This seems to be an Indian summer for us here. The drying leaves made a great sound in the wind this morning.

Post.

Unsafe to run this am. Huge storms. Potential tornados downed trees etc.

glad  you made the flight Tessa

Had such a nice weekend I didn't want to return to work!  BF's ship did not sail---hydraulic problems, so he was home this weekend.  He's a marine biologist.  Saturday was 37.5 mile ride in the park.  Beautiful day!  Went to the commissary, then cleaned out the carport and raked the back porch.  All day event.  Sunday went out for and easy run and was so stiff from all the bending and lifting Saturday I bagged it after 4 miles.  Awful.  Took yesterday off.  This morning had a good tempo run with Jeffrey.  5.3 miles

Wow Tessa and Karen!!  Great job Damaris!

Had a storm blow through last night.  Cooler today, thank you very much!

Y'all have a great day!

A lot of catching up to do! Had  the day off work yesterday and did 5.35 and 5 this morning (both with Jet of course). Today's run was tough. I was tired and it was very windy, but no weather problems like some of you have seen lately.

Judy - great workouts as usual. Chair shopping with cookies? I'm in!

Marjorie - stay safe. Hope you don't get any storm damage.

Tessa, Karen & Damaris - you guys are amazing!! Way to go!

Sue - sounds like some great riding and running

Camille - tough night for you. Hope the storm has passed.

Hi to everyone else I missed!

Made it home! Arrived at 12:30, got to bed at 1, up again at 3:30 to run 4 with RN.

Newport 2014

Newport did not give a great impression of itself prior to race day, especially in comparison to Hartford. We got email updates from Hartford periodically, which was nice because the messages confirmed that you were registered for the race and the race management wanted to keep runners informed as to what was going on. Newport did not do that. You could go on the site and look for Facebook updates or register for their infrequent tweets, but not everyone’s on Twitter or Facebook. We finally got something by email the week before the race. It was useful to know that there was packet pickup race morning, especially considering how many runners were doing Hartford the day before or coming some distance to a town that’s relatively difficult to get to. Newport is situated on a peninsula with toll bridges to get in and out. When they did start sending out missives they seemed to be trying hard to monetize the race – trade in the race shirt for merchandise credit for other items, rent a locker rather than free bag check, and so forth.

Karen and I drove over from Hartford on Saturday afternoon, stopped at the rental to clean up since we hadn’t tried for late checkout in Hartford and were schtinky, and once we’d showered and I’d snarfed down a peanut butter bagel we went to get our packets. The pickup site was where race parking was to be the next day, a town beach, and the predominant feature was a large tent with a long line of people extending out of it. We winced and asked someone in line if that was for packet pickup or last minute registration. She told us it was packet pickup but added “for the half, if you’re doing the full you go to the left”. We went left. Walked straight in and up to the table where the person handing out packets for the full marathon was sitting looking bored. Sometimes it is good to be in the full marathon!

We got our bibs and threaded our way through the crowded tent to shirt pickup. Newport had advised us that we could pick up our shirts and either keep them or turn them in for $10 merchandise credit towards something else being sold in the tent. No thank you. I did like that we could choose from blue, green, or black shirts with the race logo on them. We both selected forest green and opted not to stay and shop. We were starving! Stopped at a bar & grill for an early dinner and then went back to the apartment to rest up.

We woke early the next morning and drove down to the parking area before Newport PD started closing the roads. Boarded a shuttle bus and got to the starting area in good time. This is also the finish line and the halfway point, we had no doubt about its location the day before when we drove past it and saw approximately 50 portapotties standing shoulder to shoulder. We ran into a couple of Maniacs from Hawaii, Glen and Les, who we’d met at the Hartford hotel and then encountered a couple of times during the race. They were organizing the Maniacs prerace photo and we followed them out to the beachfront walk, hollering for everyone eligible to come and be in the picture. I had forgotten my Maniacs singlet however was wearing the Hartford shirt, as was Karen, so there wasn’t much doubt about our standing. (If you’re doubling and you’re not a Maniac, you should be.) Picture taken by an obliging fellow runner, who unfortunately stepped back off the curb to get everyone in and put his foot into an ankle-deep puddle. Sorry, guy. One more potty stop, thank you half marathoners who let us go first since the full was supposed to start at 7:30 and the half didn’t start until 8. Then had to find the start line.

