in short-shorts and the lightest of singlets or sports bras for the fairer sex.  These guys are serious runners!  A plethora of formidable running clubs had descended upon Narragansett, including the BAA, Central Mass Striders, and several hailing from NH, VT, and ME.  It was simultaneously awe-inspiring and daunting.

Father-son warm-up is always enjoyable.
Quality time all summer that I'll never forget.

Enough of my incessant blathering, and on to the race.  A quick synopsis:

Mile 1:  5:35!  The gun went off, and I couldn't move for a few seconds, as deep in aggressive "Sub 30" marked group.  For the entire mile, the pack was pretty thick around me.  Towards the end of Mile 1, I passed my nemesis, Tollgate XC coach Norm Bouthillier.

Half-mile in:
Crowded field would be persistent throughout race.

Mile 2:  5:50.  Happy to keep it under 6 as the course climbs a bit as we go back past the start again at Narragansett Middle School.

Mile 2:  Long strides staying sub-6 without taxing myself too much

 Mile 3:  5:39!  Thrilled that I've picked up the pace again.  Some of it must be the super fast running crowd pulling me along.  This would be the last mile that I would see Matthew, although with so many runners on the road, I could only see him turning at corners.

Mile 4:  6:04.  You pass through timing mats at the 5K mark at a narrow chute on Ocean Road (near 1 mile mark at Blessing) and my time showed 18:03.  A 5:49 average pace; I'll take that, especially given I wasn't just racing a 5K.  The slowed time on this mile was indicative of the two uphills on this section.  Nothing serious, but enough to slow most runners down.

Sprinting to the finish,
trying to match a competitor's strides.
(We both finished 29:26 gun time, but for some reason
they took 2 seconds off for him on chip time and none for me, even though
I started behind him.)

Mile 5:  5:59.  Trying to pick up the pace a little for the finish, happy again to keep it under 6.

Crossing the finish line in a lifetime PR of 29:26.  Sweet!

Final time:  29:26!  Results here.  A full 36 seconds under my PR!  My previous PR was several years ago at a race in Bristol where I ran side-by-side with Jonny for the entire race, save for the last 1/2 mile when I couldn't match his stride.  He went under 30 and I didn't.  I've always regretted missing the sub-30 mark by 3 seconds, and today was ample vindication.

Post-race with my finisher's medal.

Close up of the cool finisher's medal.

So, I must have won my geezer age group, right?  Not a chance!  140th overall and 14th in my age group!  That's OK, I went up against the creme de la creme in New England, and still came up 14th of 70.  Matthew finished 27 places ahead of me with a huge PR of 28:31.  Someone sent him a link to age-graded results and stated that I beat him in the race on an age-graded basis.  Interesting reading, but truly I'm happy with my race results and PR in my own right.  This was both a humbling and amazing race in which I'm thrilled to have participated.

Run 4 Kerri

South Kingstown, RI
Sunday, August 2, 2015

Belated and succinct write-up:

Legs still tired from BI Tri the day before, but at least I could sleep in for this one.
Hot as Hades, and very little shade on the course.  Mid-80s and direct sun already at 9am start.

• Mile 1:  5:42.  A little bit of shade, at least for first 1/2 mile.
• Mile 2:  5:55.  No more shade.  Passed age-group nemesis Norm Bouthillier.
• Mile 3:  6:03.  Cards Pond Road open field death march.  I usually don't take water on short races, but I was parched.
• Mile 4:  5:57.  Uphill neighborhood climb.  Fortunate brief respite of a few sprinklers and hoses.

Finished and felt really ill at finish line, wondering if I should seek medical attention.  OK, good, that feeling only lasted a minute or so.  Now I just have to throw up, so I went over to the woods.  No, that feeling passed as well.  After copious drink and some fruit, started to feel better.  Running in the heat is just not my thing.

Final result:  23:43.  PR by 9 seconds, despite the nasty heat!  1st place age group (of 48).  28th overall (of 519).  Final results here.

Biggest disappointment: they didn't have the water hydrant shower running this year!

