2018 Old Mountain Trail 5k

Old Mountain Field is a deceiving place. You would never think that these fun little trails are back in this small area. I was pleasantly surprised the first year I ran the race in 2012 and every year has been a little different, between course changes and weather.

December 2012 - 3rd place – 18:57 Fast dry year

January 2014 - 1st place – 23:32 Snow year

December 2014 - 3rd place – 19:08 unmemorable year

December 2015 - 6th place 21:34 Hungover year, TNT Christmas Party the night before.

February 2017 Did Not Run

I felt pretty good going into this race. My training has been uneventful, but consistent. No work outs to speak of, a few solid long runs and a few shorter races.

If I were Eric Lonergan, I would take out every one of these trail races the way he took this one out. FAST. This certainly made me suck wind early, but I said fuck it and went with it. Eric and Greg had a good gap pretty early and I followed Brightman. After about a mile I went by Steve and felt like Greg was coming back a bit, but I think it was just the twisty nature of the course that made him feel closer than he was. I still felt pretty good as we started through the “swamp area” it is twisty and not much of a defined trail. I never felt over my head and was making good progress and then BAM I went down. It was a solid fall but I was up pretty quick, but it definitely took my legs away from me, it took a while to get going again. Once I did I was quickly caught by Garvin and Ronald McTall guy. We headed towards the rock bridge creek crossing, where we were met by the same stupid guy with his two dogs off leash on trail. It was a good thing they were off leash, but this was the second time in the race that these dogs brought us to a crawl, I had to put my hands on the dogs and move them out of the way; fun times. After that we started uphill downhill flat hill who the hell remembers and Garvin and Mr. McTall man went by me. Garvin was passed shortly after. We hit the faster, wider trails on the course and the slick bridges. My new Inov-8s that seemed so sticky and grippy on the ice were basically, as Garvin put it, like roller skates on the bridges. I slid right off one of them. Out onto the field before re-entering the woods, Galoob was yelling at us. I was being caught by Old Man Brightman and Jonny was within distance. There is a hard left-hand turn when re-entering the woods and of course I slipped there too and we head back up the next to lastish hill and that’s when I was just fucking done. Brightman went by me after the stairs and I stayed close, but I was gassed, nothing left.

February 2018 - 6th place 20:18 Wet and muddy year

We did a group cool-down with the WTAC guys and headed over to The Mews. We had a pretty solid Turtle group, plus Brightman and Leslie OD. After that some of us headed up to Proclamation Ale
Company and one thing led to another and it was 7:30pm. A fun Saturday I would say.

2017 Nooseneck 18k/TNT Double

Almost every year I tend to have some sort of short spike in mileage around Chirtsmas and New Year’s.  Depending on how my days off from work fall I will add some random oubles, have some random group run or just run more.

This year that fell on the day of the Nooseneck 18k.  I have run this free “race” a few times in the past, but not in the last 2 years.  It is a roller coaster of a course, with some very difficult climbs.  It beats you up pretty good, but is a great way to get a good work out in and see some friends.

I wasn’t planning on running it this year, but it seemed a bunch of people I knew were and since I had taken the day off to use some of my vacation time up, I thought it would be a good way to get some good mileage in…and since it fell on a Tuesday, it made it easier to do so.

My plan was to run 2 mile warm up, 11.2 upbeat…620-630 pace, 1 mile cool down, then hang out, have some beer and food then drive to Turtles and run 3 to 6 miles.  Here is how it went down.

Of course in the days leading up to this I have gotten a cold, slight, but still felt a bit off.  So I was able to sleep in for once on Tuesday AM til 8am!  I was so happy about that.  I got to the race at 12pm after a short detour to Wal-Mart for water and meds.  There were more cars in the lot then I had anticipated.  But very quickly I saw lots of familiar faces, some I knew would be there and some that were a surprise.

I headed out with a small group for a 2 mile warm up, which ended up being 2.4 for me after circling the lot waiting for someone.  We all changed up and got to the starting line, the wind was blowing pretty good and it was a bit chilly.  I wore shorts with a long sleeve and a short sleeve over that…and of course gloves and an Inov-8 buff over the ears.  It was a solid choice, my hands were actually sweaty and I took the buff off my ears, my lips were numb though!

The run….  It starts straight downhill and people go out like crazy.  I was very conservative and still ran a 5:54.  Zak was with Kaela O’Neil about 6 secs up.  I made an effort to catch them and did around 1.5.  The 3 of us ran together though around 4..4.5  Zak and I got some separation on Kaela on the quad busting downhills.  Probably because we are way fatter and gravity helps us on the downs!

After the very generous downhill, you come to the hill on Pardon Joslin Road.  You have been running on Pardon Joslin, which is a dirt road, partially covered in snow, for the last 8/10^th of a mile, but right before the 5 mile marker the road starts its going up…in the next half mile you will gain 100+ feet and then another 75 to 80 from 5.5 to 6.  The section from 5 to 5.5 is a beat up old road that you are more likely to see in a trail race then in a road race, but it is what makes this run unique.  My pace went from a 5:50 mile to over 7 mins on the climb and according to Strava I slowed down to around 9:50 at some point in the climb.

