Amica Marathon Race Report

This last weekend we were visiting family in Narragansett, Rhode Island. My mother-in-law made us cheesecake. Her cheesecake is the best cheesecake in the world, and I ate lots of it. Fortunately, our visit coincided with the Amica marathon, which was taking place in nearby Newport. Since a serving of cheesecake (at 2.8 ounces, about 1/6th of the entire cake) has around 250 calories, running a marathon would allow me to eat two entire cakes and not put on weight (I expect to burn at least 3000 calories while running a marathon). I had also heard that the course was very scenic, but this was a secondary consideration. After downing a few beers on Saturday night the deal was sealed: no more cheesecake or beer until I brought back a medal from the race.

I woke up at 5am on Sunday to the sound of heavy rain. I left the house a little later and drove 15 miles in the dark to the race start in downtown Newport. The weather conditions were truly abysmal. It was cold (in the 40's), windy and raining hard. The rain was a cold rain, which later turned to a hard hail. The race website later characterized the conditions as being the worst imaginable for running. My wife later told me that when I didn't drop out of the race she really, seriously began to have concerns about my mental state.

The marathon started at 8am, and two minutes later I was questioning the wisdom of what I was doing. My shoes filled with freezing cold water and I was completely soaked. The course was a point to point race, first passing through downtown Newport before heading into some picturesque neighbourhoods with the large historic mansions Newport is famous for. We ran for a while along a road by the seashore, where the weather was at it's worst. In addition to the lashings of rain and wind, waves crashed over the seawall onto the course. The scenery was dramatic at times, and wild. I found myself sometimes running but almost stationary, stopped by a wall of wind. I began to feel I was participating in something special, a legendary race, tales of which would be passed down the generations.

I reached at halfway point a little after two hours, when many half-marathoners finished their races, leaving the field a little barer. The second half of the race was less interesting than the first, being a couple of out and backs along roads in and out of Newport. Actually this part of the race was quite boring, and I don't have many memories of it. I finished in my worst marathon time ever, 4 hours 23 minutes. However I was very happy to have finished and considered this an achievement. In retrospect if I were to do this race again, I would only do the half marathon, which was extremely scenic, rather than the full. Even though this would mean eating less cheesecake.