Marathon #21 - Rhode Island

I chose this race primarily because of the title sponsor.  I wanted to run the only marathon sponsored by my company.  And I hadn't run one in Rhode Island yet, so off I went.
 
The Race:  Cox Providence Marathon, Providence, RI

My Training Plan:  For this race, I had eight weeks to train after my last marathon.  I didn’t do a lot of speed work.  Pretty much the only speed work I did were some unintended tempo runs where I was running with co-workers who are faster than I am.  I ran four days a week, and my typical week was as follows:  Monday – 6 miles, Tuesday – 8 miles, Thursday – 7 miles, Saturday – long run.  My longest run was a 22-miler three weeks before the race. 

Weather:  The weather was nearly perfect.  It started out in the low 50s and ended in the high 50s.  The skies were partly cloudy, with clouds slowly rolling in (it rained that night).  It wasn’t humid at all, but there were some pretty high wind gusts.  That would be my biggest complaint – the wind.  There were times when I was running with my head down so my hat wouldn’t blow off.

Running Attire:  I wore a custom LIZ shirt with Digeez (Cox’s mascot) running on the back, some purple Nike running shorts, and a purple Nike sports bra.  I also had my yellow Delaware Marathon hat and my iFitness belt.  I wore Asics shoes and Balega socks.  And, as usual, a lot of Body Glide.

 Who I Ran With:  I met a few people along the way, but ran by myself for most of the race.  I started out slow to warm up, and was running with a girl I met at the start named Latisha.  It was her first marathon, so I gave her some tips to use later in the race.  She was pretty much the only person that I ran with for any length of time.

The Course:  The course was beautiful.  We ran along a lot of water and on bike paths.  We passed parks and golf courses.  Some of the roads were a little rough (there are a lot of potholes in the northern states).  There was one road toward the beginning that had a slight bank to it (but it didn’t last long), and there was a small part toward the end where you had to run on an old brick path (or maybe it was cobblestone) and had to watch your footing. 

I don’t know how they got the elevation chart, but I don’t think the second half was very accurate.  The elevation chart basically showed a short uphill and a long downhill between miles 6-9 (which was there), and a mirror of that on the back side (around mile 20).  I did not notice the hills toward the end, except for one hill at mile 22 that was super steep (but not very long – maybe a quarter of a mile).  It just didn’t seem like what I remembered the elevation chart to depict.

Organization:  The organization was excellent.  They kept us informed ahead of time with the appropriate number of emails.  Their website is very good and provides a lot of information you may want to know.  Their facebook page was very informative, and they answered your questions right away.

The expo was smaller than I expected.  It was set up along a hallway inside the conference center.  You picked up your bib on one end, then walked through the hall past all the vendors, to the other end to pick up your shirt.  Pretty smart design, actually, because you had to pass by all the vendors to get the two things you want (bib and shirt).  But they just didn’t have a lot of vendors.  I guess I expected it to be a lot bigger than it was.

The water stations on the course were about every 2 miles, and a little more frequent toward the end.  I felt like they were appropriately spaced and mostly well manned.  There was one spot (around mile 3) where there were some cups and some gallon jugs of water with no one there manning it.  I’m not sure if that was really supposed to be a water station there on the way out.  I think the stuff had just been delivered for the water station at mile 23 (which went past that same place).  The hydration on the course was water (of course) and Gatorade.  The Gatorade was in different flavors at the different water stations.  Over the course of the race, I had blue, yellow, and red Gatorade at different stations.  They also had Boom gels, and after the halfway mark, they had them at almost every water station, along with bananas (cut in half).   There were about two porta-potties at each water station also.

Swag:  The swag wasn’t anything special.  The shirt is a unisex technical shirt.  Both the shirt and the medal did have 26.2 on it, so you can tell you ran the marathon.  The swag bag did have some samples in it that I ate after the race, but nothing special.

The best swag at this race are the free pictures.  They have cameras set up as often as other races, but all of the pictures are completely free to download afterwards if you "Like" the facebook page of the photographer.

Starting Line:  One of my favorite things about this race was an amenity at the starting line.  They had “mobile lockers” that you could rent to put your stuff in.  This is so helpful when you are driving a rental car with a huge set of keys that don’t fit in your running belt, but that you don’t want to leave them in a bag that could potentially be compromised (at the bag check).  The $5 locker was small, but I was able to fit a pair of pants, a light jacket, my rental car keys, and a protein bar.  The starting line also had plenty of porta-potties.

Fans:  The fans were sporadic, but when they were there, they cheered on all the runners (not just the one they came to see).  If you require fan support for motivation, though, I wouldn't choose this race.  As the race is a medium sized race, there are a "medium sized" amount of fans.  So there were plenty of places (especially along the bike trail) where there were no fans.
The runners acted like fans during some of the course, as there seemed to be a lot of little out-and-back shoots off the main course.  There were several times that I high-fived another runner going the opposite direction that I was passing.

