Lil’ Rhody Run Around 8 Mile Trail Race
Sunday, Nov. 20, 2005
2005 Lil Rhody Run Around race results
Lil Rhody Run Around race info
2005 Lil Rhody Run Around photo slideshow
Well, once again my plans went astray. Originally I had intended to drive to Pawcatuck, CT (about 20 minutes from Burlingame Park in RI, the site of the race) on Saturday, spend the afternoon and evening visiting with friends, and leave for the race at the luxurious hour of 9:45 Sunday morning. Unfortunately, after I got home for lunch on Saturday I found myself dozing off, and decided a 3 hour drive that afternoon was a bad idea. So I called my friends and made plans to drive straight to the race, leaving at the not-so-luxurious hour of 6:45 AM.
Some pluses to driving straight there: I got to see the Sun come up, and driving through the Berkshires was a treat, with the mist rising up into the air all over the mountains. For the most part it’s a very pretty drive (except for the bits through Springfield and Hartford.) One minus – once you leave the Mass Pike, there are NO REST AREAS or easy places to stop until you’re nearly to I95 in CT, about an hour of driving – not a pleasant prospect if you’re hydrating in preparation for a race!
But, that difficulty aside, got there in plenty of time and with no real difficulties. At 10:15 the parking lot was already overflowing – this is one of the best-attended trail races in New England, with about 200 runners being typical. Hunting season has already begun, so runners are required to wear at least 100 sq inches of orange, and some folks were very creative. Checked in and found that instead of getting a T-shirt, they were handing out orange safety vests that had been screenprinted with the race and sponsors (I would have preferred a T shirt, but so it goes.) Geared up, and noticed fairly quickly that in the high 50/low 60 degree weather my stylish race garb of a long-sleeved technical shirt with an orange tank top worn over top was going to be a bit warmer than I had expected (I knew I should have bought the orange technical shirt!) Still, I’d rather be a little warm than freezing cold… we had beautiful weather for the run!
After a few delays while several thick-headed runners (who apparently didn’t get that the “you must wear orange” instruction applied to them) found orange clothing, off we went on our 8 mile loop around Wachaug Pond. The trails were fairly level, a lot of singletrack, good amounts of roots and rocks, and some interesting bits – mud, boardwalks over some swampy sections, etc. I started out as usual, feeling like I didn’t have a prayer of finishing and doing my best “Darth Vader with asthma” heavy breathing. Thought I was running pretty hard, but people kept passing me. The first half was fairly level (apparently that’s part of the appeal of this race.)
After a brief stretch on a paved road (bleah) we hit the 2nd half, and that’s when the course got pretty cool. Flat turned into lots of gradual up and down, we ran past and around and over big rocks, through a couple of streams, and so on. I also started passing people, which was a pleasant feeling. The last mile took us out onto the paved road around and back into the park – bleah again (but at least the last half mile was downhill.)
This was another race where the announcer called out runner’s names as they finished – cool, finished the last race of my fall series like a real athlete! I also found that while my watch said that it had taken me 1hr, 29min, the official race clock said 1hr, 25min – so officially I ran just over 10 ½ minute miles… a nice bonus for the last race, too. (As it turns out, my watch was right and I ran 11 minute miles, but I’m still pleased.)
After that I hung around for a bit, enjoyed the sunshine and a warm November day in a pretty park in RI, and had a bagel and a bowl of delicious home-made minestrone soup. All in all I’m glad I made the trip down there and ran it – don’t know if I’ll do it again, but it was a good way to end the Nine Strenuous Weekends, and a good way to spend a sunny, warm November Sunday. Life doesn’t get much better than sitting on the bumper of your car soaking up the sunshine, enjoying the pleasant feeling of tired muscles and chowing down on minestrone soup in a really pretty park.
(and after I was done enjoying that I drove over to Pawcatuck and visited with my friend and his wife until early evening… then drove back home. And tried to do some work. And finally went to sleep!)
-JMH
The Nine Strenuous Weekends are over! 9 races/events in 11 weeks! No more races for a month! (And no crazy Pine Bush run to wrap things up with TEN Strenuous Weekends... I'll just do that crazy run for fun sometime.)