We, and everyone else, marched to the west to get past a sand dune to the road. When we got out there we found that the start line was to the east and the start would be westbound, so we had to get past the fast runners to places further back. Not great organization. It’s much preferable to feed runners into the start area from the back and let those who should be further up wiggle and apologise their way to their correct positions.

And then we stood there for some time. The RD was apparently waiting for the police to confirm that the race could start and the roads were secure, because after the national anthem (recorded) and a number of announcements we were still kept there. Ness opined that they were waiting for the runners to get through the potty lines. I say the good Lord invented chip mats for a reason. Let ‘em start late. We were getting very impatient. At least it wasn’t raining, it was cold but sunny and not too windy. Finally at 7:46 the gun went off and so did we.

The race starts on a causeway with a beach to the south and a lagoon to the north, and heads west into Newport proper. The first mile includes a hill and during that time I saw Carole and her DH, they had hung out with Ness before the start (I never saw her). Through some of old Newport and we started a counterclockwise circle around the point the town is on. I had been advised to take note of the architecture and I must say those old mansions are gorgeous – though I wouldn’t want to have the heating bills or the upkeep of them, or the property taxes!

Most of the course was open to cars, though, and that wasn’t pleasant. While the police were stopping many of the cars to allow the runners the right of way there were still some cars coming out of side streets and trying to drive around the runners to get where they needed to go. We nearly got flattened by one SUV pulling out of a side street whose driver apparently did not know Latin very well – presumably he couldn’t translate the epithet I flung in his direction. Another runner snickered. Presumably he comprehended the meaning of “coprophagous phallocephalic cretin”. Actually it’s probably a good thing the SUV driver didn’t understand it.

Just before we enter Fort Adams State Park a runner comes by us at a high rate of speed. I surmise that he missed the start and is running to catch up, but then we see more fast runners coming by and I realize they are wearing half marathon bibs. I guess the half wasn’t delayed as long as the full was! Around Fort Adams, out to the point, down by rocky bluffs and tide pools. Some of these have fishermen on them. Many of them are deserted at this hour of the morning.

We pass Portuguese Memorial which is a circle of concrete pillars with a marker in the middle. I’m presuming this is for some of the many fisherfolk from Portugal who settled in Rhode Island. It looks nice. We’re now at the 7 mile marker and I’m holding steady 12 minute miles, I don’t know how long I can keep this up as the temperature rises but I want to bank as much time as I can knowing that there’s a 6 hour time limit overall and we started late. Karen’s well ahead of me, Carole is behind, I have no idea where Ness is but I suspect she’s up front – speedy woman. (She was. She beat me by nearly 2 hours.)

Eastbound along the south side of the peninsula and we are all impressed by the mansions. They are gorgeous. Then at the 10 mile marker we turn inland and head north back to the road we came into town on. Two more miles and we’re at 12, most of the spectators are telling us “almost there!” and no, that’s true for the half marathoners but not for us. We get to run down the hill we climbed earlier. Eastbound on the causeway again and here we are coming up to the half finish.

This was one of the most memorable parts of the race, and that is NOT a compliment. All the runners come back down the hill we went up before Mile 1, and we know that the half finishes in the parking lot right by the start line and the full continues east for the second half. I was running with another Maniac I’d met along the way, Karen from Syracuse, and another woman named Sarah, and we kept looking for the split for halfs and fulls. We could see the finish line, hear the medals clinking, smell the pizza, and we still didn’t see a split. Perhaps 40 yards before the finish they finally told the fulls to go right and the half runners to go left, and we ran right past the finish line, over a mat, and figured out that we were supposed to follow a scattered double line of orange cones through the parking lot, which was full of people milling around after the finish of the half, and exit back out to the road to turn east and head out for the second half. We weren’t certain we were going where we should but we decided there was no other way to go. There were no course officials there to direct us. The aid stations had lots of volunteers, but there was nobody wearing an orange shirt guiding the runners through the mess of the halfway point.

