Newport 10 Miler - Recap

Again, can't recall what, other than the thought of running in beautiful Newport, prompted me to sign up for the Newport 10 Miler wayyyy back in January.  Must have been running in beautiful Newport?  The United Healthcare Newport Half Marathon  was so beautiful, even though it wasn't the most perfect weather day, wicked windy and not much sun.  Newport is just an awesome place to run!

Running buddy Nicole had signed up for this 10 Miler with designs on a PR, which she then tacked on being  no more than 10 minutes behind me. She lamented blogging about getting a PR and hoping she hadn't jinxed herself.  Well, she killed both goals with a 1:45 (12 minutes off her Blessing of the Fleet 10 Miler and 4 minutes behind me) way go Nicole, very proud of you!!  I also PRd at 1:41 (4 minutes off my Blessing of the Fleet 10 Miler, and a minute over my expected finish of 1:40).  Fellow NRA runner Jen was also in the PRing pack with her own PR of 1:15, Woo hoo!!  This was the first time I met Jen, a very accomplished runner, hope to get to know her better! HI JEN!!

Last night Nicole sent out a message asking if the three of us wanted to carpool.  Sure, I'm all in for that, it is SO difficult to find people in crowds anyhow, at least we would all be together.   The plan was to meet 6:40 - 6:45 a.m. in the park and ride.  All three of us were there by 6:35.  I, a chronically early person, TOTALLY digs other chronically early people!  This was boding well for the day.  We piled in Vinnie and off we went for this inaugural race in Newport.

It was a little chilly at the start, we had on warmer clothes, arm warmers (that were once knee socks, Nicole's matched her outfit perfectly, me not so much) and a bag to check it all in.  I'm slowly getting the hang of this bag check.  Unfortunately I forgot to tape my bib number to the bag, but they had a marker, solved that problem!  Despite the slight chill it was going to be an absolutely gorgeous day.

Very different start to this race than yesterday's Color Me Rad.  Lots of colorful shirts, predominantly Boston blue, yellow, and orange.  And a couple flags.  

He ran the whole race with the flag draped around him.  I kept him in my sights pretty much the whole race!

The race started with a cannon shot after a moment of silence for Boston.  We were given black ribbons to wear during the race.  I pinned mine to my bib so I will always have it with my bib.  What a nice touch.

The Bib Number holds a bit of significance for me, my birthday with a mumble for the finish!!

The course wound its way around Ocean Drive, along Bellevue Avenue with the mansions and rural scenery complete with stone fences and animals!  Nifty video of the start, sort of reminds me of turning on the light and hearing the cockroaches skittering across the linoleum in my apartment in grad school, otherwise cool to see the string of 1,500 runners!

I spied coach Julia from Team Lung Love, running up the left side and quickly tapped her on the shoulder to give her a quick hello!  Awesome runner, she ran Boston last year, in the heat, an absolute inspiration to me!!

Route

Racing on the shore one never thinks of hills, there are hills!  I remember when we first moved to RI and a girlfriend from the vast flat lands of the Midwest came to visit her comment of  "Beth I never imagined the coat to be so hilly."  always rings through my brain. The hill at mile 7.5 wasn't going to get the best of me.  The perfect cheery perky well paced song came on at that point and I nearly skipped up the hill to Jason Mraz singing "I'm Yours" and that hill was mine!  The previous ones offered spectacular views and the ones after? Well they are a hill, just get over it!

Pace / Elevation - consistent and I walked the water stops

That and they were getting me closer to the finish.  Julia spied me in the final yards of the finish and cheered me on.  It was almost like mile 23 of MCM all over again and I got a good burst of joy to get me across the finish line, which seemed like it would never come as we looped around inside Fort Adams.  Ugh...

VICTORIOUS WOMEN RUNNERS!!

