Inaugural Providence Marathon - another FULL length race report (Read 1099 times)

the Providence Marathon course Last Fall I ran the Manchester City Marathon to finish, and enjoyed the experience thoroughly. My time of 3:46:27 was just close enough to have me thinking about qualifying for Boston. My experience as a spectator at Boston this year was great, and fueled my desire to qualify this year if at all possible. I set 3:35 as a realistic time goal, and a BQ time of 3:30:59 as a stretch. My real goal for the day was to see if Gallo-walking a BQ was a possibility or a pipedream. The race website had directions to Saturday’s expo location at Johnson & Wales, but didn’t have any directions to the parking at the State House. Mapquest was spot on, and sixty minutes after leaving home I was grabbing my bag and heading for a shuttle bus. It was 7:30 and the parking was filling up pretty quickly. It was cool and raining, and weather.com had 10:00am thunderstorms in the forecast. I grabbed my number and timing chip, took note of the bag check location and went into a nearby building. Nice place, seemed like a student activity center or something like that. I wandered down the hall before I realized that I had passed two legs of the monstrous line for the restroom. I’d passed an elevator, so I made a u-turn and went to the second floor. I though to myself “this is too good to be true, a restroom with no lines- no waiting.” I could hardly believe my luck as I sat down in the hallway with about twenty other runners. From out of nowhere, a stormtrooper wannabe in a security uniform yelled out “you people got a hearing problem? GET OUTTA THE BUILDING!” We all just looked at each other, picked our jaws up off the floor and headed for the stairway. A simple “I’m sorry folks, you can’t wait in here…” would have done the job. Welcome to Providence. I wolfed down a PowerBar on the way out, and grabbed my gummi bears from a front pocket of my pack. Once outside, I was focused on getting a garbage bag out of my pack, and putting it on as a raincoat. I committed a fateful mistake, forgetting to take my water bottle out of a side pocket before dropping my backpack at the bag check. Like soggy lemmings we made our way to the start, a completely desolate industrialish area with about a dozen porta johns and nowhere to hide from the rain. We got the good news that the start would be delayed ten minutes due to the late arrival of some shuttle buses. I was standing at the very back of the pack, and was somewhat surprised to hear the gun and see people start moving because I expected to hear the national anthem. It was three minutes later when I was the last runner to reach the starting mat, I had some boogie in my stride as Gettin Jiggy Wit It was blaring. Unlike Manchester, I was focused on racing rather than just running so a lot of this marathon is a blur for me. Letting everybody go ahead turned out to be a good move. The early miles were less congested this way, but still required full attention because at any moment a runner could dart in front of you from the side to avoid a puddle. Some of the puddles looked more like golf course water hazards. I think the owners of the city’s “gentlemen’s clubs” hold heavy sway with the Chamber of Commerce, we passed three in the first few miles. I was running comfortably, and taking my walk breaks after eight minutes. On the second or third walk break I felt warm enough to discard my Hefty disposable raincoat. I was thanking each of the police officers I passed, and received icy stares from about half of them. I know it’s raining guys but c’mon, say something. Sure? Yup? Uh huh? Welcome? Smile and nod? Scrapped that plan, Providence sure ain’t gonna win any friendliness awards. After I passed mile 10, I started eating gummi bears on each walk break. This is when I really missed my water bottle, it can be surprisingly difficult to choke down three gummi bears in sixty seconds. About the point where the half marathon course split off, I noticed the balls of my feet were bothering me. At about eleven miles the top of my left middle toe started complaining and I realized my feet were wet and sliding in my shoes. I thought about tightening my laces, but that has created issues with numbness in the past so I just forged on. It was right around this point that the 3:30 pace bunny passed me for the first time. I don’t know at what point it stopped raining, but it was warming up a bit. I started out with a short sleeve tech over a long sleeve, as I walked past the fourteen mile mark I discarded the long sleeve. I had been taking water at all the aid stations, so I took a moment to hit a porta john at the mile seventeen mark. I was still feeling pretty good as I arrived at the unofficial start of the race, mile 20. To this point the 3:30 pace bunny had passed me numerous times as I walked, and I returned the favor as I ran. He had a pack of six or eight people in tow, and was doing a great job of providing feedback and encouragement as they went. The next couple of miles were still OK, but miles 22 and 23 were uphill. I think I maintained my 8-1 run-walk ratio on this stretch, but I can’t be really sure. Somewhere in here I made my second serious mistake of the day. I was thoroughly sick of trying to choke down gummi bears without water and tossed them. This was about where I had stopped eating in Manchester, figuring that it wouldn’t get into my bloodstream by the end anyways. If my brain was working properly, I would have kept eating them or at the very least put them back in my pocket. At about 23.5 the pace bunny passed again, and this time I noticed he had opened up a bigger gap. I knew my current pace was not going to get the job done, but as I cleared the top of the hill at 24 I knew that I was rapidly losing steam. I lost sight of the pace bunny for the first time, and that was a huge mental blow. A BQ time was still a remote possibility, if I could catch a second wind. Mile 24 was OK, I was feeling kinda loopy, and wasn’t really thinking a lot. Just right foot, left foot, repeat. Mile 25 was a death march, I had hit the wall. It was sad to see 3:31 on my Garmin, but it kind of woke me up. I still had a time goal to hit, and I was able to get back in gear for the final push. There might have been three or four turns leading to the finish, but it felt like I was stumbling through a maze with 100 turns. I didn’t think the line would ever come into view, I could hear it before I could see it. The announcer had the finish crowd cheering, so I picked up my pace as best I could and managed to run across the line. I almost fell over while a nice young lady was taking my chip off. I was lightheaded and unlike Manchester I couldn’t really walk very well. I probably should have headed for the medical tent, but I didn’t see it. The bag check was right at the finish, and the kid had spotted my number and was holding my bag before I got over to him. Huge friendliness and efficiency points for that young man. I found a big piece of cardboard, and dragged it over to a wall. It felt great to lay down, and after a minute I swung my legs up and rested my heels on the wall above my head. I had a couple of chocolate milk brick packs in my bag, but I had left it out of reach. Another runner had stopped to rummage through his bag, and he was kind enough to kick mine over to me. That was without question the best chocolate milk ever. I started feeling better, and headed over to the food area. A kid cut in front of me and grabbed the last piece of pizza, so I was standing there sizing up my available options when I saw a tent with a barely legible massage sign. There was only one runner waiting, so I grabbed a cookie and banana and waited for an open table. If it’s available, I highly recommend it. I wasn’t home long before my brother in law called to congratulate me, my time of 3:33:52 was already on coolrunning. He has qualified for Boston a number of times, but hasn’t run it because of the challenges of training through a New England winter. He is hoping to qualify again in a couple of weeks at the Vermont City Marathon, but this time he is planning to run Boston 2009. I would love to join him, I’m hoping to shave three minutes off at Around the Lake in July or Baystate in October. It’s been a great ride so far, I’m really looking forward to chapter three.

