Well, my recovery from the 3-loop Cranmore mountain race was tough…so tough that I was still sore a week later. Unfortunately the USATF New England 5 mile championships were six days after Cranmore. I had hoped that maybe I would be recovered but knew on Friday afternoon when I was getting worked on at Pinnacle PT that I was in no way ready to race. Knowing that the team might need me as a 5th man was the only reason I made the trek to Carver.
I got down there a little early and got a chance to chat with a lot of CMS folks including the new club president. It was great to see the ladies team rocking some very cool retro uniforms. I met up with a large group of CMS guys and we headed out onto the course for a warm-up. About that time the sun broke out and the temperature really took off (it had been foggy) and the humidity was high. You’ve gotta love summer racing! We did three miles then I changed into a pair of light-weight trainers and headed out for another 2 miles. I was really afraid that if I stopped moving I’d immediately tighten up. My quads were a bit sore and my glutes/hamstrings were killing me.
I found a spot about 15 rows back and waited for the start. My hope was to run around 7:00’s (I hadn’t broken 8 pace in a training run until the day before), but I’d also looked at last years results and knew that top 10 in the 45-49 was around 29:30. I tucked that away in the back of my mind. I had a comfortable start, at least breathing-wise…my glutes were very sore and I just couldn’t fully stride out. I hit the mile in 6:12 and thought “Okay, if I pick it up a bit maybe I can break 30”. I slowly started passing people and hit 2 miles in 12:22. The 6:10 mile was all my body would allow. I thought I increased the tempo but hit 3 miles in 18:34, I guess 6:10-6:12 was my pace. I still felt that maybe I could pick it up a little and go sub-6. The fourth mile in 6:10 proved me wrong. I just could not increase my stride or my turn-over. I was passing people who were really having trouble in the heat and humidity. The only good I took out of that was at least since I wasn’t all-out I wasn’t suffering like that (last year I ended up so dizzy at the finish I spent a couple of minutes on the ground). Anyway, I dug down a bit in the last mile when I caught teammate Martin T and worried that my time could make a difference in the results. That netted me a final mile of 5:56 and a 30:40 for 5 miles.
That is my personal worst in a race by a long stretch, but it was about 5 minutes faster than I thought I would be able to muster. I kind of felt bad that we would have had a shot at winning the team title had I not raced Cranmore, but taking home the team title in a National championship was pretty important as well. It looks like if I had skipped the race it wouldn’t have changed the team outcome. Oh well, sometimes you have to “take one for the team”.
Looking ahead: I’m now 9 points down on Wayne Levy in the grand prix standings with three races to go. I’ll be focusing on those three races (10k, 30k, marathon) after I get by the final two mountain races I’ll be doing this year (end of August).
Masters results
1 26:28 Binny Mitchell GMAA 44
2 26:44 Joseph Navas WRT 42
3 27:02 Greg Putnam CMS 43
4 27:16 Wayne Levy BAA 48
5 27:35 Joe Noonan GMAA 45
6 27:47 Titus Mutinda RUN 48
7 27:49 Jason Cakorous HFC 48
8 27:55 Justin Renz HFC 41
9 28:03 Jason Porter CMS 44
10 28:07 Chris Magil BAA 40
13 28:23 Joe Shairs CMS 45
18 28:55 Arthur Besse CMS 40
29 30:41 Dave Dunham CMS 49
1 comment:
Dave
I wanted to ask your thoughts on Mark Covert stopping His "streak" of 45 years. He really did seem ready for a break, but for those of us who need to work out there really is a compulsion not to take extra time off.
thanks,
Gaunt
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