The next few miles are rolling, you have a nice decent at 7.2 and then a hill I forgot about at 8.6 to 9.  That is where I separated slightly from Zak.  I was able to get some space between us and run a 6:05 from 9 to 10 to open it up a bit more.  I am pretty sure from there to the finish he was gaining.  You drop a few feet from 10 to 10.5 and then you have to go up the hill you descended at the start of the race.  This hill SUCKS.  You gain around 185 ft in less than a mile.  I averaged just under 6:30 pace for the final 1.2 miles.  It was brutal. 

Check out FULL RESULTS!

Once finished, we shuffled around for just over a mile.  We went inside and got a beer and chatted with friends and foes alike.  Since it was Taco Tuesday, some of us grabbed some pulled pork tacos, which were very good.  While eating we heard the raffle going on.  Although the race is free, there is a donation box.  20% each goes to the 1^st place male and female winners and then there are 3 random draws for the remaining 60% (20% each)  We walked over there and my # was called!  Yay me!

So, we went back to hanging out, 2.5 more Guinness’s and a Steve Brightman induced swig of Vodka straight from the bottle and I was out of there…off to the Tuesday Night Turtles group run.  I have been a Turtle since 2000 and in that 17+ year’s I have missed very few Tuesday runs, most of which I was out of town.  I even once took a train on a Tuesday AM to run the Empire State Building Run-Up and took a train back home to make the run.  I have landed at T.F. Green Airport at 4 and went straight to a run and I have left work events to get over to the run….so today was no different.

I got there at 4:57 and planned on two 3 mile loops.  Fortunately the pace was easy with the smaller crowd and the first 3 felt pretty good.  We started out on the second 3 at 5:30 and it was just 4 of us and the rest of them were doing the longer 6.3 mile loop; I had started making the turn at the split to do the 3 mile, but said what the hell and did the full loop with them.

Definitely the highest mileage day I have had in a long time, other than Baystate.  Here is the breakdown.

2.4WU

11.2 Nooseneck

1.2 CD

3/6.3 at TNT

After the run I changed up and headed to Fellini’s for pizza and one more beer.  I ended the night early and got home so I could get some rest and head back to work on Wednesday!

Secret Squirrel CX Race

It started with a tagging on Facebook.  I feel a lot of stuff happens that way these days.  I got tagged in this post from Warren Angell.

I said what the hell.  And I ended up signing up for my first cyclocross race.  This is odd, because I have been wanting to do one for about 5 years, since the first time I saw a cyclocross race in Roger Williams Park.  I have looked at bikes over the years, I would then forget for a year and then go to another event and want to do it again, but it would be the end of the season, so why do it now etc.  This pattern went on and on.  So, after all that all it took was the words Donut Relay.

I only had 3 weeks to find a bike.  Warren had a spare bike that was too big for him…but it would be a bit small for me.  I tried to find a bike through a few different avenues, but in the end I ended up grabbing Warren’s bike from him the week before the race at the Lil Rhody Runaround.  His bike size is 53 CM, my road bike is a 56.  I was able to make a few adjustments to make the bike not feel too small.  In the end I think it worked out fine.

I rode the bike two times before race day, both short 3 mile jaunts to see how the adjustments I made felt and the day before the race to test out the clipless pedals that I have never used before.  What could go wrong?

Race day.  We were racing at 10:30am, so we got there at 8:15 to do a course ride through.  This is always a good thing to do, so you can see where the obstacles are etc.  I rode one loop with Warren and even though the course was not stupid technical, I was like “oh fuck” I was breathing heavy already, my quads already hurt.  What did I get myself into?

We went back to the car and got stuff together and road part of the course one more time, this proved essential since the cleats on my shoes were coming lose, leaving it so I could not get out of my pedals.  When I went to get out, the cleats would just rotate and pop out.  So, after some hard love to my shoe and pedal, I got the shoe off and then had to find a new screw for one of the cleats as it fell out!!  That would have been a disaster on the course.

All that aside, I was ready?  They start cyclocross races based on rank and since I have never done a race I was starting on the back row of a 100 person race.

And here is the short version of the race itself.  100 meters, stop for the bottleneck at the 90 degree turn, 100 meters, stop for the bottle neck at the neck turn.  This is what happens when you start last.

After that there is some grass to open up on, 2 barriers to jump over then a flat very rideable section, I would say around ¼ mile.  I passed some people here, but since I do not bike, this was probably my weakest section later.  I rode well, but I lost time here compared to others.  After that stretch, there was a pretty solid quad burning uphill.  I rode up this every time, many people around me dismounted.  Short down, around a corner and another up to another steeped down and then the sandy run up.  I did well on this section later in the race; I do run….so running in the cycling race works for me. 

After that section there was a short down and up to a fire road that was rolly, but rolly in a good way.  After that you popped out to the “other side” of the course, both sides were very different, this was more technical and wooded; roots and another bitch of a climb, followed by roots and a down and roots and an up.  Two logs to jump over, some more roots and a drop off.  Wind your way around the final little stretch and through some sand and back to the start finish line!  Phew….now do that 3 more times.

The loop was around 2 miles.  I definitely got stronger and more confident with each loop.  The fun part was picking people off and getting in a little bit of a battle with one guy, in which I beat.

