Chelmsford XC

 Next up was one of my favorites, the Chelmsford (and friends) Alumni Cross-Country race.  This was my tenth time running over the last 15 years which ranks this 13^th on my list of “most times raced”.   Keith O’Brien has a lot of fun putting this race on and I’ve enjoyed meeting up with friends/rivals over the years.  I headed over a little early in order to run the course as a warm-up.  Scott Grandfield (who I’d invited) joined me as we checked out the figure 8 course.  He noted that navigation wasn’t his strong point and his plan was to follow me.  I doubted he’d do that as he is a lot faster than me.  O’b lined us up for the socially distanced pre-race photo and we were off.  Scott shot out to the lead and I tried my best to hang close.  My goal was to run around 6-flat pace.  Tony Ly (Lowell Tech & GLRR) was right behind me as we looped the soccer fields.  A few times I had to call out “left” or “right” to Scott as he was indeed having trouble staying on course.   Tony went by me around the mile (5:53) which is always the quickest mile with it being flat or down.  After that there is a little climb up to the school and I lost contact as both pulled away.  I did close a little as they added a bit not cutting the tangent heading into the “reverse loop”.  This would be the last time I’d be close enough to shout out directions.  I reached 2 miles in 12:14 but was feeling ragged (maybe I shouldn’t have done that hard 5k mid-week?).  I kept it together for the final loop around the school and reached 3 miles in 18:20 and with a kick of everything I had I hit the line in 19:30 for 6:06 pace over the 3.2 mile course.  I was pleased with the effort if not quite the time I wanted.  Scott had a solid run finishing over 30 seconds ahead with Tony half-way between us.  In all 19 finished the race which is pretty typical numbers for this race.  The awards ceremony is always interesting as O’B gives away a lot of unusual items.  I picked up 4 rolls of toilet paper.  Others got cookies, chips, soap, discount steaks, and a box of paper-clips. 

Week Ending 11/29/20

A little bigger mileage week along with another workout, a race, and two long runs.  Trying to stay healthy and have fun!

Week - 90

Month - 347

Year - 3,631

Life - 148,538

M - 1130am Watertower 6 in 802s

       3pm Industrial park 6 in 737s

T - 445am Methuen rail trail 5 in 811s

       11am workout on the Windham rail trail, 4 w-up, 5k in 18:38, 1 wdwn

W - 445am Methuen rail trail 6 in 828s

       1130am Bradford rail trail loop 8m in 742s

Th - 630am Northern rail trail 13 miles with Scott C (and some with Tim C) in 818s

F - 440am Bradford rail trail 5 in 810s

      1010am 3.2 warm-up, .6 more, 3.2 mile XC race, 2 warm-down

Sat - 7am Freeman rail trail out/back 8m with D-la (and Petey on Bike) in 843s

        930am 4 more nice relaxing miles in 924s

Sun - 7am "All the trails in one run" 12 mile in Salisbury and Newburyport with Danny V, Doug D, and Joe S in 812s

Looking back - November 1980

40 years ago: November 1980 – I wrapped up my first full season of cross-country at Billerica memorial high with the final three races of my junior campaign.  During this month I ran a scant 133 mile with 9 days off.  On 11/01/80 I took 4^th place at the Coaches meet at Franklin park running 16:04 over the 3+ miles. Future U-Lowell teammates Joe Regan (Central) and Tom Chamberas (Chelmsford) took 6^th and 7^th place respectively.

1.      Tom Hinds Haverhill 15:45

2.      Brian Smith Plymouth 15:53

3.      Bob Sheehan Cambridge 16:01

4.      Dave Dunham Billerica 16:04

5.      Chris Gorman Weymouth 16:11

6.      Joe Regan Central 16:13

7.      Tom Chamberas Chelmsford 16:15

The following weekend (11/08) on a rainy and cold day I finished in 5^th place at the State Class meet at Franklin park running a 16:11. I qualified for the state championships (Chambo who beat me by one second, was the only runner that I lost to in dual meets over my two varsity seasons).

1.     Mike Flynn Woburn 15:46

2.     Shawn Coghlan Brockton 15:55

3.     Brian Smith Plymouth 16:06

4.     Tom Chamberas Chelmsford 16:09

5.     Dave Dunham Billerica 16:10

 

The final XC race of the year was the State meet which was also held at Franklin park (11/15).  I improved my time bringing it down to 15:48 to finish in 11^th place. 

