rowayton father's day fun run: race report

not only was the rowayton father's day fun run a surprise addition to my race calendar, it was a complete surprise - in and of itself - until the afternoon before! an email from clubct mentioned it among the remaining june races and i couldn't believe my good fortune. sunday was looking like a non-race day: closed out of the father's day race in central park, mt. greylock trail half marathon too far away, branford 5 miler, again too far away for me to drive. but i did hope to drive over the tappan zee bridge and run the pearl river elk's father's day 4 miler. lo and behold, a great race to run in rowayton!

great race or not, it was absolutely lousy weather to start the morning! rain outside the window when i woke up, and more rain for the entire drive to rowayton via i-95. and if to underline the inauspicious start, when i got off exit 12, a sign posted just off the ramp announced that the southbound entrance was closed for construction! luckily, i didn't have to worry about that until the drive home! but things improved dramatically from there - first, the rain stopped. second, and more importantly, i didn't get lost on the short drive to the community center :D

gail was co-race director for the event. as i registered for the race, i was surprised to see john - who had also learned of the race from yesterday's email. then we saw another familiar face, darcy. but except for john and darcy, i didn't recognize anyone else in the small field. there were two races - the short course was one loop of the 2.2 mile course, and the long course was 4.4 miles (2 loops). the course was familiar because it was also the start and finish of the accelerate your life 5k (and incorporated the southern portion of the norwalk summer series 5 miler?).

just before the start, gail's co-director, erica, announced that because of the high (oppressive, also a good word choice here) humidity, anyone running the long course could drop down to the short course after the first loop. after my first loop, i almost toyed with that option! while the course is hilly (and especially scenic as it goes by the water), i was drenched in sweat within a half mile of the start. it's hardly much of an exaggeration to say it felt like running underwater! it took me 14:39 to complete the first 2.2 mile loop.

i ignored the urge to stop there, and continued on for the second loop. i slowed down a little the second time around, for a positive split of 14:49 and a 29:28 finish. i was pleasantly surprised to have maintained a 6:42 pace over the distance! i finished 7th overall and, 2nd in my age group. in a twist, instead of trophies or medals, we won tee shirts (which sported the above race logo).
john won his age group in the 2.2 miler, and darcy was the first woman finisher in the 4.4 miler!

what a great start to a wet and dreary father's day!

here are my race photos.