I finished 62nd out of 95 officialfinishers.  There were 100 signed up.

My quads were like jello, but it was fun…and also horrible. 

So, that was over, but the day was not.  I replenished with two Mayflower IPAs.  I asked the beer guy why he did not bring the Porter.  He said, they thought people would like a refreshing beer, like the IPA or their Golden Ale.  I said “I would have liked a nice refreshing Porter!”  Haha  It was in good fun…but I really did want that damn Porter!  After grabbing my first beer I got a chourico and pepper sandwich, all solid food choices before racing again.  We had like 4 hours to waster.  So, we hung around watched the other races and enjoyed the 55 degree day.

Now, for the reason I got roped into this in the first place.  The Donut Relay.  This was all for fun and I was not ready to ride again.  Basically it was a half mile loop.  Warren ate a donut and then headed out to ride the loop.  While he rode I ate a donut and then I rode and he ate a donut.  We both consumed 3 donuts and he rode three times and I rode twice.  We finished 12^th out of 22 teams.

After the races were over and the sun was setting, I stopped at 2 Jerks BBQ for some dinner and you know what they had?  The Mayflower Porter. 

So, cyclocross.  It is tough, it is very different from running, but it sways closer to snowshoe racing, when the courses had a lot of variety.  The nuance of having to work up in categories to be better placement at the start is cool.  It gives you something to shoot for.  The crossresult.com site also makes you want to race more.  There are stats, predictors, ratings, rankings stalking, you name it, it is there!

So, will I do any more cyclocross?  Well, not until this coming Saturday!  I will be at the NBX Grand Prix of Cyclocross in Goddard Park.  I am only doing the Saturday race, so I can get in a long run on Sunday.  My race is at 8 in the morning and there are currently 136 riders!!  The race is also 15 mins shorter in time.  So, I guess I need to be more aggressive!

Check out some media from the Secret Squirrel, there was plenty of it!

https://vimeo.com/244515345

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOUA8IyvGAPAzyBBcic_QbCUswGTt_pB-PdMUBZa_MUXXAeGSTDNc8Q-i_ZOqy5FA?key=UERZRXNJTnpMU19SV0NRWUN5Q0FsSXVhZlZNWU1n

https://deepbrook.smugmug.com/Secret-Squirrel-CX-Nov-2017/

https://katiebusick.smugmug.com/Secret-Squirrel-CX-2017/

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!

Baystate Marathon 2017

The 2017 USATF-NE Grand Prix is now over.  It didn’t play out anything like I had hoped, but I finished it.  Starting in February in Amherst for the 10 miler, I thought I was getting myself into shape, but the rest of the year just never came together!

The Baystate Marathon was the last stop for the series.  The last and only time I ran at Baystate, things went incredible well.

Fast forward to this year, I was ramping up for the race pretty well, after a year of aches and pains and super low motivation, I had a solid 5 week block from 8/14to 9/17 and then started developing a cough that just would not go away.  Come to find out, I had walking pneumonia.  So, 4.5 weeks before Baystate I was barely running, just trying to get my respiratory system back in check so I could at least compete at Baystate and finish off the series.  About 3 weeks before the race I did a 3 mile run at 8:12 pace, which I believe was the low point on the sickness level.  But, I rested and got better…better enough and went into Baystate with realistic goals and a body capable of executing a pretty solid game plan.

Race day started out cool enough, maybe 50 degrees.  Not perfect, but good considering the way the weather has been lately.  We really never had a great weather day at a single USATF GP raced this year, it was very odd.

After parking and hanging around a bit, it was port-pottie time and wait around until the start.  My plan was to start much further back than if I were racing it.  I was thinking somewhere around 7 minute pace seemed reasonable.  I ended up starting right near the 3:05 Pacer and some familiar faces.

Gun goes off and here we go.  Man there were a lot of people around, I am not used to being in such large packs.  I felt like I was bouncing off everybody!  I fell into stride with Leslie O’Dell and some other master females which were near or around us.  For most of the first 13 miles I ran with Leslie, Ginger Reiner whom caught up to us around 6? And a couple other random dudes, other then the few seconds that Leslie was laid out on the ground after a cone jumped out in front of her, making her do a triple somersault and skid across the pavement before rejoining the group.  I did not know she was an aspiring gymnast; she should stick to running…

If you want to see more pics, check out Leslie's Facebook page, there are 100s

Pretty early, my legs felt…rough, but, my energy was good and I kept pushing along.  After 13, our little group broke up and I was somewhat alone, but chasing people down.  I started clicking away some 645s and passed a bunch of people.  I got through 30k still feeling somewhat OK.  Tired, sore, but OK.  The next few miles I stayed in that same range of 645ish.  I slowed a bit on 22 and 23 to 650s and then 24 was finally over 7.  I was pretty done.  I ran just over 7 again and then the last mile I was just under 8.  I had no more umph!

I crossed the line in 91^st place.  I was in 138^th at the half way point, so I would say I was pretty successful considering.  I did not negative split the course, which pissed me off a bit, but hey….I haven’t run over 10 miles in a month and a half!

