Ocean Road 10K

Five Favorite Races

April 19, 2024 by Michelle 7 Comments

This week the Fit Five Friday crew is inviting you to share your Five Favorite Medals/Races. While it was hard to narrow it down to just five races, it was fun to take a little walk down memory lane!

Fit Five Friday – Five Favorite Races

Boston’s Run to Remember — This was my first half marathon and I’ve run both the half and the 5 miler numerous times. I love the course and I love the vibe of this race! I’m also a fan that the race honors fallen first responders. I will miss running it this Memorial Day but can’t wait to run it next year.

Philly Half Marathon — This is was my first destination race and was definitely another good vibe race. I really enjoyed both the course and the great crowd support! I ran the 8K (also part of the Philadelphia Marathon Weekend) last year and it did not disappoint, but I would love to get back to run the half again.

Western MA 10M — If you’ve been around here a bit than you know how much I love the 10-mile distance! The Western 10M is a point-to-point course, starting on the UMass Amherst campus and ending in the town of Northampton, with most of the run taking place on the Norwottuck Rail Trail – a beautiful trail for runners, walkers, and cyclists, especially in the Fall when the race takes place. This race had great volunteers and a fun post-race party and it’s another one I’m hoping to run again.

Ocean Road 10K — This is another repeat race for me and with good reason! The 10K course winds along Rhode Island’s coastline, starting at the Point Judith Lighthouse and ending at Narragansett Beach. It’s a lot of fun, well organized, and how can you beat running near the ocean?!

Chicago Marathon — How could my first (and only) marathon not be on my list?! This is such a great race – I loved everything about my experience. Running through all of the different Chicago neighborhoods was amazing and the spectators came out in force! A fabulous experience, especially for a first time marathon!

What is one of your favorite races?

Welcome to Fit Five Friday!

Join My First 5K and More, Running With Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, Runs with Pugs, and The Running Teacher every Friday for Fit Five Friday! Share your fitness-related link, link back to your hosts, and please share the link love by visiting and commenting on your hosts and at least two other Fit Five Friday bloggers!

Filed Under: #FitFiveFriday, Boston's Run to Remember, Chicago Marathon, Friday Five, Ocean Road 10K, Philly Half, races

2021 Ocean Road 10K Race Recap

October 8, 2021 by Michelle 20 Comments

Welcome to another edition of Fit Five Friday! Today I’m sharing a quick recap of the Ocean Road 10K.

2021 Ocean Road 10K Recap

Last Sunday, I was lucky enough to toe the line for the Ocean Road 10K. There had been so many race cancelations announced in the past couple of weeks, and I was holding my breath hoping this one would go off as planned. I ran Ocean Road in 2018 and loved it! In 2019 the race date was too close to the Chicago Marathon and last year …well COVID, so it was great to be able to run this one again. And, added bonus, I got to run another race with my brother!

The course is a point-to-point route that winds along the RI coastline, offering beautiful views of the ocean. It’s also a rolling course — nothing crazy in terms of elevation, but some of the long slow inclines definitely proved to be taxing for my recovering hip.

Hard to complain about views like this!

My husband J, who wasn’t running thanks to a hamstring issue, offered to drop my brother and me off at the start so we could avoid taking the shuttle and the long wait before the start of the race. J and I picked my brother up just after 6 on Sunday morning and had an easy ride down to Narragansett, arriving at the Point Judith Lighthouse before the 7:30 road closure. A quick trip to the porta-potties, a quick photo, and it was time to line up. Runners were asked to self-seed for the wave start, so we worked out way through the crowd to start in the 3rd wave. The race started at 8 and by 8:07 we were crossing the start line.

The first 5K

As you can imagine, I was very psyched to be running an in-person race and will admit to going out too fast. I appreciated the wave start as it really cut down on the amount of bobbing and weaving that typically happens at the start of a race. My brother and I took in the views and clipped along. Some of the local residents came out to cheer on the runners from on their decks – a special thanks to the person who set up speakers and blared the Rocky theme 🙂 J decided to drive the road parallel to the course which gave him a chance to park periodically and walk over to cheer us. He caught up with us the first time just after the first water stop after mile 2.

The first long incline came in the 3rd mile and by the time we hit the 5K mark, I could feel my hip tightening up. Ugh…

The final 5K

I had been using 4:1 intervals, but in the 4th mile, I needed to walk a bit more. I urged my brother to keep going. I stopped to try to stretch things out a bit and started again trying to keep him in my sights. I saw J again just after the next water stop. My hip was getting tighter and it must have reflected on my face because as this woman passed me she looked at me and said: “Come on we got this” and motioned for me to join her. I didn’t walk and fell in step with her. We chatted and ran – Nicole was also doing run/walk intervals and we were running at about the same pace so it was perfect. Soon we were passing under the Narragansett Towers and down the homestretch to the finish. We high five and thank each other for pushing to the finish. My brother was waiting at the finish line having finished just a few minutes ahead.

