July 7, 2024
Sometimes a 5K just isn’t enough. That’s what Julie thought when running the Sour Apple 5K on a humid Sunday morning in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
Running events often include multiple races. For example, our New Jersey 5K was accompanied by a 10K and a 15K. Sometimes these multiple races have separate start times. Other times they have a single mass start, with the shorter race peeling off from the longer race at some point along the course. Our Rhode Island running event was the latter – a 5K and a half marathon with a simultaneous start.
When it came time for the 5K runners to turn off, Julie decided to go straight along with the half marathoners. She later said it was because someone was standing in front of the 5K turn sign, but Ryan thinks she gave herself a “hold my beer” moment because the 5Ks are becoming too darn easy for her. Whatever the reason, her 5K ended up covering almost seven miles.
109 runners ran the rolling hills of the 5K course. The top two runners were strong, finishing in 16:27 (a 5:17 per mile pace) and 17:29 (a 5:37 per mile pace), but there was a drop-off after that. The 3rd place finisher came in at around 21:00. The top female finisher came in at 22:11, finishing 5th overall.
A bit further back in the pack, Ryan took 1st out of 7 in his age group and 13th overall. Julie was last among the 16 in her age group and 103rd overall. To be fair, she did run more than twice as far as everyone else. Had she decided to run only the required 3.1 miles, and ran her typical pace, she likely would have won her age group and finished 3rd overall. Even so, she ran more than twice as far as everyone else and still managed to beat six people. Consider her beer held.
Those of you paying attention to the detail may have noticed that the date of the Rhode Island 5K is out of sequence with the order in which we actually visited the New England states. We were unable to find a Rhode Island 5K that fell within our time there, so we doubled back two states later to fit the race in. Fortunately, it’s an easy enough jaunt from southern New Hampshire to northern Rhode Island that the backtrack didn’t cost us too much time.
Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds
Ok. See, what happened was…
It was a hot, sticky July day in Rhode Island. When the race began, other than feeling the wear and tear of the extra driving to get to the race and the sticky heat, both Ryan and Julie were feeling pretty ready to put in a good run.
As Julie started the race, she was feeling so-so and ready to give the old “take it easy” approach a try. She turned in a casual, but respectable 8:45 for her first mile and was happy to see her heart rate in the mid 140’s. Okay, we’ll let this race be a nice, low-key, not-too-taxing recovery race. When a few very mild hills showed up in mile 2, Julie had no problem taking her foot off the gas completely. She slowed down to a slow 9:52 pace. Somewhere early in the mile, Ryan caught up and sailed right by her. High-five’s and “way-to-go-babe”s were exchanged and Ryan slowly faded into the foreground. Julie took the mile nice and easy, reveling in the recovery. As mile 3 approached, the natural recovery settled in and, without increased effort, she was back at an 8:50 pace. As she crested a small hill at the end of mile 3, she started to pick up the pace, looking for the finish line in the distance. Usually by mile 3, the finish line is in sight and you can do some kind of internal intuitive calculation of how much you can afford to speed up for that .12 miles without running out of gas before the finish line. Julie had found a fellow runner to play leap frog with, each holding a strong and steady pace and occasionally pulling ahead of each other, alternating back and forth. Julie was enjoying having this pacer to head into the final turn. As they turned around the corner as per the race arrow, Julie expected to see a big finish line blow-up arch and to see Ryan there cheering her home.
No dice.
It was a cul-de-sac. Julie looked down at her watch, just about 3.12 as she rounded the orange cone in the cul-de-sac that would take her back out to the road. Sure, some races don’t get the mileage quite right. According to Julie’s watch, the 5Ks we’ve run have been anywhere from 3.06 miles to 3.18 miles…so maybe this was going to be the most off, but still within reason.
Julie ran out of the cul-de-sac with the other races to take the right turn onto the main road and there was no finish line there. Okay, there was a downhill around a curve. That must be where the finish line is. Can’t hear anyone cheering, but that’s not part of every race. Julie took the curve and all she saw in front of her was more miles and more runners contentedly running those miles, including the girl she had been playing leap frog with.
”Is this the 5K course?” Julie asked to her unofficial running buddy.
”Oh! No. This is the half marathon.”
Right.
Oops.
Well, Julie’s watch said 3.33 miles at this point…how far could she be? Luckily, there was a policewoman manning (or womanning) the corner right by the cul-de-sac, so Julie stopped to report her gaff and find out how far she was from the 5K course.
”Oh no. The 5K course is a little over 3 miles away!”
To this day, Julie still can’t wrap her head around how she could have run a little over 3 miles and somehow be 3 full miles away from the 5K course. But, there you have it.
Julie walked back to the water station in front of the cul-de-sac where a volunteer offered to phone it in and have someone come pick her up.
Nope. This is the 5Ks in 50 States series and as far as Julie was concerned that means, you leave at the starting line and you cross the finish line of that race without getting in a vehicle at any point between here and there, no matter how many miles you choose to squeeze into the 5K in between them. So, this recovery run would now turn into a core culprit of the overtraining to come. Julie stopped her watch at 3.6 miles clocking in at a respectable average 8:59 pace at an average heart rate of 144. She then proceeded to run the 3 miles back to the finish line at an average pace of 10:11 and an average heart rate of 161. About three quarters of a mile on the way back, Julie encountered another lost soul walking back who had apparently missed the same turn. They had a nice time chatting about life, running and how both ended up missing the turn off over the next three miles. She was running the race to support some friends and the cause and was not accustomed to running this far, but they kept each other going for the extra untrained for miles. When they approached the part of the race where the missed turn was, it all clicked for Julie. Not having ever gotten off course in a race she had been wondering what the heck had happened. The sign was right at the corner of a water station and Julie remembered hitting that water station and running in towards it to grab a cup to slosh over her head at a time when there were lots of volunteers and lots of runners, more than enough to be standing in front of that sign. Even though clearly everyone but her and one other person had managed to see it, she felt a little better to see that it was not entirely flakey and more than anything, just a flukey piece of unfortunate timing. The heat and tiredness was getting to her, but by the time her and her running mate finally got within sight of the finish line, she felt that end of race rush and was ready to put in a kick. Her running mate was too tired to pick it up but encouraged Julie to go for it, so she did, promising to get a picture of her when she crossed the line.
Julie crossed the finish line sticky and wiped, but glad to still be able to check the 5K in Rhode Island box. Unfortunately for Ryan, this was the first time we had decided to use our indoor locks the night before the race for added security while sleeping in a casino parking lot. Though there is now a policy that any morning we wake up with the indoor locks engaged, we unlatch them first thing in the morning. As for this incident, the only door without an indoor lock locked, the one we exited the van through is the one door in the van that only one set of keys opens and…you guessed it, when divvying out the two sets of keys before the race, Julie got the ones that open that door. So, Ryan ran the race exactly as marked, and ran a good one at that, but had to sit in the hot sticky air for 40 minutes until Julie crossed that finish line.
As for Ryan’s race, he started out strong, but not too strong in mile one. He kept a pretty steady pace for the whole race and clocked in at a decent time. He was definitely starting to loosen up at this point in the 5Ks in 50 States adventure. The most memorable moment of the race for him was this. After taking a sip of water at the water station, Ryan turned right at the large clearly visible sign indicating for 5K runners to turn right. And turn right he did.
R and J in the USA 
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