Afterwards…we headed to Beerworks for beer and food.  Barely anyone in the joint….that makes post marathon food and beer much more enjoyable than being cramped with hundreds of others!!  My only complaint with Beerworks is that the bathroom is soooofaraway from the bar.  But, maybe that is a good thing?

Next…RI 6 Hour is tomorrow…I play Race Director for a day and watch others suffer!  After that, get in shape…again and run some decent races.  I am looking forward to next years GP Series, maybe I can get my rear in gear and score for the team once next year!

Doyle's Emerald Necklace 5 Miler

I love this race. It is really a party that happens to have a race before it. This was my 7th time at Doyle's. Sometimes I run slow, sometimes fast. This year was more on the slow side. I didn’t expect to run well and I was right! The good news is that I believe I finally figured out my “injury” issues. I finally was able to get to PT and get some stuff sorted out and am no longer in pain. So, I am very happy with that and ready to get training a bit better.

TNT!

The race… The start was delayed over 20 mins, which kinda sucked. But, hey what can you do? The horn went off and off we went. I tried not to get out too fast, although I was out faster than I should have, knowing that I am not in great shape. I am sure that affected my race a bit, but not too bad. From the mile to 2 mile, I slowed down a bit, but I felt half way decent.

After that, it just went to shit. I was not in it mentally and really just got through it. I really didn’t care and just felt out of it mentally. I picked it up a bit in the last mile, that little bit of downhill certainly helped! Anyway, I finished it off “strong” and got to the important part of the day…BEER and friends.

We had a good group of people there and had some fun drinking beer, enjoying the sun and petting fun dogs!

Our personal beer table.

Hank!

We stopped at the British Beer Company on the way home for some good grub and then called it a night!

I was much more successful bowling in a bowling tournament on Saturday at Alley Katz in Westerly. Coming in 13th out of 117 bowlers in the Over 200 Average Handicap Division and coming in 2nd in the Doubles Under 400 Average Scratch division with my teammate John. 1st would have been better…we missed that by 3 pins!

Alley Katz.

Krispy Kreme Challenge

This adventure started about three years ago. Somehow while having some beers with my buddy Mark, the discussion of the Krispy Kreme Challenge came up. We thought, ahh maybe next year! The next two years, this same discussion came up, again, usually after a few beers were consumed. Now, most races would not have taken me so long to do, but the Krispy Kreme Challenge is in North Carolina and a side note, my buddy Mark, doesn’t REALLY run. This hasn’t stopped him from being an active member of the Tuesday Night Turtles, he has run on TNT Grog & Dog Jog Relay Teams, has run in about (2) 5ks a year since graduating high school 15 years ago and was even stupid enough to run the New Bedford ½ Marathon…but he does this off of about 5 to 10 miles on average a MONTH. Also, if you haven’t clicked on the Krispy Kreme Challenge link yet…another reason this race took us a while to get to, is because of what it is. Let’s fly down to North Carolina to run 2.5 miles, eat a DOZEN Krispy Kreme Donuts, then run another 2.5 miles. It is one of those races that intrigues you but you forget about it for a while after you talk about it.

Well, three years of talking about it was what it took for us to sign up, which I did after confirming there would be no South Country 4th Season Trail Race on that weekend. I signed up and then texted Mark saying…your turn and so it was set in stone.

Now, although there was no real “specific training” done for this race by me any barely and running at all done by Mark, we both were taking it relatively serious. We both had our goals and both wanted to do the best we possibly could. The only thing we did do to prepare for race day, was watch lots of videos of the race and then procure some Krispy Kreme Donuts from Mohegan Sun to get an idea on the texture and squishability factor of said donuts, which we then each consumed (6) of in about 3 mins.

Fast forward to race weekend. Friday February 13th, we made the drive up to Boston to fly from there to Raleigh, NC. After much debate we decided on flying out of there as it was much cheaper and the flights were all direct with no layovers. We also decided to park there, it would only be a couple of days, so it would also be pretty cheap… We boarded our flight on-time and arrived in Raleigh at approximately 12pm. We walked outside into the unseasonably cold NC weather (30s) and hailed a cab to the KKC Expo! We picked up our race numbers and shirts and checked out the merchandise and more importantly the info at the Raleigh Brewing Company booth…they brewed a beer specifically for the race for that night, so we now had at one thing for our agenda for the night before the race.

From there we decided to walk the 1.7 miles, with our two carry-ons each, down to our hotel. It was a nice walk straight through the NC State campus, so we had plenty of company for most of it. All went well at the hotel check-in, we settled in and went out for an easy 3 mile run to scope out part of the course and also the brew pubs and bars that we had looked at going to after the race was over. After the run, we chilled out a bit and searched for a late lunch spot. Enter the Village Draft House. Conveniently located about ½ mile from our hotel and with 100 beer on tap, it was a no brainer! We sat at the bar and both ordered a North Carolina beer, always drink local! Both of us were super happy with our selections (my full trip beer list will be provided at the end of this long story) We decided that we would eat light now and then have something else to eat later on (in hind sight, we should have eaten a larger meal early and a lighter one later, since we will have to consume 12 donuts in that silly race the next day…oops). Both of our meals were good, as was the second beer…we wanted to stay there all night, but alias, we had a plan. We were now on our way to the Raleigh Brewing Company to try out that special K2C Pre-Gamer beer! We made the 1.8 mile walk there, walked in and right away were in love with this place! It was in a warehouse type building, there were barrels filled with aging beer, there was a large list of beer, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, board games, dogs…you name it…they had it! We went up to the bar and grabbed our pints full of 8.7% rum barrel aged dark ale. This beer was great! We drank those down while playing some Ms. Pac-Man, grabbed one more beer, drank that and bought a bomber for the hotel. We decided to stop back at the Village Draft House for some more food and one more beer. We were back to the hotel with the bomber poured by 8:30 and sleeping before 9:30. So, we got to bed pretty early, but probably shouldn’t have filled our stomachs with so much stuff! I think that was my first thought when the alarm went off at 6:45 am. OH, I forgot to mention, the hotel alarm clock also went off, but at 3am at full volume! Thanks asshole, that set that before he checked out!

