The weekend after Bel Monte I was signed up to do a local race, The St Patrick’s Day Double (5k+10k) on Sunday morning. It also turned out the my former run club picked that Friday as the day to re-launch themselves with a new partner bar so I had to go. Sadly turnout to the club was very low just a few of us who had been part of the club back when its heyday. The new bar was too warm, poor beer selection, and an ok menu and to top it off when we got back from the run our table had been taken over by folks looking to get St Paddy’s day weekend started...we squeezed into another table and I had some wings but the BF and I headed home after an hour. Fast forward to Saturday morning and I’m feeling terrible and star throwing up and end up have uncontrollable bowel movements...was it the wings from the night before?...not sure but I spent Saturday on the couch with some water rushing back and forth to and from the bathroom. So Sunday’s race also didn’t happen...I spent most of that day pretty much the same as Saturday... I tried to go out on a short run which ended up with me frantically looking for a bathroom. Monday and the rest of the following week I was no longer in desperate need of being near a bathroom but was feeling drained so I took it easy in preparation for my next race...the Savin Rock Marathon.
I didn’t know much at all about this race except that my BF picked it and signed up for it so I decided to do it as well and it was in Connecticut. My BF’s friend was also going to run it with us and we would stay at his pace in a Rhode Island and drive to the race race morning. I quickly learned my lesson to not trust my BF to plan for a great race experience and to tell me that the race was two hours from his friends house so flying in at 9PM the night before the race wouldn’t be a good idea.
The friend also turned out to be sick when we arrived so the BF and I piled into a borrowed car at 5AM to make the two hour drive to Connecticut. West Haven Connecticut is pretty much just a small town by the water. The race was two half marathon length loops around the town. Race morning I decided to drop down to the half marathon because like I’ve said before I’m a fair weather runner and it was cold and windy out and judging by our drive through the town to the race start this wasn’t going to be a very scenic race.
The race itself was very underwhelming. Most of it just wound around the neighborhoods of West Haven with about a mile or two of each loop along the water. Roads weren’t closed off for the race we had to stay to our right was best as possible as local traffic tried to get by us. Since it was a cold day on the second loop...according to BF...there were far fewer runners so the local police helping direct traffic weren’t always prepared when a runner came by so runners had to stop and wait for traffic to pass.
The course had a lot of hills which at times broke the monotony of running through neighborhoods whose residents didn’t seem to know or care that a race was happening and at other times added to the dismay of just wanting this race to be over with. There was about zero crowd support except for when the course ran by the start so family and friends of those participating could cheer you on.
When I was finally done I sat in the “convention center” waiting for my BF and sipping water as the post race festivities included bananas, pieces of plain bagels, water, and some non-alcoholic beer.
Before making the two hour drive back to RI we stopped in New Haven for some Frank Pepe’s Pizza and then New England Brewing for a few beers...the highlight and saving grace of the day.
I would not recommend this race if you aren’t a town local. At least I can cross off Connecticut for my 50 states 50 half marathons goal....for my 50 marathons goal I’ll look for another race and I won’t be letting BF plan our races again.
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