Glad that we were able to get out and hike the Vin Gormley Trail before the race. It helped mentally during the race, and it helped me find my way on the morning of the race, as packet pickup started at 5:00 a.m. Driving in the dark from Westerly was not my favorite, but at least there was no traffic at 4:30 a.m. Parking was a little distant from the pickup point, but I knew about which way to head to find the race.

Beautiful day out, especially at first. Cold autumnal weather. The weather turned in the afternoon, when it started to rain, adding just another element of difficulty to the day.

I learned a lot from this race. Looking at my lap splits, I think I went out too fast. My first lap was 2:04, and I should have slowed it down to 2:14 or even 2:24. 2:04 makes sense if the trail really was 7.5 miles, but it was definitely closer to 8, and I should have run it as if it were 8. The park service has the trail at 8 miles, the FKT site has it at 7.8. I was using a Trail Forks map that also had it at 7.8. Why not go with 7.75 instead of 7.5?

The Vin Gormley isn’t what I’d call technical, but it has a bunch of little rocks sticking up in the path. They’re exactly the same color as the dirt, so you just can’t see them until it’s too late. I talked to one guy after the race who said he fell a half dozen times. I was just unlucky to hit a pile of rocks when I landed. 

Another lesson: maybe bring a crew member or talk to the people at the aid station. In retrospect, if I had just taped my ribs after falling, I could have kept up a quicker pace for laps two and three. But it honestly didn’t occur to me, I was just trying to survive. I trained for 30 miles, and I do think I had the legs for four laps, but the ribs…I couldn’t ignore the stabbing pain to keep up the pace.

I’m proud that I toughed it out for two more laps after falling, kind of sad that I had something left in my legs but nothing left in my ribs to get me through a fourth lap. Walking that third lap…so hard. But this was a long solo weekend for me, my longest race to date, my first over 10K. Everything I did, I did on my own: driving to the race, getting home from the race, getting myself through the race… so it feels like victory, even if it’s only a 22.5 mile one.

I’d argue that I ran something closer to 24 miles. Other than that, a well-organized race. I loved the medals and the race shirt. I can’t really speak to the aid station food. Other than water, I fed myself (Untapped maple syrup and LMNT). But I appreciated the bonfire both before and after the race.