Narragansett Blessing of the Feet 10 Mile Road Race

So last week I was just casually looking for upcoming races in New England. I love to run races, and I think they make me a better runner because otherwise I rarely run that hard. I happened to discover the Narragansett 10 Miler on Thursday - and the race was Friday night. The on site race fee was only $35, so we decided "what the hell" and drove down from Boston for it on Friday.

The weather ended up being pretty bad, and the race was actually delayed for half and hour because of downpours and lightning. But that worked in our favor, because it alleviated some of the stifling humidity. The race set off at 6:30pm on Friday night, which meant almost the entire town pulled out their lawn chairs and coolers to spectate. It was an AWESOME race. Beautiful ocean views, tons of cheering fans - people spraying us with their garden hoses to cool off, and even some dudes offering cans of Natty Light around mile 8. The last 1.5 miles was a steady downhill run as well, which is always nice.

I knew this race wouldn't be an all-out race effort for me, mostly because I'd run hard for the 3 previous days - 7 miles on Tuesday, 5 on Wednesday, and 7 on Thursday. It was more of a tune-up effort - and to see how a 10 mile race felt on relatively tired legs. And I can say, it felt better than I thought it would. I mean, it wasn't my best effort, but I am certainly not upset with it.

Miles 1-3 were somewhere around 7:45-8:00, and then I dialed it back because a) we were climbing a long, steady hill, and b) the soreness started yelling at me. But then towards the end I got a second wind and turned it on, concluding with the last mile being my fastest - 7:35. It always feels awesome to finish a race fast - I passed what felt like 100 people in the last mile and sprinted into the finish - the crowd was roaring! That was worth the $35 alone.

Final results: 10 miles, 1:21:24, 8:04 avg pace.


My husband was having some issues during this race and I actually finished ahead of him. Hello, bragging rights! I've been reminding him I beat him all week.

In case you didn't know, the one on the right is the winner in this photo

This race also had a festival/carnival at the end complete with seafood and beer. It was a great race, I highly recommend it!

Now this week is the time to put my big girl panties on - the training plan calls for 50 miles this week. GULP.