DONE!

Finished! Ran the rest of the roads this morning on my 16.2 mile excursion. Longest run of my life, and felt pretty good. I was 1 second per mile off my Thursday 13.2 mile pace, which I think is pretty solid. Felt like I hadn't run in weeks, so I guess 3 days rest was the right separation.

Today's run was the western part of South Rd, all of Shippee, and the neighborhoods hanging off both of them. took a long time to get there and get home, but covered a ton of new ground. And did I mention that I'm done??? :)

Here's what today's new coverage looked like - wasn't anticipating the private driveway there in the upper left; that shortened up the run quite a bit.

Here's the map showing total coverage to date (all of it, because I'm done) - new area today is in the extreme bottom left corner:

Here's the shaded map - hey, it's all white because I'M DONE!

Final statistics - 49 runs totaling 349 miles for an average of 7.12 miles per run. No more runs left, covering 0 miles because I'M DONE!!!

Best run in a loooong time

Contrary to my prior post, I went out this morning for my half marathon run to close out some roads dangling off Carr's Pond Rd, as well as the northern arm of Carr's Pond. While Tuesday was definitely a rough running day, my legs felt really strong yesterday so I decided to give it a whirl. Hit the road around 5:05 AM and could tell it was going to be a different experience - no aches or pains to speak of. While I'm not running for speed here, I felt much more consistent with my pace and that was revealed in the final results - I was half a minute faster per mile than my prior couple runs, and it was my fastest pace for any run over 12 miles during this odyssey. I also closed out really strong - 3 of my last 4 miles were the fastest of the entire run, and my final 1/4 mile was at a pace of just over an 8 minute mile.

The running belt continues to work well for hydration and snacking, and the bug spray was once again a success.

Today's coverage... The straggler in the top left is a little sliver of Carr's Pond north of Middle before it turns west into... West Greenwich? Coventry? Google confirms - West Greenwich! The bottom right are 2 neighborhoods off of Carr's Pond just north of the Frenchtown intersection:

Coverage map:

Shaded map (you'll see a couple gaps in the center left are now covered based on this morning's route):

Stats to date: 48 runs, 332.7 miles, 6.93 mile/run average. I have 1 run left, a 17 miler that could turn into 16.5 or so because I always start walking on Cindyann to begin cooling down.

Fun fact (for me anyway)... my travels have taken me into West Greenwich and Coventry while knocking off the western portion of Division, and North Kingstown while taking care of the eastern piece of Frenchtown and southern part of Post. I'm sure I wavered into Warwick while running Division, but that doesn't really count. Next post might be my last!

Too soon for another long one...

Off the high of my 15+ miler on Sunday, I figured "No problem, I'll do 13+ on Tuesday, 13+ on Thursday, and my 17 on Saturday and end this thing right now". I even said as much to a friend at work. My quads felt a bit tired last night, but I got up early and felt good so I headed out the door. Just wasn't in the cards for me today - my MP3 player died less than halfway into my run and my legs just didn't have it. I completed the run - 12.6 in total because one of the roads turned out to be mostly private - but I walked a good portion of it (most of Rt 2 on the return leg).

So, time for a new plan... maybe the long one Friday night and the final 13ish miler next Tuesday? The constraint is that the 17 miler has to be a weekend or it impacts the start of work - Friday night might work if I can duck out a little early.

You may be wondering... What makes a road "private"? There are a few things that I use when making that decision (many of which are no-brainers):

1. A sign that says "Private," "Residents Only," or the like
2. A sign that says "No pedestrians" (think of the signs you see on highway on-ramps)
3. Turnpikes or other barricades across the road - the maps all show "roads" existing around the Toray building on Rt 2 (old Bostitch building) as well as roads inside the Fogarty National Guard complex; guards at the gates of both of these places make them decidedly private
4. A slew of mailboxes at the entry - I've ignored this sometimes, but in general, if the mailman doesn't venture down the road, I consider it to be a private road
5. A glorified driveway - if it's a long, winding "road" that leads to a business (think St Elizabeth's assisted living facility, across from Hilltop on Post Rd), it's not a road; it's a driveway and shouldn't be called out on maps as a road

The shortened run today was a result of #4 - there was what looked to be a small cul-de-sac with 6 or so mailboxes at the entrance, but a long "road" disappeared into the woods at the end of the faux cul-de-sac. Given the location of the mailboxes, it seemed like an intrusion of the residents' privacy if I were to venture down the road, so I cut it short.

Today's new coverage:

Overall map (today's area is in the bottom left):

Shaded map:

Totals to date: 47 runs, 319.4 miles, 6.80 average. 30.9 miles remaining, potentially over just 2 runs.

Broke the 15 (and 300) mile barrier!

Up early this morning for my longest run ever, 15+ to cover the stragglers off of Frenchtown, the remaining parts of Frenchtown itself, then returned home via Carrs Pond Rd to Middle. That pushed me past 300 total miles in this effort!

A couple breakthroughs today. I applied a ton of bug spray to my shirt, hat, neck, and shoulders as Carrs Pond Rd really had me worried. I also left 30 minutes later, which would hopefully help by having the mosquitoes quieter due to it being daytime when I got there. Worked like a charm - I nabbed one bug on my neck at one point, but I don't think anything stung or bit me through my shirt. I also picked up a few things at Dick's on Friday - I got a couple Under Armour shirts, primarily for increased visibility (bright red and orange), but I think they might also be less mesh-y. Also got a running belt with a couple 9 oz water bottles and some orange Gu - I've been feeling pretty drained on my 10-12 mile runs, so I figured I'd need some help with the longer ones this week. That also worked like a charm - west of Rt 2, there aren't any shops with water fountains / bubblers, so I have to bring my own (even the new ice cream joint at Rt 2 and Middle is without a fountain :(

Overall, a pretty good morning. I have 3 more mapped runs - 2 are just over half marathon length, and the final one will be a 17 mile odyssey.