Stacked start

Baking in the sun just before finish.
May my death be merciful.

Done at last.  23:45 net; 23:43 chip.

Today's WTAC crew, minus Woolley, who split.

Age group champs!  New PRs for both.

Odd assortment of loot for age group prizes.

Weekly Log 3-Aug to 9-Aug-2015

Monday:  0

Tuesday:
9 miles.  5 miles at lunch with an ocean dip (benefit of working in-town).  Evening tacked on a 4-miler local road run with Matthew.

Freak storm in the early morning broke at least 4 trees in my yard.
I'll be busy with the chainsaw for a while.

Wednesday:
8 miles.  Blue Heron Trail, Dedham, MA, before work.

Thursday:
8 miles.  Morning Rockridge 5-mile loop with Matthew; evening barefoot beach run 3-miler at Sachuest Beach, Middletown, awaiting Mark's lifeguard games competition to start (I don't "sit" well).

Friday:
10 miles.  5 mile Woody Hill run at lunch.  Damned deer flies are still out there.  Kill count 3.  Pumpkins course needs some minor maintenance, but nothing a combination of a pair of lopping shears and an ordinary weed-whacker can't handle.  Let's wait 'til the deer flies die off later in the month, and then also tackle cleaning up the tires and TV.
Closed out the day with 5 more at Groton Fun Runs with Matthew and Jana, and even a BLS sighting!

Saturday:
31 miles.  Thanks to Mike and Tom for being flexible in route; we rode the Rhode Warrior Olympic course (Tom is doing Olympic course; I'm doing the Half again).  Plan next Saturday is to ride the entire half course.
5-mile barefoot beach run at low tide with Matthew and his friend.  Matthew kept up; his friend didn't.

Sunday:
8 miles.  Bobby Doyle Summer Classic USATF Championships.  Really cool race with insane competition.  Write-up forthcoming.

Weekly Mileage Log:
0 miles.   Not wise with Rhode Warrior creeping up soon, but a time/life balance issue.
31 miles.
48 miles. Tough to get it all in, but I do want my weekly mileage north of 50 through the fall months.

Block Island Triathlon

Here is my account of my 4th consecutive Block Island Tri, my favorite tri.  Why I am enamored with this tri?

• Barefoot run on the beach!  
• Block Island is beautiful.  We usually make a day of it with friends, including the ferry ride and a nice lunch.
• The camaraderie of my WTAC peers.  Each of the last few years I've persuaded at least one WTAC'er to drink the Kool-Aid.  Two years ago Tom and Matthew, last year Mike B (although he dropped out this year to our disappointment), and this year Chris.
• Being a runner, the proportions work well for me (see examples below with mileage by event):

Chillin' on the ferry ride over

With the move to the morning last year, this meant an early ferry (6am) and generally getting up about 4am to get the day started.  Picked up Chris along the way and then met up with the rest of the merry gang (Steve, Polly, Tommy, Shara) in Galilee.  After an uneventful sailing, we set up in transition and went for a beach warm-up, giving us our first indication of how hard running at high tide would be.  I saw my "frenemy" Jim Ortel, who just turned 50 this year, and asked him why couldn't he have stayed in the 40s age group longer.  (The one time I beat him was by 5 seconds sprinting at the end in soft sand, the other two times he beat me by more than 2 minutes).

Matthew (foreground) and I
en route to the start of the tri
(Photo by Chris - riding and taking pics?)

Swim:  10:57 (133 out of 354)
A short 100-yard dash on the beach precedes the entry into the water.  Being in wave 14 (of 15), I got to see most of the waves ahead of me.  The first wave stood out for me, where Shara absolutely pulverized her competition, as did Wave 9 (Chris and Tom's wave).  In the latter, a guy absolutely sprinted the beach run part, and then all eyes were upon him to see how he would best that in the swim.  Epic fail:  you could hear the laughter as it became apparent he was almost a non-swimmer with the head way above water, bobbing around, as he got passed quickly by nearly the whole wave.

