Tornadoes, Monsoons, and Humidity

Jen, Griffin, and I headed down to Rhode Island on Wednesday morning. The goal was to have some fun at the beach, hang with my family, and run the Blessing of the Fleet 10 mile road race on Friday the 23rd. Oh, I also had the goal of running the Westerly Fun Run on Wednesday night. Secretly, I cared more about this fun run with 40 people, than I did about the Blessing with 3,000 people. Why? This race has had a long tradition of really fast collegians running some pretty sweet times. Only a handful of people had run sub 15min on the course. I wanted to add my name to the list. I knew that I would be the oldest guy on the list, with everyone else doing it under the age of 23. That was my goal: 14:59 or bust.
I spent a great day with Jen at the beach body surfing huge waves. I even enjoyed a delicious adult beverage with my lunch at Paddy's. I got home from the beach sunburned, dehydrated, and a little tired from being thrashed in the ocean. I hydrated, changed into running clothes, and headed to the fun run with my father and Jen. I did a good 3 mile warm-up, running the course. My body felt pretty good, no lingering soreness from Stowe on Sunday. The biggest problem was gonna be the weather. The sky was completely dark with clouds and thunder rolling in the distance. I hate lightning! As the race started I noticed Andrew Springer at the starting line. He was the fastest highschool miler in 2009 running 4:02, currently racing for Georgetown. I thought I might have some company to help me reach my goal. As the race started, I realized quickly that I was running solo, Andrew was doing a tempo run. Oh well. I hit the mile in 4:57 as the lightning was coming down around me. I started the 2nd mile running into a stiff head wind and the sky looked very frightening. The weather forecast said there could be tornadoes in the area! I wasn't sure if I should keep running or hide in one of the neighborhood houses. I pushed on hitting the only hill on the course and running into the wind. My 2nd mile was 5:18. Yikes, I figured my chances were over, but pushed on. It started pouring my last mile with instant puddles on the course. I gritted my teeth and hit the line in 15:16. My last mile was 5:00. Not too shabby. The weather really didn't help my cause. Next time!
The Blessing of the Fleet was on Friday. I really couldn't get excited for this race. The best part was hanging w/Jen, Bentley, Jonny, and the Motts. My legs were sore from the 3 miler. I lined up hoping to p.r. for 10 miles(sub 53:45) I knew though, that this wasn't very realistic. I just wanted to go sub 55. I worked with 4 guys in the 2nd chase pack and ended up neg. splitting: 27:30/27:10. There was an absolute monsoon for the last mile and a half. It was fun running in it, because there was no lightning and it was cool. My final time was 54:40 a new p.r. for that course. The last time I ran it was 2001 in 57:02. We had a fun dinner afterwords, exchanging race stories and laughs.
Saturday morning Jen, Griffin, and I ran one of the most miserable runs I've ever done. It was 200% humidity with tons of deer flies. My legs were pretty destroyed and the pace was a shuffle. Tomorrow, I hope to get a good long run in, back in New Hampshire. It was a fun week in Rhody with some memorable weather.