USATF New England 10 mile championship

My training for the last 10 weeks was specifically aimed at being ready for this race.  I've been racing a lot and doing some solid (for me) track workouts.  I think the biggest thing I've been lacking has been long runs, although I've been averaging 85 miles per week I've rarely run longer than 5 miles in any given run.  I tried to take it easy this week and oddly was not really feeling "up" for the race on Sunday morning.

Dan, Dave La, and I headed out to Amherst together and after gathering our numbers we headed out for an easy 2+ mile warm-up.  Man, everywhere you looked there was a CMS runner (and I could only name a couple of them!), always great to see such a good turnout.  We switched into racing flats and headed to the line.  I was feeling a lot more in the zone at this point, the worries fading away (worried about my calf) as the crowd gathered on the line.  I had a very specific time goal in mind but was also looking at this as a race where I'd try to be aggresive and run with some 40+ guys who've always been ahead of me.  I figured out my splits based on the last 5 times I'd raced at Amherst and came up with a pretty solid projection of what it would take to run 57:36.  That'd be a 2 minute PR, but I felt that was at the very edge of what I could run if everything fell into place. 

I headed out cautiously over the speed bumps and the first couple of turns in the soemtimes scary first mile.  I looked around and it seemed like I was runnign with the guys I should be with, but I was 5 seconds slower than projected.  I ran the second mile very aggresively, really using gravity to my advantage on the long downhill stretches (but also thinking about how I'd be climbing back up them later in the race).  The wind was really strong so I worked my way up to a big group in front of me.  That group had teammate Joe Shairs in it and Tim Van Orden was in the front of the pack of about 10.  After we turned off the main road they began to string out and I tried to work the 1/2 mile climb to the 3 mile mark.

Soon after 3 I could see teammate George Adams coming back to me and I worked to get up with him.  Mostly because he is so big he'd make a great block in the wind :-)  We ran together for a bit and I pulled ahead.  Soon after 1/2 way (28:50) I was passed by a couple of guys who were flying.  They were great to work with and helped me move up through the pack.  I lost sight of Tim but around 8 miles I noticed that Greg Putnam (40+ CMS teammate) wasn't too far ahead.  I was working back and forth with Ben Ndaya (RUN) but we just didn't seem to gain any ground.  The last mile was tough as it is essentialy 3/4 of a mile uphill and today it'd be straight into the teeth of the wind (it was my worst mile of the day).  I kept it together as best I could but 3 or 4 guys (including George Adams) blew by me in the final 1/4 mile.

I was very excited to see the clock and break my stretch goal with a 57:15 for 8th place in the 40+ (and 4th place on the CMS masters team).  It was a solid day for the CMS crew!  Now I've gotta get in shape and be ready for New Bedford (1/2 marathon) in three weeks...

Splits     Goal split  Diff.
548            543       +5
526            512      -14
608            602       -6
557            603       +6
553            545       -8
542            540       -2
527            528       +1
540            540        0
546            535       -11
554            602        +8
57:15       57:36       -21

Masters Results

1   43 220 BINNEY MITCHELL                                43   1/104  M4049 BURLINGTON, VT                 GMAA     56:22  5:39

2   44 557 TODD CALLAGHAN                       42   2/104  M4049 BEVERLY.MA                                    56:24  5:39

3   47 344 JOE NOONAN                           43   3/104  M4049 BURLINGTON, VT                 GMAA      56:35  5:40

4   51 544 TIM VAN ORDEN                        43   4/104  M4049 BENNINGTON, VT                 CMS        56:46  5:41

5   55 445 WAYNE LEVY                           46   5/104  M4049 WABAN, MA                 BAA        57:01  5:43

6   58 417 GEORGE ADAMS                         41   6/104  M4049 GILSUM, NH                 CMS        57:08  5:43

7   60 255 GREGORY PUTNAM                       42   7/104  M4049 STONEHAM, MA      CMS       57:11  5:44

8   62 431 DAVE DUNHAM                          47   8/104  M4049 BRADFORD, MA                 CMS        57:15  5:44

9   67 387 KENT LEMME                           45   9/104  M4049 PITTSFIELD, MA                 GSH        57:40  5:46

10 68 236 JOE O'LEARY                          44  10/104  M4049 MEDFORD,  MA                 SRR         57:43  5:47

   69 414 JOE SHAIRS                                    43  11/104  M4049 PEABODY, MA                 CMS         57:47  5:47

   77 432 JASON PORTER                         42  13/104  M4049 BEDFORD, NH                 CMS         58:24  5:51

   81 347 TITUS MUTINDA                        47  14/104  M4049 LOWELL, MA                 RUN         58:35  5:52

   93 413 DAN VERRINGTON                       49  15/104  M4049 BRADFORD, MA                 CMS         59:45  5:59

   94 382 ROBERT LANDRY                        42  16/104  M4049 LUDLOW,  MA                 GSH         59:48  5:59

   95 433 ERNIE BRAKE                                     50   5/105  M5059 N SUTTON, NH                 CMS         59:49  5:59

   96 512 SCOTT ANDERSON                       47  17/104  M4049 NEW BEDFORD, MA                 WRT        59:51  6:00

   99 400 KEVIN DELANEY                        44  18/104  M4049 ARLINGTON, MA                 CSU      1:00:11  6:02

  104 430 SCOTT CLARK                          46  19/104  M4049 GILMANTON, NH                 CMS      1:00:36  6:04

  106 265 JOE ROGERS                           44  20/104  M4049 LYNDEBORO, NH                 GCS      1:00:44  6:05

  285 171 DAVID LAPIERRE                       47  58/104  M4049 CHELMSFORD,  MA                 CMS      1:13:27  7:21