When it was my turn, I started in the middle, ran easily around the flag and quickly got in a rhythm swimming.   Not fast, but steady, even passing people from the previous waves.  At the Block Island tri, you see everything from great athletes to vacationers backstroking and riding bikes with flowered baskets.

Coming out of the water, I spent a full 2:14 in T1, nearly double Chris' time.  I think I'm wasting too much time putting on mascara in transition; it's time to "man up".  Matthew came into transition as I was finishing up (he was a wave behind me, but nearly a minute faster on the swim).

No repeat of the 2014 tri weather!
(Pouring rain:  Matthew, Mike, Tom)

Just a calm day for swimming (first buoy on swim course at 1:00)
with a sunny blue sky

Bike: 37:34 (27 out of 354)
Really enjoyed the bike this year, and this is not an easy course.  Odd start when I was climbing the airport hills the first lap (of two) and the guy right in front of me just fell over.  Not exactly a crash, but rather he was moving so slowly that he almost came to a stop and then just fell over, perhaps couldn't unclip.  He was laughing about it, so I asked if he was OK, then ran him over rode around him and kept going.

The bikes awaiting us in transition
(Matthew's left; mine right)

Other than the real sharp 90-degree turns, I was able to stay on the aero bars most of the time and was passing left and right (again, remember some of them were riding flowered and single-speed bikes).  Really happy with my ride; averaged 20.0 mph.

Run:  24:57 (2nd out of 354!)
The RD shortened almost 1/2 mile off the course, due to high-tide at a section with protruding rocks.  I was running a not-so-blistering fast pace of 6:40 (~20 seconds slower than last year), but apparently the high tide was affecting others as well.  You could either run in harder sand near the shore but at a steep angle, or softer sand up a ways but at least flat ground.  I chose the shore.  Quickly lost count of the number of runners I passed, but kept my eye on the 50-somethings.

With two turnarounds, you get two chances to assess your competition.  Approaching the first turnaround, I saw Jim Ortel much too far ahead of me for comfort, then Mark Burbelo of Westerly and Chris Huesman of Stonington.  After the flag turn-around, I quickly passed Chris but was dismayed that on the whole 1.5 mile run to the north end of the beach I never saw Mark nor Jim.  Finally approaching the 2nd turnaround I saw Jim, again too far ahead of me.  Had I made up any ground at all?  I yelled to him to take it easy and that he was going too fast, but all I got back was a smile.  Should I work on Jedi mind tricks for next year?

At the flag, I passed Mark Burbelo and the hunt was on for Jim.  Unfortunately I never saw him the whole way back to the pavilion.  I did pass one other 50-something (one advantage of tris is you can see everyone's age marked on their leg), but Jim finished first in our age group and I was second behind him; unfortunately awards go only 1-deep.  As I crossed the finish line, I saw the RD congratulating Jim and I went over to the RD and said I wanted to file a complaint.  Both Robbie (RD) and Jim looked at me seriously and asked about the complaint and I said the half-mile taken off the run today cost me any chance of catching Jim.  We shared a laugh, as Jim said he was fearful that I would catch him and that with the extra 1/2 mile I probably would have, but he was too modest as he beat me by a full 41 seconds.

Cool run stats:  WTAC for 1st four places,
with the next guy, the overall tri winner, over a minute behind!

Final results:  1:16:58, 7th out of 354, 2nd in my age group.  Full results.

Fun outdoor lunch with the gang of 10 at Beach Head on Block Island:
Clockwise:  Steve, Tom, Shara, Jeff, Matthew, Katie & Maisie, Seb, Chris, Polly

Shara won the overall female division, Chris 2nd overall, and Tommy 3rd!  Matthew came in 2nd in a tough teenage age group.

Had a great rest of the afternoon on Block, and then on the ferry ride home, Shara, Tom, Matthew, and I promptly crashed and slept until we arrived back in Galilee.  Steve was upstairs on the ferry, apparently came by to check on us and later remarked, "It's like a retirement home down there!".

Now how am I going to make up those 41 seconds over
Jim Ortel next year?!

