Newport Half-Marathon Race Report (finally)

Well, it has been 5 days since the half. And now I am ready to write about it. Not sure why it took me so long. Laziness. Pure laziness. I'll admit it. Whenever I got home from work this week, I did absolutely nothing. I did go to the gym to run on the treadmill on Wednesday... boring. I only made it 3 miles. It was too dark to run outside... Winter is going to be tough. Today, Danato and I had a quick run outside. We didn't layer enough, so we only made it 2.7 miles...

So, here it goes...

***Pre-Race Day***

I drank a lot of water the week prior to the race, carbed up, and probably gained about 4 pounds. On Thursday, I started feeling a sharp pain on the top of my right foot. Scared the crap out of me. As soon as I got home from work that day I iced it, then heated it, massaged it, took some ibuprofen and repeated the next day. Luckily, the pain subsided the day before the race. I'm not sure what it was, but I think I over-stretched my foot when I was standing on my tip-toes to reach something at work (downfall to being short). The day before the race was a nice relaxing day. I had worked on Friday but had Saturday and Race day off. Kudos to Nikki for working the day before! I had to work the day after... not sure which is worse. One thing I did when I was "relaxing" on Saturday was pull my neck/shoulder. I got up from the couch, turned and all of sudden felt like I had pulled a muscle in my neck. Goodness gracious! Took some more ibuprofen and hoped it would be gone by the next day. Then, Danato made me a very good pasta dinner w/steak :-)



After getting all my gear and clothes ready to go, I went to bed at around 9:30 that night. I don't remember the last time I was in bed that early on a Saturday night, but it was definitely worth it.

***Race Day - Pre-Race***

I woke up at 4:45 am... Okay, well Danato woke up at 4:45 and finally was able to get me out of bed by 5 or so. We left his apartment in Providence by 5:30. Shuttles began at around 6:15 and registration opened at 6:30. Leaving on time and early enough gave us plenty of time to get over to Newport, with no traffic. I definitely recommend planning race day out as early as possible. Even if you have to wait a bit, getting there and being able to relax a little bit before the race is key. There are a lot of things going on at the race beforehand and you never know if you have to go to the bathroom one last time right before. And the lines for the port-a-potties are always long... you have to give yourself plenty of time to be able to wait in that line. I started waiting in a line before I even felt like I had to pee... good thing I did. By the time I got to the port-a-potty, I had to pee so bad! Haha, then I had about 10 minutes to spare before the start time.

***Race***

As soon as I left the bathrooms, Danato took all my stuff that I didn't need to run with, I got all strapped with my fuelbelt and iPod and I was ready to go. I hustled through the crowds to get sorta in the middle (basically, to keep warm in the huddle of people). I didn't realize it immediately but I had placed myself right in the area I wanted to start in, about the 9 minute mile pace start. The race started with the largest hill of the whole course. Going uphill while trying to dodge the slow starters was a bit awkward but I got over it. There were a lot of people but not as many as in the CVS 5K, which I was happy about. I expected that the rest of the course would be relatively flat... I mean... we're in Newport, an island off the coast of Rhode Island.. how hilly can it be? Well it seemed a bit more hilly than I thought it would be. Certainly nothing steep like capital hill in Providence. It wasn't bad but I guess I just expected it to be more flat for some reason. It was more gradual climbing than anything. But most of the climbs up meant a way down and that was a relief.

I kept a consistent pace throughout the entire race. Everytime I checked my pace on Nike+ it was under 10 minute miles. At one point I was under 9 minutes. I think I only got up to 10:00 once or twice.. When I was consuming my GU gel. I ran with all 4 bottles of my fuelbelt filled, 2 with water, 1 with gatorade, and 1 with watered-down gatorade. I also had 1 GU gel packet. Kept myself well hydrated and fueled efficiently. I decided to stick with what I did before in my long runs: half the GU at 45 minutes and then the other half when there was about 3 miles left. That seems to work pretty well with me.

One awesome part about the race was at about mile 4 when the course brought us through Fort Adams. The course turned right into the park, run about 1/4 of a mile or so and you loop to the left and go back the same way you came and out continuing right onto the road. I thought it was really neat to see the runners ahead of you racing in the opposite direction and then, when reaching the turning point, seeing the runners that were still behind you. I had no clue how many people had passed me or how many people I had passed or were still behind me. It was quite a motivation to me and that's where I stepped it up quite a bit. The best paces of my run were after the Fort Adams loop and at the end when I could see the beach where I knew the finish line was. It was an amazing site to see when we turned the corner and started descending down the hill towards the finish line. That same hill I had started up 2 hours prior. Oddly, I think that is when I reached some sort of runner's high. I just booked it down the hill and on to the finish line without any thought. I almost kept going to the marathon side if there hadn't been a sign last minute directing half-marathoners to finish!


The next thing I remember is grabbing a water bottle from a random person and completely ignoring the foil blankets being handed out. I was so happy to be done. I completed my run on my iPod and listened to my data. I was surprised at my average pace and my overall time. I finished in 2 hours and 5 minutes. My goal was 2 hours and 15 minutes. I impressed myself!

***Post-Race***

Danato and my friend Ray were there waiting for me once I got out. It was such a rush to have completed my first half-marathon. I instantly wanted food or a beer. When I realized how long the food line was, I went straight to the beer. A complimentary Harpoon beer at 10:30 in the morning after running 13.1 miles felt amazing :-)



After the beer, the three of us went and got real food at the Blue Plate Diner in Middletown. I ate a huge omelet with toast and a big bowl of fruit. Great recovery meal! The rest of the day was devoted to Danato's couch and him catering to me. Haha, I wasn't moving and quite sore! I was dreading work the next day... standing on my feet for 12 hours. And the day after. But it didn't turn out as bad as I thought. I made sure I drank plenty of water the days after the race along with ibuprofen around the clock for about 2 days. By Wednesday, I felt fine enough to try to run again. Besides being on a treadmill, the run went well and pain-free. I think it was a good thing I was forced to stand and move around all day immediately after the race. Kept me loose and ready to go again shortly after. Hopefully I can maintain a solid regimen throughout the colder months. It's time to go out and buy plenty of layers and gloves so that I can run outside for a bit longer.

However, here is my post running season weight-gaining diet (Have to keep warm for the winter, right?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4zw99VsoMA

"It's sweet, but then it's got that tang"....