Race Report & Review-Newport 10 Miler

 This past weekend I traveled to Newport, Rhode Island to participate in the Inaugural Newport 10 Miler.  This is the first time I have ever traveled for a race--everything I have run up to this point has been in South Florida.  I was nervous about traveling, and I was nervous about the HILLS, because we just don't have those in South Florida.  Oh, and the cold.  It was in the 40s-50s and windy.  Yeah, 40s and 50s is winter jacket weather for this SoFL girl.  I don't know how to run in that kind of weather.  But my best bud Allison was running her first double digit race (and her 2nd race ever!) so I wanted to be there for her.  Plus I had yet to meet her nine month old baby girl!

As soon as Allison picked me up from the airport on Saturday, we jaunted over to Fort Adams to  work packet pickup.  Allison's little girl came and "helped".  We look like fools because we were trying to get her to look at the camera--it obviously didn't work :-)

I truly started freaking out about the temperatures while working packet pickup because while the sun was out, the wind was blowing pretty good and was bitingly chilly.  I was so worried about staying warm during the race. 

Race morning dawned cool, but calm.  The water looked like glass.  It was chilly in the morning, but the race organizers and the foresight to schedule a pre-race yoga session, which was brilliant.  I was able to get warmed up and gear check all of my extra layers.

Allison and I before the race. 

The water was so calm it looked like glass!

Right before the race I managed to find Nicole (Running While Mommy) from Team Tough Chik so we could get a quick picture.  Nicole was chasing for a 1:45 PR and killed it.

 

 There was an emotional moment of silence for Boston.  I was amazed how many BAA jackets I saw while I was there--both volunteers and participants.  I met at least half a dozen people who were there on the 15th.  Boston shirts were EVERYWHERE.  I made a shirt using a beautiful heart posted by Organic Runner Mom. I was surprised how well the iron on stayed on my shirt.  Allison wasn't so lucky--here's started to peel and we managed to melt the shirt the night before the race.  Whoops!

By the time we lined up I was raring to go.  Allison and I noticed a funky helicopter-looking thingie before the start . . . turns out it was a remote controlled camera, which they used to shoot this awesome video of the start.  

Once we got started, I realized I had forgotten to set my GPS to do 5 min on/1 min walk intervals with a warmup/cooldown.  This is what I had done for A1A that had worked so well.  I got a little nervous then, but just decided to go with the flow.  It took us about 1.5 miles to hit the waterfront running section, and then I knew this was going to be a good race.  Residents lined the course and were so encouraging.  I usually have a tendancy to go out too fast in the first mile or so, but whenever I looked down I was between a 10:30 and an 11:00.   As we headed over the first few hills I felt elated, because the climbs weren't as bad as I was expecting.  We hit the first water station at mile 2 and I knew my plan--run hard for the 2 miles between each station.  The weather was cool and crisp, and the lack of Fl humidity had me feeling strong.  

I wish I had more pictures of the scenery of race.  Mansions and beautiful ocean views dominated,  It was breathtaking.  We went back and took pictures of later, but I don't have those yet.  I realize that running venues like this are going to totally ruin me . . . its to the point if it isn't 50% ocean view, I'm not interested.  I'm going to be SOL if we ever move to a land locked place!

The hills started getting wicked tough after about mile 5.  I had been running in the same group of people for a while, but after mile 5 many of them started dropping back.  There was a guy in a BAA jacket high fiving people. That pretty much fueled me for the next few miles.  As we hit a big hill, I started getting excited because I was owning the hills--something I wasn't expecting.  After that, I started getting tunnel vision and really started focusing on my race.  I knew I was going to kill the 2 hour finish goal I had set for myself.  I started wondering if I could finish below an 11 minute mile pace.

As usual, the last mile was the toughest.  It seemed to go on FOREVER.  When I finally got in to the Fort, I pushed hard for the finish.  Official time was 1:50:17, an 11:02 pace.  I was super proud of that number.  Grabbed a drink of water and headed back out for Allison, who wasn't far behind at all.  She did and amazing job and killed her goal by 12 minutes.  So proud of her!!

 All in all, this was a great race.  The entire event was ran very smoothly, especially for the first year.  The entry was incredibly reasonable ($35).  The swag was non-existant--participants got a cotton shirt, but I'm okay with that because I don't race for swag.  There was no finisher's medal, but that wasn't a big thing for me either.  The course was absolutely amazing.  The only complaint I have about the race was that there were only TWO portapots on the entire course, and they were well over half way through the course.  This was my first 10-miler and I found the distance to be perfect--it was a lot easier to push during the 2nd five miles because you knew you were DONE at 10, rather than having another 5K to go.   If you find yourself in Newport at the end of April in 2014, I highly recommend this race!

We spent the afternoon catching up and it was back on Monday morning for me.  I'm sorer than I've been in a while after a race . . . I'm sure it was those pesky hills.   Distance season is done for me until October, when I should be hitting the Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon with my better half (who held down the fort beautifully during this trip, I should add).  I will be gunning for a PR and an average pace UNDER an 11:00 mile.  This is a lonnggggg was from the 13:30 average I ran for my first half in March 2012.  Progress is awesome.  Happy Tuesday friends!