RHODE ISLAND!!!! FOGGY, FOGGY, FOGGY...NUMBER 27!

Finally, another race!!! I have been chomping at the bit to run a race and what made this one fun is seeing Jan and George (oldest and dearest friend and husband) for the weekend. Brian and I decided that he would stay home and save his days to burn for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I rode into work with him on 09/18/2015 and he dropped me at Midway at 8am and I had a 10:55am flight direct to Providence, RI. This was the first time in many years that I was flying Southwest, I was a little concerned…but I read an article on “how to win over the flight attendant” and it said, bringing a little gift couldn’t hurt so in the many minutes that I had to burn in the airport I bought a small bag of Godiva truffles and gave them to the flight attendant on my way in, she was extremely attentive to my needs. I think I found a winning approach to airline travel! Jan picked me up right after I collected my bag and we were off to Fort Getty, Jamestown, RI to grab my race packet and then on to George’s house in Tiverton, RI. Any time you travel with Jan, you have to make at least 3 stops to “look”, I mean “really look” at something. We tooled around Jamestown, got something to eat, looked at some ridiculous mansions and generally chatted about all subjects with Jan. Jan and I have a truly amazing relationship. I have known her since I was 19 years old and we have an amazingly close yet low maintenance friendship. We don’t have to talk for months, but when we are together it is as if no time has passed and we pick it up without missing a beat. I don’t believe we have ever felt pressure to touch base; we do so when we want to and neither of us has ever had a problem with that. Our conversation covers everything and is far from linear. I would call it the splatter technique of communication. All subjects are thrown up on the conversational wall at random and the swirl of playful yet serious banter begins as soon as we open our eyes and ends when we close them to sleep. She lives in a different world than I do and it is so interesting to hear her life experiences as they are so different from my own. We went to bed fairly early as it was a 6:30am race. I was up at 4:45am showered and ready to go and down in the kitchen by 5:00am to find George making coffee. This big bear of a man is one of my favorite men!!! First there is Dad/Brian (dead heat for top billing), then Stuart(brother), then Michael(roommate), then George. He is a self-made man and has amassed a fortune in precious metals cutting and manufacturing. He is genuine and sweet, endearing and affable and has the best laugh and accent of all time. I hugged him hard and thanked him for letting me crash with him and as is typical for George he extended the invitation for “anytime”. He was off to work and told me that Jan was up and that he would be meeting us later for an afternoon at the house and for dinner, and he told me we were gonna have Lobstah!!! Jan came out grabbed coffee and we were off to figure out where the race started. It was sooooo foggy that you couldn’t see a car in front of your eyes. As we were driving to Jamestown, Jan realized that she had very little fuel, so we had to find a station that was open and stay on schedule to get me to the race by 6:00 to give me time for a proper warmup. We found a station on the way, filled and continued on with a minimum of drama. Jan dropped me right by the port-a-potty line when we got to Fort Getty and turned around up at the top of the hill and swung back around. I quickly unpacked my bag and put on some stuff and took off some stuff and threw it in the window of her Prius as she moved on to find a spot near the start. It was still quite foggy and dark. I had eaten my banana early and had my Larabar by about 6:05am. One small hiccup, I had let my driver drive off with my headphones, but I had essentially run without them in Georgia and it really wasn’t a big deal so, whatever…

After my bathroom stop I headed to the start line and met a guy named Jeff. We struck up a conversation and my quest came up and he had run the A1A race in Ft. Lauderdale and said it was GREAT!!! I was planning on that being my Florida race...I love it when that happens. The race set off on time and I saw Jan just as we made the L turn out of Fort Getty. It was pretty uneventful. Low rolling hills, lots of fog, no visibility and tons of moisture. I was good on water, had a gel at 5-6 and another at 8-9. I played my music moderately loud on my arm and had a couple of comments on my music and a couple of “thank you’s” for having a good tune up a hill. It was not an easy race, but I just kept on plugging away. The 2 hour pacer caught up with me about a mile before the finish, he liked the Eagle’s, "Long Run" and actually got it. I managed to finish before him. It is official, number 27, DONE!!! 01:58:05, 9:01 pace, 4th in my age group of 31, 193 of 599 Overall, 78 of 361 women. It bears mentioning that I had a Lobstah roll that night and it was amazing, the next day I had Rhode Island Chowdah, broth based, with a splash of cream and clam cakes (clam tasting hush puppies basically). It was excellent! The visit was excellent - Next race, Halloween in New Orleans!!!!