USATF NE 5 mile championships - Ribfest

I'm too old to be doing two races in a weekend.  Luckily (???) one was Mt Washington which gets you tired but really doesn't beat you up (unless you run back down).  I woke up with some "typical" soreness on Sunday morn but hoped that moving around would help.  I got to the race extra early and felt better after the 1 mile walk round trip to pick up my number. 

I met up with teammates Mike Q and Paul Y and we headed out for a very warm warm-up.  It was headed towards 80 degrees and this course had just about zero shade.  I changed into race gear and jogged the half-mile to the start.  I lined up about 10 rows back and spotted many familiar faces.

The start was a bit tight but by the top of the 30' hill there was plenty of room to move.  I was hoping to run in the low 30's as I had last year.  I caught up to teammate Jim Pawlicki by the mile and we worked together through the first half of the race.  I had joked with Christin Doneski about the over/under on when I'd catch her.  I caught her last year around 5k.  This year I didn't get her until 3.5 but could not get ahead of her.  I was all-out, but focused on Scott Anderson up ahead since he is also in my age group.  I closed a little on him and had a good finish but a disappointing 9th place in the 50-54, and 11th in the 50-59.

The team did really well taking first in the senior age group...three of the scoring members (Erik Vandendries, David Lapierre, and I) had all raced at Mt Washington!

USATF Age Group: Men 50-54

Place Bib   Name               Usatf NE Club   Age S Nettime   Pace     
===== ===== ================== =============== === = ========= ===== 
    1   330 Andy Gardiner      Boston Athletic  52 M   27:01.5  5:25 
    2   294 Kent Lemme         Greater Springf  51 M   27:06.3  5:26 
    3   359 Mark Hixon         Greater Springf  53 M   27:41.9  5:33 
    4   158 Joe Shairs         Central Mass St  50 M   28:26.9  5:42 
    5   156 David Principe     Central Mass St  51 M   28:42.6  5:45 
    6   297 Jason Cakouros     HFC Striders     53 M   28:45.1  5:45 
    7   183 Erik Vandendries   Central Mass St  53 M   29:25.3  5:54 
    8   257 Scott Anderson     Whirlaway Racin  53 M   29:56.9  6:00 
    9   161 Dave Dunham        Central Mass St  54 M   30:01.6  6:01 
   10    32 Christopher Smith  Somerville Road  52 M   30:28.3  6:06 

                        USATF Age Group: Men 55-59

Place Bib   Name               Usatf NE Club   Age S Nettime   Pace     
===== ===== ================== =============== === = ========= ===== 
    1   295 Nat Larson         Greater Springf  56 M   26:30.4  5:19 
    2    40 John Sullivan      HFC Striders     57 M   29:14.1  5:51 
    3    96 E J Hrynowski      Greater Lowell   55 M   30:41.7  6:09 
    4   252 Paul Hammond       Whirlaway Racin  58 M   31:48.9  6:22 
    5   207 Yun Gao            BEN Running Clu  57 M   31:57.6  6:24 
    6   203 Yong Xue           BEN Running Clu  56 M   32:00.9  6:25 
    7   253 Ken Warren         Whirlaway Racin  56 M   32:38.1  6:32 
    8   309 Doug Martyn        Whirlaway Racin  58 M   32:46.5  6:34 
    9   162 Philip Savoy       Central Mass St  55 M   32:59.6  6:36 
   10   329 Robert Day         Greater Lowell   58 M   34:19.0  6:52