KIAI 5K Week! 4-29 to 5-5

Here we are at the week of the 4th annual KIAI 5K, which supports a cause near and dear to my heart.  KIAI (Karate Instruction Assistance Initiative) provides martial arts scholarships to deserving students who would otherwise not be able to afford the cost of tuition.  My opinion is this:  if you have a good kid who wants to try something positive, money should never be a roadblock.  There's always a way, and this is one of those ways.

As requested, here's a link to their website:

http://www.kiaikaratescholarships.org/

My friend and race director Julie C. is a martial arts student and runner, in a family of fast local runners, and this race rocks...I love supporting this one.

Monday, 4-29 - 0 Miles - Planned zero after this past weekend's races, and had too many things on the plate anyway...

Tuesday, 4-30 - 4.5 Miles (Trail) - Chatfield Trail, Killingworth, CT.  Checking off yet another CFPA Blue-Blazed trail.  Having had no takers for an Arcadia run this morning, I decided to head west again, and check out another set of trails maintained by the CT Forest & Park Association.  My plan was to do the whole out-and-back, but my time was short so I split what I had down the midde.

Great trails, and some good hills, but what really got my attention were the scrambles up and down some of the very steep and rocky sections.  There were also some caves and overhangs that the trail went through or under, and one small keyhole exit, known as the "Fat Man Squeeze," out one of them:

Good, rocky trails

Note the blaze.  Trail goes through...

...and comes out here

Again, see the blaze???  Killer overhang, too...

The "Fat Man Squeeze"

Got off trail quite a few times, as it would abruptly turn and go straight down the rocks, or straight up, and the turns could have been noted a bit better, but overall this is a great trail.  It's also directly across the street from the Chatfield Hollow State Park, which has its own network of blazed trails...definitely worth a return trip!

Wednesday, 5-1 - 3 Miles (Trails) - Yawgoog Yellow/White trails, Hopkinton, RI.  Early dismissal for the kids today meant karate class, scrambling around wrapping up some errands around town, and a small window of opportunity for a quick run in the woods...warm day, felt good out there!

Thursday, 5-2 - 3.75 Miles (Trails) - Duval trails after solo surf session at Matunuck.  Never run these trails before, so I kept stopping at the signs to figure out where I was.  Cool, rolling single-track, and I was lucky enough to be able to ditch the shirt and run in just shorts and shoes.  Felt great, warm weather and nice shady trails and it was on my way back from a short surf session.  Great day...



Friday, 5-3 - 5+ Miles (Trails) - Grills Preserve trails (Ashaway and Bradford sides) with Muddy.  After spending too much time this morning painting blazes on the Narragansett trail, I had no time left for a run, so plans got shelved until late afternoon.  I texted Muddy on the outside chance he hadn't run today (he hadn't), and we met up at Grills.  During the first 3/4 mile, we speculated on whether the bridge had been dropped in yet, to connect the Ashaway/Bradford sides of the river, and effectively doubling the trails available at the preserve.  Coming around the last turn with fingers crossed, is that...silver???  Yes it is!!!  And it's open for business!

Shiny new bridge...

Muddy talking local knowledge with Land Trust dude...

So the Land Trust guy who was there said the bridge just went in yesterday, and offered to show us where to go, and  gave us the breakdown on what was open and what wasn't.  We spent the bulk of our time on this side of the river, obviously, exploring first some old service roads, and then the white diamond trail, which was awesome hilly single-track that totally changes the whole Grills experience...the climbs and views were outstanding, and the terrain was the total opposite of the Bradford side.  Big difference in vertical gain on the Ashaway side of the river.  So much potential here...like the Land Trust dude said right before he left, "This is just the beginning..."

Zero tomorrow, then KIAI!!!

Saturday, 5-4 - 0 Miles.

Sunday, 5-5 - 5 Miles (Road) - Short warmup, short cooldown, and the 4th Annual KIAI 5K road race.  10th place out of 160, 21:56 officially, new PR!!!  Felt pretty damn good, too.  Picked up Jim H. and headed down nice and early.  Perfect cool spring day, 50-ish degrees.  Did a short warmup run, then got ready to go.  Way Hedding saw me lined up in my usual middle-of-the-pack spot and smartly waved me up to the front, a place I'd never started from before.  Felt weird, but Way was right.  My goal when the gun went off was to maintain a good, steady pace, and run hard enough that I couldn't hold a conversation.  The course was reversed from previous years, which really screwed me up (doesn't take much!), but I knew that there'd be a small hill right before the end.  Sorry Beth, I think I told you the end of the race was downhill!  I was thinking I was top 20, but when the results got posted I was listed as #10, so I'm stoked.  Previous results:  25:04, 26:48, 25:25, so I shaved over 3 minutes off my best time on this course...who knows?  Maybe next year I can be top 5...