Bell Tower

So…RACE DAY! I was not in my normal race day routine. I had a small bit of a pop-tart and a very small amount of water, I did not want to fill my stomach up anymore, it already felt full. I headed out at 7:30 to get just over a mile of running in…it was in the low 20s and felt brisk. I headed back to the hotel and Mark and I walked the ¼ mile to the start line EARLY. This race has a lot of people, 6000+ and we did not want to get caught too far back in the pack of crazy college students.

There were a lot of interesting sights up at the start. Runners were dressed up in everything imaginable. After a bit, we decided to get into the starting area and then wait what felt like forever for the race to start. 20s felt pretty cold standing around in shorts.

FINALLY...the countdown and the gun went off. I started about 3 rows back to ensure I didn't get dragged out too quick. I am pretty sure I was in 100th place though the 1/4 mile. My legs felt super stiff from standing around in the cold so long. After about a half mile, I felt like I was getting into a groove of sorts. I was passing lots of people and was in the top 25. The first 2.5 miles to the donuts is more downhill than anything. Lots of flat, but a net downhill for sure. My plan was to run around 5:30 pace to the donuts; I thought that was a pace that was quick, but not so quick that I would feel like hell when I was handed a dozen donuts to eat! Through 2 miles, I was still passing some runners and feeling pretty good. My stomach didn't feel great, which worried me a bit, but overall I thought things were going OK.

Finally, we rounded the corner and could see the Krispy Kreme sign and the boxes and boxes of donuts. I am pretty sure I was handed my box of donuts in about 13th or 14th spot, running 5:33 pace, right around my goal time. I took the hand-off and ripped the box open while running towards the water area to find a spot to eat. I made my way over to the furthest table, for a quick getaway after consumption, and got situated with my box on the ground. I noticed what technique the top runners/eaters were going with and decided that was what I would do too.

I set out a few cups of water and put donuts in each one in order to get them soggy. I was shoving bits and pieces into my mouth, probably too much at a time, I felt like I was making no progress. I was within an arm length of 2-time defending champion Tim Ryan and kept looking at his box of donuts to compare progress. He was eating a lot faster than I was. I was doing a better job of making a mess than actually eating the donuts. I looked down mid-eat and was overwhelmed at the amount I had left. This was not easy.

About 10 mins after I received my box of donuts, I was finally heading out to show my empty box and begin my 2.5 mile jaunt back to the finish. I got going pretty good once I left the eating area. My gloves were soaked and sticky with donut glaze that I could smell all the way back. On the return trip, you start passing runners in the "casual" category right away; these are runners in the race that are just out there for a good time, they do not have to eat all or any of the donuts, therefore not eligible for prizes. Having these slower runners on course was a great motivator. I was passing people left and right. I went through the first mile in around 5:35, which I was very pleased with, must have been all the sugar I just consumed!

Turning a corner around the 1.5 mile mark and then up a hill took a bit out of me, I was finally feeling it a bit. I was still passing people though and some of these runners were challengers. Finally we took the right onto the road the race started, there was under a mile to go and it is a straight shot back with gradual hill, but you could see other runners, so I started focusing on one at a time, with about a half mile to go, I noticed a runner I had seen on the way out....my first thought was, man I don't want to have to out-kick this guy, I am not sure my stomach can handle that! I was hoping I would catch him soon enough before the finish line to avoid any kick and puke scenario! Well....I caught him with about 400 meters to go, I tried to go by him immediately, but he reacted. We were stride and stride around the rotary and up the last hill to the finish line, I let him get a step or two on me, then attacked....nipping him at the line by less than a second! Ugh...that hurt. Fortunately, nothing came up. Wow that was hard!

We finished!

I wrote the above about a month ago! The race was on February 14th and I just suck at blogging. Anyway...the rest of the story will just be recapped.


I finished in 19th place in 37:17 and Mark ended up running faster not he way back then on the way out and breaking his goal time and finishing in 159th place in a time of 46:48. See Full Results HERE!

After the race there was some settling time to ensure the stomachs were fine, then we did what we do...went to brewpubs! We hit up some great places, I will include a list with the beer list below!

