Monday, July 30, 2012

USATF New England 5 mile championships

I gathered up a few of the other elderly CMS members and we carpooled down to Carver this weekend.  I was joined by Dan Verrington (recently turned 50), Dave Lapierre (48), and Tim Van Orden (the young guy in the group at 44).  We arrived early enough to drive over the course, Tim and Dave hadn’t run it before and I wanted to see how accurately placed the mile markers were (last year the 1m and 4m were suspect).  The miles were right where they should be and seeing the course again was a good reminder of how fast a course it was.  There were very few turns and the first mile was gently downhill, the only uphill was in the last ¼ mile.

We got together with some of the CMS crew and ran three miles including running over the last mile of the course (always a good idea to get a feel for the course).  I felt surprisingly good but didn’t like the sun coming out just as we warmed-up, after a morning of fog and clouds.  At least it wasn’t brutally hot.  I changed into racing flats and headed out for another mile with strides.  It was great seeing all the fast people out for this race, I was fired up!  I hit the start line with 5 minutes to go and staked out a spot, with about a minute to go I found myself in the fourth or fifth row as a bunch of fast guys jumped on the line.  Man, it was tightly packed on the line.  I kept my eyes open for the gun and with no other warning after “2 minutes” I saw the gun go up and I called out “gun is up” and bam we were off.  I’m glad I called it out as some people were not ready (but the guys in front of me were).  I got a clean start but really got pushed around a lot in the first quarter mile.

My goal in the first mile was to not get knocked down and to not go out too fast.  It seemed quick to me and looking around I saw a lot of guys I’d normally run with sprinting out ahead.  When Greg Putnam pulled up along side me at ½ mile I felt better, he’d be running low 27 (or under) so I was probably not going out slowly.  I could see a big group of 50+ runners including Dan go through the mile in 5:10 or so and I was 10 seconds back.

I focused on keeping my effort even and found myself passing a lot of people in the second mile (5:24/10:44).  I caught teammate Joe Shairs (who raced in trainers when his racing flats were accidently locked in the car) and Dan Verrington after 2 miles and worked with Joe the rest of the way.  We kept picking off people who were slowing as we kept a pretty even pace.  We rolled through three miles in 16:17 (5:33) and were still picking off people (although not as many).  We got a small group after three and seemed to settle into their pace until Joe shook us both awake with a surge.  I could see Paul Hammond (WRT) up ahead and really wanted to get him!  I wasn’t sure what any of the other WRT guys were doing but I knew every second would count.  Joe and I closed on him by 4 miles (21:53/5:36).  My split at 4 was 1 second faster than my PR I’d set at the New Year’s race at the beginning of this year.  We got around Paul with about ½ mile to go and plowed on.  Someone went flying by us in the last half but I was too out of it to react (and had nothing left anyway).  Joe hit the line a second ahead of me and I crossed the second timing mat then hit my watch and got 27:22.8 a new PR by 29 seconds.

I headed to the side of the road and after a dizzy few seconds ended up needing to lay on the ground for a bit.  I was definitely spent.  After a bit we headed out for a very slow warm-down and called it a day.  The CMS masters team had a good day, taking second to a very strong Whirlaway team and finishing a little ahead of a solid Somerville Road Runners squad.  We have 8 weeks until the next Grand Prix race, so a lot can happen!

19            Joseph     Navas      41            1              40-49       25:47.4   WRT
31            Titus        Mutinda   47            2              40-49       26:30.5   RUN
37            Dmitry      Drozdov   40            3              40-49       26:38.2   SRR
41            Robert     Cipriano   52            1              50-59       26:45.9   SRR
42            Todd        Callaghan 42            4              40-49       26:48.1   GCS
46            Joseph     Koech      43            5              40-49       26:56.2   RUN
51            Wayne     Levy        47            6              40-49       27:04.1   BAA
52            Douglas   Martyn     52            2              50-59       27:06.2   WRT
56            Greg        Putnam    42            7              40-49       27:15.9   CMS
59            Joe          Shairs      44            8              40-49       27:21.4   CMS
60            Dave        Dunham   48            9              40-49       27:22.8   CMS
61            Paul         Hammond 52           3              50-59       27:24.2   WRT
67            Henry      Scollard    48            10            40-49       27:35.6   WRT
                                                                                                               
74            Dan          Verrington 50          11            50-59       27:45.6   CMS
79            Greg        Ward       40            13            40-49       27:53.9   CMS
87            Tim           Van Orden 44          14            40-49       28:04.4   CMS
142          Dave        Mingori     45            26            40-49       31:10.4   CMS
176          David       Lapierre   48            28            40-49       32:11.4   CMS

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