Today's coverage - made a lot of progress and, yes, the little green thing in the lower right is correct; that was one of the little roads I missed in last week's unplanned route change.

Overall map:

Shaded map, which is a thing of beauty now! Huge progress in the middle west area today!

Stats to date: 46 runs totaling 306.8 miles (avg of 6.67 miles per outing. As noted above, two mid-13s (Carrs Pond stragglers, and the early part of South Rd) and a 17 miler remaining (western part of South Rd and Shippee in its entirety). Today's 15 miler gives me hope of completing the 17 - I only stopped to walk when I was drinking and eating the Gu, in addition to most of the Middle hill from Rt 2 up to the Rt 4 overpass (that's a brutal hill at most times, but definitely after 13+ miles).

High Hawk done

Got up this morning and ran more than 11.5 miles to knock off the outer loop (and offshoots) of the High Hawk neighborhood. The sun is coming up later much quicker than I expected - a couple weeks back I was able to leave the house at 4:40 with some daylight; I had to wait until almost 5:00 today for enough light to comfortably hit the road, and had to wait until I was well up the hill on Middle Rd before donning my sunglasses. Now that we're into July, that's obviously only going to keep pushing later and later, making long morning runs on weekdays difficult to complete without impacting the start of the work day.

I also realize that I need to be better about using bug spray - Tillinghast was a problem today, so I can only imagine what South Rd and Carrs Pond are going to be like. I don't know how well that will work - given the length of the runs and the humidity, I'm thinking that the bug spray will be sweated off my body and clothes fairly quickly. But I'm going to try it next time I go out.

Today's coverage map:

Overall map:

Shaded map (one teeny little triangle sliver there off of Frenchtown, otherwise it's all done save the far west and southwest):

Totals to date: 45 runs totaling 291.62 miles, averaging 6.48 miles per run. As currently mapped out, I have 4 runs left for a total of 60 miles. As noted in earlier posts, I might split those out even more to mix in some shorter runs, but we'll see... I can plan on the 2 15+ runs on weekends as I can't do those in under the 2.5 hours I'd need to recover and get to work, so perhaps one long one this weekend, 2 in the 13 mile range early morning next week, and the final run the following weekend? That would be fantastic!

Stick with the plan, dummy

Not the greatest running experience yesterday... Took a few more days off than normal due to a trip up to Maine over the weekend, so my 13+ mile plan when I left the house didn't pan out. Wasn't feeling all that great, so I diverted and took a shorter route. Not a great idea on a couple counts:

• The map on my watch shows only my planned route, so straying is rife with risk as far as missing roads along the way
• I always leave a picture of my route for my wife to reference - if I'm late returning, she can follow my path to see if I'm dead in a ditch; if I stray, she could be looking for me in the wrong place

Luckily, the latter didn't cause me problems, but the former did. As I would my way through the early parts of Frenchtown and the east side of High Hawk, I missed a couple roads that will require some future backtracking. Just a complete brain fart on one - it's a dead end off a dead end, so I have no idea how I missed it in both directions. The other street was called a "Lane" so I couldn't tell if it was a dead end (a la "Court", "Circle", or something more descriptive) or a cut-through. I actually started down the road, saw a new road splitting off, and decided I didn't want to get into a wild goose chase...

Anyway, enough complaining... I still ran over 10 miles and knocked off some new territory. Yesterday's progress, with the missed items circled in red:

Map to date:

I didn't cover any significant new area, so the shaded map isn't very different:

Totals to date: 279.97 miles over 44 runs for an average of 6.36 miles per run. Not even sure how many runs I have left - I might chunk things up a little more like yesterday to give me some shorter runs between the long ones. Officially, I'm looking at 5 more runs covering 71.9 miles - same number of runs as previously reported, but I was able to shorten some of them given the areas I knocked off yesterday. I'm still sticking to my guns about my approach in general - every run will touch new ground, and every run will leave from and return to my house.

Middle Road almost done

Early morning again today - kids are sleeping over for summer camp tonight so Melissa and I have a date night and I hadn't run since Monday so I had to squeeze it in this AM. Out the door before 5 AM to finish off a bunch of side roads off the far end of Middle Rd. I'll complete the last portion of Middle itself when I return from a Carrs Pond or Frenchtown run, so I only went as far as the last side street (Partridge Run). Just over 12.5 miles this AM, which is a couple mile jump from my previous long run on this adventure.

Today's coverage:

Map to date - today's coverage is to the far west, just a bit north of the center:

Shaded map - I like this view!

Totals to date: 43 runs totalling 269.91 miles, averaging 6.28 miles per outing. If I stick to my planned runs, I have 5 left covering 74.5 miles - they range from mid-13s up to 17, so it's tougher from here on out. I might chunk up the Frenchtown run - right now, it has me hitting all remaining side streets for the duration of Frenchtown, then heading up Carrs Pond and returning via Middle. I can take a bit of distance off and fit in a shorter run if I split out the 3 little roads off Frenchtown near Rt 2, and maybe a portion of High Hawk as well... I'll have to play with the maps and see if that makes sense.