We ambled to the car, back to the park and ride, and then on to breakfast!  Discussed our running history, families, and what we were going to do with the rest of the afternoon.  Jen and Nicole are smart cookies as they had nothing on the agenda, while ding dong thought she might (and did) take Lord Giz of the Mo out for a hike in Burlingame.  It was fun.  I managed to figure out where I lost the Sammy C trail  (it is a beautiful and technical trail - plan to attack that post Ice Age Trail 1/2 Marathon) and met one of Hubbs riding buddies out on the trail.  Gizmo enjoyed his outing and exploring the trail and the woods, he was especially thrilled with the running streams to wade in and get a drink of water.

Gotta love that gray mug and muddy paws on my old guy!

Sincerely,
Beth, happy with her racing weekend and ready for Monday to relax!

Does size matter?

After the St Pat 5K in Providence this a.m. I posted a picture of the medal.  Yes, yes, a medal for a 5K, it is actually pretty nifty.

Back to the story, I posted a picture of the medal with a caption of "A nice jog with 7,000 people".   Side bar:  I spazed and didn't stop the Garmin so I think my time is about 28:30.  Feh, I'll take it.  Back to the story, this got me thinking -  7,000 people you question - well I don't know for sure it was 7,000 but it was well over 5,000 and I am pretty sure I saw bib numbers in the 6,000 range.  Seriously, can I tell this story here?  Stop with all these questions.  This is getting to be like talking to my hubb or one of my ex-bosses who wanted the punchline BEFORE the joke!!!  OK so this got me to thinking about the number of people in a race and the fun of the race and what makes a race fun or people want to participate.

Stick with me here as I eventually get to a point or a question.  Having been accused of telling to many tangential stories and not tying them all up with a pretty ribbon (right Jimmy?) I am really focusing on being more organized.  Oh stop laughing.

So, about my Walkman.   No wait that is a different, completely unrelated story....

Starting out the race was a glom of people.  I hear a woman behind me say, well there is the gun and now we wait.  The runners go out first then the rest of us.  That got me thinking, how many people am I going to have to pass on this up hill start.  I thought I was pretty close to the front.  Oh bother, never mind, remember you told Brian you were going to attempt to run so hard you felt like puking, focus on that.   But I won't be able to run hard if there are people in my way.  Huh...  The crowd started moving.  You know that huge rush forward to a gigantic stop and everyone realized they needed to funnel down to cross the start line.  Yeah, that one.  Giggle.

The race started on an up hill it was an out and back, which meant it ended on a downhill!  Perfect opportunity to pick up some speed and work towards that puking goal.  And if I puked possibly I could get out of that big glom of people that always seems to hold up any forward progress towards getting away from the finish line and into some open air to breathe and keep moving.  I just ran I don't want to stop I want to walk really fast and find a bottle of water, not chit chat, in the famous words of  Sweet Brown "Ain't nobody got time for dat."  My niece just introduced me to this gem last weekend.  Why yes, yes I do live under a rock.

Weaving in and out of people wastes energy. I tried best as I could to find a wide enough spot and squeeze through on a forward angle rather than side to side.  This got me to thinking what is the best way to pass through people, some were walking some were running slower than me, some were faster and I watched as they wove their way through the crowd.  I wasn't seeing them have any more luck than I was having.  There should be some unwritten rules of courtesy on a road race with a large number of entrants.  The slower stay to the right, much like how the roads are supposed to be managed.  Yeah, good point, no one obeys those rules on the road what makes me think they would stay right and go left for active passing?  Well at least the walkers should stay to the right?  Thoughts anyone?

Then this thought led me down another path, if my intent was to be competitive and get a PR (my current 5K PR is 27:27) shouldn't I find a smaller race, one where my energy can be focused on forward movement and not on trying to pick the best line through a crowd of people?  So was it fair for me to even consider racing a race of this size?  Clearly there were people racing this race, they lined up at the starting line. I'm not that fast, I am a middle of the pack runner, not the leader of the pack.  Maybe I needed to line up further towards the front?  In a glom of 7,000 people is there really a point?  The race was chip timed so it started when I crossed the start and ended when I crossed the finish.

