I worked the Merrimack River trail race on Saturday so I searched for something on Sunday. Bow Lake in Strafford NH Bow Lake
I got to the race extra early and drove the course to make sure I knew where I’d be running. In order to finish at the Recreation building they had the start about .7 away from the finish. So I warmed up doing the course plus a little to get 4 miles. The course was tough with the first mile mostly uphill (100’ in the first .7) then onto dirt road and a drop until 1.6 miles when in .2 it went up 80’. I figured it would run about the same as Gilmanton (30-45 seconds slower than a flat 5k). I switched into racing flats and did another mile with strides. I felt decent and noticed that no one had warmed up and only a couple of people even jogged over to the starting line (everyone walked). It looked like I might be on my own.
I found myself in third place right away as two very young kids sprinted out. I didn’t catch the first girl (who ended up finishing in 4th place) until about 400m into the race. By ½ mile I couldn’t hear anyone behind me over the wheezing sounds I was making. I hit the mile split in a surprisingly slow 5:54. I think the mile was wrong, which is a bit strange for a certified course (but it is easy to misplace mile marks). I had hoped to be around 5:40 for one and two. I kept working hard and hit the two mile split in 11:28. 5:34 for that mile seemed closer to correct. The final 1.1 took me 5:51 which works out to 5:17 pace, and that seems a bit quick. All told I hit the finish in 17:19.9 and got my fourth victory of the year.
I looped the course again to get in my mileage and then hit the nice post-race feed and I also picked up $75 for my efforts.
1 Dave Dunham 49 M Bradford, MA 17:20 5:35
2 Jeff Stevens 35 M Middleton, NH 19:46 6:22
3 Davio DeLuca 14 M Nottingham , NH 20:41 6:40
4 Ahma McCusker 13 F Northwood, NH 21:30 6:55
5 Luke Tkaczyk 9 M 21:38 6:58
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