On May 18, I ran the Red Island Marathon in Warwick, RI. This is another race in the New England Challenge. For many of the runners, it was day four of the series. For me, it was my second marathon in three days.
I drove to Rhode Island
on Tuesday, after spending two nights in Portland, ME. After checking into my hotel and eating
lunch, I went to Warwick City Park.
In my day-to-day
training, I alternate running days and walking days. I’m running marathons on Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday this week, so Tuesday and Thursday are walking days. I didn’t need to do a long or strenuous
walk. I just wanted to get some exercise
with my legs. I used this walk as an
opportunity to reacquaint myself with the marathon course.
Later, I got more
exercise by walking to and from dinner.
Walking felt good. I didn’t have
any residual soreness from my race the day before.
I went to bed early, but
woke up during the night and had trouble getting back to sleep. I felt like I got enough sleep to get by, but
I started the day feeling tired.
The race started at 6:00
AM. I already had my race bib, so I didn’t
have to get there as early today as I did for my last race. Even so, I still had to leave the hotel
before breakfast started. I had some tea
and cookies in my room.
Our course was a 2.7 mile
loop through Warwick City Park, starting in the parking lot at Buttonwoods Beach. We were running on a paved bike path, except
for the start/finish area, which was in a dirt parking lot. There was also a very short section over grass
that led us into the parking lot at the end of each lap.
The front half of the
loop was fairly flat, but it had lots of turns.
We ran by several baseball diamonds, and had a view of Buttonwoods Cove.
The back half of the loop
was hilly, but it gave us good views of Brush Creek Cove.
We had to run this loop
nine times. In addition, we started with
an out-and-back over the last mile of the course. That meant we started out running most of the
hills and then turning around and running them again.
They say that generals
always fight the last war. On Monday, my
legs got cold to the point where it affected my stride. The temperature this morning was similar to
my last race. If anything, it felt
colder than the last race. I was tempted
to wear tights today, but that would’ve been a mistake. Today, the temperature climbed into the upper
60s by the time I finished.
I wore shorts, but I
started at a cautious pace, knowing my legs would feel tight until I warmed
up. I was particularly cautious on the
hills in the initial out-and-back. To
help with getting warmed up, I started the race wearing a light jacket.
By the time I finished
the out-and-back, I was ready to take off my jacket. My legs were still cold, but if I kept the
jacket on any longer, I would just get hot and sweaty. My car was parked in the same parking lot
where we finished each lap. Rather than
tie my jacket around my waist, I took a few extra seconds to put my jacket in
the car before starting my first full loop.
For the first few laps,
my legs were cold. At times, I was
tempted to take walking breaks on the hills, but I was afraid my legs would get
colder. I told myself I could take
walking breaks later in the race, after it got a little warmer.
It wasn’t until late in
my fourth lap that I felt warm enough to make brief stops to take
pictures. Before I could use my camera,
I needed to take off my gloves. My hands
were beginning to get sweaty, so taking off my gloves while running was
difficult.
I saw three white birds in
the water in Brush Creek Cove. Before I
could take a picture, one flew away. A
second took flight just as I was taking this picture.
In my next lap, I suddenly
noticed some soreness in my right hip as I was taking a picture. It’s the same spot where I usually feel an
impingement of my sciatic nerve. I think
I was leaning backwards as I was lining up the picture.
As I resumed running, I made
a point of bringing my shoulders forward.
Within a few minutes, the soreness in my hip went away. It never bothered me again. I was pleasantly surprised that I never had
hip or lower back discomfort while running the hilly section of the course.
At the halfway point, I
was six minutes slower than I was in Monday’s race. On Monday, I got much slower in the second
half, as the muscles in my legs got cold and tightened. Today, I felt better in the second half. By then, it had finally warmed up enough for
my legs to feel more relaxed. As a result,
I kept a more consistent pace today.
Earlier, I had told
myself I could take walking breaks on the hills in the second half. As I warmed up, I no longer felt like I
needed any walking breaks. On my fifth
lap, I put more energy into running the hills.
By the end of my sixth lap, I realized I would wear myself out if I kept
doing that.
I realized after six laps
that I wasn’t going to be taking any more pictures, so I made another quick
trip to my car to drop off my phone.
I hate carrying any extra
weight while I’m running. When I put a
phone in my fanny pack, I immediately feel weighted down. I though I would feel lighter without the
phone, but I didn’t notice much of a difference. That was disappointing. It wasn’t until after the race that I looked
up how much the phone weighs. It’s only
7.09 ounces, although that doesn’t include the protective case. It feels heavier when I’m holding it in my
hand.
With about four miles to
go, I realized I had a good chance of beating my time form Monday’s race. I picked up my effort. I ran mile 24 in 10:10. That was my fastest mile since the first
lap. I picked up my effort more. I ran mile 25 in 9:34. By now, I was into the hilly section. My left hamstring felt tight. Earlier it felt tight because it was cold. Now it felt tight because the muscles were
getting fatigued. I continued to put
effort into my pace, but not too much effort.
I didn’t want to pull a muscle.
The last mile of the
course has so many hills and turns that it’s hard to remember them all. I didn’t know how close I was to finishing
until I caught a glimpse of something metallic through the trees. I was pretty sure it must have been a reflection
from one of the cars in the parking lot.
I had to go around two more turns before I could see the cars through
the trees. I was almost done.
I ran the 26th mile in
9:35. That was only one second slower
than the previous mile, even though this mile had most of the hills.
When I reached the
parking lot, I didn’t make an all-out dash to the finish. If anything, I slowed down. I was still afraid of pulling a muscle. My left hamstring still felt tight.
I finished the race in
4:30:36. That’s almost four minutes faster
than Monday. On Monday, I had positive
splits by almost 14 minutes. Today, I ran
negative splits by roughly one minute.
All of the finisher
medals for this series have similar designs.
This one was in the shape of Rhode Island.
During the race, I drank
Gatorade, but I didn’t eat any solid food.
I made up for that after the race.
I ate a hot dog, some chili, and several chunks of watermelon. I also drank some Gatorade. I felt a little bit dehydrated.
When I got into my car,
my left foot started to cramp up. I
noticed salt on my arms. I definitely
should’ve been drinking more during the race.
Because I felt cold for half of the race, I didn’t realize how much I
was sweating.
My hotel doesn’t have a
hot tub, but my room has a nice deep bathtub.
I took a long hot bath to warm up my legs and give the muscles a chance
to relax. Then I did some stretches and
worked on my hamstrings with a massage stick.
I put more effort into
this race than I did on Monday, particularly on the last lap. I don’t know if I ran hard enough to have
sore muscles, but I’m definitely going to feel tired when I start my race on
Friday.
Since I’m not racing
tomorrow, I don’t need to drive to Connecticut until tomorrow. I’ll relax tonight, sleep a little later
tomorrow, and enjoy a full breakfast instead of just eating a few cookies.
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