|
Jill and I got up almost early in the morning... sort of half past early... a quick light breakfast, coffee, more coffee, and then off to Newport for the 18th Annual Bank of Newport Pie Run. We managed to get there early enough this year (unlike some prior years
that saw us running to get to the start) to pick up our t-shirts and our
race numbers and our pies (each entrant gets a little Table Talk four ounce
pie -- and winners get large bakery-made pies as part of their award) and
had time to stash our goodies in my car and pin on our numbers and still
get to the starting line just before the start.
There were more than fifteen hundred people -- about two thirds running
the five mile race and the rest doing the five kilometer walk. It takes
a bit for a crowd that size to get sorted out along the course, faster
runners passing slower runners, etc. We went through the one mile mark
in a bit over nine minutes, which I figured was fairly quick considering
the dense crowd of people that really had things slow during the first
half a mile or so. Jill, however, despite complaining about not having
done any really training or working out, wanted to push the pace a bit
but I told her I was already going faster than I thought I could sustain
for five miles given my level of training (i.e., I've been fairly good
about using the exercise bike and doing a bit of working with weights,
but I have not been doing much running at all in the past month, maybe
only three times) so around a mile and a half into the race she went on
ahead and I settled back to jog along. (As last year, I did walk for a
block or two on the steep part of the hill just before St. George's School.)
Once past the four mile mark, I picked it up a little bit and around a
third of a mile from the finish line Jill (having had time to finish the race and jog back to that point) was waiting for me and paced me to
the finish. I finished around 52:28 (according to my watch).
As I've mentioned, this year (as we did last year) we rented the parish
hall at Nancy's church for our Thanksgiving celebration. Unlike previous
years, I didn't prepare any of the meal (Nancy's sisters decided that hosting
Wednesday night's dinner was my contribution for this year) and so I was
really able to just relax and enjoy. (As people began to arrive a family
came to the door looking for a church-sponsored community meal -- that
was being held at a church in Providence this year and these people did
not own a car so Nancy invited them to join us. That brought the total
for Thanksgiving dinner to 40.)
|
 |
|
Assorted munchies to enhance the socializing prior to the main event. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Nancy had persuaded brother-in-law Tom to bring his guitar in anticipation of musical entertainment for the adults. Instead, Tom was surrounded by the younger set and ended up doing lots of children's songs. |
|
Meanwhile, the adults had lots of time for socializing and chatting over coffee and dessert (many pies -- apple, pumpkin, blueberry, mince -- plus cake and coookies). Here Nancy and Jeremy enjoy coffee and conversation. |
This is being posted on Friday morning because I was too tired to finish
it and up load it on Thursday night.
|
