OK, so there's really no such trifecta. But shouldn't there be? These are among the three most competitive summer races in Rhode Island, and they happen on three consecutive weekends. The last summer that I ran all three of these races was back in 2016. Here is my race report for this year:
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Blessing of the Fleet 10-Miler
Narragansett, RI
Friday, July 28, 2023
Blessing can often be warm and humid, but just a few days before we learned it would be even hotter this year and we received this warning in e-mail and on the web from the race organizers:
- Due to the extremely hot weather forecasted Friday evening, we are closing registration so Public Safety Officials can better service our participants. We appreciate your understanding in this matter. There is no registration day of!!
- Friday evening looks to be a particularly warm one. Public Safety Officials and the LIons Club recommend that you hydrate pre-race, utilize the multiple watering stations set up along the route, and look out for your fellow participants.
- Medical personnel will be on the course throughout the race but nobody knows your body like you do. Be smart out there! Maybe Friday is not the day to try for your personal best.
- We hope to set up two shower stations along the route if we can find volunteers who can operate a fire department hose/nozzle on reduced pressure.
I heard a number decided not to run based on this, but for me having run 20 in a row, the show must go on! The weather was not terribly different from last year (82°, feels like 84°) versus this year's start (84°, feels like 89°), but it sure felt awful and I imagine at those temps, even a few degrees more makes it pretty miserable.
Warm-up: I followed my own tried-and-true routine that works for me, including Jana dropping me off at the start about 40 minutes early (already have my bib on and picked up my shirt a week ago as usual), going for a warm-up, taking advantage of local knowledge and using real bathrooms with no lines at Boon Street Station, and then coming back and chilling while catching up with friends.
Race start: Lined up a few rows back with Nick and made sure to let Jake Serra go ahead of me. Blasting of AC/DC's Thunderstruck just before the race wouldn't change the outcome for me, but it sure made me feel better. The gun went off, and then the music the pretty typical fare of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger", which is also motivating. It was the usual s*%#show for the first quarter mile or so, as plenty of people try to sprint by you as you're trying to get past the slower runners clogging up the road in front of you. I long ago gave up the "weave" approach, and instead just try to get out to the left-most side where I don't need to work so hard to go around people.
I saw Jana at first corner (Boon St and South Pier) and after turning onto Ocean Road, the clogging of runners started to ease up. Mile 1 was a reasonable 5:48, especially after bearing in mind it's net downhill, but unlike last year where 5 of my 10 miles were sub-6, this would end up being my solitary sub-6 mile of the day.
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| First corner, looking good so far (at 0.25 miles!) (This and all pics from Jana, unless otherwise noted) |
Given the heat, my next two miles at 6:09 and 6:01 I think were pretty decent, but by Mile 4 I just felt awfully hot and progressively dialed it back from there. On Knowlesway, I took a bag of ice cubes from some kids, emptied the bag into my hat and put it back on my head. I repeated this again a few mils down the road. (Matthew later explained to me that I'm supposed to put the whole bag under my hat, which makes sense and I wouldn't have lost a few ice cubes.) Oh well, most ice cubes stayed in my hat as they slowly melted and felt good on my noggen and running down my neck.
Last half: Mile 6 on Kingstown Road is always the worst mile, especially on a night like this year where the sun was beating down. Usually it's my slowest mile, though, and turning off Route 108 right around the end of the mile and onto a shaded wooded road allows me to pick up the pace again. Not tonight. I just felt spent and my miles actually got slower. Miles 6, 7, 8: 6:33, 6:33, 6:36. Ugh.
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| I'm not even sure exactly where this is, but between 1) I'm on the left side of the road, 2) I'm looking pretty miserable, and 3) my singlet and shorts are soaked, I'm guessing on Gibson or South Pier about Mile 7 or 8 (Pic courtesy of Colleen King) |
I could barely even pick it up in the final two miles, despite the great crowd support here. Every kid I saw with a super soaker I pointed out to them and egged them on to soak me, which they did. Also the Narragansett Fire Department did indeed have multiple fire hydrant showers setup up on the course, and I ran through each and every one of them, regardless of whether it was in my running path or out of the way on the opposite side of the street. I often get a chuckle at the kids on Avice Street inviting runners to go down their waterslide and the adults offering shots. I can't imagine ever taking the latter, but I gave some serious consideration to taking the kid up on going down his huge inflatable waterslide. My time is slow so that doesn't matter and I know at least one 50-59 year old runner is ahead of me (55 year old Mike Dolan of central CT that I go back and forth with on races), but what if no other 50+ runners are ahead of me besides him? No, I can't take that risk.
