I have to apologize for the delay in creating this post. I went out of the country for two weeks the week after, so needless to say it was a hectic trip and couple weeks after. Anyway, about Providence...
Rain, rain and more rain. Never has a weather forecast like that sounded better. After the last three races were hotter than I would have preferred, rainy and chilly was music to my ears.
This was my first trip to Providence and it allowed me to run my second Rock-n-Roll Series race - I was looking forward to this race partially because of the "bling" (they send you a special medal for rock-n-roll race you complete after the first - pictures below). In addition to the “bling”, I was still bitter after Nashville kicked my butt. Although the races were completely different in just about every way, the fact that they are both part of the same race series made me think as this of a race to get back on track.
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| Race Registration |
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| Race Number |
The course was supposed to be pretty flat, which was good if I wanted to push myself to get back to my old times. I told Kathy the night before I was going for the low 1:50's and she reminded me that no matter what to have fun - boy was she right. At the end, I improved my time from my previous races, but more importantly this may have been one of the most fun races I have run yet.
If you could not tell from the introduction, the weather during the race was rainy and around 68-70 degrees. Sometimes when you see a weather report and it says it will drizzle, it means there might a little bit of rain, but you may not even need an umbrella . . . well this was NOT one of those races. This was a solid steady rain that even caused the fans that were out to hide under umbrellas and ponchos to avoid the rain.
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| Starting Area |
No matter how hard you wanted to stay dry, you were soaked to the bone after mile one. At this point you had two options: 1) the rain could be a burden making for a long race; 2) you could see it as fun and celebrate it. I clearly went with option 2 since I try to act like a 6 year old whenever I can. Once I was fully drenched I decided to make this race as fun as possible. It rained every step of the way and at some points the runoff of the water was looked like a river in the street. In other places the water level created deep puddles you had to avoid as you ran . . . it was fantastic. I almost started puddle jumping during the race and realized that probably wasn't a strong move and the other runners may not have enjoyed it as much as me. The day ended up being the type of day where your mom would call you in to prevent you from getting soaked and sick and you would just ignore her and go bananas playing in the rain coming home drenched and muddy. Needless to say this race was as fun as I hoped.
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| Nice and Dry? |
I have not gotten so immersed in a race that I forgot how far into the race I was until this race. I was enjoying the race so much that I didn't realize how where I was until I hit the 10-mile mark. I have heard people talk about how they get lost in a run and go further than they planned or hit running high; I am not sure this was what it was, but it was kind of feeling that makes running fun (yes, I said running was fun). The course ran through all of Providence, which is a traditional northeastern city and, to be honest, was pretty unremarkable as far as state capitals go (sorry if I offend any Providencers). That being said, it still was a great course.
The only difficulty of the race was that the 10-mile mark was also the 12-mile mark coming the opposite direction. You knew you were so close to the finish and started thinking about the end of the race. That was when I really acted like a kid, singing along to the music I was listening to and ignoring the head wind whipping around the downtown buildings. I pushed hard at the end in an effort to break 1:55. Unfortunately I only got to 1:55:31, but it still was a great race overall. If you can look at a race and say you had a ton of fun, the time is so irrelevant that it doesn’t even matter. I hope all of you run a race that is like that, it is one of the greatest feelings a runner will have – except for winning the whole thing maybe (news flash - that will never happen for this guy; my brother was the only Brooks that ability).
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| It was so rainy that it caused this to happen to the camera |
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| Now that's a handsome fella... |
As is standard for the Rock-n-Roll series was the post race concert (and beer tent). Right after the race - about 15 minutes after I finished in fact - Sugar Ray started performing. No matter what anyone says, Mark McGrath is a hell of a performer. The rain started coming down in droves and instead of hiding under the tent that was set up for the band to play under, he climbed out onto speakers to sing in the rain - if we were getting soaked, so was he. McGrath got so much joy out of performing, it was just infectious, you couldn't help but have a great time and it was the perfect ending to this race.
I am looking forward to my next race in September; I just hope the fun of this race hasn't spoiled me.
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| Great Medal |
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Rock n' Roll Medal for running 2 RnR races
in a calendar year. |
