5 years ago (May 2015) - It was a busy month with a bunch of appointments for my ankle and even a few races. Ride to the Castle 5k - There are very few opportunities to race on the ElliptiGo, so when I saw the “Race to the Castle”, I signed up immediately. The 5k race would be a sprint on the Go, but my only other race experience was a long climb, so it’d be cool to try something a little different. I found myself in 6th place in the early going and it felt like I was in an all-out sprint. At 2.5 miles we turned into the Castle Estates and the 150’ climb was there to greet us. There was one very steep pitch about half-way into the climb. I got into low gear and pushed for all I was worth.
I held on to 3rd place rolling across the line in 11:32, a good 50 seconds behind the top 2 who finished within a second of each other. It certainly was a different experience; it was very different from a running race. I’m not sure if I’d do much more on the Go, although doing some of the classic New England Mountain climbs might be “fun”.
Overall results (19 finishers)
1 JIM HANSEN 56 M 10:42
2 JEFF CARON 32 M 10:42
3 DAVE DUNHAM 51M 11:32
4 ERIC KOREVAAR 55 M 12:20
5 JEFF LEGORE 54 M 13:16
During the following week I had another couple of doctor appointments. I got a CT scan to see if we could get a better look at the joint without distortion from the screw I have in my navicular. The level of arthritis in the navicular joint was clearly visible. I’m working on a “plan” to try and manage this.
The next weekend was the Merrimack River Trail Race – The 24th annual “Rivah” race was moved to May due to the historical level of snow over the winter. I had originally intended to race but my ankle/foot woes meant that was not to be. I still felt good enough to run 10 miles so a pre- race race made sense. On Friday I put out the mile markers (approximately every mile!), then met up with race director Steve Peterson to put out over 400 flags to mark the course.
Dan Verrington, Scott Spence and I met up with Dave Lapierre at 5:45am and headed out for a 1 mile warm-up. D-la was planning on racing all-out and the rest of us were going to run behind Dave (but no one was obligated to do so). As race volunteers this “sunshine start” would count in the official results. At 6am we were off and running. The conditions were just about ideal (50s and cloudy with little wind). Dave was looking to run around 1:20 which for this course meant 7:30 pace for the first and last three miles and 9:00 pace for the middle hilly and technical miles.
Scott and I hit the turn in just a click over 40 minutes and Dave and Dan roared in 20-30 seconds later. In a nice move, Scott got a lead so he could stop at the water-stop a 7.5 and grab a cup for Dave. Teamwork! Scott bolted with a mile to go (he ran sub-6 to get a 1:19:57). Dave, Dan and I pushed on, Dave brought it home with a 6:42 last mile to record a 1:20:53, I finished 1 second later, and Dan another 1 second back. Of the 11 times I’ve run the race that was just about the most fun I’ve had at the River. The rest of the day was spent working at the race including a 5 mile run afterwards to sweep up all of the course markings.
Top 10 in the M50
1 1:10:34 Jack Pilla 56 GMAA
2 1:10:53 John Gillis 51 CMS
3 1:11:08 Edward Jeffries 51 Team Gloucester
4 1:13:21 Stephen Whittey 58 Team Gloucester
5 1:16:51 Chris Fauske 57
6 1:19:57 Scott Spence 50 Grey Wolves
7 1:20:53 David Lapierre 50 CMS
8 1:20:54 Dave Dunham 51 CMS
9 1:20:55 Daniel Verrington 52 CMS
10 1:21:45 Todd Brown 51 NMC
A week later D-la, Dan and I were back at it, this time at the NB twilight track meet. I don’t like night races, but it looked like a good low pressure place to get some leg turnover. I knew going in that I’d be among the slowest runners by a LONG way. A couple of days before the race I hit the rail trail for a short workout and mustered a 5:39 mile. That’d be my goal race pace and I was wheezing at the end of the mile (never a good sign). There is no hiding on the track.