Now...for the not so fun stuff. We were supposed to fly back to Boston on Sunday...but our flight was canceled, we figured this would happen, wince the Northeast was getting hit with a blizzard. But one thing led to another with plane maintenance issues and all sorts of other delays including SNOW in NC!! So we ended up flying out on Tuesday afternoon instead of Sunday morning. It got frustrating to say the least. We were very happy to be home. Once I spelled in after a long day of traveling, I got ready and headed to Turtles for my run...my biggest fear was missing my Tuesday night run!

We might be here a while!

So...there you have it, FINALLY the KKC story.


Beer List
2/13/15
Samuel Adams - Cold Snap (Logan International Airport)
Raleigh Brewing Company - Hidden Pipe Porter w/Oak City Coffee (Village Draft House)
Raleigh Brewing Company - K2C Pregamer (brewed for the race) (Raleigh Brewing Company)
Raleigh Brewing Company - Hidden Pipe Porter w/Oak City Coffee (Raleigh Brewing Company)
Foothills Brewing - Sexual Chocolate (Village Draft House)
Raleigh Brewing Company - House of Clay IPA (Hotel Room)

Hmmm.

2/14/15
The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery - Milk Stout (Flying Saucer Draught Emporium)
New Belgium Brewing Company - Portage (Flying Saucer Draught Emporium)
Trophy Brewing Company - Double Death Spiral (Trophy Brewing Company)
Ska Brewing - Hibernal Vinifera Stout (Drink Drank Drunk)
Foothills Brewing - People's Porter (The Alley)
Deep River Brewing Company - 4042 Stout (Village Draft House)

The Village!

2/15/15
Raleigh Brewing Company - The Miller's Toll (Raleigh Brewing Company)
Raleigh Brewing Company - Hell Yes Ma'am (Raleigh Brewing Company)
Raleigh Brewing Company - City Of Blokes (Raleigh Brewing Company)
Bull City Ciderworks - Rhiz Up! (Raleigh Brewing Company)
Lonerider Brewing Company - Sweet Josie (Texas Steakhouse & Saloon)

Cat on a leash @ Trophy!

2/16/15
Big Boss Brewing Company - Hell's Belle (Raleigh Durham Airport)
Natty Greene's Brewing Co. - Buckshot Amber Ale (Brixx Wood Fired Pizza)
Double Barley Brewing - Thrilla' In Vanilla Porter (Brixx Wood Fired Pizza)
Lynnwood Brewing Concern - Big Papi (Hotel)
Fullsteam Brewery - Fearrington Winter Coffee Pecan Porter (Hotel)

Growler at the hotel.

Love the logo.

Doyle's Emerald Necklace 5 Miler

One of my favorite races of the year, the Doyle's Emerald Necklace 5 Miler.  It is one of my favorite races mostly because of the after party.  The race itself is OK.  The course is fair, not super fast, but not super difficult.  The easy parts come near the end, which is nice.

I have run this race three times before.  2011, I ran horrible, but was in good shape.  2012, I just ran it for the fun of it and ran just under 7 min pace.  Last year, I had run 58+ miles on the North South Trail the day before the race.  So, I was looking forward to giving the race in honest effort.  I felt I was in pretty good shape, but haven't raced on the roads in a while.  When you are racing on the trails and snowshoes, it is a whole different animal.  You are changing pace constantly working through obstacles and trying not to kill yourself with a major fall.

A road race on the other hand, is all about getting in a good rhythm and holding on to a pace that is just a little too fast and hoping things don't blow up, especially when I certainly do not focus on the shorter race, it makes me feel even more like a fish out of water.  The positive note leading up to Doyle's this year was that I had raced a lot, although on the trails/snowshoes, at least I had that race mentality fresh on the brain.

So, how did the race go?  Pretty well.  I had set a goal of sub 28 mins.  I planned on going out conservative, which works well on this course, as the first part is more up hill than the second half.  If you have some legs left through 3 miles, you can make up some time and come home strong.

I ended up passing a few fast starters in the first mile or so and found myself in pretty much the same position I would finish. I was passed late in the race by one runner, but also passed another guy when I was passed.

I felt like I just held onto a solid pace the whole time, but knew going into the last mile that I was over the pace I need for sub 28....fortunately for me, that's where the fast mile is and also being passed got me moving again.

Splits:
5:42
5:41
5:29
5:39
5:23 - 27:51 Official Time, 11th place out of 1667 Finishers

Check out Scott Mason's Photos!

A runner finishes and cheers on his friends with beer(s) in hand!

Now, Doyle's is all bout the after party.  A fun outside block party with free beer and good times...to read more of the particulars of that, head over to The Sweaty Beer Tent!

Next up...Train...no races for a while.  I guess the next time I toe the line will be in The Quahog Mile...it will be the first time I actually run in one of my races!

TNT-NRA Showdown

In 2009 someone thought it would be a good idea to have a dual meet type race between the Tuesday Night Turtles and the Narragansett Running Association.  Our two clubs have done training runs together, had coffee together and drank a beer or two together.  So we thought it would be fun to have a club versus club 5k.  On July 29, 2009 it happened, and the Tuesday Night Turtles came out victorious!

Overall the race was a great success; we had good weather, a descent turnout and a well put together after-party with pizza and beer.  So of course, we said, "We should do this again next year".  But 2010 came and went, and although it was talked about here and there the race never happened.