Karen, Sarah, and I exited the parking lot and turned to get onto the second half course. This was when a half finisher looked at us and said “You’re going the wrong way, you should have turned into the parking lot, you need to turn back and go through the cones!” Karen almost cried. Another woman said “no, if you already went across the mat then you’re OK, go the way you’re going” and I looked at the first one and said “You do NOT know what you’re talking about and I suggest you get your facts straight in future” and we headed on. Since we passed the Mile 14 marker shortly thereafter I think we were OK, and in fact I believe the course was slightly long at least with the way I was not cutting the tangents. Ness’s report notes that it was long. I’m sure she’s right. We went through a residential area and past something labeled “Purgatory Chasm” – goodness knows what that was or is – and down a hill to Mile 15. The only disquieting thought was that we’d passed the Mile 25 marker so we knew we were going to have to run back up the hill again at some point.

The course from then on is shaped like a Y. A small out and back to a nature reserve, miles 16 and 17, and then a long out and back for miles 18 through 24. The short one wasn’t bad, pretty sand dunes and vegetation. I saw a number of people I’d seen before, including Carole and her DH, and I was still running with Karen from NY. Sarah had pulled ahead, I think. Another runner joined us for a while, Jonathan from Arkansas who was on his forty-seventh state, and we got to the turnaround and back and then turned right for the long out and back. That was not so great. It was getting warm, the wind was blowing into our faces, and this was fairly hilly by Newport standards. And since it was up over a hill and back down we knew we were going to have to climb back up that hill again soon.

I saw our Karen just before mile 19 for me, which was mile 23 for her, and waved. She said she’d given herself permission to walk up the hill, but she was still on schedule for a 4:30 finish. I was definitely slowing down. I got up the hill, down the other side still on the outbound, and realized that there was a little loop through a residential neighbourhood on the way back that was not on the map. Grrr. I started listing words to describe the course management and organization. Abominable, appalling, atrocious, asinine…and I wasn’t even through the A’s yet!

Made it to the turnaround and headed back. Got through the FLL – the you-figure-out-the-adjective little loop – and back onto the main road. Snickered when I saw that the road past the cemetery was called “Green End Road”. Given the money that was required to live in these areas of Newport or Middletown when the road was being constructed I’d say it would be a green end all right! Up and over the biggest hill, which didn’t seem so bad on the way back, and then past the town drinking water reservoir and the bird sanctuary to get to the mile 24 marker (God Save the Queen!) and the final stretch. I was passing people and being passed but I knew I wasn’t anywhere near last, I saw a lot of people still going up the out and back as I returned. At least the aid stations were still staffed. They all had bananas and Carboom gel as well as water and Gatorade.

We climbed what Karen’s fellow runner referred to as “the sh!tty little hill” and circled the point again. Passed the 25 mile marker. Yeah! Then along the last residential street and down into east Newport to the finish. It was crowded. There were a bunch of spectators there, which was nice. I made it past the dune to the entrance and put on a burst of speed to the finish. As I was coming towards the finish I saw another runner coming in just behind me with two spectators flanking him, one holding a sign that said “Worst Parade Ever”. I have seen that sign many times but not normally held by people running a finisher in! Had to giggle. Crossed the finish line at exactly 5:30 gun, chip should be a minute or two faster. Got my medal, saw that the only food at the finish was cold pizza and warmish water, decided against these, met Karen who had been waiting for me for nearly an hour, bless her, and we headed for the shuttle bus.

We saw Erin on the way, who I had run with between miles 8-11, and I introduced them since they’re neighbours in Maryland. Then saw Karen from NY on the bus. You do tend to make a lot of friends at these races! We arrived back at the car and went for well-deserved showers. Karen had come in at about the same time she had the day before, as had Ness. And we weren’t that sore the next day – nice to feel that way after a double! Yes, I’m slow, but I finished. Two more states accomplished this weekend, and an enjoyable time despite some glitches on Newport’s part.

Tessa-great RR!  The mansions there are gorgeous.  Breakers was in the old Great Gatsby.  Little loops at the end through residential areas are quite annoying.  As is running basically over the finish line.

Camille-Michigan has no earthquakes or hurricanes and very rarely do we have a tornado.  We do have blizzards though.

Slept in this morning.  Will run a few miles tomorrow. But respecting and enjoying the taper.