For the past few years,
I’ve been flying to Boston on the Friday before the Boston Marathon, so I could
run the Boston 5K race on Saturday. This
year, I decided to do something different.
Instead of running the Boston 5K race, I ran the Newport Rhode Races
Marathon in Newport, RI.
This isn’t the first time
I’ve done another marathon on the Saturday before the Boston Marathon. In 2012 and 2013, I ran the Gansett Marathon
in Narragansett, RI on the Saturday before Boston. On both occasions, I was able to recover
quickly and have a good race on Monday.
Ideally, I would have
flown to Providence, but there weren’t any direct flights from
Minneapolis. Instead, I flew to Boston
and drove from there. The drive from
Boston to Newport took about an hour and 45 minutes.
I arrived in Newport
around 1:30. I stopped at the Newport YMCA
to pick up my race packet. Then I went
to my hotel to check in.
I had originally booked a
room at Newport Beach Hotel & Suites.
That’s the closest hotel to where the race starts and finishes. Two weeks ago, I got an email from the owner
indicating they had damage from a burst pipe, and he had moved my reservation
to Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina, which he also owns. This hotel was about two miles away. As it turns out, the Newport Harbor Hotel
& Marina is actually a nicer hotel.
It’s just not as well-located for the race.
I arrived at the hotel
around 2 PM. The advertised check-in
time is 4:00, but they had a room available when I arrived. Getting into a room right away gave me plenty
of time to do a workout before dinner.
While I wasn’t as close
to where the race starts and finishes, I had a room with a view of the harbor,
and there were plenty of nearby restaurants.
Unless you’re staying at
a hotel near Easton’s Beach, there isn’t anywhere you can park that’s within a
mile of the race venue. They have remote
parking lots where you can park and take a bus to the race. I was worried about getting on the road
quickly after the race, so I asked if I could still park my car at the Newport
Beach Hotel & Suites (the closer hotel).
When I was done with my workout, I drove over there to get a parking
permit for my car, so I could park there in the morning.
I was originally planning
to have dinner at an Italian restaurant that was a few blocks from my
hotel. I was about to leave when I heard
thunder. I checked my weather app and saw
that heavy rain would continue for at least an hour. I didn’t want to walk to dinner in a
downpour, so I had dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It turned out to be pretty good.
I had to get up extra
early, so I could pack up and check out before driving to the race. Then I drove over to Newport Beach Hotel
& Suites. From there, it was a
relatively short walk to the start/finish area.
The temperature was in
the low 50s. There was enough wind that
I was comfortable running in tights. I
wasn’t checking a gear bag, so I really needed them to keep from getting too
cold before and after the race.
My goal was to finish as
close to four hours as I could. That was
a somewhat soft goal. The real goal was
to get to Boston by 2:00 PM, because that’s when I needed to return my rental
car. If I finished in four hours, I
would easily have enough time for the drive.
If I took longer, it might be tight.
The race started and
finished at Easton Beach, which is at the south end of Aquidneck Island. The first half of the race was a big loop
that took us around a peninsula to the west of where we started. The second half of the race was mostly
out-and-back to the east of where we started.
They had pace groups, so
I lined up with the 4:00 group. The 4:00
pacer was a handsome man in his 20s, and everyone wanted to take pictures with
him before the race. It seemed like a
lot of people knew him, so I’m guessing he’s an influencer. He told us he’d be taking videos during the
race.
The streets we started on
weren’t wide enough for so many runners, so the start was congested. It took a couple minutes to get up to our target
pace.
As we left the beach and
got into town, we had to climb a hill.
Our pacer told us to lean in to it, and then he charged up the hill. I knew I couldn’t match his acceleration on the
hill, so I went at a pace I could manage.
I fell behind the group on the hill, but I eventually caught up when we were
going downhill.
The 4:00 group was so large
that it filled the width of the street and stretched back for half a block. It was impossible for everyone to stay close
to the pacer. I usually ran at the back of
the group, where it was least crowded.
Toward the end of mile
two, on a long downhill section, I found some room on the side of the road, and
I accidentally got in front of the group.
