I survived the end of the world 4 mile

I ended up racing this past weekend but skipped the BU indoor mini meet.  Instead I chose to go to Concord NH for the "I survived the end of the world 4 mile".  After the workout on Wednesday my back was feeling like crap and I figured a longer race might be a better idea than trying to zip around the indoor track.

Saturday morning I headed over to Winnekenni for 4 miles to loosen up.  My back felt better than it had the last couple of days but I still felt like I was running "awkwardly".  A couple of hours later I was zipping north on 93 with Dread Zeppelin  - Un-Led-ed and a bit of Pearl Jam - Ten, the last song before I headed out for my warm-up was "Black" a great up tempo song to get my blood flowing.

I had checked out the course records for 40+ (the course is used a couple of times a year and is a certified 4 mile) before I headed out and the more of the course I saw the more impressed I was with Scott Clark's 22:18.  The course climbs a total of 325' with a steady climb for the first 1.5, a down through 2m then up again until 3m.  The only long steady down was the last mile.  I had hoped to run around 22:30 but the wind, my back, and the damn tough course had me wondering if 23 flat would be possible.

There were a couple of younger guys warming up in the parking lot when I got back from my 4m warm-up.  No one else had ventured out onto the course.  I switched into racing flats and did another mile with strides.  I felt okay but not really into it...very unusual for me.  Wow, the young guys took off flying!  I was in 7th or 8th at the first turn and slowly moved up.  I got into 3rd by 1/2 mile and climbed into second around the mile.  There were no mile marks which made things a bit tougher but I gave a full effort. 

By approximately 2 miles the leader was a little over 20 seconds ahead and I had a decent lead on third place.  I kept working it but never really felt smooth.  It was an ugly run and I felt trashed.  The young guy won the race by 46 seconds.  I ran a mile with him after my race and found out he'd gone to school at the Bishop Brady High School and he was now a sophmore at Tufts University.  He seemed like a nice kid.  I thought it funny that the Athletic Alliance long-sleeve I was wearing was older than him!

 1 JOSEPH STPIERRE       438 19 M MANCHESTER NH        22:23  5:36
  2 DAVE DUNHAM           472 48 M BRADFORD MA          23:09  5:48
  3 JOHN BROWN            482 30 M CONCORD NH           24:19  6:05
  4 WARREN BARTLETT       328 15 M LOUDON NH            24:25  6:07
  5 MARK RICHARDON        426 19 M CONCORD NH           24:59  6:15
  6 BROOKS GLAHN          498 39 M MARBLEHEAD MA        25:45  6:27
  7 TYLER ALBANO          480 14 M CONCORD NH           26:00  6:30
  8 DAVID AUDET           222 47 M CONCORD NH           26:14  6:34
  9 JAMES STOCKWELL       469 21 M CONCORD NH           26:26  6:37
 10 MARK FISHER           363 45 M CHICHESTER NH        26:48  6:42
My time ended up being the 5th best on the 40+ all-time list.
 1 Scott Clark 22:18
2 Bill Reeves 22:38
3 Sean Snow 22:58
4 Robert Ryman 23:01
5 Dave Dunham 23:09