2011 Gansett Marathon

I just ran the first Gansett Marathon. It’s actually the second year of the race. They started it in Exeter, Rhode Island last year, and moved it to Narragansett to help support the growth of the race, but it’s the only annual qualifier-only race in the United States. If you don’t meet the qualification standards, then there’s no leeway; there’s no way to get into the race, other than by running them.

So the race definitely supports a lot more people than last year’s course would. Last year’s course was fine for the 50 or so people that ran, but there was about 200 people that were registered for this race; a little over 160 or so that finished, and it’s much more scenic than last year’s.

It’s still a road course. This year’s race is a 2 loop race. The first loop is 16 miles, and that hits almost all of the more scenic parts of the course. You get all of the beaches, and some of the nicer homes in the area on that part of the course. And then once you get back to the start-finish area, you do a 10 mile loop that cuts out a lot of the little loops that were on the first course that gave you the extra 6 miles.

One of the things that I really liked about this course, is even though there was some out and back type areas, there weren’t any cones that you had to run around. Last year, there were a few cones that you had to literally just go up to and go around. This year, they were able to make everything into much wider loops, or going around dead end areas, so that you were not having to do an about-face as you ran. So you still got to see people going out and back, especially early on in the first 8 miles or so, but it was a lot easier on the legs because of that.

It was a pretty flat course. There were a few little hills in there that you especially notice late in the race, but nothing all that particularly difficult.

Now for my own race, I was definitely not in the kind of shape that I needed to be in to go out in the kind of pace that I did. I tried doing the Run-Walk-Run method again, and I was doing really well with that for the first 10 miles or so; very comfortable. But right around 11 and a half, 12 miles, it just started to catch up to me, and I went downhill fast. So even though I’d started slowing down by the half-way point, I went out in a little over 90 minutes; 90:26 I think. And I finished in 3 hours, 33 minutes and 39 seconds.

As I was coming towards the transition from the first loop to the second loop, I thought about dropping out. And had I dropped, I’m sure I would have had regretted it. But knowing now what the last 10 miles were going to be like, if I’d have known that before going through there, then I just wouldn’t have even bothered finishing the race. But I did go through. I ran the last 10 miles, I ran it very slowly. As I was coming through the last 3 or 4 miles, I was realizing I was about on a 3 and a half-hour pace. I could have made that. But I thought, “Oh! Wouldn’t it be funny if I could get the same time that I had a month ago in New Jersey?” So I was aiming for that 3:33:33. But I’d had a little miscalculation at the end. Instead of coming down in the final stretch and taking the right into the finish line, you actually have to go around and come at the finish line from the other direction. So I was pushing it in pretty hard at the very end, but I fell 6 seconds flat of that goal, so it was just a not quite comfortable 3:33 for me.

But I recovered pretty quick. I was able to head home afterward. I went back towards where I was staying in the Boston area for the marathon a couple of days later, so I stopped. As soon as I got to Massachusetts on a drive, I pulled over in a rest area and took a short 20 minute nap, and that gave me the energy to get to the Boston Expo, meet up with people, and then get through the rest of my weekend.

So if you are qualified, I highly recommend the race. It was very well-organized, as always. The prizes were pretty cool. There were these big blown-glass awards. And there was a lot of really nice people. It was a great crowd. So I highly recommend that you get out and run it, at least once if you have the chance.