2018 Run with the Beavers Trail Race

The 2018 Run with the Beavers Trail Race has come and gone.  This year the race served as the USATF-NE Trail Championship and was also in the USATF ATR and WMAC Grand Tree Series.  I feel like overall the race was a great success.  Here are a few takeaways.

Yapping away...

•  Lots of people! I had approximately 374 people signed up for the race this year, yet in the results there were only 271 finishers! 176 in the 10 mile and 95 in the 5 mile. I had more than 50 people tell me prior to the race they wouldn’t be there, so that still leaves a whole bunch of no shows. 

• There were 11 states represented in the pre-registrations. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia. 

• There were 16 teams represented.

• Both the male and female 10 mile course records were broken. As was the male 5 mile record. 

• 300+ flags were put out on the 5ish mile loop. That is an average of a flag every 0.017 miles or every 90 feet or so. (Obviously this # is skewed because of flag clusters on turns) But, there are a lot of flags on the course. 

• We went through around 40 gallons of water. 

• I am still in search for a large inflatable beaver…please find one for me. 

• Josh Fields took over 5000 photos, check them out!

• Check out the FULL RESULTS

See you next year!

2018 Soapstone Mountain Trail Race

I intend to do as at least 6 races in the WMAC Grand TreeSeries this year and the next on my schedule was the Soapstone Mountain Trail Race.  This race has been on my list for a bunch of years, it just has never worked into the schedule.  Before the race, I looked up some old blog reports and looked at Strava data from last year’s event.  The course ended up being changed again this year, which made it over a mile longer than the previous year which was longer than past years.  So, I was looking for around 13.5 miles on the watch and I got just a bit more, which extended the time on the trail just a bit.

The race itself…it started out with Tim Van Orden, Kurt Hackler, myself and some younger dude.  We ran briskly on the downhill dirt road in the first half mile or so and then got on the single track, before even the mile the young dude was making moves for position, it was clear he was probably going to have a long day on the trails.

The pace on the single rack felt a bit too brisk for me and I stopped paying attention to the 3 ahead of me and from there on ran my own race.

By 4 miles, I had gone up the “Wall of Sand” that you had to traverse on all fours and then “Killer Hill” at just after 3 miles which I slogged up at 21 min mile pace, just to get to the top and drop down on a slick technical downhill.  Young dude took a tumble thee and I passed him on the next small up.  The kid that ended up finishing second passed me shortly after that and I ran the last 10 or so miles alone.

The rest of the race had its ups and downs, terrain and energy levels.  I felt like I was running as slow as one could possibly run in spots and I still never got passed.

The turning point in the race was coming out to a road crossing where two people were standing.  They told me I was in 3^rd (a surprised because I WAS in 4^th, but Kurt went off course) they told me I had a downhill coming up…YAY! And they told me there was about a mile and a half to go!  How much?!  Oh boy….  After the downhill you popped out into a parking lot that we were previously in, so now things looked familiar.  I knew we would get onto a dirt road and then there would be one last road climb to the finish.  There was no quickness in my finishing speed.  I simply just got through the last 5 mins of this race.  I finished in 2:06:48  FULL RESULTS

Photo: Scott Livingston

After finished, I traded war stories and watched Ralph finish, I apologized for inviting him to the race.  I drank 1 too many sodas, which really made my stomach unhappy and off to Willimantic Brewing Company for some food and beer.

I am happy I finally got to run this long standing race and it definitely kicked my ass.  I was very sore for days. 

I have a pretty busy June, from when I started this post like a week ago and now, I have decided to skip the next two races in the Grand Tree which I was going to do.  So, next up will be Gaspee Days 5k on June 9^th, Ribfest 5 Mile on June 17^th, my birthday!  Ribfest is the 3^rd race in the USATF-NE Grand Prix Series.  After that I will be running the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge in Boston for the first time.  That is on June 21^st. 

2017 Lil Rhody Runaround

The last 3 weeks I have been trying to gain some fitness and get back in a groove. I have slowly been adding miles and am right around that 50 mile per week mark. I think I am starting to feel more fit, I have been able to end runs in the low to mid 6 min pace range without much trouble. Now I just need to up the mileage and start getting in some actual work outs. I feel for now, the upbeat training day, the progression run, do the trick.

Racing when unfit is always a challenge, but when there are races you like to run and you have the motivation to race, you say what the hell…so that’s what I did this weekend.

This would be my 8th Li’l Rhody Runaround. I knew it wouldn’t be my fastest or my slowest but I thought I could be somewhere near that 50 min mark.