1.     Mike Flynn Woburn 15:18

2.     Jim MacPhee Arlington 15:30

3.     Shawn Coghlan Brockton 15:34

11. Dave Dunham Billerica 15:48

 

The next weekend I headed to Lowell for what was at the time the longest race I’d ever done (9.3 miles).  I went out like an idiot running a 5k and paid for it by 6 miles when I really cramped up.  I held on for a 10^th place finish (50:53) in a field of 600 finishers.  The race was put on by the recently formed Greater Lowell Road Runners.  I was the top junior (under 18) finisher but was missed in the initial awards.  The RD gave me a GLRR singlet (white with green letters) and a 1 year membership.  That was the start of my off/on relationship with GLRR that lasted until 1992 and resumed in 2005 when I was inducted into the GLRR Hall-of-Fame.

Looking back - November 1990

30 years ago: November 1990 - I covered 372 miles with no days off and only raced once during this month. I made it worthwhile with a 26th place finish at the Columbus Marathon. Columbus was the fall marathon to do this year as it was the National Championship and it was the same course that the Olympic trials would be conducted on in 1992. It was also the first date to qualify for the trials, which I did with my sub-2:20 time. I ran a fairly evenly split race slowing only a bit in the final 10k. 10km splits: 32:20 / 32:26 / 32:54 / 34:18

Looking back - November 1995

 25 years ago (November 1995): I covered 378 miles with no days off and raced four times over the month. I started the month with a win at the “Four in the Fall” 4 mile race put on by the Winner’s Circle. I ran as easy as possible to get the win as I was doing an XC race the next day. I stuck with the lead pack for the first 3 miles then took the lead to win in 20:46. The next day I was off to Nobles & Greenough for a rolling, twisting, 5km cross-country race. I took the lead in the early going but sort-of teammate (CMS/Sev) Bill Bland blew by at the end and held me off. We both broke the old CR of 15:33, set by Dave Vona in 1992.
 
1 15:18 William Bland 26 M Boston CMS/Sev’s
2 15:19 Dave Dunham 31 M Bradford CMS
3 15:33 Jamal Prince 25 M Woburn CMS/Sev’s
 
A week later it was back to Franklin Park for the USATF NE XC championship held under windy, wet, and cold conditions. Our CMS team lost to the Boston Running club by a total of 29 seconds. I had a pretty crappy race finishing 36th in 32:09 in a field of 169.
 
1 Terrance Mahon 29:55 REEBOK ENCLAVE
2 Gary Griffen 29:58 NEW BALANCE COASTAL
3 Seamus McElliot 30:04 NIKE FLEET FEET
23 Mike Nahom 31:28 5:05 28 CMS
24 Scott Bagley 31:29 5:05 32 CMS
27 Gary Gardner 31:40 5:06 24 CMS
36 Dave Dunham 32:09 5:11 31 CMS
37 Dan Verrington 32:12 5:12 33 CMS
38 Craig Fram 32:14 5:12 37 CMS
 
 
I closed out the month with a solid run at the Feaster Five on Thanksgiving Day. The race started late due to a big bump in race day entrants (8,000!). It was cold (30’s) and windy but the times were hot (they had some $$$ for top finishers back then). I went into the lead fairly early and battled with Joe Rocha. It looked like a 2-man race right up until the final hill when George Yiannelis went blowing by us. He stormed to a win tying the course record (24:07) and I finished less than a second back with Rocha two more ticks behind.
 
1 24:07 George Yiannelis 24M Medford, MA
2 24:08 Dave Dunham 31M Bradford, MA CMS
3 24:10 Joe Rocha 30M Peabody, MA
4 24:28 Ethan Crain 23M Boston, MA
5 24:43 Christopher Bianchi 27M Medford, MA
6 24:48 Byrne Decker 28M Londonderry, NH CMS
7 24:54 Dan Verrington 33M Bradford, MA CMS
8 25:05 Scott Clark 29M Gilmanton, NH CMS
9 25:19 Rod Viens 28M Claremont, NH CMS

Jingle Bell 5k

 There have been very few chances to race this year so I've tried to take advantage of any opportunities.  The Jingle Bell 5k in Manchester.  This would be another event managed by Millennium racing and would feature the time trial start format.  The time trial format has each runner starting 10 seconds apart. Start order is based on your seeding time.  This has meant that from time to time a sandbagger will start well back in order to have people to pass (and the opportunity to beat people who never know they are back there).  I've been seeding myself at the fast end of what I thought I could do figuring it someone caught me that'd be incentive to try to go with them.  I checked out the course the week before and it would be fast, maybe not super-fast as you had a couple of 90 degree turns climbing/descending to the bridge over the Merrimack river and as it was an out/back course you'd do a 180 around a cone.  It was also just ever so slightly (10 seconds?) long of 5k.  I seeded myself at 18:30 and hoped I might be able to go as fast as 18:15 which would be my fastest time this year.