Finish Line:  One opportunity for improvement is the finish line.  While the volunteers were fabulous as they put your medal and mylar blanket on and gave you bottled water, they had very limited food choices.  I believe there was Gatorade, bananas and some very unappetizing-looking vegetable wraps.  Other than that, there wasn't much of anything.  And I finished under 4 hours.  So it wasn't like the food was all gone once I got there.  Maybe I just missed it??  That's another thing - there weren't any signs or direction as to where you were supposed to go to get the food.

Results:  3:56:30.  Sub-4.  Rhode Island - check!

How I felt:  I felt pretty good for most of the race.  I started out slow, but then gradually increased my speed until I was practically "racing" the last 20 miles of the race.  I caught up to the 4:30 pace group around mile 10, then the 4:45 group around mile 15, and finally passed the 4:00 pace group around mile 22.  

I've had a nagging hamstring issue the past several marathons.  Sometimes, usually when I go fast (8:00 minute miles or faster), my knee will want to lock up, my leg will start to get numb, and I will lose control of the leg.  (I've been tested for Multiple Sclerosis, but the test came back negative, so I have no idea why my leg does this.)  My leg acted up again in this race, but it wasn't too bad.  It actually started early (around mile 7) when I started running fast and then again around mile 12.  After those episodes, though, I was mostly able to control it through the rest of the race.

Travel/Tourism:  Rhode Island is a beautiful state, and Providence is a nice sized city (not too big, and not too small).  Since the state is small, I could see most of it during the two days I was there.  I flew into Providence airport (not too big - only 20ish gates) and went to my hotel to check in.  

I stayed at the Ramada Seekonk hotel, which was about 15 minutes from downtown and actually located in Massachusetts.  The hotel was a recent purchase of Ramada, and it looked like the room was recently renovated.  I was chosen for an upgrade to an Executive Suite.  My room had an enormous walk-in closet.  I have no idea what any traveler needs with a closet that big, so it seemed like a waste of space to me.  The bathroom was your standard bathroom and was pretty small.  The bed was located toward the back of the room with a door that closed it off from the other part of the room (thus the "suite").   It was nice, but nothing really special.  The hotel had complimentary breakfast, which consisted of cereal, yogurt, waffles that were prepared ahead of time and put into a warmer (I do no suggest this, as the outside of the waffles just get really dry and crunchy), and other pastry/bread type items.  There was also a small gym with two treadmills (among other things).

The Expo was located in the Rhode Island Convention Center.  There is very limited non-paid parking in downtown Providence.  In fact, I had to pay $12 just to pick up my race number (I was probably in there for an hour max) and $13 to park on race day.  There really should be some other option for the runners at least!
 
After picking up my race number, I went to my normal pre-race meal location - the IHOP.  This IHOP was actually the best IHOP I've been to.  It look like it had been either recently built or recently renovated with very modern features, like an area that looks like a bar.  I'm not sure why IHOP would have a bar, but the design was neat anyway.  Both the service and the food were very good.
 
After the race, icing, and a shower, I headed to Newport. For dinner, at the recommendation of co-workers, I ate at The Mooring Seafood Kitchen.  It was delicious, but expensive.  I had the special, which was a salmon over creamed cauliflower with green beans.  They also provide warm bread, which is soft on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside.  For dessert I had the Devil Dog chocolate cake.



Newport, RI is famous for its cliff walk.  The cliff walk is a paved path along the Atlantic Ocean.  On the non-ocean side of the path are beautiful mansions.  Some are hidden behind a fence and the overgrown greenery (vines, trees, bushes) that grow near the fence, but there are some that are easily seen from the path.  Unfortunately, some of the cliff walk was closed due to construction to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy, but I was still able to get some good pictures.

 

On Monday, my flight was late in the day, so I went to the Cox office to meet some of the co-workers that I work with on a regular basis, but have never met in person.  Our security manager was nice enough to take me around to meet various different people, and then drive me around to see some of the other sights of the state.  We drove our to Narragansett Beach and to the Point Judith Lighthouse.
I'm sure this isn't how it normally is, but when we parked near the lighthouse, the car was smothered by mosquitoes.  I had to wave them all away before getting back into the car, and still some got in. 

 












After the lighthouse, we drove up the coast and back to Providence.  We arrived back at Federal Hill in Providence around lunch time.  Federal Hill is an old Italian community (possibly a meeting place for some Italian families traveling between Boston and NYC back in the day...if you know what I mean.)   For lunch we ate at Andinos Italian Restaurant.  It was very good, authentic Italian food, and not as pricey as the place in Newport.