2002-1:02:52 - 84th
2008-50:39 - 6th
2009-49:30 - 9th
2010-49:03 - 5th
2013-49:29 - 8th
2014-47:41 – 8th
2015-50:24 – 11th

I of course had to slightly sabotage my race and ending up having a bit too much fun on Saturday day/night. Drinking more than I should have and getting to bed later than I would have liked. This made for a groggy start to the AM on Sunday. I woke up thinking, yah, no…I am just going to run this one easy and have fun out there,

Luckily the race has a later start; I still felt a bit off on the warm up, but good enough to give it a go. My plan was to start out more conservative than previous years. This race always goes out stupid fast and I did not want to get sucked into that, it would only hurt me later.

So, mission accomplished there. OI went out in around 5:51 vs the usual sub 5:40. I felt pretty OK. Legs felt stiff and beat as if I have never raced before and my stomach felt like shit from all the beer and the late night grilled cheese and tater tots, otherwise, I felt like pure gold!

I fell in line with the usual suspects, Jonny, Muddy, Tommy 5k. There were some younger Westerly HS kids again which ended up being great bait when they were fading late in the race, Brightman went out hard per usual, but faded and got caught by Jonny. Muddy stayed close to me and I caught he last Westerly guy at the road and pulled away in the last mile. The 3 of us were pretty close. I finished in 50:13 in 5th place, not great, but not horrible on the slow day. Eric was slower than my 8th place time from 2014 and he is much faster than I am.

After the race, it got cold again. It was a weird weather day. We headed over to Jonny’s house after the awards for a bit. Would have loved to have stayed longer, but Saturday was catching up to me and I just wanted to go sit on the couch and watch TV.

Next up…CYCLOCROSS!!!

Check out Matt Walker's video of the race!

2014 South County 4th Season Trail Series

Well, the 2014 South County 4th Season Trail Series has come to a close.  This is the second year that I completed the series and my 2nd series victory.  Both years I was certainly not the fastest guy out there, but I haven't missed a race and I am pretty consistent.  So I have been pretty lucky to get these wins.

Here are my finishing places for all of my races over the 2 years....in Garvin Format.

And a brief recap of what sticks out for each of these races.

Race #1 - Old Mountain Field 5k Trail Race - 1/4/14 (Scott Mason Photos)

• Ran the Boston Marathon Course three days before this race
• Snow and cold...single digits.
• Felt oddly relaxed and made a big move at 2 miles to beat much faster competition.
• Won a mixed pack of Samuel Adams Winter Beer

Right after taking the lead.

Race #2 - Resolution 5k Beach & Trail Race - 1/12/14 (Scott Mason Photos)

• Water...it was everywhere.
• Fast start, Ryan Wooley took off quick..he has run 30+ seconds than me in a road 5k as of late so it was a good plan.  I was content to take second about a mile in.
• Great day down at the beach
• Won some BBC bombers

Group shot post-race.

Race #3 - Belleville Pond 10k Trail Race - 2/9/14 (Scott Mason Photos)

• SNOW!! Lots and lots...
• Horrible Trail Conditions
• Strip tease and overheating
• I miss that glove
• Long cooldown across the pond
• Another bomber from BBC won

Trail recon the day before the race!

Race #4 - Brrr-lingame 10 Miler - 3/22/14 (Scott Mason Photos)

• DIRT!!
• Beautiful day
• Fast start did me in
• Feeling like hell and looking at my watch to see we had only run 2.5 miles...
• Fun day overall

A small leap for man....you know the rest.

Race #6 - Big River 1/2 Marathon - 4/5/14  (Scott Mason Photos)

• Flag Thief!
• Water crossings!
• I saw Greg Hammett FALL! I didn't know that could happen! Well...I should say heard him fall.
• Ran faster than last year...goal accomplished!
• Great to get back on the Big River Trails.

There was a little mud...unless you tip-toed around it.

Now that the series is over, I turn my focus to getting ready for the Vermont 100 with a stop at the Pineland Farm 50 Miler before that.

In the meantime I will be preparing for the 1st Annual? Quahog Mile.  Please share this event with all your friends!  Post about it, link to it etc!  It would be much appreciated.  Pre-entry is ONLY $10 and there will be $1250 in prize money!  I hope to see some of you there!

Print and share!

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!

Pisgah Mountain 23k Trail Race

I haven't written a blog post in a long time and I have not raced in a long time.  I have been IN some races since "breaking myself" back in March, but for the most part they were all medium efforts...get though the race without hurting myself etc. 

The last two years I have run the 50k at the Pisgah Mountain Trail Races and I have enjoyed the race, so this year I found myself finally getting back into shape and thought I would head up to Chesterfield, NH and give the shorter 23k race a go. 

When I first thought about this, I was thinking of going there and just running very conservative and enjoy the trails...but as the race got closer and I finally got in one run over 10 miles, I thought what the hell, I will go out there and give it a go.

So on my 30 mile or so weeks and one long run...I took Jonny Hammett's bait at the start of the race as he flew down Old Chesterfield Road at sub 6 min pace, however as soon as we hit the first climb I knew I would not be able to run side by side with Jonny on this day and that was OK.