Fat Clam Triathlon

Saturday, July 26, 2015

This was the inaugural year of the Fat Clam, or as Steve calls it, being politically correct, "The Overweight Clam".  Afterall, it's not nice to call someone fat, even if they are a clam.  Which, by the way, are there really any clams in Coventry?  I digress ...

Having gotten home about 11pm the night before from my best ever Blessing race, and the legs paying for it, getting up and going to the Fat Clam wasn't sounding appealing to me.  I hadn't even packed, but fortunately with a 8am start, I didn't need to get going until 5:30am.  Got up, got setup, caught up with Tommy, Shara, Shira, Polly and others, and time to start.

The swim:  13:23.  111 out of 193.

Swim was in a pristine lake.

Start of my old man wave.  Watch out for that rock (9:00 position).
Swim went by fast.

The bike:  40:27.  27th out of 193.
Tough, hilly 12 mile course.  Started out with a blazing downhill for nearly three miles.  Midway into the downhill (Harkney Hill Road), I got off the aero bars as I wasn't feeling comfortable on them going so fast.  Good move:  I looked at my speedometer and found I was going 41 mph!!  Please don't hit a pothole now.
Turning off Harkney Hill Road, we paid for the downhill bliss with a 2-3 mile climb.  There was a false summit midway, before we resumed climbing again.  This ground me to a near halt with about a 6-7 mph climb ascending over 300' of elevation gain.
Eventually wound our way out to Route 102, which was difficult to ride with a rumble strip section in the breakdown lane.  Either ride in the highway with cars going 60+ mph, or ride the bumpy breakdown lane.  There was one good 100' hill on 102 but it seemed easy compared to the Fish Hill grind.  Being in the first wave, didn't see too many bikers out here, but did jockey back and forth with "gray shirt" before pulling ahead of him going into transition.

The run:  19:26.  5th out of 193.
The legs just didn't want to get going.  Mile 1 was a pedestrian pace for me at 6:43.  Tommy 5K blowing by me woke me up a little, and then I saw cheery Beth passing out water along the route.  After a turn-around on the road, Tommy continued to gap me until he was barely visible maybe a 1/4 mile (?) ahead on a long straightaway before turning onto a trail.  This 0.6 mile trail was actually fairly technical with roots and rocks.  Passed a lot of people here, and was surprised to exit onto the road and find Tommy right in front of me, as in 20' or so.  Back on road again, he increased the gap to finish 17 seconds in front of me (let's conveniently forget for a minute that since he started in the wave behind me, he actually finished 5 minutes and 17 seconds ahead of me!).

Thoughts:  Absolutely loved the trail portion; wish they extended that and got rid of some of the road.  (I think FiveK was thinking the same thing.)  The bike was really hard, but I knew that going in.  It was a nice location, but not the same atmosphere as Crabman.  Would I do it again?  Probably.  Is it my favorite triathlon?  Probably not.

Overall:  1:16:36.  21st overall.  1st in age group (thanks to no double-dip rule).  Full results here.

So nice to see the finish line!

Podium finish.

Fun day with friends.
Thanks Steve, for all the pics.

Weekly Log: 27-Jul to 2-Aug-2015

Monday:  0

Tuesday:  Double goose-egg.  Had intentions of getting up at 4 before a long day in Boston, but just didn't happen.  I guess my 4:30 Club days are gone.

Wednesday:
3 miles.  Westerly Fun Runs.  18:46.  Dying out there in the heat.

Thursday:
8 mile morning humid run with Matthew.  Saw FiveK midway out on his bike.

Friday:
6 miles.  Groton Fun Runs (Bluff Point State Park).  Easy pace run with Josh.

Saturday:
0.5 miles.  Block Island Triathlon.  Separate write-up forthcoming.
13 miles.
5 miles.

Sunday:
5 miles.  Run 4 Kerri.  Separate write-up forthcoming.

Weekly Mileage Log:
0.5 miles.   
13 miles.
27 miles. Lightest week of running since April, but to be expected with second consecutive double-race weekend.  Should revert to a little more normal next week, but need to ramp up biking especially with Rhode Warrior just 3 weeks away now.