Chase the Gorilla down Argilla

I really needed to race this weekend to get my legs going.  With the U.S. 10k championships only a week away I'm sorely lacking any speed.  The mileage has been okay but my leg turnover has just sucked since hurting my hamstring last fall.

I chose the 'Chase the Gorilla down Argilla' 5k in Ipswich since I'd run it before and they put on a good race.  I headed out an hour before the race and felt decent warming up on the 5k loop.  It was breezy and temps were warming quickly.  I quickly switched into racing flats and did another mile with some strides to get me going.  I felt pretty good.

No one seemed to want to head to the front of the line so I lined up next to Dave Long and Matt Curran.  Oddly it looked like there wasn't anyone else here to challenge us.  Weird since a 17 flat is typically around 5th place.  I was hoping to run under 17:20 which was what I ran a few weeks back at the New England 5k champs.  I figured anything over 17:20 would be disappointing and really thought 17 O-something should be in the cards.

Some youngster bolted out but he was done by 1/2 mile and it was just Dave and Matt out in front and me and another youngster in third/fourth.  I felt awful.  Flat and dead-legged.  Dave and Matt would pull away a bit and then come back a bit.  They were a couple of seconds ahead at the mile which I hit in 5:27.  Dave then surged and put at least 5 seconds on us from 1-1.5.  At 1.5 I started to feel pretty good and pulled away from Matt and slowly reeled in Dave.  At 2 miles Dave was 2 seconds up (1104 to 1106).  Damn, I still thought I had a shot at the win.

It was not to be, I started to feel terrible again and kept trying to convince myself to hang on.  With a half mile to go Dave was about 7 or 8 seconds up, then he really opened it up.  I had nothing in response and struggled in to a disappointing 17:23 second place finish.  Fuck! I hope to go out faster than that at James Joyce next week.  Maybe I'm not as fit as I hoped?

lace No.  Name           Div/Tot  Div   Ag S City              St Nettime Pace  Guntime Pace     
===== ==== ============== ======== ===== == = ================= == ======= ===== ======= ====
   1  414 David Long       1/45   M4049 40 M Beverly         MA   17:03  5:29   17:03  5:30    2   94 Dave Dunham      1/38   M5059 50 M Bradford        MA   17:23  5:36   17:24  5:36     3  138 Nathan Hausman   1/36   M3039 35 M Wenham          MA   17:36  5:40   17:37  5:41     4  398 Matthew Curran   2/38   M5059 56 M Gloucester      MA   17:50  5:45   17:50  5:45     5  220 Charlie Mitche   1/11   M1419 18 M Beverly         MA   18:07  5:50   18:07  5:50     6  457 Tj Peckham       2/36   M3039 33 M Gloucester      MA   18:14  5:53   18:15  5:53     7  167 Jeff Kelly       2/45   M4049 46 M Byfield         MA   18:27  5:57   18:27  5:57     8  453 Jennifer Howla   1/47   F2029 26 F Danvers         MA   18:35  5:59   18:36  5:59     9  122 Brooks Glahn     3/45   M4049 40 M Marblehead      MA   18:35  5:59   18:37  6:00    10  445 Ben Strain       3/36   M3039 35 M Beverly         MA   18:48  6:03   18:49  6:04