Although I don't have to return to RI, since I got my sub-4 hour marathon, it is definitely a state I would love visiting again.

Gluten Free April

The challenge for April was to go gluten-free.  I learned a lot during this challenge.  I do not have celiac disease or a gluten allergy, so I wasn’t as strict as I would have to be if I had either of those issues.  If I went out to eat, I would consider myself “gluten free” if I got a burger and just didn’t eat the bun.  In some cases, I would eat foods that were made in a facility with gluten products, so it could have traces of gluten, but no gluten ingredients (Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream, for example).

People who have celiac disease cannot have any traces of gluten, or it messes up their stomach for months.  A co-worker of mine says she hardly ever goes out to eat, because if the restaurant prepares her food on the same counter as they prepared other food with gluten, she suffers.  Also, I found that a lot of servers and people taking orders at restaurants don’t even know what has gluten and what doesn’t. 

I started out with two mistakes, but after that, I made it the rest of the month with no problems.  It wasn’t easy, by any means, but it was doable.

On April 3^rd, I was walking by one of our Admin’s desks and saw an open box of Samoa Girl Scout cookies.  Not even thinking, I picked up one of the cookies and ate it.  I then went to a meeting, and it wasn’t until I returned to my office that I realized what I had done.  There is no doubt that cookies have gluten in them.  But I was so used to being able to eat them because the month before was vegetarian month, and they don’t have meat.  That was my first fail.

On April 5^th, I was eating dinner at my in-law’s house.  We were having burgers from the grill, fruit salad, and chips.  I knew I could have the fruit salad, because there is no threat of gluten there.  I looked at the Cheetos Puffs bag, and they are gluten free (made from corn instead of wheat).  And I thought that if I ate a burger without a bun, I would be okay.  Well, I like veggie burgers, and had been eating them a lot the previous month for Meatless March, so I brought them along, not even thinking to look to see if they were gluten free.  I mean, they’re veggie burgers…they’re supposed to be healthy, right?  I ate it without the bun.  The next day, I thought to myself…hmm…maybe I should look at the package and see if that burger was gluten free.  Sure enough, they are not.  Second fail.

After those two mistakes, I made a point of looking on every package.  If I was going out somewhere that wouldn’t have a package to look at, I looked it up online. 

I actually traveled for three days for work, and told them about my gluten-free diet.  They were able to accommodate, but I had to constantly ask what was in various foods, as they often forgot and gave me the normal meal.  For example, they gave us boxed lunches to go on the last day.  They supposedly made a gluten-free boxed lunch for me.  But when I opened it up, there was a cookie that was packaged just like everyone else’s.  It may have been gluten free, but it sure didn’t look like it.  So I avoided it, along with the (possibly gluten-free) bread that was on the sandwich just in case.

Kroger was a big help in going gluten free.  They have little brown indicators on all of their price tags that will tell you when the food is gluten free.  I hadn’t really been much of a Greek yogurt fan until this month.  It is much creamier and has way more protein than regular yogurt.  Greek Yogurt was pretty much the only yogurt I could find that was labeled gluten free, and I typically eat yogurt every week day.  Chobani Greek Yogurt is gluten free, and very yummy.

A few great things that I found during this month include Sally’s Bakery and Pamela’s baking mix.  Sally’s Bakery is located on Roswell Road near Whole Foods and not far from I-285.  The Bakery is completely gluten-free, but makes delicious bread, frozen pizza, cupcakes, cookies, cakes, pies, and other goodies.  The bread is very good…the first couple of days.  After that, it starts to smell and taste funny.  The cupcakes were delicious – very moist and chocolaty.  The cookies were okay, but a little too crunchy for my liking.  It is a little pricey, but not too bad.  Pretty much what you would expect if you were buying bread from an actual bakery.

Pamela’s baking mixes was a find at Kroger.  They are located in the Natural Food area of the store and are in black packaging.  I tried the brownie mix.  There are several ways to make it listed on the package, and I made it the fudgy brownie way.  They are the best brownies I have ever tasted!  In fact, going forward, I may just make those instead of regular brownies (for me…I know Rob loves my regular brownies).  I never tried the other baking mixes, but after the delicious brownies, I would be willing to try anything else made by the same company.

Some things that I tried that I didn’t like are gluten free bagels, gluten free pizza (if you like thin crust, it tastes fine, but I prefer thick crust), gluten free bread (after about three days), and gluten free pasta.  Gluten free pasta isn’t bad as long as you cook it about 2-3 minutes less than regular pasta.  I made the mistake of cooking it the same length of time as I normally would, and it was mushy.

So, I had two mistakes in a 30-day month, and I learned a lot.  I would call that a success.  Thankfully, I can let my diet get back to normal, as May is Conscious Cardio month.