Derby Street mile

A few weeks back I did the High street mile and after running 5:01.9 I thought that I had a shot at breaking 5 so I decided to take a shot at the Derby Street Mile. Friday traffic was lousy and I showed up in Salem a few minutes later than I normally like to in order to get my warm-up. I met up with David Quintal and we headed out to check the course. Smart move, there are a few tangents to cut in the course and you definitely would want to take advantage of that. We did a 3 mile warm-up then I put on my racing flats and headed out for another mile with some strides. The race started a bit late so there were some nervous moments on the line waiting. Boom we were off and I found myself out of the top 50 in the first 200 meters. Man, people just sprinted off the line! It was funny when reality hit and people around me slowed (sometimes almost to a full stop). I slowly moved through the crowd and hit the 1/4 mile in 71.8. There was a slight downhill in the first quarter and I'd hoped to run right around 72 (based on my split at High Street). DQ was 2 or 3 seconds ahead and I worked on closing the gap. I passed some more people and hit the half in 2:26:.2 (74.8 split). Right where I wanted to be but I hadn't closed on David at all (in fact he was probably 3 or 4 seconds up at the half). I tried to work the third quarter and passed one or two other people but the split was slow 3:34.4 (78.2). There was a slight uphill and a bit of a headwind, so maybe that accounted for the slower split. It looked like I held the same distance to DQ (3 or 4 seconds) but he then went into his kick and I'd get no closer. I pushed as hard as I could hoping to break 5 and closed on the group in front of me. I crossed the line in 4:57.9 (73.5) for 13th place overall and 4th in he 40+. Not a bad run for me. Next up: Moose 4x 2.5 relay.

My 2 cents:
I never saw a porta-john at the start of this race. Maybe I missed something but it is a bad scene when you have 400 runners and no bathroom. In the results I'm listed as "David". I've NEVER put my name as David in any race I've ever done, I bet the timing company does an auto-complete on name fields to save time. Also, I have no city or state listed...probably because I put one in but didn't list a zip-code. Again the timing company probably only uses the zip code.

1 SEAN DUNAN 1164 M 22 M2029 1 GARDNER MA 4:27
2 CHRIS CHAPRUET 351 M 19 M0119 1 DANVERS MA 4:36
3 NICK RENNIE 458 M 27 M2029 2 SALEM MA 4:37
4 DOUG CHICK 416 M 32 M3039 1 LYNN MA 4:42
5 BEN STRAIN 451 M 33 M3039 2 BEVERLY MA 4:42 CMS
6 MATTHEW VEIGA 467 M 24 M2029 3 LYNN MA 4:47
7 JASON BARNES 139 M 48 M4049 1 SALEM MA 4:48
8 RON COOPER 321 M 33 M3039 3 MARBLEHEAD MA 4:51
9 ERICH O'NEIL 285 M 19 M0119 2 BEVERLY MA 4:52
10 DAVID QUINTAL 432 M 48 M4049 2 SALEM NH 4:53 CMS40+ 
11 BRETT BUDZINSKI 271 M 36 M3039 4 N.ANDOVER MA 4:54
12 JOHN AYERS 452 M 45 M4049 3 BEVERLY MA 4:57
13 DAVID DUNHAM 425 M 47 M4049 4 4:58 CMS 40+