I saunter on past the inviting waterslide, and for the rest of the run make sure to give high five slaps to all the kids with their hands out. I won't usually do that during a race, but again, my time is out the window already. I hit a final water shower on Kingstown Road and then the finish line is mercifully in sight.
Final result: Chip time 1:03:39, 69th overall of 2,423 finishers, 2nd of 165 in age group. Full results here.
More than 3 1/2 minutes slower than last year, but it could've been worse and I actually thought I would finish much slower than that. On the plus side, it turns out I did get 2nd place in my age group, and I'll take some solace in that every single person ahead of me was younger than me. The next finisher in my age group was more than 6 minutes behind me, so I guess I could have taken that waterslide after all!
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| Great picture of me, eh? (From lower left, clockwise in circle: me, Jake, Andrew, Matthew) That black thing I have on my head is a cold soaked refreshing towel from Jana. I actually took my shoes and socks off immediately after crossing the finish line, as they were bothering me. |
After taking my disgusting soaked socks and shoes off, I handed them over the barrier to Jana (nice of me, right?) and then continued barefoot through the finisher chute. One official asked me, "Where are your shoes?!". Some officials were checking people for physical ailments in the heat; I'm guessing this official was checking me for mental ailments. Not sure I passed.
My Mom was at the finish and came over to see me, but I'm sure I was pretty rude as I barely said anything and headed off to the ocean to cool down. That was a rough race!
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Run 4 Kerri 4-Miler
South Kingstown, RI
Sunday, August 6, 2023
This was my first time running this race since 2018, where I posted a 26:49. That seems pretty pathetic compared to my Kerri time (and 4M PR) in 2015 at 23:43, but in my defense (I always have an excuse, right?!) in 2018 I was recovering from an injury.
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| 2018 Run 4 Kerri (The guy 2nd from left looks fat; everybody else pretty much the same) |
I've had some nasty hot and humid races at Kerri, as it is after all early August. However, the weather this year was in my favor, with temps of 73° and humidity of 62%. After a 2-mile warmup with Brady, I stayed in the shade and relaxed until start time.
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| 2023 Run 4 Kerri start |
Mile 1: I lined up with Tommy 5K about 3 rows back and we were off. Will Sanders blasted off in pursuit of the Mile 1, Mile 2, and Mile 3 cash bonuses offered to those reached those markers first. After that, I could see Matthew, Andrew, and Mike Daniels probably only for a half-mile and they were out of my sight. Miles 1 and 2 are very slight net downhills, and I'll take them. Late in Mile 1, I caught up to and passed Tommy 5K. I questioned the wisdom of this and it probably signaled I was going out way too fast, but I'll just go with the downhill thing being my strength. Mile 1 split 5:37.
Mile 2: On Moonstone Beach Road, I passed fellow strider Mike Stadolnik. Good - he's newly in the 50-59 age group. Tommy re-caught and passed me, and was very encouraging as always, as he told me something to the effect of "ride behind me for a while". Turning onto Cards Pond Road, this is typically my slowest mile of the race and my most dreaded as you often bake in the hot sun and it just goes on straight as an arrow for seemingly longer than I remember. Mile 2 split 5:47.
Mile 3: Cards Pond Road was not nearly as bad as it was in past years or in my memory. The weather definitely helped, and it might have also helped that I remembered that when you reach Carpenter's Beach, you still have quite a ways to go before the neighborhood turnoff. Mile 3 ends as you're starting to climb that neighborhood hill. Mile 3 split 5:55.
Mile 4: Yes, I slowed for Mile 3, but that's expected and it's net uphill. More importantly, I'm pretty sure that's not only my fastest Mile 3 split ever, but also the only one that was sub-6. I am feeling really about this race and possibility for a PR as I continue the uphill through the neighborhood. As I turn off the main neighborhood road (South and North Weeden Roads), signaling the end of the uphill climb, I took a look at my watch and grimace as I see a split to date of 6:29. I remind myself that it's been all uphill thus far, and now we have a downhill finish. Maybe I shouldn't have looked at the watch? Or maybe it was a good thing because I'm determined to push as hard and fast as I can now.
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| Not sure exactly where this is, but zooming in on my watch, it looks like "21:xx", so somewhere in the final half-mile. (From Kerri race FB page) |
I pass a few (two?) runners going downhill past the fire station and across Matunuck Beach Road into the school, where the finish line is in sight. I'm astonished but thrilled to see the finish line clock ticking away in the low 23s. I sprint it in.
