37th Annual Tarzan Brown Mystic River Run, 11/4

Total miles 10/29 - 11/4 - 15 (Road/Trail)  Thanks, Sandy, for wrecking my game!  I'm going to skip the day-to-day this week, in favor of a quick recap of the last six days, and today's race.  After last week's FOP race, I was feeling pretty darn pleased with myself, and then Sandy came and rearranged our little piece of the planet.  We were lucky here:  I finished the race, went home and did some prep for the storm, and we lost power Sunday afternoon.  Didn't get it back for six days, actually came on at 2 a.m. today.  Nice.  Could have been a lot worse though, a lot worse indeed.  But the kiddos were out of school, and schlepping water from my sister's just to flush the toilet was a workout in itself, so I didn't run until Friday.

So my running this week consisted of two runs:  First, a 7-ish mile run with Mike K. on Friday, starting at the base of Lantern Hill on the Narragansett Trail, and going all the way to the route 2 intersection (5 hilly, technical miles), then route 2 back to Foxwoods where we'd parked.  Great run.  Second, today's race.

I've wanted to run the Tarzan Brown race since I started doing races, but work or coaching soccer always came first.  Not this year!  Ha!  And perfect weather:  mid-fifties, light breeze and not a cloud in the sky...found out right before the race that my nephew and his friends, and also Mike K., had made last-minute decisions to run the race, awesome!  The more the merrier.  I ran into Jeff and Mike B., and Mike K. before the race - Jeff and I did a quick 1.5 mile warmup on the course, running into Tom B. and Kelsey along the way, Tom deciding to do some exploring in the woods before the race?

At the start, I got boxed in by the sheer number of people packing into the narrow streets of historic Mystic, heading out to River Road and on to Old Mystic.  The course is an out-and-back along the river, very scenic and flat, and 5.5 miles total.  I love the out/back runs sometimes, especially when I have friends in the mix - got to see everyone "in the zone" after they'd made the turn.  I felt good, comfortable, and kept a good pace throughout the race, gradually increasing my speed throughout.  Came across at 42:32 unofficially, or a 7:44 average pace, which put me at 192nd of whatever the total number of runners was?  And tied my Clamdigger 5 mile time from April to the second...average pace there?  8:30.  So I'm happy to say, with only that race to compare it to, that I'm getting better every race...quick cooldown with Jeff and Mike B. over to Cottrell Park, where the awesome crew from the YMCA were giving out chowder and cider, two of my favorite things.  I think Mike had four bowls?  There were awards as well.  PRs?  Have to wait til tomorrow to find out, but I guess this is my 5.5 mile PR?

Going to go lower on my 5K PR next Sunday at the Westerly Land Trust race.  Did that last year at 26:08?  Huh?  Going to torch that number for sure.  Looking to go low 7's, maybe into the 6's?  First time ever?  Time will tell...