13 years later and still adding bibs and medals to the shoebox chock-full of my race memorabilia.
Pre-Race
Training:
2022 has seen a lot of mileage (mostly injury-free!), albeit for stress relief due to my new job. Projected to be the highest annual total. However, haven't felt an extra gear yet save for a random week this year.
week of:
The bigger fish to fry this week was the Epic exam that I, in typical fashion, stressed myself out over to the point of an existential crisis, trying to plan alternative choices to my job. After completing that hurdle, my lack of sleep during the week hindered any hope for a 1:45 or under.
day before:
In my first escape from Boston this year, I hit up my Providence staple, Nick's on Broadway, for illy coffee, patê and black beans with my Barcelona compadre, Jiggy. With the rare 2 hour window afterwards to kill afforded me time to journal at Prospect Terrace, my old stomping grounds. Then, off to Rhode Runner for bib pick up to rendezvous with the Knapps. To say this was a slice of suburb life would be an understatement as I found out what a "yes day" is for kids, and the playground hierarchy as we met up with the O'Briens.
Pre-dinner activities included Guess Who and Uno. This was my tune-up for when Jonald can play, but noted: don't try to play to win when playing against a kid. I forgot you're not supposed to since I remember being a sore loser as a kid. So when a kid has one person left in Guess Who, and I have three, don't guess the correct one haha.
Crushed some tortellini and watched Mission: Impossible Fallout in Knapp's insane home theater and then, off to la la land before the race.
Race:
As Providence veteran runners (which, in college I don't think anyone would've said about Knapp and myself), we parked at the PVD mall, stripped down in the parking lot and donned my Tang Running Club vintage shirt. We walked in to the mall and used the bathrooms there instead of the portapotties which was clutch. We made our way to the corrals at 7:30, eyeing the other runners' shoes like some sort of niche car show. Saucony Endorphins were out in full force along with the typical $250 Nikes.
As 8:00 neared, we scurried in to the C corral and swam upstream. I paused slightly behind the 1:50 pacer, Knapp I think around the 1:30 pacer. I honestly just wanted sub 2, Knapp projected himself around the 1:25 range.
From the train station/ state house, we ran along the river and hit a tight bottleneck near Hemenway's and continued on and up to Gano, the first hill (that was announced by an overzealous runner near me who would yell, "this is the first hill"). Knapp and I agreed, the hills came often and were longer than we remembered in previous races.
Per usual, skipped the first water station (because I've forgotten how races work) and took all the other stations and saying "WATER?" to the volunteers since it sometimes wasn't said.
Since I was content with running 8:30 splits, that became the game for me. We hit India Point then (I think?) went up Blackstone, all places I had run over and over almost a decade ago. The nostalgia would ride all day, down to the pot holes in the road and construction.
There wasn't too much jostling or "racing". I would stay at pace with a Texas shorts runner or a bearded dude with a jacket, but it really felt like I was pacing for anyone who wanted to hover around 8:15-8:30 pace. At some point I passed the 1:50 pacer.
Speaking of hills, the steep downhills messed me up since I hate running down hills, I had to lean back on those and slow up.
Whenever there was crowd support (more on that later), I would inevitably speed up, then immediately slow back down.
With about two miles to go, I could hear some of the onlookers shout at the 1:50 pacer that I thought I had left in the dust...I turned around and saw the neon '1:50' sign. Even though I said to myself pre-race that sub 2 is my goal...sub 1:50 was my new goal.
I continued trying to keep myself tall, tried to keep myself consistent in my arm swings.
I kept calculating my time in my head and trying to figure if that is good enough for sub 1:50.
The hill right before the end was steep and as I made that left turn at the end, saw Knapp and Kevin on my right side and sped up at their request, and sped up to finish at 1:49:01.
Post-Race/thoughts:
-closest I've run to the course length, only an extra 0.06 miles.
-my right shoulder felt a little off, but the rest of my body felt...okay? The lifting helped but I definitely also added lb. which slowed me down. Continue lifting or cut back? decisions, decisions.
-crushed two IPAs, then cheered on the marathoners while waiting for Olga and Abby to finish. I still don't know why this is the go-to post-race reward, but here we are, eating free Oreos and bananas with them.
-listening to Godsmack on the car ride to the race....first experience with Godsmack, at the age of 36.
-Coming from cheering at the Boston Marathon to Providence, the big difference is a lot of people who were cheering were just cheering for their friends or family members today. When I came back around and cheered on the marathon finishers, I brought my Boston Marathon A game and tried to cheer everyone on and shout names on the shirts out with Josh, as we waited for Olga and Abby.
"what does your mouth taste like?"-Olga thoughts post-race, re: post-beer
-things to try out after this race: the big booty mix on Spotify, Saucony Endorphins, Tracksmith merino wool
-the half-marathon half-zip is pretty dope