I had a good workout mid-week including a 5:36 mile and felt I was ready to go on Saturday.  I arrived a little early to give myself plenty of time, got my number and headed out to run the course again.  I felt tired and quite nervous.  I switched into racing gear and did another easy mile before heading to the start line.  I was seeded 5th so there was only a 40 second wait after the start and I was off.  I tried to be cautious the first half mile that included the 30' of climb up to the bridge.  I was working pretty hard and hoping I wasn't going out too fast.  I missed the 1/2 mile split on my watch.  From the half to the mile I reeled in the 4th seed and passed him as I hit the mile in 5:48 which was about where I'd hoped to be.  I did a little calculating as the top 3 guys came back towards me and knew I'd lost a lot of ground on them.  I also did some math on Mark Laprade who'd started 10 seconds behind me and was pretty sure I was holding my place.  I hit 2 miles in 11:32, but had trouble reading my watch and thought it was 11:42.  I was hurting but tried to work the slight downhill.  A lot of the people yelled out encouragement which was nice.  I never saw my 3 mile split and pushed to the line pretty sure I took 4th place.  I was disappointed when I looked at my watch and saw "18:14".  It wasn't until after I'd done the course again for a warm-down and looked at the results to find that my watch actually read "18:04"!  I was shocked to see my official time was 18:02.5.  Damn!  I'd just missed breaking 18.  This was my fastest (non-downhill) time at 5k since September of 2018.

Definitely pleased with the result and looking forward to hitting the track sometime in the next few weeks to take a shot at breaking 18.

Bib number is your seed so you can compare that to a persons place to see who was sandbagging...

Week Ending 11/22/20

 No complaints about this week (other than my ankle complaining to me).  I got in a workout, a race, and a long run.

Week = 83

Month = 257

Year = 3,541

Life = 148,448

M - 450am Methuen rail trail 5 in 813s

       1130am Industrial park 5 in 708s

T - 445am Methuen trail trail 6 in 809s

      1130am Kingsbury 6 in 701s

W - 445am Methuen rail trail 6 in 801s

       1030am workout on rail trail total 7m in 710s, 2wup, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, mile, 1.5 w-dwn

Th - 1130am Kingsbury (plus Hyatt & Hoyt) 6 in 745s

        2pm Salem rail trail 6m in 806s

F - 440am Bradford rail trail 6 in 750s

      1130am Industrial park 5 with Doug in 749s

Sat - 3 warm-up, 1 more, 5k race, 3 warm-down

       later 3 at Mine Falls in 801s and 1 mile in 851

Sun - 11 miles on the upper part of the Topsfield rail trail with Doug, D-la, and Jim P in 840s

Looking back - November 2000

 20 years ago (November 2000): I was definitely trying to recover during this month after all the marathon’s and the ultra I had done over the previous couple of months.  My goal was to win the Hockomock Swamp Rat series and that meant I needed to be out there doing HSR races.  I kicked off the month (11/04/00) with the Weekend Before Hunting season 10.5 mile trail race in Sandown NH.  I was definitely still feeling the impact of the Cape Cod marathon from six days prior.  I have nothing in my training log about this just that I warmed up with Petey and Rob Smith.  I finished in third place running 1:10:11.  A week later I returned to Tewksbury for the 15k Turkey Trot.  I had the course record (46:37) but was not in that kind of form this year.  I went out with the lead pack (Dan Verrington, Chris Teague, and Eric Beauchesne).  Teague fell off at 3 miles, probably from the effort of winning the 5k (15:17) earlier that morning.  Dan took off at 4 miles and I went with Eric in pursuit.  I fell off after 7 miles taking 3^rd place in 49:29. Next up was the Feaster Five in Andover MA on Thanksgiving Day.   It was cold (23 degrees) and very windy.  I had a slow start out in 6^th place and slowly moved up to 3^rd place by 2 miles.  I closed on Dan Verrington but couldn’t quite catch him (25:12 to 25:14).  Three days later I ran a very icy 5 mile at the Monty Mountain in Leominster.  I didn’t get into an accident but did spin out the car on the way to the race.  I went out with Ramos for the first ½ of the trace but couldn’t stick with him taking 2^nd place in 27:02.                                                                                                                                                                                                               