Final result: 23:26 (5:52 average pace), 19th overall of 420, 1st place age group (out of 23). Full results here.
A 17-second PR!!! At age 59. Pretty psyched! Yes, the weather played a part, but I also worked hard at and earned this one.
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| Catching up with friends at the race |
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Bobby Doyle Summer Classic 5-Miler
Narragansett, RI
Sunday, August 13, 2023
First time running this since 2017, when I ran a 29:43. (I ran this same race for a PR of 29:26 in 2015, where my 5M PR remained until breaking it just this year at the certified Clamdigger 5M in 29:18.)
Race start temp wasn't bad at 72°F, but humidity was an awful 93%. I set a single goal for myself of breaking 30 minutes (6 minute average pace). This was once again the USATF-NE 5-Mile Championship, which meant that runners would be represented well throughout New England, or at least the four New England states that are included in USATF-NE, with a heavy representation from MA. The demographics also appeared to favor a much younger crowd here than Blessing or Kerri.
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| Crazy fast runners at start |
Race start: After a 2-mile solo warm-up, including a visit to the "local knowledge" unused bathroom at Boon Street Station, I lined up several rows back with Nick. One nice thing about the old course (prior to 2017) was that with the start on the Narragansett Middle School school driveway, they had signs in the starting area indicating where to line up by pace and most runners seemed honest about that. Now with the start on busy South Pier, there were no such pacing guidelines and it showed once the gun went off as it was an s&^%show for the first half-mile or so with weaving around people slower than me and faster people behind me passing me. A recipe for getting knocked to the ground or tripping, but other than a couple of elbows, I stood my ground.
As with Blessing, the first mile here (exactly the same) is slightly downhill and fast. I ran through it in 5:44. After that first mile, while there were still runners around me for the rest of the race, things settled down quite a bit in terms of not having to weave around other runners anymore. The second mile is a fast one as well, nearly flat on South Pier. I heard my name called as I turned off South Pier onto Windemere, and saw Elise vonHousen working as a course marshal. Mile 2 split 5:54.
Mile 3: This is most runners' slowest mile on the course. It has an uphill climb of about 50', but there's also something about the surface of this semi-private golf course road (and maybe speed bumps?) that seems to slow down the pace. My mile split was the slowest and only one north of 6 minutes at 6:06.
Mile 4 - Finish: This is essentially Miles 7 and 8 on the Blessing course, and it's a fun stretch, mostly shaded, and ever so slightly net downhill. I went through the 5K in 18:58, and had my fastest mile split in Mile 4 at 5:40. I passed Norm Bouthillier, an old nemesis, and mentally note that I just moved up one in my age group. One mile to go. Keep pushing. Having run this course before and having run Blessing 21 years in a row, I have pretty much memorized the final mile on South Pier and have no surprises about when the turnoff will come. Turning into the school driveway, I go through the 8K in 29:23 and seeing two runners just ahead of me that could be in their 50s (they weren't), I do all I can to catch and sprint past them.
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| Sprinting to finish |
Final result: 29:31, 171st overall of 807, 3rd of 70 in age group. Full results here.
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| Race finishing photo |
So how do I think I did? If I looked at the overall percentile, that doesn't look too good at 79th percentile! But this is a stacked competitive race, and at age 59 to take 3rd place in the 50-59 age group, I'm happy! I also beat my goal of sub-30 and ran I think my 3rd fastest 5M ever, and on a very humid day, so all is good!
In 2017 (at age 53) I took 2nd place in my age group and received a check on the spot for $100. This time 3rd place gets $50, and the first five got called up to the "podium" but they said they would be mailing out awards after verifying times and USATF membership.
In fact, many of the times were initially incorrect, and paces still showing incorrectly on RaceWire results:
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| Maybe 3:38 is really my pace per kilometer? No idea what 983 minutes per mile is supposed to be. I guess it's a minor annoyance only, and I make my share of errors, but as a RD of far less competitive races, I make sure to correct these types of errors ASAP. |
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With the 2023 RI big 3 summer races in the rear view mirror now, I'm very happy with my times at Kerri and Doyle. And at all three, everyone that was ahead of me was younger than me. Blessing was very slow for me, but I know that I just don't run well in the heat, and this year's race temps were pretty extreme for coastal RI. Who knows what next year's Blessing weather will be, but I fully plan to be on the starting line for my 22nd in a row!
