Belleville Pond Death March 10k

Snow...it is getting old.



The lot

Snow was the story at the 3rd race in the South County 4th Season Trail Race Series, the Belleville Pond 10k Trail Race.  The day before the race, Scott Mason and myself headed down to Ryan Park to get an idea of what the conditions would be like for the race on Sunday.  50 feet into our run and it was plenty obvious, they were not going to be good.  I ran a little bit on the rail trail and also checked out the Root Run Trail and a couple other key places before heading out of there...well...before TRYING to head out.  That was after spending 30 mins getting Scott's car out of its rut in the un-plowed parking lot.  I spent the rest of Saturday brewing a milk stout and having a few beers with my buddy Mark, then heading out to Doherty's in Warwick to fill the tank for the race in the morning.

Come Sunday morning, I was one of the first in the lot, after Scott and two other cars (one being RD Mike Galoob's)  Scott was hiking around in his snowshoes trying to pack down some unbroken snow and Mike was out marking the course, also in snowshoes.

After a while more runners were arriving and Patrick Quinn and I headed out for a 2 miler warm-up...on the roads, I didn't want to see anymore of the snow covered trail than I needed too!  After some last minute preparations, we were on the line ready to roll.

Jonny Hammett took out the pace with Chris Garvin in 2nd and I fell into third place.  I was happy with my position and happy with the slowish early pace (after we settled in)...the only thing I was not happy with was how hot I was!  I generally don't over-dress and only had a long sleeve under my short sleeve top, but after about 2 miles, I just HAD to get that shirt off.  We were running in a line of about 8 guys and I started undressing.  I took my short sleeve off, shoved it into my pants, then took off my long sleeve.  As I was about to put my short sleeve back on, Garvin made a move around Jonny.  It ended up not being a big move, but I panicked a little bit and jumped by Jonny too, that got the heart racing a little bit.  Garvin started pushing the pace a little bit from that point on, I felt like I had to push too hard to not let a gap grow and tried to get back on him with every downhill, but coming out of the Route 4 trail section, he had a gap that was just enough that I couldn't latch back on.

Course recon on Saturday

We entered the single track trails that lead back to the rail trail and I worked hard, but I felt with every step I was losing a little ground.  Coming back onto the straight rail trail, I could see Chris and started pushing...getting the pace back under 7 mins, but the trail was soft and for every 5 good steps you got, there were a few shitty ones.  It was getting a bit frustrating!  I was happy to get on the Root Run Trail and up and over the bridge...up until I had to go around that stupid baseball field.  It reminded me of Snowshoe Nationals in 2010, just a whole lot of mashed potato snow.  After getting through that mess, the race was finally over.  It took approximately 10 mins longer than last year, but better than the hour that I thought it might take, the trails were in better shape than they were in the day before for sure.

After the race Patrick and I headed out for what ended up being almost 50 mins of a cool down, crossing the frozen Belleville Pond to ensure it wasn't any longer than that.  We missed the awards, but I picked up a bottle of BBC Golden Spike before leaving.  Check out the FULL RESULTS and PHOTOS by Scott Mason.

After the race Turtles headed over to the Oak Hill Tavern to enjoy some beer and food.  Definitely another successful race in the series.  Since the 4th race in the 5 race series isn't until March 22nd, I expect this snow will be melted and we will be happily be running on dirt!

Before that though, I WILL be running on more snow...but in snowshoes.  This weekend is my favorite snowshoe race, the Kingman Farm Moonlight Snowshoe Race.  That will be followed by the National Snowshoe Championship on March 1st.  Hopefully the lower leg soreness that this race and the WTAC guys caused will be gone by then!

Run for Hope 10k

This Sunday, 12/15/13, was the 30th Run for Hope 10k in Newport.  The race has changed names and courses over the years, but to me, it will always be called the Run for Hope.

I have a love/hate relationship with this race.  Most of that stems from the fact that the race organizer refuses to get the race accurately measured.  The course is pretty close to 10k now-a-days, but still short, in my opinion.

This year the "hate" part of the relationship came out a bit more...I was tipped off that somewhere in the deep depths of the Internet there was a blurb that the Run for Hope 10k, would be delayed 1 hour, because of the possible storm affecting RI, Saturday into Sunday.  While I applaud the organizers for making a quick decision and deciding to delay the race, they failed in actually TELLING ANYONE!

