Autumn Marathon

Blessing of the Fleet Race Report

I have had my eye on the “Blessing of the Fleet” 10-mile race for about three years, ever since I took up running again and started visiting the South County seashore of Rhode Island.  One of the great aspects of running is being able to train and run races in other locales and to participate in colorful local traditions (see link for a brief description of the Blessing of the Fleet). This year, the stars finally aligned - I was able to make it to RI for the Friday evening (July 29) competition and even to spend a couple days at the beach beforehand.  It also provided an early test of my fitness exactly 100 days before the New York City Marathon on November 6.

My experiment  with the CrossFit Endurance approach to training yielded a number of low mileage training weeks leading up to the race.  Shorter races over the past month had proved to be a mixed bag - I ran my best 5k on the road in Prospect Park, but had withered in some intense heat at Van Cortlandt Park.  The typically hot July weather meant that I had been better about getting to the gym for CrossFit WODs and at running short intervals, than at doing the sort of tempo work required for longer races.

Race day was overcast, muggy and warm with thunderstorms forecast for the late afternoon (start-time was scheduled for 6pm): weather better-suited for lying low and catching a few movies.  Nevertheless, some 3000 runners turned out for the race which is run mostly on narrow residential streets in and around the seaside community of Narragansett.

The start was crowded, but I was able to hit my first mile goal of running around 8:20 mile. The plan was to ease into the race and, assuming I felt strong, to accelerate during the second half of the course.  Although I was able to maintain the 8:15-8:20 pace for the first few miles, my legs felt heavy and I knew (from a car tour of the course the previous day) that the biggest hills were in the middle of the race.  In contrast with some recent races where my form felt good, my legs started to cramp and strain by mile 6.  The last few miles were a struggle - and it was telling that for the final downhill mile, when I should have been able to kick it in, my time was in the high nines.

I was able to finish in 1:29:28, just under 9-minute pace overall. However, the time was slower than either of the half-marathons I ran a couple months earlier.  Part of the difference is attributable to the hot, humid weather, both on race day and in weeks prior. However, it seems pretty clear that I need to be hitting those tempo runs at 5k-10 miles  pretty regularly.  There are only 96 days to the marathon from the date of this report - so time to get started.