When we finally reached the trail, I found myself in third place in the 23k and ran there, alone, for most of the race.

I pushed hard throughout...getting up the grueling ups as well as I could and taking advantage of the flat sections and the downs that weren't too wet and slippery.  There was a pretty good amount of water and mud out on the course, we were told that the area received about 5" of rain on Thursday.  There were even some bees on course to give us a little sting if we didn't move quickly enough.

I thought before the race that I could run around 1:45 and in the end I finished with a 1:45:38, pretty good guess considering I have never run that course before!

I ended up finishing in 4th place, getting passed with about 3 miles to go for the 3rd position.  I picked up some Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies with pecans and cranberries for my effort.

Turtle teammate Patrick Quinn took his first shot at Pisgah and finished well in 2:00:27 and another Turtle, John Peabody ran the 50k again and finished 3 mins faster than 2012 in 6:55:20.  See FULL RESULTS!

Post race TNT fun was had at the Gardner Ale House in Gardner, MA

Belgian Triple

Now that Pisgah is over, I look forward to being able to get in some higher mileage weeks so I can start racing at the level I was in the Winter and Spring...next up is the 5th race in the NE Runner Pub Series, a 5k in Cambridge, I don't have a clue what to expect in a road 5k right now...but I guess we will soon find out!

Pre-Blizzard Post

Snow is coming...and lots of it.  Looks like we should be getting 10-20++ inches of snow here in Warwick.  Should be a blast...or not.

Stuff that has happened since my last post...I ran the Sidehiller Snowshoe Race and the Belleville Pond 10k Trail Race, you can see DJ Principe's Race Summary at the TNT page.  Both races went pretty well, although I was zapped of energy at the trail race after running Sidehiller the day before.

Sidehiller Start - Joe Viger Photo

I also went up to Canada and ran on the Sulphur Springs course, as I am scheduled to run that race in May...although, I am just not into doing that race right now, so it is pending at best.  I may choose another race closer to home.

This weekend is the Brrr-lingmae 10 Mile Trail Race...which will end up being a crazy run through some deep snow.  I have no urge on running right now...so I hope this race will bring me out of this funk, although it is going to take a lot more then a race to do that.  I was able to get out and get 8 miles in last night without being too blah about it, so that is a step in the right direction!

After this race, we have a longish run planned on the North South Trail and then?  The final race in the South County 4th Season Trail Race Series conflicts with another race that I wanted to do, so I will have to see how that all plays out.

I am hoping to get in a descent run today before the storm is in full force, but running alone right now will be a tall order...

I have been working on the RI 6 Hour plans and also the Run with the Beavers Trail Race plans, so news on those races should come out soon.

Keeping you in the loop

I haven't updated the blog in a bit so I figured I would add some upcoming events on here.  Since you are looking anyway...

12/15 I have planned a short trek of Rhode Island's North South Trail (NST).  Some of us will be running about 20 miles and others around 10 miles.  As of right now we have 6-8 people that will be joining in on the fun...updates on this will be sent out soon on the event page.

On 12/16 I will team up with a few Turtles to again take on the WTAC at the Old Mountain 5k Trail Race in Wakefield, RI.  This is part of a winter trail series put on by WTAC's Mike Galoob.

As of this Tuesday, we now have a Tuesday Night Turtle Christmas Party planned for 12/21.  TNT Christmas parties are always a fun time with great beer and good food.

Christmas is on a Tuesday this year, so there will no traditional run on Tuesday night, however, every Christmas morning I organize a TNT X-Mas morning run from the Sunday lot, we run 10 miles and then have some coffee and treats in the parking lot.

After that I plan on hitting the roads again and running the Hangover Classic in Bristol, RI.  I have run this every year since 2008. 

That is all I can think of for now!  I plan to put some race results and pictures up as they happen.

Run with the Beavers Trail Race

I am directing (along with Karen Benway) a new trail race in Chepachet, RI.  Run with the Beavers will have a 10 miles option, a 5 mile option, and a 1/2 mile long fun run for children 12 & under.

I have been trying to get a trail race going on and off for almost 3 years now, but have had issues with area officials allowing us to run on the trails that we want.  I am excited that we were able to work with the park officials at Pulaski Memorial Park, in Chepachet.  The park has great facilities and is very clean.  The course has a great mix of single track, dirt roads, and double track trails.  Some are rocky, some are groomed, and depending on the weather, some may be wet.  It should make for a fun race.

Since Karen and I are both members of the Tuesday Night Turtles, we thought it was important to have a team event as part of the RTB.  So the 10 mile race will have a team competition.  The top 3 runners from each team will be scored cross country style and we will crown ourselves a champion!

So please join us on July 28th for some fun on the trails!

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