Nerac Runner Spotted at Rhode Island Shoreline Duathlon

Keith snapped a photo of Rick at the Rhode Island Shoreline Duathlon

Rick at the Rhode Island Shoreline Duathlon

Nipmuck 16 mile trail race

Runners:  Charlie, Jill, Sarah, Dan, Lynn, Linda, and over 100 more runners.
Support:  Rick, Allyssa, Michael

Here is my race day recap.  The weather was actually perfect.  The forecasted rain never appeared and the sun came out for us about an hour into the race.  It was still a little chilly at the start but as soon as the race began it warmed up exponentially.  The race starts uphill and seems to go up for quite a while.  The first 4 miles went pretty quickly, there was an aid station at 4 and 8 miles which was a perfect way to break up the race into quarters.  At the first aid station I ditched my cap, gloves, vest, and long sleeve shirt and hurriedly pulled on a short sleeve shirt and Rick helped me switch my number over, Michael handed me a snickers, Allyssa was volunteering at the aid station and handed me a cup of gatorade and off I went.  I lost sight of Charlie at this point and was starting to mentally prepare to go it solo or try to hook up with the girl running behind me but then I caught sight of him and Sarah at the top of the next hill.  It seemed everyone was walking the steep hills so at the bottom of every hill I ran the first 20 feet or so and was able to catch up with them. Another runner, Kathy had joined them and the 4 of us ran the entire next stretch from mile 4 to 7 until Sarah slipped and injured her ankle.  She was obviously in terrible pain and could not go on so we tried to make her comfortable.  A runner passing by handed me an ace bandage and Charlie wrapped her ankle and we decided to push on to the 8 mile aid station to get help.  Michael and Rick were there and took over, the ambulance was called and Charlie and I decided to push on.  Kathy had already left so that left Charlie and I to fight out the last 8 miles.  Miles 8 to 12 were not too bad, there were some really good flat stretches where we were able to get into a good rhythm and move along pretty quickly.  We stopped quickly at the last aid station and I grabbed some fig newtons and Charlie grabbed some pretzels.  Miles 12 through 15 were excruciatingly difficult.  Up, and up, and up.  On one of the few downhills Charlie slipped and landed not so gently on his shoulder.  I think he was more upset about losing 2 of his pretzels than he was worried about having injured himself in the fall.  At the point where the trail finally started downhill toward the finish line Charlie kicked up the last of his adrenaline and took off with me running after him, the two of us were lucky we didn’t tumble down the hill.  The couple people we passed heard us thundering down the trail and scrambled out of the way.  I have never been so happy to see a finish line in my life!  I couldn’t even stretch for fear that my legs would cramp up and I wouldn’t be able to walk.  – Jill