10 years ago (November 2010): I headed out to Oregon for the USATF trail marathon championships at the beginning of the month.  I spent a good part of the morning in the car trying to stay warm.  I went out much more aggressively than I normally would in a marathon.  After a couple of miles, I found myself alone churning out the climb as the miles slowly ticked by.  I must have been as high as 5^th or 6^th place when we hit the top because only a few guys passed me during the last 13 miles.  After the climb I tried to keep a steady pace as the trail was mostly flat for three or four miles before we started the long drop back down to Ashland.  I caught teammate Tim Van Orden just after 18 miles, he was struggling with an injured Achilles tendon and when I caught him, he was jogging backwards!  Tim gamely hung on and finished in a solid 3:08.  I was very happy with a 3:03:25. The bonus for me was winning a gold medal in the 45-49 and even better was taking 10th in the USATF overall. 

1 Max King M 30 2:41:24 M-Open
2 Mario Mendoza M 24 2:47:04 M-Open
3 John Tribbia M 28 2:47:55 M-Open
 
10 Dave Dunham M 46 3:03:25 M-45-49 CMS
13 Tim Van Orden M 42 3:08:03 M-40-44 CMS
14 Scott Dunlap M 41 3:09:00 M-40-44
 

Next up was a cross country race in Freeport Maine, the Whoopie Pie race.  The course was great, with lots of twists and turns.  I warmed up on the course and felt pretty decent doing some strides.  It was just above freezing and the wind was blowing when about 75 of us took off.  The local high school team took off; their knowledge of the home course and the narrow trail may have caused them to go out a bit too fast (or maybe just youthful exuberance).  I was in about tenth place when we hit the woods about 400m into the race.  Todd Coffin went by me about 800m into the race and I tried to keep him close.  I got as close as three or four seconds with less than 800 to go, then at 400 to go Todd glanced back and took off.  He was gone and increased his lead back up to ten seconds.  I was pleased with taking third in 17:38. 

1 Josh Zolla M 24 15:54 5:08
2Todd Coffin M 49 17:28 5:38
3 Dave Dunham M 46 17:38 5:41
4 Jorma Kurry M 39 18:03 5:49
5 Bennet Wade M 17 18:47 6:04
 

I followed this up with another cross country race (WRCR), this one at Maudslay State Park. I met up with Dave Quintal and we headed out and ran the course for a warm-up.  The start was crazy, but not as crazy as years past.  I worked my way around some of the kids who went out fast.  I moved up as high as 5^th place and was passed by just one guy (just after the mile).  I had a feeling that Dave wasn’t far behind and I know he has a lot more speed than me at the end of a race, so I kept pushing as hard as I could.  I was a little disappointed with the time (17:37) but happy with the effort.  Dave came in one place and 10 seconds behind me. 

    1 Patrick Ard    16:21  5:15
    2 Tom Leger     16:44  5:22
    3 Tim Murtagh  17:03  5:28
    4 Chris Kealey   17:10  5:31
    5 T Esponnette  17:19  5:33
    6 Dave Dunham  17:37  5:39  CMS 40+
    7 David Quintal 17:47  5:42  CMS 40+
 

Three days later I was headed onto the grass for another XC race.  This year was my fifth time running at the scenic grounds of the Andover Country club.  Temps were in the upper 30’s to low 40’s an hour before the start.  It was cool seeing a bunch of other teams warming up in big groups.  My plan was to try to stick with Jim Pawlicki for as long as possible.  400 lined up for the start and went off like crazy when the gun fired.  Jim pulled away a bit as we moved around the fast starters.  Dave Quintal went by at about ½ mile into the race and I went with him.  On the long back stretch around two-miles into the race I slightly gapped Dave and made a move on Jim. I caught Jim as we rounded the sand trap and green and headed onto the cart path.  On a longish downhill I tried to make a break but just couldn’t quite get away.  Jim caught back immediately and with a little over 800m to go Dave went by. Jim just edged Dave at the line and I rolled in 3 seconds later. 