The timing company, Spitler Race Systems, had a short post on their Facebook page about this delay.  I asked them if the race organizers would be sending out an email to those that pre-registered, they said "NO" and they used a capital N-O.

I thought this was insane, sending a mass email out through an online registration website is as easy as 1-2-3...actually it is easier than that!

So, I started sharing this craziness with everyone I knew, hoping to get the word out.  And it is a good thing I did, because not a single person that I told was aware that the race was delayed!

After dealing with all that bull shit Saturday afternoon, I then had bigger fish to fry, I had the Tuesday Night Turtles Christmas party that night...I needed to somehow get through the night without sabotaging my race.  I pretty much accomplished this...I limited my beer consumption, BUT the 12 espresso shots and being awake until 2:30 am and waking up still wired from said espresso shots, put my confidence level pretty low!  Man, I am glad they delayed the race an hour! But man, if I didn't find out the day before I would have REALLY been pissed!  :)

Have you ever dropped an espresso shot into a Guinness....its pretty good!

The weather was looking good, as I had expected, and I arrived at Rogers High School with dry roads and minimal wind.  The parking lot was looking a bit scarce, this race usually attracts over 400 runners, but the lot was basically empty.

I was feeling a bit better after a short warm-up and was ready to get to business.  Prior to race day I had some goals laid out before me to run under 35 mins and to place somewhere in the top-5.  I knew the WTAC folks would be out in force and was looking forward to racing against them again.  Last year we had a great battle for the team title, this year there were not many Turtles in Newport and the WTAC would surely run away with the title.  So that left me to my own race.

The race course in Newport is pretty straight forward.  A slightly downhill first mile, twisty Ocean Road, some minor bumps and more twisting after 3 miles, a slight uphill from 5-5.5 then a short steep down and an uphill last two-tenths.

Standing on the line it was clear it was going to be me racing against the WTAC, there was no one else there that looked to be competing for the win and surprisingly no crazy kids went out at sub 5 min pace to only die 400 meters in.  The horn blew and as expected Mike Galoob went to the front with Chris Garvin.  I settled into 3rd place and tried to get into a groove.  I felt myself catching up to Chris and finally made an effort to bridge the gap at 2 miles or so.  Once I did that, I committed myself to a duel that would last the rest of the race. 

The Start! Photo by Jana Walker

I got in front of Chris shortly after catching him and started pushing the pace.  Any little downhill or uphill I would push.  If I felt Chris "too close" I would push.  This kept me going and I know that Chris is a bit faster than I am and did not want to be near him late in the race.  To be honest I didn't think I would be anywhere near him in the race at all, so this was a bit of a surprise and I was going to do everything I could to beat him.

A bit after the 4 mile mark Chris was beside me and for the first time since I passed him, I let myself fall in behind him.  I didn't let this last long though, because I felt better when I was pushing the pace, so I went back to doing that.  We passed 5 miles pretty much stride for stride but in the next 200 meters, Chris somehow got the slightest of gaps, it was enough that when we made the left hand turn onto Carroll Avenue I felt like I lost contact.  For mere seconds I gave up on 2nd place.  I was content that I had run as well as I had and didn't care about Chris anymore.  Well, that feeling went away quick and I got my head out of my ass and started chasing again.  With only one more left hand turn and the steep downhill/uphill combo ahead of us, I was running out of time.  I tried to run the downhill as quick as possible but I wasn't gaining any ground.  I had to yell at Chris near the bottom of the hill as a cop almost sent him the wrong way.  This got me a tad closer, but Chris ran the final uphill better than I did, so I had to settle for third.

The WTAC guys all ran great, taking 6 out of the top 7 spots.  I felt like the outsider that happen to show up to their group workout!

Of course I was very pleased with my effort, but disappointed that I couldn't match Chris's final move.  I am especially happy to finally feel like I am back to being able to race well after having an injury full summer and look forward to racing well in the upcoming 4th Season Trail Series starting on 1/4/14!

Here is my history at the Run for Hope...

2013 - 3rd place - 34:13

2012 - 4th place - 33:49

2011 - 2nd place - 35:02

2010 - 3rd place - 35:29

2009 - 3rd place - 34:04

2008 - 4th place - 33:56

2007 - 5th place - 33:36

2006 - 7th place - 35:11

2005 - 5th place - 34:09

2004 - 7th place - 33:50

2003 - Didn't Run

2002 - Didn't Run

2001 - 18th place - 38:17

2000 - 8th place - 36:24

Check out the Full Results!