Great report as usual.

Thanks for sharing. You will get it done next time out. If you question your ability, you won't. If you think you can, you might. If you know you can, you will. Write that down and read it before every run. It will always give you purpose.

Great job!!! Thanks for the pictures. I loved your race report.

I'm disappointed by your bib number.

As was I, somehow I got 266 and 666 was mistakenly assigned to another runner.

A nice young lady did in fact sing the National Anthem - except that she kept screwing up. After stopping for the second or third time she decided to just skip to the end. Beautiful voice, but she was pretty nervous. Maybe she wasn't expecting an audience of 2000 people.

Well now I feel bad, that means I was wearing my hat during the National Anthem. They must have had the volume on her microphone down a bit, because they actually had a good PA setup. The sound systems at most races I’ve run make everyone sound like the teacher from Charlie Brown cartoons.

This was the first running of Providence, right? How would you compare it to the first running of Manchester? How was the organization? Crowd support?

My goals and expectations are probably the biggest factor that make the two seem to be completely different events. In Manchester I was pretty confident that I would finish in pretty good shape, but I ran only to finish and enjoy the whole experience. In Providence I wanted a BQ reality check, setting 3:35 as the marker for success before the race. As the morning unfolded, I began to believe I would have a chance for a BQ. I had a sense of urgency, because you don’t know if the opportunity will come your way again. It definitely changed my mentality and body language, I had my head down and my game face on. I don’t know whether or not the course had less to see, or just that I noticed less. I’m also more familiar with some of Manchester, and I’d run the course before the race. I know I was running on the bikepath in Providence for a while before I even noticed the waterfront was to my left. When I did pick my head up to look around, it was usually in some fairly industrialish or commercial (including adult entertainment) area in Providence. I do recall thinking “this is a nice neighborhood” at one point, I might have missed others. Both courses had stretches that could be considered fairly desolate or very peaceful depending on your point of view. The crowd support in Manchester was better, but so was the weather. There were definitely pockets of enthusiasm on the Providence course, but for the most part it was a pretty quiet and reserved New England crowd that I passed. Blaine mentioned on his blog that he saw some people driving on closed sections of the course in Providence. Thankfully I only experienced excellent traffic control during both races. With the exception of a fairly chaotic starting area, the organization in Manchester was definitely better. The spacing of water stops was better, and the city’s residents set up a number of unofficial stops as well. At the end of the finish chute there were lots of volunteers, and barricades forced you into the “athletes village” which had the food, medical, massage and awards areas in one location. In Providence, at the end of the finish chute there was…nothing. The bag check was nearby and obvious, but you had already passed the medical tent and it was behind a brick and wrought iron fence. You had already passed the food area, it was on the opposite side from the medical area. Volunteers were scarce and signage was non-existent. If I had known where the medical tent was I would have gone, if only to sit in a chair or lay on a bed for ten minutes. The only real organizational drawback to Manchester was no race-day number/chip pickup, meaning you had to make a Saturday trip to the expo. I hope they reconsider that, now that the price of gas has doubled it’s a $25.00 round trip for me. They were both great experiences in their own ways, and there were certainly lessons learned from each. Manchester seemed a bit more challenging, but not by much. Those hills at 22-24 in Providence kinda kicked my ass. I’ve put Baystate on my calendar, which will leave Maine, Vermont and Connecticut to complete my New England circuit. After that, maybe I’ll be back to give New Hampshire or Rhode Island another go. Providence in particular leaves me with the feeling that I have unfinished business.

Forgot that I had to dash off to my Tuesday 5K series, and didn't have a chance to post my favorite pic. Curt Schilling ain't the only one around here with a bloody sock. I brought along a pair of Crocs to change into, and when I took off my shoes I found evidence of the discomfort from my left foot. My foot was sliding back and forth in my wet shoe, and rubbing the top of my toe against the spot where the tongue is sewn to the upper. That would make a good New Balance LOVE/hate ad.