Fudge

Fudgesicle series race #2

 

Due to the lack of snow both the WMAC and Granite state series snowshoe races were cancelled or postponed this weekend.  Since I’m reasonably healthy there was no question that I’d head to Tewksbury and test myself on the Fudge series course once again.  Teammates Dan Verrington and Ken Tripp both were up for a race so I knew there would be competition.

 

We met up at 7am and headed out for our warm-up soon after.  The course was mostly in decent shape there was a little bit of ice on the turns.  The temperature was hovering just above freezing and there was a little bit of drizzle.  Except for the turns it looked like a “fast” day.  I switched into my Inov-8’s to ensure I’d have good traction then headed out for another mile and some strides.  Soon after that I saw Scott McGrath, Ryan Gough, and Tim Mallard which meant that any thoughts of a win were out the window.   That didn’t change my plan which was to run as hard as I could.  I figured both Dan and Ken were both in very similar shape so it would not be lonely out there.

 

Scott and Ryan were basically out of sight at the start and Tim slowly pulled away throughout the race.  Ken and I locked in to a great back and forth fight.  He led for the first mile which was 5:32.  I was hoping for sub-5:45’s and thought I had an outside shot at running around 5:40’s so the mile split was an eye opener.  I felt pretty good and moved to go by Ken.  He offered some encouragement and then upped the tempo and retook the lead.  Any time I felt the pace slacken I’d move up on him but he would not let me go by.  We hit 2 miles in 11:12 (5:40 split) which was slower than the effort.  I thought we’d pushed pretty well for that mile.  Soon after I moved to go around Ken and he said “I’m done, go on ahead”.  He wasn’t really done, because I made a serious effort to drop him and just couldn’t shake him.

 

I knew Ken had better speed than me so I worked on getting some distance on him.  As we turned onto Pleasant street (1km to go) I upped the tempo.  He still didn’t seem to drop and with 400 to go I tried again, this time it seemed like his footsteps were a little further behind.  I took a peek at the 3 mile mark (which is a bit long) and he was a few steps back.  I hit 3 in 16:57 which was a solid split for that mile (5:45) which runs 15-18 seconds long.  I gave all I had left and turned into the parking lot and across the line in 17:37.  That worked out to 5:34 pace!  I was very happy with the time and the effort.  Ken seemed pleased as well.  Oddly although I’d rank this as a good run, it was my worst place ever in the 17 times I’ve run a Fudge race.

 

1	15:50	Ryan Gough	29	1/6	M2029	Lowell	MA	GLRR
2	16:03	Scott McGrath	27	2/6	M2029	Andover	MA	WRT
3	17:16	Tim Mallard	24	3/6	M2029	Brighton	MA	GCS
4	17:37	Dave Dunham	49	1/10	M4049	Bradford	MA	CMS
5	17:39	Kenneth Tripp	44	2/10	M4049	Amesbury	MA	CMS
6	18:30	D Verrington	51	1/16	M5059	Boxford	MA	CMS
7	18:45	Evan Lefebvre	19	1/1	M1519	Chelmsford	MA
8	18:51	Jason Bui	33	1/5	M3039	Everytown	US	GLRR
9	19:23	Ken Cain	42	3/10	M4049	Andover	MA	GLRR
10	19:35	Colin Loghin	38	2/5	M3039	Westford	MA	GLRR