Nearly 50 local University of Rhode Island students took to the streets of Newport alongside more than 2,500 runners on Saturday as the ninth edition of the annual Newport Marathon, Half-Marathon, 5k and Beach Mile took place.
Former URI women’s track and field member and fourth-year Katarina King was one of the students who spearheaded the effort to form the group, after overhearing the idea to participate in the half-marathon from one of her nursing classmates. Less than an hour after coming up with the idea to run the race herself, she had already recruited 10 of her nursing classmates to train with her, she said.
Eventually, that number grew to 47, according to King. While some members of the group had previous high school and college running background, others who ended up crossing the finish line had little to no past racing experience.
“One of the girls, she was just explaining that she’s never even ran over two miles before,” King said. “She crossed the finish line in just about two hours and it’s just so crazy to see so many people making so much progress.”
Fourth-years Matt Power and Connor Montague have been running together since their time on the track team at Chariho High School. Having trained together for the race since January, the pair eventually started inviting members of the 47-person group to join them on their training runs ahead of the race, Power said.
While neither of them ran competitively in college, Power’s passion for running began in fifth grade, he said. The opportunity to train with a group of runners brought with it a chance to return to the competitive nature of the sport he grew up in love with.
“The extra challenge I thought was really nice, and just to do it with the team,” Power said. “I tried to pick up running in the summer again, and with no one there to hold me accountable it’s really difficult. Just having such a large group and always being able to run with someone at any time of the day, that was really nice.”
From renting hotel rooms and Airbnb’s ahead of the race, to organizing rides from campus on the morning of, to coordinating group warm-ups, the lead-up to the starting line was a coordinated group effort from the start, according to both Power and King.
That, along with large groups of friends and family showing up to support the runners, gave the URI group the motivation they needed to successfully cross the finish line.
“A lot of people who ran had never even done a race before,” King said. “It was really cool to be able to experience that with them, because growing up I’ve done so many races and every time it’s just so much fun and rewarding afterwards.”
King, who had years of racing experience behind her, enjoyed sharing the experience of crossing the finish line, collecting a medal and feeling the support of loved ones with those who were racing for the first time, she said.
For Montague, who struggled at times with the mental aspect of racing during his high school career, his finish came as an even bigger accomplishment, he said. The race also gave both Montague and Power a sense of accomplishment as they approached graduation in the spring.
“It’s just a really fun thing to do, because since we’re not athletes we don’t really expect to be pushing ourselves like that towards a goal,” Power said. “It’s kind of like another thing to do in our senior year.”
For more information on races hosted by Rhode Races and Events, including the Newport Marathon and Half-Marathon, interested individuals can visit their website at rhoderaces.com.