12th Annual Run 4 Kerri

Previous results:

2009:  412/883  37:54 @ 9:29
2010:  287/810  34:30 @ 8:38
2011:  204/470  36:48 @ 9:12
2012:  197/693  33:48 @ 8:28...

Drum roll, please................

2013:  100/729  28:30 @ 7:08 average!!!  Holy crap!  How'd THAT happen???

Results here:  http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ri/Aug4_12thAn_set1.shtml

To say I'm happy about this would be an understatement.

I arrived nice and early for the race, and the weather couldn't have been any better today:  partly cloudy, low 70s, and a nice northerly breeze.  Chatted with a few people and then did a quick warmup run on the tail end of the course.  Ran into Elizabeth Eckel, Jana and Jeff, and a few other people right before the gun, and took a quick picture of the lineup:

700+ runners today!!!

Saw Jeff lined up at the front with the other elites (including Olympian Julie Culley, who won the women's division), and wished him luck.  He smartly told me not to line up too far back, one of my dummy moves that I almost always make.  I lined up just about right today.  Thanks, Gazelle!

Gun goes off and I stick to my game plan.  At the mile one mark I see two things.  Muddy taking pictures for Level Renner, and the clock reading 7:15...perfect!  I give Muddy a shout and he tells me my pace looks smooth.  Sounds good to me...I figure if I can keep this pace until the uphill shot at mile 3, I'm solid at going sub-30 minutes.  Mile 2 time gets called at 14:35?  Really?  Cool!  Mile 3 includes the loooooonnnng straightaway that goes past Theater by the Sea, and it's pretty warm out by now, and full Sun.  I figured I was ahead of the game going into the hilly (sort of) part of the race, and that I'd make up any slowdown in the last 1/4 mile, which is mainly downhill/flat.  Mile 3 time is 21:40!  Gravy from here, and I finished strong.  My best, smartest run race ever, and I did exactly what I set out to do, breaking every PR I had from 400m to 4 miles, and shaving 4 full minutes off my PR for this distance.  Beyond excited after the race, and got to chat with my fellow WTAC'ers (and a few Turtles).

Took a dip under the fire hose they'd set up:

Fire Hose!  Great picture.  Photo by Jana Walker!

PR's all over the place!  Gazelle, Amanda (Seth's better half), and I'm pretty sure a few others smashed their goals today.  Props to Jeff and Matthew, who just competed in the Block Island Tri the previous day.  Great showing by the WTAC, too, with at least 7 runners in the top 100?  And I won two tickets to the Seaport Museum in the raffle they had, some icing on the cake!  Great event put on again by the Bessette family and the whole Run 4 Kerri crew and volunteers (and SK Police for directing traffic!), can't say enough good things about all of you guys :)

After wrapping up with the crew, I headed down to the beach to meet the family, where I ended up doing another 3 miles with Mike B., who was doing his weekly run to Ms. Swift's house:



So another fantastic day of running, great beach day with Lori and Sophia, and I'm on Cloud 9, as they say...time for a burger and a beer!