1 Nate Jenkins    17:30    M30      5:01      SAC
2 Jim Johnson     18:21    M33      5:15      CMS
3 Bob Wiles        18:25    M33      5:16      CMS
4 Mike Quintal     18:30    M32      5:18      CMS
5 Joe Donnelly    19:04    M42      5:28      WRT
6 Ryan Kelly        19:21    M29      5:32      Acidotic
7 James Pawlicki 19:32    M36      5:36      CMS
8 David Quintal   19:33    M47      5:36      CMS
9 Dave Dunham  19:36    M46      5:37      CMS

Looking back - November 2015

5 years ago (November 2015): I only raced twice this month as I began my comeback after prostate surgery.  I signed up for my ninth Winner’s Circle “Wild Turkey Trot”.  This was the third time I’d done the race at Pipestave (instead of Maudslay).  A little over 300 runners lined up on the baseball field for the “Braveheart” style start.  It is always a little crazy at the start with a 200 meter on the field before a sharp 90 degree turn. I lined up on the far left and took the first turn wide, staying out of trouble. By ¼ mile I found myself in 10th place and by ½ mile I’d moved up to 6th place.  Alliette moved into the lead and powered away from the field to win by 20 seconds.  I got really tired and struggled on all of the uphill sections (and there are a lot). I can’t complain with an 18:35 over this tough course, and I took first in the 50-59 age group.  Mom ended up winning the 70+ age group for the second year in a row.

1 1/3 TOP3-M Kevin Alliette           Methuen MA        34 M 17:22.3 5:36
2 2/3 TOP3-M Alex Demeule          Merrimac MA       18 M 17:43.7 5:43
3 3/3 TOP3-M Quinn Parker           Hampton NH       22 M 17:47.6 5:44
4 1/24 M1829 Andy Scott               Merrimac MA       24 M 17:57.8 5:47
5 2/24 M1829 James Macvarish       Braintree MA       20 M 18:09.7 5:51
6 1/36 M5059 Dave Dunham          Bradford MA        51 M 18:35.1 5:59
7 1/16 M1317 Kevin Bonanno         Topsfield MA       17 M 19:07.7 6:10
8 3/24 M1829 Bryce Parker            Hampton NH       20 M 19:16.6 6:13
9 2/16 M1317 Ryan Ducrow           Amesbury MA      16 M 19:26.1 6:16
10 1/23 M3039 Keith Leblanc         Amesbury MA      37 M 19:28.9 6:17
 

Next up was the Chelmsford Alumni XC race. Although I went to Billerica which is the fiercest of rivals for Chelmsford, I had the great fortune of befriending a number of Chelmsford runners. Keith O’Brien (CHS class of 1982) hosts this great little race on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Typically he gets 10-30 runners from the Merrimack Valley to come out and have a friendly race.  The traditional XC course features multiple loops around the ball fields, soccer fields, and the school itself. It comes out to exactly 3.25 on my Garmin. The race typically goes out at a reasonably easy clip then the tempo increase each mile until someone decides to race for the finish. I moved to the front and upped the pace to see who was up for it and O’B and Jason Bui went with me. By 1.5 I had dropped 5 seconds back I knew for sure I had no chance but I kept the effort “hard”.  I held on to take third place in 21:00.

1 Jason Bui                     20:24
2 Keith O'Brien                20:25                Chelmsford 1982
3 Dave Dunham            21:00               Billerica 1982
4 Bob Kearns                  22:00
5 Jim Burke                     22:13
6 Kyle O'Brien                 22:22                Chelmsford 1985
7 Mark Gallagher             22:31                Chelmsford 1982
8 Glen Turgiss                 23:12                Chelmsford
9 Richie Blake                 23:18                Tyngsborough 1990
10 Mark Blaisdell             23:28                Wilmington 1975
11 Scott Graham             23:55                Chelmsford 1976
12 Mark Suprenant           24:09
13 Steve Sartori               24:27                Lexington
14 Lee Panas                  24:44                Chelmsford 1980
15 Amy Molloy                 25:07
16 Kevin O'Brien              25:15
17 Melissa Joyce              26:06
18 Frank Georges            26:18                Lowell
19 Jill Lohmeier               26:25
20 Angie Anderson           27:10
21 Jim Rhoades               27:15
22 Jim Stronach              27:56                Tewksbury 1975

Coe Brown XC race

 The Coe Brown XC race (Run to fall) was postponed due to an outbreak in Northwood.  Scott Clark sent out an email asking the "gang" who was up for meeting for a run.  I suggested that we meet up and race the course with whoever from our little group might be interested.  Race director Tim Cox (who has done a couple of my little pop-up races this year) suggested we meet at his house a mile from the course and it was "game on"!  Tim even went out on Saturday and cleared the course of leaves.