Flash forward to 2011: Another push was on, mostly by the NRA, to have another club race.  After a couple of dates were set and postponed, the teams finally decided on October 5th.  Since TNT did most of the organizing of the 2009 event, it was up to the NRA to do the work in 2011.  They came up with a crazy scoring system - as opposed to the cross country style scoring we used in 2009 - they picked the venue, set-up the course and picked the after-party location.  In the end, all of these things came together just fine.

Now it was said that the NRA was super-stoked for this race, trash talking etc.  They also have a much bigger club than we do, and Turtles don't usually show up en masse to races these days.  So I was in major recruiting mode.  I was emailing Turtles that I haven't seen in years, emailing the club with weekly pleas to show up.  I made every effort possible to get a good showing, and surprisingly, it paid off!  We had 27 runners on the starting line, with a couple more there for support. The NRA only mustered 13!  Right away it was a moral victory.

The race started at 6:45 p.m. and would be run in the dark.  From the gun, I knew that the NRA's Mike Galoob would take it out and get the victory.  I am not in any kind of 5k shape, so I just wanted to hold second place and hope my teammates came through behind me.  Standing at the finish line after I crossed, I couldn't even see the runners coming in because it was so dark.  But it soon became clear that we had more runners in then they did, and before half the runners were in, I headed off with Jackie to do the second part of our workout knowing we were probably victorious once again.

Jackie and I ran the course again with a few intervals and pulled back into the parking lot to see pretty much every NRA runner gone and the Turtles were still BS'ing in the lot.  It was great to see everyone come together and get excited about a single race.

Afterward, many of us headed over to the Sonoma Pub and enjoyed some food and beer with our enemies - er - friends, the NRA.  It was a good turnout all around.  Next year, we set the rules and pick the venue, so it should be interesting!

TNT Pre-Race

TransRockies Wrap-up

So all the racing was finally done.  We checked in to our hotel, went through our bags yadda yadda...showered up and headed downstairs to the hotel lobby to check into our flight which was scheduled to fly out on Saturday @ 1:45pm.  I go to the computer, put in the info and AHHH, CANCELLED!  Damn Hurricane Irene had caused chaos in the flights around the U.S. especially in New England.  So now we had about an hour and a half to figure something out before the after party.  I attempted to book another flight heading out earlier, and got to the PURCHASE button and bam...someone got the last seat before me.  So when all was said and done we booked a flight for Monday instead of Saturday and were going to stay for 2 extra nights in a rinky dink hotel near the Denver Airport for two nights before heading back to RI.

Before we got there however, we had some celebrating to do.  The final dinner for the Transrockies was in the Beaver Creek Resort Ballroom.  The food was great, there was some free beer, and good company with AJ and Keri Wheeler and Thor, Jay, and their wives.  This was our finally hurrah with these guys and we enjoyed every minute of it.

After dinner it was the same ol' routine.  Awards, photos, and videos...but this time it was an accumulation of the whole week!  There was a lot to watch and crazy how some of the events seemed so long ago even though it was only a few days.

Once all that was over we had to say our goodbyes to AJ and Keri.  They were not going to the 7th Stage, as the Transrockies people called it, instead they had to get back to their hotel because they had an early departure in the AM.  It was pretty weird saying goodbye to them as we had spent most of the week hanging out, and now we wouldn't see them in the morning and didn't know if or when we would ever see them again.

On the other had we were STUCK with Thor and Jay.  They were going to the 7th Stage, which by the way is the after party to the final banquet, and not only that they lived in Massachusetts, so it will be hard going more than a few months without seeing them...DAMN!  (I hope they don't read this)

The 7th stage was held at some bar I can't remember the name of and this place, even though was in a resort, looked very "Colorado" to me, it probably looked that way because it was a resort.  There were animals hanging from the wall, there was a red glow to the place, and it was packed!  We were fortunate enough to get in there pretty early and get a table for the 6 or us.  We had a few Colorado brews took in the scenes and around midnight decided to call it a day.  We said our goodbyes to the Kirleiss' and Newtons' and headed back to a night in a BED, no more air mattress for us!

The rest of the story is unimportant and irrelevant to Transrockies the race, so I will keep it short.  With our whole travel debacle, we took our reserved shuttle from Vail to the Denver airport...but we had no plane, so we took the Comfort Inn Hotel shuttle to our hotel.  On the way we passed a few dozen hotels, all nice and close to all the restaurants that Avon, CO had to offer, our hotel was just over a mile from those - damn.  So for the next day and a half we walked over to these restaurants for lunch and dinner, we ran one of the days, and other then that we sat in the hotel watching movies.  I was a little scared to go in the pool, and one of the vending machines had expired food, but other than that it was a good time :).

Finally Monday came and we made our way to the airport to get out of Colorado and back home to see if there was any damage and hoping we had power as many were still out.  We were good on all matters, so that was a relief.

Sooo...Tranrockies was a cool experience.  It was one of those races I saw in an ad for awhile and couldn't get my mind off of, so I decided we should do it.  Would we do it again?  Yes, but it wouldn't be anytime soon, the race is just too damn expensive.

I do think running this race is a cool way to roam the Colorado mountains without having to worry about much other than running, so that was nice and I would definitely recommend the race if anyone asked about it.

