Sandown Old Home days race

I wanted to race this weekend, but wasn't sure how I'd feel after all the peakbagging.  I chose Sandown because it was close to home and I like the 5 mile distance.  The bonus was that it was part of the NH Grand Prix and I'd be helping my NH club (Gate City).

I showed up about 90 minutes before the start and signed up.  I got a chance to chat with the original "Rogue Runner" Steve Grande and he gave me a decent description of the course he designed.  It was going to be "rolling" and it was also pretty warm (70's and humid).

Check out the course profile: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/46042088

I did an easy 3m warm-up running out to 3.5 miles then finishing up over the last 1.5 of the course.  It looked like 4 miles to the finish would be a fast mostly downhill mile.  Good to know.  I changed into racing flats and headed out for another mile with some strides.  Then it was off to the line.  There were a lot of young local kids on the line and Titus Mutinda was present so topping the masters category would be pretty tough.

As we took off I tried to latch on to the back of the pack.  Louie Saviano took it out hard and was out in front by at least 10 seconds at the mile.  I was in 8th place on the tail end of the pack as I hit the mile in 5:34.  The pack began to string out and I found myself off the back and about 5 seconds back at 2 miles (11:04, 5:30 split).  I worked my way back to 7th place and would trade off with a guy (unregistered?) through four miles.  We were pretty much on our own at 3 miles in 16:50 (5:46) but closed on Titus on the big hill leading up to four miles (23:07, 6:17 split).  I pushed pretty hard on the downhill and caugth Titus a little after four and continued to run as hard as I could.  I was happy with the final mile which was my fastest of the day (5:27) and crossed the line in 6th place in 28:34.

I headed out for a nice easy 3 mile warm-down on the Rail-Trail and definitely felt that I had used all of the energy I had left.

   1   245 RYAN BUSBY          21 M       DERRY          NH 00:27:20  5:28
    2   328 LOUIE SAVIANO       20 M       SANDOWN        NH 00:27:45  5:33
    3   398 WILL OSSOFF         18 M       ANDOVER        MA 00:28:14  5:39
    4   399 SCOTT WALLER        19 M       ANDOVER        MA 00:28:14  5:39
    5   268 MIKE GIBERTI        19 M  GDTC DERRY          NH 00:28:29  5:42
    6   364 DAVE DUNHAM         47 M   GCS BRADFORD       MA 00:28:34  5:43    
    7   389 TITUS MUTINDA       46 M  GDTC LOWELL         MA 00:28:39  5:44
    8   351 ERIC WILLIAMS       46 M  GSRT CONCORD        NH 00:29:17  5:52
    9   397 PATRICK CONNELLY    47 M  GDTC CHESTER        NH 00:29:35  5:55
   10   271 GEORGIA GRIFFIN     21 F  UVRC NORWICH        VT 00:29:36  5:56