I reviewed the races I've run in the last year, ranging from a few hundred  to a few thousand to Marine Corps Marathon of 25,000 runners.  MCM was crowded you were always around people, thing was you seemed to be around people going your own pace and those going slower did tend to stay to the right when they felt like they were getting passed, or at least that is what it seemed like to me.  The only time I felt like I was about to trip on people was the last 3 miles of that race.  I had gas in the tank and was hell bent on burning it and wasted some weaving around walker walking 2, 3 or 4 astride.  They called it quits and I wasn't going to do that I was running that whole race, period.

Perhaps I will focus on the smaller local 5Ks for achieving my goal PR (25) and sign up for large 5Ks only if I like the shirt.  Which is WHY I signed up for this one.  It is cool, no?  Can't wait to wear it Monday's recovery run!!

Where I've ended up, large races have their purpose, the pomp and circumstance and small races have their purpose competition.  When one signs up for a race they need to figure out WHY they are signing up and WHAT they intend to GET out of the race.  Thoughts?

As I made my way back to my car, after losing my trail of bread crumbs I ran into two guys who asked:  "Did you win?"  I smiled and said "Hell yeah! The only thing I lost was my car!"  we all laughed.

Win or lose, as long as you can laugh you won!

Sincerely,
Beth, off to take Lord Giz of the Mo for a hike and pick up her race bib for tomorrows 1/2 marathon

PR = Personal Record

Some call it a PR some call it a PB (Personal Best).  I like PR because that is what I heard first.  PB is what my English running friend calls it and well, I like to disagree with him, so there you have it, PR it is.

I PRd in the Mew's Tavern Gear n' Beers 5K this afternoon! 27:27 was my net time per the chip in the bib, and the Garmin is close enough!!  It was a hilly 5K and while I was a little limpy in the beginning I did manage to finish strong!  I need to take care of my right IT Band and the resulting right Knee pain, and I have no idea what is up with the left Hamstring,  Rolling rolling rolling and stretching stretching stretching should help!  Oh yeah and some ice and rest mixed in for good measure.

From Detroit Runner's post http://www.detroitrunner.com/2012/11/athlinks-try-it.html I found this site Athlinks.  Very cool  It crawls the web finding your race results.  There are a couple missing but hey, this is totally cool!

 

Shows my first road race to the latest, not including todays stellar performance, I'm sure that will show up eventually.  Also there is a section for my trail races.  I'm tickled.  I've been meaning to catalog all of this.  I'll review bib numbers against the list and see if this list of 21 road and trail races contains all the races I've run since I started racing in 2010.  Woot...  

Sincerely,

Beth with a new PR

Catch Up!

Seems like all I've been doing is catching up lately.  It is a complete mystery to me where time is going.

Thursday was a non-running day, I enjoyed my break. I went out to Newport to pick up my shirt and bib for the race on Sunday.

Friday I took to the trail at Bluff Point.  It was 3.8 miles and 38 minutes of bliss.  I ran the 2nd half of the trail, considered taking a small loop on the 1st half of the trail but it was getting close to dusk and I didn't know if that would be a good idea.

On the trail the swans had returned to their spot.  They scare me.  Not as bad as geese do.  Guess being attacked by geese on the family farm does that to a girl?  I know the Canadian geese freak me out on the golf course, but then I do have a golf club in my hand so I can defend myself.  Running, not so much, I couldn't out run them as a child, doubtful adult Beth would be any more successful.   I know, of all the things to be scared of, geese, swans, long necked winged birds.  Funnily enough ducks don't scare me.  Go figure.