Before we left for CO, a lot of people said "you are going to want to move out there when you get back"  etc.  So many people said this that I was planning on moving out there before we even left!  But Jackie and I both felt Colorado isn't the place to be.  It is nice, but we still love RI too much to leave everything behind!

...and because I forgot about this in all of these posts, here is a short list of some of the gear that we had with us, not including all the obvious shorts and tops etc.
Brooks Cascadia
Brooks Arm Sleeves
Salomon XT Advance Skin 5 S-Lab Set Pack  (I carried everything so Jackie didn't have to)
Ultimate Direction Fastdraw Plus Handheld Bottles
Nuun Electrolyte Tabs

Final Results

Here are a few final photos...finally I can write about something else!

Final awards dinner

Wall art...

Some more of that.

This is what everything looks like at Stage 7

Stage 6 - Vail to Beaver Creek

The last day...

Of course with any long journey there are mixed emotions going into the final day.  There is excitement and relief, but also sadness that the event will be over, we will be leaving our new friends and will have to go back to our regular lives and not be just running and eating all day everyday!

Stage 6 would have us leaving Vail Mountain, starting straight uphill for a short bit, then running on roads, yes roads for about 3 miles, crossing over route 70 and switchbacking up some mountain.  Then we would come back down, cross the highway again, and head back up the other side to the top of Beaver Creek before the final descent into the beautiful Beaver Creek Resort and our soft hotel bed that awaited!!

After the uphill start we got into a pretty good groove on the roads.  We didn't go crazy early because this stage had the most elevation gain of all six stage with 5100 ft!

As you can see from the elevation graph, there was a lot of work to be done, so this 3 miles of road didn't have to be rushed.  Going into this stage I don't remember the legs being horribly tired or anything, I think they were past that point and were just running on there own.  I do belive that Jackie and I got stronger as the week went on and stage 6 was no execption as we both felt pretty damn good throughout the stage.  We climbed well on the first climb and the second...the last climb was a bitch and Jackie finally showed that she was human and wasn't pulling me up the hills anymore.  Once we popped out of the trees and onto the access road for that last final descent, it was a great relief that we knew we had accomplished our goal and in the final stage I felt like we were actually racing as we had some back and forth action with a few treams, including two in our division that we were able to beat out and finish in 8th for the day in 4:28:00, finishing one spot behind our good friends Keri and AJ Wheeler.

Once finshed we rounded up our suitcases etc and waited for Thor and Jay to come down the mountain, and we didn't have to wait long as they saved their best day for last and rocked the stage in a solid 5:02:23.  After they celebrated a bit with their wives we headed into the Beaver Creek Chophouse and had a celebratory beer.  Thor wanted a photo of this and as he whipped out his camera someone was walking by, so he asked her to take a photo, however it wasn't just somebody it was Tracy Garneau!  She was happy to help and we got a great photo of us enjoying a local Colorado brew.

After trading stories everyone went their separate ways to check in to our hotels and get ready for the after parties...that story in the next post!

Final Results!

Start of Stage 6

Running through Vail

Across the highway

Running through the trees

They don't mess around with trail marking here...that marker is 5 ft long!

Heading up the last climb

Stage 4 - Nova Guides-Red Cliff

Stage 4, I returned from the dead.  After running really conservative on stages 2 and 3 I felt good enough before stage 4 that I thought we could run more like ourselves.  As good as I felt, we were both starting to get pretty sore from the first three days of running.  We still started out on the slow side but right from the start we saw that we were closer to some of the teams that we hadn't been around since stage 1.  Stage 4 was only 14.2 miles but you start out climbing for the first 5 miles.  After all that climbing you pop out on the top of the mountain, at least what you think is the top, there was still one more climb from about 7 to 7.5 miles that we needed to get up before descending for the remainder of the run.  Most of this course seemed to be dirt roads that were wide, but when we started to come off the mountain there was a good amount of loose rock, which we navigated well enough, but technical down hill running was not our strength at TRANSROCKIES!

One of the cool things about this stage was with about 3 miles to go you began a 1 mile trek through a riverbed.  There were times that the water was just a few inches deep, but other times it was calf deep or more.  Once through that mess you popped out onto a dirt road that was a gradual 2 miles all the way to the finish.  On this road we were really able to open it up and passed multiple teams.  This was by far the strongest we had finished for the week, and it was a good day to feel good at the end because Mango's Mountain Grill and taco's were waiting for us when we were done!

Today's creek to bath in was by far the coldest!  We were lucky to get in and out of there before the temperatures dropped a little bit and some rain rolled in.  Finally we used the mandatory gear, but it wasn't for the race, it was for sitting on the balcony at Mango's sipping on a Guinness and eating some tacos.  

Once back at camp we had a lot of time to waste, we listened to a talk from the founder of Salt Stick and had a drink courtesy of the roaming Margarita bar.   And to sound like a broken record, dinner was wonderful again, with the photos, videos, etc. etc.  

4 days down two to go!

Up we go.

Running in the river.

Have I told you about Red Cliff?

Mango's

Our group hanging out on the balcony.

Roaming Margarita Bar

Some of the ladies were lonely, so they found a friend.