This is not a race that would have been on my radar if not for the 50 states goal. I had initially planned to knock out Connecticut and Rhode Island on the same weekend but with my diminished fitness, that’s just not possible now. I don’t believe it is necessary to spend a night in a state to count it under the strict standards but for the record, this would be my first night in Rhode Island. I had been to Newport last year and saw a legitimate tourist attraction with the beach and cliff walk. I had not been to the capitol city of Providence and this one fit my schedule well so why not? Detox was brutal earlier in the week and I actually considered bailing but the tide turned on Thursday, so it was a go.
Traffic getting out of Birmingham was a little rough but once I cleared that, it was a smooth ride to Atlanta for a cheap and direct flight into Providence. My hotel was quite pricey, but it did offer a free shuttle to and from the airport. Since I would not be doing additional travel, I would not have to rent a car or even take Uber so that evened things out. There were plenty of restaurants and taverns within walking distance of my hotel and I opted for some good pizza. Next, I picked up my packet at the expo and toured the Capitol area, a shopping mall and the Riverwalk. The was pretty much the extent of my touring. I would be in bed early that night as my body was tired from the travel and walking.
No real complaints about the organization or the course. It began and ended in town but much of the scenery was non-descript except for a nice riverside section around Mile 10. Course difficulty was in the average range. It did have several half to ¾ mile long inclines but nothing was particularly steep and it was usually followed by an equally long downhill. The weather was likely to be the biggest pain with a forecast high of 54 degrees with a 100% percent chance of rain. In the end, it did rain most of the race but it was never much more than a drizzle so I didn’t mind. I took off about as slowly as possible to at least delay the meltdown but found that 8:45 pace was about as slow as I could go without losing form. I decided to take short walk breaks on the hills to get the overall pace closer to 9:00. Here are the early miles.
8:40 (8:40)
8:45 (17:25)
9:11 (26:36)
8:59 (35:35)
So far so good but based on the elevation chart, it looked like Mile 6 would be tough. Indeed, it was a long incline, but it was followed by a nice long decline. It seemed like there was another longer hill around Mile 8 or 9 that didn’t seem to register. Nevertheless, I remained in control and felt much more comfortable than I had at the same point of the race in Iowa. Even with a meltdown, an improvement over my 2:06 was assured and I thought I had a shot a sub-2.
8:48 (44:23)
9:00 (53:23)
8:55 (62:18)
9:02 (71:20)
9:12 (80:32)
9:16 (89:48)
At the 10-mile mark, I was still under 9 minute pace overall and 3 minutes faster than Iowa 2 weeks ago. I figured that I was around 90:45 with 3 miles to go. I needed to hold a 9:45 the rest of the way and that appeared to be a good bet. My energy had faded a bit but no meltdown was imminent. Unfortunately, Mile 11 was almost all uphill but I knew that if I could survive that, it was mine. The pace never went above 9:30. I knew that I was safe heading into the last mile and really didn’t care about being 10-15 seconds faster at the finish line. I ran hard but controlled heading to the finish and made a bit of a push when I saw that I would be under 1:59. The official chip time was 1:58:54. That’s more than 14 minutes better than Delaware just 6 weeks earlier. I believe the detox is working. Can I sustain the improvement, and can I avoid the horrible days? That remains to be seen.
9:27 (99:15)
9:25 (1:48:40)
9:21 (1:58:01)
:53
With the rain coming down harder and a later flight, I did no more touring. I took my time getting changed and checking out and had a nice seafood dinner at the airport during my long wait for my flight. No issues on the way home and I was back at work the next day. 42 race states. 40 half marathons.
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