Swan, beautiful and scary

Saturday, oh my, what a disaster.  I went out with the designs on a 12 mile run to Watch Hill and back.  My IT Band had other plans.  5 miles in I called hubb and had him come get me.  I felt so defeated.  But hey, I don't need to aggravate the overuse injury, right?  I need to treat/manage it like I did for the PF.  Plus I had a race on Sunday.  Then again I had 17 miles on the schedule for the weekend.  So that all went pear shaped in a big way.  The rest of the day I spent with girlfriends.  I haven't seen E and H in FOREVER we had lunch and shopped and caught up.  We need to get together more, once every couple months is NOT enough.  Something to work on.  H travels for work so taking her away from home for a day of the three she spends at home just seems so unfair.  We will figure it out!

Sunday, today, the Pell Newport Bridge run.  I ran it last year. I spent the night in Newport because the race start was 6:30 a.m. and I was on the 5:45 shuttle to start and was all weirded out about getting up early and making the shuttle and getting a good nights sleep.  A year of races and getting up early traveling and running a good race solved that problem.  This time I slept at home, so up at 4:15 to leave by 4:45 to catch the 5:45 shuttle.  I slept OK, I never sleep well the night before a race, and having had such a crappy run, well let's just say I was focused on sleeping well, and I did!

Pell - Newport bridge 

The run last year was cold, this year not so much!  YEAH!  There were 2,500 runners and walkers.  Walkers, yes.  I have nothing against walkers but please, please, please, if that is what you are doing line up in the walker corral not the runner corral.  I wasted precious energy passing all of you lined up in the earlier corrals. Not placing blame on you, that lands squarely on my shoulders for not realizing the number of walkers participating   Next time I will line up in the 9 corral versus the 10 corral.  Oh yeah and don't walk 4 astride.  While I may not be aiming to place in the top 10 I do have a PR from the last race I want to beat!

I did beat last years race time of 40:42 with a 35:54.  I am pleased.  That puts me at a 8:59 pace for this 4 mile race.  Granted the down hill from the top of the bridge helped.  I had negative splits, I cut nearly a minute off my pace on the down hill part of the bridge, so yeah!  I finished strong and look forward to next year.

After I showered, fed myself, and re-hydrated  I took Gizmo on a hike and we enjoyed ourselves.  My poor guy was going crazy from not being out all week.

Walking in the woods gives me time to reflect. Running does to, with walking I can think more deeply as I'm not worried about twisting my ankle and can explore my thoughts a bit more!  I thought about something a friend said to me in the last 6 months, maybe longer ago, I'm not sure.  He said "Beth, you have changed,  You are a different person from a year ago."  I denied it, he pressed the point, I insisted I haven't changed I am still the same person I was a year ago.  That conversation has been playing and replaying in my brain since we had it.  More frequently lately. He was right, I am not the same person I was a year ago.  I don't think I've changed at the core, I think I found me.  I think the outside more reflects the inside?   Running did change the outside of me.  I have been amazed at the transformation.  Running did change me mentally.  Increased confidence.  Then I wonder did it change me or did it bring me back to me?   Maybe running just brought me to the next stage on my journey?

I discussed this with Gizmo, he would stare at me as I prattled on, then wander off to sniff something and come back to report to me what he smelled.  Yeah, we don't speak the same language; still we had a nice conversation.

Sir Giz of the Mo  -  LOVE my curmudgeon!

The rest of the day was fiddlefarting around. Coming back to that question of have I changed? Perhaps it is more of an evolution?

A friend posted this Nancy Thayer quote to her wall today:

"The universe is always speaking to us...sending us little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities  reminding us to stop, look around, to believe in something else, something more."

I do believe this life is a journey, my soul has something to learn in this body, what that is I may never know. My job is to live this life.  What happens when this soul learns the lesson of its destiny?  Does it go on to a new lesson?  Has this soul met the souls I know now in lessons of the past?  Is that why I feel like I've known someone forever?  Will this soul meet up with souls I know now in the future?   I hope to meet up with the souls I've met on this journey in the next and the next and the next.

Has running changed you?  Has any new venture (writing, boxing, singing, acting, biking, etc) changed you? Love to hear your thoughts!

Sincerely,
Beth who ran, thought, and got little else done....