Boom everyone just shot off and by 100 meters Dan was off the back of the last 3 guys, I was off alone behind him, and Dave was on his own behind me. I had a goal of running under 17:40 so I was aiming to run 85 seconds for each 400 meter lap. I rolled along pretty steadily, hitting the 1600 (metric mile) in 5:36 and 3200 (metric 2 mile) in 11:11. Around that point I noted that Dan was coming back a bit so I focused on trying to reel him in. With 600 to go I thought I might have a chance, but Dan snuck a peek. He found a little something extra and was able to keep me from catching him this time. Along with Dave La we took the last three places (17, 18, 19) in the race but also took it for what it was. Our combined ages also topped the first seven finishers combined age.
Senior Results:
1 Dan Verrington CMS 17:22.66
2 Dave Dunham CMS 17:24.32
3 David Lapierre CMS 19:54.38
The final weekend of the month featured a rare mountain/marathon double. Wachusett Mountain was first up on Saturday. This would be my 19th time racing at Wachusett and I had no plans to run down. The field shot off at the start and I was having trouble hanging on to the back of the big pack that formed. Knowledge of the course certainly helps and I pushed hard over the last ½ mile as we turned onto the parking lot entrance. I ended up running 21:26 which was within 5 seconds of my time last year.
Pl Time Name Team City/State
1 19:07 Drew Best aR AMHERST MA M33
2 19:20 Josh Ferenc W.E. ATHENS VT M33
3 20:27 Nate SansP PRINCETON MA M23
6 20:42 Craig Fram WRT EXETER NH M56
10 20:44 Erik Vandendries CMS Chestnut Hill M50
16 21:26 Dave Dunham CMS Bradford MA M51
Vermont City Marathon (USATF NE championships) - I’d entered the marathon back in November with high hopes of training well over the winter and being ready to race. I took a bad step on Christmas day and partially tore a ligament in my foot. That injury along with painful arthritis in my navicular joint left me on the sidelines for 5 weeks and once back kept my mileage way below what would be a “normal amount” to prepare for a 26.2 mile jaunt. I had already spent nearly $100 for the entry fee and figured if I could run I’d at least give it a shot.
My plan for the marathon was to aim for 8:00 pace and see how that felt. I also had it in the back of my mind that I could bail any time I wanted to as the course went through downtown Burlington at 3, 8, and 15. I figured 15 would be the decision point and if my foot was bothering me at all I’d drop at that point. At 8:00am we were off, it was sunny and the temps were in the 50’s. It was looking to be hot as the expected high was in the 80s.
I tried to settle into a comfortable pace and was a little under 7:30 per mile. I stayed with my CMS teammates as the pace felt relaxed and I was now thinking I might be able to score for the team (top 3 finishers score). At 11 miles I lost 30 seconds visiting the porta-john and once back on the road I upped the pace to around 7:10 per mile to get back up to my teammates. I crossed the half-way mark in 1:37:14 and figured a 3:15 marathon would be do-able. I reached 16 and felt the time was right to start picking up the pace. At 20 I started to calculate that I’d be close to breaking 3:10 if I kept the pace steady. At 26 I saw Christin Doneski up ahead and my competitive juices kicked in. I got her with about 2 steps to go and crossed the line a step ahead in 3:09:25. The senior team took 2nd place only 38 seconds up on third, so I was pretty happy that I’d kicked it in.
USATF 50-54
1 2:41:53* Tom Thurston 51 M 22 GMAA
2 2:54:10 Christopher Lawrence 51 M 453 BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
3 2:58:05 E J Hrynowski 52 M 226 GREATER LOWELL ROAD RUNNERS
4 2:58:08 Michael Cooney 53 M 420 WHIRLAWAY RACING TEAM
5 2:59:17 Dan Verrington 52 M 380 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
6 3:09:25 Dave Dunham 51 M 178 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
7 3:12:10 Craig Macfarlane 54 M 458 BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
8 3:12:56 Philip Savoy Jr 52 M 344 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
9 3:27:53 David Lapierre 51 M 1705 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
10 3:30:50 Tom Varick 50 M 510 GATE CITY STRIDERS
11 3:37:02 Chris Johnston 51 M 233 DC ROAD RUNNERS CLUB
12 3:37:11 Stephen Laska 53 M 3626 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
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