That gave me more room to run, but I had to be careful not to get too far
ahead.
That only happened
once. On the next hill, I fell behind
the group again. After that, it was
taking longer to catch up after each hill.
I was surprised how hilly
this race was. I’ve been to Newport before,
but it was a different race, and it was more than 20 years ago. I didn’t have any idea what this course would
be like.
Each time I fell behind the
group on the hill, I wondered if I would catch up again. After four or five miles, I questioned
whether I should. The pace was getting
to be tiring, and I didn’t need to finish in 4:00. A 4:05 or 4:10 finish would be just fine.
We were about halfway
through mile seven when I finally fell behind the group for good. That was unfortunate timing. We were coming around a point to a section
where we would be right on the coast for the next few miles.
One of the wildcards in a
coastal race is the wind. I hadn’t
noticed the wind much until now, but we were turning into it, and it could feel
the wind resistance. If I was still with
a large group, the runners in front of me would block most of the wind. After falling behind, I had to fight the wind
by myself.
It wasn’t an unusually
strong wind, but it was enough to make my hands cold. As my hands gradually got colder, that
discomfort made me less willing to work hard to keep up my pace.
At some point, I heard
someone behind me asking if that was the 4:00 group ahead of us. I said it was. Then I noticed that this was the leader of
another pace group. There was a half
marathon that started 15 minutes after the marathon. This was the 1:40 pace group for the half
marathon.
My first mile running by
myself wasn’t that much slower. With the
group, I was averaging about 9:10 per mile.
On my own, I slowed to 9:32. It
didn’t stop there, however. Each mile
after that was slower than the previous one.
Mile eight took 9:50. Then in mile nine, I slowed to 10:10. The next mile took 10:20. Then, finally, my pace stabilized.
I was passed by another
half marathon pace group. This was the
1:50 group. I wondered if the 2:00 group
would pass me too, but I realized I would finish the first half before they
caught up to me.
I wasn’t going to be as
close to a four-hour finish as I wanted.
Then I reminded myself that the rental car company has a 30-minute grace
period. I said I would return the car by
2:00 PM, but there wouldn’t be any extra charge as long as I returned it by
2:30. With that in mind, I revised my
goal to 4:30.
My pace stabilized in
mile 12. Then we came back through downtown
Newport and turned onto the street where we started. We ran down the same hill we had gone up in
the first mile. I could see Easton’s
Beach ahead of me.
Coming back to the beach,
we were on a thin strip of land with water on both sides. This is where we were most exposed to the
wind. Runners doing the half marathon
turned and ran into the parking lot to finish.
Those of us doing the marathon kept going straight to begin the second
half.
I ran the first half in roughly
2:06, but I knew the second half would be much slower. I was already running out of gas.
To begin the second half,
I ran past the hotel where my car was parked, and I entered Middletown. Easton’s Beach was the lowest point on the
course. Now, I was climbing away from
it.
Mile 14 was mostly uphill. It was gradual, but it was my slowest mile so
far. That mile took me roughly 11
minutes. If I ran that pace the rest of
the way, I would still finish in 4:30, so I wasn’t too worried.
Mile 15 was also mostly
uphill, but then there was a sharp downhill.
I knew I would have to run back up that hill later in the race. I wasn’t looking forward to that.
For several miles, I had
wanted to make a bathroom stop. Most of
the aid stations had port-o-potties, but there were always runners waiting in
line.
During mile 16, I ran by
an aid station in front of a large parking lot.
This was one of the remote parking areas for the race, and there were
several port-o-potties there. They were
facing the parking lot, and to get to them, I would need to detour around the
barriers that separated the road from the parking lot. I decided to wait for the next opportunity.
The second half of the
race was sort of a “Y” configuration. There
was an out-and-back branch to the southeast and a longer out-and-back section that
headed to the northeast. I was now on
the shorter out-and-back.
I was almost to the
16-mile mark when I saw the 4:00 pace group coming back on the other side of
the street. They were at least a mile
ahead of me by now, but I wouldn’t have to go much further before reaching the
turnaround point. That made me realize
the next set of port-o-potties would be the same ones that I just skipped.
