Number 39 was the Ocean State Rhode Race in Narragansett, Rhode Island on 28 October 2018. I finished with a gun time of 3:51:38 and a chip time of 3:51:29, 58 out of 178, 10 of 23 in my age group and 45 of 101 among men. Rachael ran the half in 2:30, we both ran well due to the excellent weather, overcast in the mid-50's.

We flew to Hartford late Friday. It had been raining hard all day in Durham due to the remnants of Hurricane Rosa, which came ashore earlier in the week in Baja California. Rosa transformed into a Noreaster over Rhode Island on Saturday, we drove through driving rain to Narrangansett to pick up our race numbers Saturday morning. After that quick stop, we were ready for some indoor activity out of the rain. We went to Newport to see how the other 0.00000001\% lived. We toured the two most oppulent Vanderbilt mansions, the Breakers and Marble house. Rachael liked the mosaics at the Breakers, here it is one over our heads.

The house also had ordinary ceilings, like this one

all in all, it is a very very very fine house

I wouldn't think that life in such splendor would be very comfortable. On the grounds, the fatal flaw seems to be that despite being rich the houses don't have private piers. On the whole, I would say the houses are a bit disappointing if this is all the very richest person on earth had in the 19th century. Life should be more liveable. Where are the smart speakers? Where is the surround sound?

Rosa was kicking up some incredible waves, we watched the storm the windows of the Safari Room at OceanCliff as we sampled calimari, quahog and lobster bisque. The calamari was fried soft with tomatoes, Rachael said it was the best she ever had. After dinner we headed to the Hampton Inn in Narrangansett.

Despite the fact that my weight is still too high, the race was a fantastic experience. I didn't have any particular time goal, I really hadn't run longer than 10 miles since marathon 38. We had planned to race in Cheyenne in September, but other plans got in the way and we registered for Rhode Island just a few weeks ahead. With fewer than two hundred runners, parking was easy, we arrived at 7:10 for the 7:30 start of the marathon and sat in the car til 7:20. The first half of the run hugs the shore with some great views. The rain had mostly passed on, the winds were calm, it was a great day for running. The half marathon starts at 8, Rachael waited a bit longer in the car.

I went out with the 3:45 pace group for the first half, catching or passing them on the downgrades and falling back on the uphills. There is a long down slope at 11 miles and I got maybe 30 seconds ahead of the group. The caught me as we went back up the same slope at 18 miles. I felt like I was still pushing, but apparently my feet turned to lead for the last few miles. Overall, I finished this race with less trouble and soreness than any race in the past 10 years. Here I am coming into the finish

and here is a picture of Rachael and I on the Narrangansett Town Beach after the run.

My phone clocked the race at 26.71 miles. Fastest splits were 8:06 in miles 6 and 11, 8:07 in mile 13. Slowest were 9:18, 9:30 and 9:47 in the last three miles. Overall, I ranked this race in the top 10 all time, it was extremely convinent and well run. My positive feeling was reinforced a few days later when I found that the race provides free event photos sponsored by Reebok. Here are some of those pics:

We drove 10 minutes to the Hampton to freshen up and then had lunch at the Coast Guard House, overlooking the surfers that were out to enjoy Rosa's waves. We had to wait 30 minutes for a table, here's an old man during the wait

We then drove back to Hartford, where we stayed overnight to catch the Monday morning nonstop back to Durham.