Final thoughts

This race offers a beautiful course and an overall great vibe. Getting dropped off at the start was a huge win vs. taking the shuttles and having a long wait at the start (the downside of any point-to-point race). Race organizers once again opted to offer rental mobile lockers vs. a traditional bag check – after my previous experience a couple of years ago, I opted to skip the lockers and leave my extra layers in the car…another benefit of getting dropped off at the start. Overall the race was well organized and the race directors did a great job of getting information out to runners before the race.

I would run this one again!

Welcome to Fit Five Friday!

Join My First 5K and More, Running With Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, Runs with Pugs, and Zenaida every Friday for Fit Five Friday! Share your fitness-related link (exercise, wellness, mental health, nutrition… the possibilities are endless!), link back to your hosts, and share the link love by visiting and commenting on your hosts and at least two other Fit Five Friday bloggers!

Filed Under: #FitFiveFriday, Ocean Road 10K, race report

Ocean Road 10K Race Recap

October 9, 2018 by Michelle 22 Comments

Last Sunday my husband J and I took on the Ocean Road 10K, and today I’m finally getting around to sharing some of the highlights.

Ocean Road 10K Race Recap

I have had my eye on the Ocean Road 10K since last year, but the race has a limited field and by the time I was sure I could make it work in my schedule the race had sold out. Determined to not repeat the same mistake, once I caught the first notification on Facebook I jumped at signing up.

This is a Rhode Island-based race, so there were no local packet pick-up options, leaving me to have to make the trek down to Narragansett the day before. (There was an option to pick up your bib on race morning, but most of the race communications tried to dissuade you from going that route). While I didn’t love the extra driving time down and back, the packet pick-up itself was a breeze. I especially appreciated that they let you pick up bibs for others as long as you had a copy of a photo ID, so I could pick up J’s bib while he was off picking up our oldest son from his cross country meet.

Since this was a point-to-point race, all runners were assigned to a shuttle based on when you registered – and since J slid in on registration literally moments before it sold out, we were assigned to the first wave of shuttles at 6:30 a.m. Factoring in the hour plus drive, we were up and moving by 4:30 to make sure we were out the door by 5 – oy! Though in hindsight, I will say that given how fast the parking lot was filling up when we arrived at 6:15, I’m glad we didn’t plan to arrive later.

The school buses were all lined up and ready to head out, and we were both a little surprised that given all of the repeated reminders in the pre-race communications about taking your assigned shuttle, we didn’t see any race staff on hand to make sure people were getting on the right shuttles. Being on the first shuttles had its advantages of first dibs on the Porta Potties and getting in line to rent a locker (The locker situation turned out to be a hot mess, but more on that later).

The race didn’t start until 8 so we enjoyed the sunrise, watched the handful of surfers on the water, and tried to stretch and stay warm. As the start time neared and they made the first call for the “fast runners” we realized there were no posted markers to help runners self-seed. No Bueno. We shuffled in where we could as the race went off in “waves” – and soon we were off.

The goal for this race was simply to use 5:1 intervals and to try to hold a solid pace. And for the first 4 miles, we did just that. Shortly after the 4-mile marker, my hammy announced it was done…hmm yeah, well we’ve still got 2.2 miles to go. J suggested we switch to shorter run intervals and while it helped a little I could really feel my pace slowing. Thankfully, it was only a couple of miles of discomfort before we were heading down the home stretch and crossing the finish line.

We got our medals, water and did a quick peruse of the food before hitting the Kind Bar tent, and then headed to the beach where most of our fellow runners were gathering. It was such a gorgeous day that if we hadn’t had family plans for the day we could have easily hung out and enjoyed the beachfront.

Running just gets better with views like this!

Race pluses…

This race offers a stunning course – it starts at Point Judith Lighthouse and follows the RI coast up to the Narragansett Town Beach. Along the way, you’re treated to great coastal views and some beautiful beachfront property. (Having the picture-perfect weather we had, certainly didn’t hurt!)
While the course rolls a little, it’s fairly flat – the inclines that exist are gradual.
Free race photos!
The T-shirt is fun, and I think they hit a home run with the medal!

… and minuses

How do you ask runners to self-seed and not provide some kind of pace markers at the start?
The mobile lockers were advertised at $5 so to get to the front of the line and discover that the $5 locker was the size of a thimble and the woman managing the lockers was trying to get everyone to “upgrade” felt like a big bait and switch. On top of it, many runners (like us) only had exact change so you can imagine how well this worked out. We were able to jam my sweatshirt and the small bag we had into the locker but J ended up having to carry his sweatshirt the whole race.
Just a couple of extra volunteers positioned in the parking lot post-race would have gone a long way to making things run smoother when it was time to leave.

Final thoughts

I really enjoyed the vibe of this race and only wish my hamstring had allowed me to run the race I wanted. While the distance was doable, I had to significantly slow my pace to finish, so clearly, I still have some work to do on my rehab.

I would run this race again in a heartbeat and will be looking to return next year!

I’m linking up with Erika, Marcia, and Patty for Tuesdays on the Run.

Filed Under: Ocean Road 10K, race report