Coming back, I decided to
detour through the parking lot to finally make a bathroom stop. Because of the time I lost there, I was no
longer on pace to break 4:30.
The first out-and-back
section was fairly flat. When I turned
to start the longer out-and-back section, I quickly discovered that it was
hilly. I was almost to the 18-mile mark
when I encountered a hill that was steep enough that I needed to walk part of
it.
When I’m running an unfamiliar
course, I sometimes think about where I would be if I was at the same mile
marker on a more familiar course. At 18
miles, I thought about where the 18-mile mark is on the Boston Marathon
course. It’s in the middle of the Newton
Hills. There’s an aid station there, and
my friend Eliot has volunteered at that aid station the last two years. Eliot was also doing this race. So far, I had not seen him.
As I continued, I noticed
that I was running uphill a lot more than I was running downhill. Mile 19 had another tough hill. This one wasn’t steep, but it was long. I was just cresting the hill when I saw a
pace group coming back. It was the 3:45
group. That gave me a good idea how much
farther I would need to run before reaching the turnaround.
Several minutes later, I
heard a familiar voice calling my name from the other side of the street. It was Eliot, who was already on his way
back. He was a few minutes ahead of the
4:00 pace group.
Later, when I saw the
4:00 group coming back, I guessed that I was within a mile of the turnaround.
When I eventually reached
the turn myself, I told myself it would have to be easier coming back. Going out, there was an uphill trend. Coming back, it would have to be net
downhill. I was getting pretty
discouraged about my pace. In the uphill
miles, I was as slow as 12 minutes.
At 21 miles, I did a time
check. My time so far was 3:39 and
change. At the pace I was going, I
expected the last 5.2 miles to take about an hour. I was going to be hard-pressed to get to
Boston on time.
The second half of this
out-and-back had a downhill trend, but it wasn’t all downhill. On one particularly long uphill segment, I
had to take two walking breaks.
When I eventually reached
the junction of the “Y,” I was almost to the 24-mile mark. When I got there, I did another time
check. I was going to be slower than
4:40.
I still had to go up the steep
hill that I had run down earlier. I walked
the whole thing. When I reached the top
of that hill, I knew I would have a gentle downhill trend the rest of the way.
At 25, I did my last time
check. With a slightly downhill finish,
I might break 4:40. It was going to be close.
As I reached the familiar
turn, near where my car was parked, there were cheering spectators lining both
sides of the street. From there, it was
flat the rest of the way.
When I left the road to
turn into the parking lot, I remembered seeing where the finish line was. I couldn’t see it yet. There were still two more turns, where we ran
around the corner of a building.
I finished in 4:40:08. That was disappointing, but I needed to focus
on getting back to my car quickly. I got
my finisher medal and made my way quickly through the food tent.
I couldn’t afford to
linger too long in the finish area. I only ate food that I could finish
quickly. I made a quick bathroom
stop. Then I hurried back to my car, so
I could get on the road as quickly as possible.
Having my car parked so
close proved to be a mixed blessing. It
only took me five minutes to walk to my car, but it took longer than that to get
out of the parking lot. Roads were
blocked in both directions. On top of
that, I couldn’t use my phone for driving directions, because I couldn’t get a
cellular connection. Between runners and
spectators, there were too many people in the area using their phones. I had to drive a distance away and pull over
before I could use my phone.
The drive back to Boston
took about two hours, plus the time it took to stop at a gas station to fill my
tank. I had no chance of returning my
car by 2:00, but I got there within the 30-minute grace period.
Instead of returning my
rental car at the airport, I returned it to a location in the Back Bay. Dollar has a rental car office that’s across
the street from my hotel in Boston.
Returning the car there was a huge time savings.
This is the fifth
straight race where I struggled badly in the second half. In the previous four, heat and dehydration played
a role. In some of those, I was also
going at an ambitious pace. This race
had cool weather, and I started at a pace that would normally have been
manageable. The only explanation for my
struggles is that these races have taken too much out of me, and I need more
time to recover. I only have one day off
before the Boston Marathon, so I expect to be slow.
Stay tuned for my race report for the Boston Marathon.
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