It had
been a couple of years since I last headed over to Chelmsford for the annual
alumni race (all are welcome). I saw
race director and arch rival Keith O’Brien at the USATF NE XC champs last
weekend and he asked if I’d be attending.
I told him I’d do my best to show up, he has tried to shame me in other
years by listing me as a DNF. I didn’t
race on Thanksgiving due to my lingering Plantar Fascia/ Posterior tibial
Tendonitis issues but I felt I could go to Chelmsford and “run through” the
event.
I
showed up about 15 minutes before the start and did a few laps around the field
to warm-up. Fellow Billerican Don Fay
joined me for a bit and GCS teammate (and coach) Richie Blake also put in some
warm-up time with me. We lined up for
the group picture and off we went. As is
usual for this race, the pace was ‘mellow’ for the first lap of the field. I settled in with Dave LaPierre and we slowly
moved up behind Scott Graham. My only
goal in the race was to beat Scotty, so that he wouldn’t be able to give me
grief for the next 10 years about beating me J. Around the mile I moved
past Scott and caught up with Don Fay as the tempo increased. We moved together up into the top five. Around two miles I noticed that Mike Cooney
was accelerating and Sam McGrath and O’B had fallen back. I checked and O’B was only 20 seconds ahead,
so I decided to really push the last mile and see if I could track him
down. By 3 miles I’d caught up with him
and McGrath but I settled behind them for the last .3 or so (long, very long
5k!). I threw a couple of well placed
elbows in O’Bs direction and he crumbled letting me cross in front of him by
.4.
I did a
lap around the field then met up with Dave La and we did a couple of more laps
to get in a good 6 plus miles for the morning.
I collected my prize at the awards ceremony (a jar of pickles) and was
off.
A big
“Thank you” to Keith O’Brien for putting on this fun event!
16th Annual CHS Alumni 5K XC Race -
Chelmsford , MA , November 23,
2012
2. Sam
McGrath Tyngsboro 19:27
3. Dave
Dunham Billerica
19:36.2
4. Keith
O'Brien Chelmsford 19:36.6
5. Eric
Beauchesne Chelmsford 20:22
6. Don
Fay Billerica 20:37
7. Dave
Lapierre Chelmsford 21:12
8. Scott
Graham Chelmsford 21:40
9. Frank
Georges Lowell 21:45
10. Mark
Gallagher Chelmsford 21:49
11. Lee
Panas Chelmsford 21:58
12. Kyle
O'Brien Chelmsford 22:13
13. Kyle
Richardson Tyngsboro 22:25
14. Glen
Turgiss Chelmsford 22:45
15. Mark
Blaisdell Wilmington 23:12
16.
Scott Bot Chelmsford 23:25
17. Rich
Blake Tyngsboro 23:43
18.
Jimmy Stronach Tewksbury 23:52
19. Gary
Turgiss Chelmsford 25:41
20. Phil
Sartori Chelmsford
27:13
21. Ali
Sartori Chelmsford 27:14
22.
Steve Sartori Chelmsford 27:20
23. Matt
Shapiro Chelmsford 28:18
24. Jess
Costa Chelmsford 33:30
No comments:
Post a Comment