WOW. It has been forever since my last contribution to this blog! I, like many other members of the TCRC, have been very busy with the whole getting licensed process. I am soooo glad that is over with! I can finally get back into a better routine of running and training. I have to admit, it was pretty brutal not having sufficient training prior to the Blessing. I only ran a few times in the couple of weeks before the race, not enough. And, to make me more nervous, I hadn't never run 10 miles before. My max was 8.3 miles. Oh well... I looked at it as some sort of victory run. A celebration of 6 hard years in 10 hard miles.
Actually, the night before, I found myself on a celebratory dinner date with Danato at Siena restaurant on Federal Hill. It was really good! And yes, I had a couple Sangrias. I figure I could justify drinking the day before a race since the race didn't start until 6 pm, I could definitely sleep in as late as I wanted to. And I did.
During the day of the race, I was keeping myself lightly busy... occupied enough so that I wouldn't get bored alone at Danato's while he worked, but not too busy to tire myself out before the run. I hydrated myself, and ate a hearty breakfast and lunch (which could have hurt me or helped me during the race...). Oh, and Danato ran the race too. After working all day. Holy crap.
Danato and I headed out from Providence super early. We wanted to be sure to beat any possibility of traffic and we also wanted to try and find parking right at Narragansett Pier School, so we knew we had to get there before 5 when they closed down those roads. We saw the never-ending stop light traffic on Rt 4 so we ended up taking some back roads and drove through URI campus to get to 108. It was a success and definitely brought back memories :-) We made it to the high school parking with plenty of time to spare. Woohoo!
Got to see a few people before the race. Saw Erica, Nick Dorich, and even a fellow Rite Aid pharmacist! There were so many people there! Erica told us that the rest of the crew (Nikki, Knapp, and Kevin) were running a bit late because of traffic. And I couldn't believe her 15 minute drive actually took an hour! :-O
Danato and I started out in the big crowd together, but as soon as we crossed the chip sensor, Danato was off and I didn't see him for the rest of the race. I started out wanting to pace myself as best as I could. There was a lot of adrenaline at the beginning. I thought I was doing a good job pacing, but at mile 1 I checked my heart rate and Nike+ data. I was running 9:30min/mile... faster than my average pace and my heart rate was way too high. I did not feel tired but I knew I had to slow it down if I wanted to last 10 miles. I was able to slow down to 10:30min/miles. Early in the race, Bubba (Brian McD from Rx Class of 2009). Chatted with him for a little bit, then got back in the zone. And at one point Kevin was passing me. We talked briefly about the traffic then I said bye and wished him luck while he zoomed on by!
The course was mostly flat. There was a noticeable slight incline by mile 5 or so. Right on 108. But it wasn't bad. At the incline, I think I was more distracted by the rain beating down on me. It felt like I was running right against the rain, since my back seemed pretty dry compared to the front. I didn't end up wearing any sunglasses so my eyes were having a tough time in the downpour. I was afraid I was going to lose a contact, but luckily it stayed with me. Around mile 6, it turns off 108 into the woods of Narragansett. Seriously felt like I was in the middle of the jungle, especially with all that rain. Around this time, Knapp and I were running side by side for a bit. Chatted, complained about the weather, and updated him on where we were in the race. Then back into the zone. Throughout the race Knapp and I were pretty close to each other. For quite some time he was ahead of me.
By mile 9, or what seemed like mile 9 (sorry Knapp... my Nike+ was acting up because of the rain). Okay, it was probably mile 8.6... I caught up to Knapp... I noticed he had slowed down a bit. We were almost done. I thought we had just a mile left so that's what I told him. About 0.3 mile down we ran by what looked like the ONLY mile-marker on the whole course... and it said 9 miles. Ooops! I apologized to Knapp, wondered what the hell was wrong with my iPod, but picked up my pace to finish out strong.
Completed the run at 1 hour 49 minutes. Not too shabby. My goal was not to walk once. I achieved that goal and I made good time. I was proud. I couldn't find Danato in the celebrating crowd, but thanks to Kevin's height it was easy to spot him out of the crowd. I congratulated Kevin and Danato found me, gave me water and led me to the oranges and bananas (YUM!). Danato was shirtless, and cold. He had been waiting for me for a half hour. He finished in an hour and 17 minutes. Holy crap.
I would have wanted to stay and enjoy the festivities afterward but it was too wet and miserable for that so Danato and I hopped the shuttle bus (big yellow school bus) back to the Pier school where we had nice dry clothes to change into.
Overall, the course was very nice. I loved the crowd supporting us throughout the race, getting high-fives, and there were plenty of water stations. I bet there would have been some beautiful views if it hadn't been pouring for the majority of the time!
Today was my first run since Friday night. I just did 3 miles for a recovery run. Felt pretty good. Not as sore as I thought I would be after 10 miles. My area is very hilly so 3 miles seems like 4. I am really satisfied with the recovery and plan on running before work tomorrow.
Now that I've done 10 miles, what is next? I was thinking about holding off on the half-marathon until after the winter. But I don't think that is possible anymore. I have to keep going. And I am strongly considering signing up for the Newport half-marathon. I will probably be signing up by the end of this week. My overall goal is to do 26.2 by the time I am 26. The rate this is going, it might happen before I am even 26. Turning 24 in a couple of weeks and I have come a long way since I started running again this past January. Marathon by the time I am 25? Hmmm... it's a possibility.
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