I met up with Scott at 6:30am at Tim's house and was happy to see Senior runners Jay Smith and Mike Barry turn up as well.  We did an easy mile jog over to the course start and dumped our race flats before continuing on for a 2 mile course preview that covered the basics of the multi-loop course.  For the most part the trail was as wide as a road, it really only got narrow around 2.5 miles for the single-track section.  The footing was very good, but WOW the course was tough with 250' of climb/descent.  Nothing super-steep but a bunch of grinding tough stretches.

We gathered up at 7am with temps in the mid-20s as the sun was just starting to get above the horizon.  It felt pretty fast as we zipped across the field and headed into the woods.  Tim went to the front and Scott and I hung on.  By 1/2 mile Tim started to break away.  At the mile he had put 10 seconds on me and I had a few seconds on Scott.  I was tempted to peek back at 1.5 when we went back through the starting field but didn't want Scott to know I was worried (I was wheezing badly on the uphill).  Tim was moving well and although in sight for the most part, I knew he had the win.  It was good to have him out front as the carrot and that helped me gap Scott.  I struggled up the hill before the single-track section and again thought about looking back but didn't need to as I could hear Scott breathing on the uphill (as I came down the hill on the single-track).  It wasn't easy to hear him as I was also wheezing loudly.  I managed to keep it together and hit the 3 mile mark as Tim was crossing the finish line.  I managed to hold on with a 19:29.  Scott came in about 30 seconds later and I got some finish pictures of the guys before we headed off for another 2 miles for a warm-down.

I'd seeded myself for the actual race with an 18:55 without having seen the course.  I'm hopeful I can get a little closer to that next month.

Scott Clark has a farm with sheep

Cold gathering to warm-up

You know you are parked at the coaches house when you see hurdles on his front lawn

Final preperations

Start field

Scott Clark

Old Goats

Still catching my breath

More Vermont town bagging

 One more day in Vermont with 406 miles of driving.  Five stops along the way accumulating 16 miles of mostly flat running (planned it out that way as my ankle was still bothering me).  Some nice sights along the way!

Vermont town bagging

 Last week of vacation so I hit Vermont for some town runs.  I covered 12 miles over 4 runs getting a bunch of towns I'd never run in.  Drove nearly 400 miles on this day.

Week Ending 11/15/20

Trying to bounce back this week and take care of my ankle at the same time.

Week – 85
Month – 174
Year – 3,458
Life – 148,365
 
M – Multiple runs in VT townbagging.  3 in Shaftsbury in 928s, 3 in Arlington/Sudbury in 839s, 3 in Wardsboro in 906s, and 4 in Athens/Grafton/Rockingham/Westminster in 1035s
 
T – 7am new section of the Freeman rail trail in Concord with D-la 6m in 855s
      1130am Danny V’s AVIS trail run 6m in 817s
 
W – 730am Rockingham rail trail out/back 7m in 728s
        915am Nice relaxing 5m in 921s
 
Th – Multiple runs in VT townbagging.  3 in Pittsford/Proctor in 801s, 3 in Rutland/Rutland City/West Rultand in 748s, 3 in West Haven/Fair Haven in 750s, 4 in Orwell/Benson/Sudbury/Hubbardton in 748s, 3 in Bridport/Corwall/Shoreham in 801s
 
F – 445am Bradford Rail trail 8m in 748s
 
Sat – 730am 8m on Manchester rail trail in 730s (including 5k in 642s)
          930am 5m in 928s

Sun - 630am 3m warm-up, 5k XC race at Coe Brown, 2 warm-down

          830am 3m second warm-down on rail trail in Epping @814s

Manchester (NH) half-marathon

 I really wanted to do some longer racing but there have been few chooses out there.  Luckily Millennium is putting on a number of events.  I was reluctant to enter the half as the entry fee ($102!) was a bit out there.  Funny, since the marathon and the 5k were both decently priced, I'm not sure why the half was out of line with the other entry fees.

I submitted a projected time of 1:24 which I felt might be a bit aggressive considering the hilly nature of the course.  I'd run 63 minutes at the hilly 10 mile earlier this year and this was a bit tougher course.  Better to seed myself at the fast end of what I thought I could do rather than sandbag and pass a lot of people (seems like a few people went this route).  With two runners starting every 10 seconds I figured I'd have people to work with, no need to start further back and be passing (that is the whole reason for putting in accurate times).  I ended up seeded 30th in the half-marathon and 22 marathoners also were seeded ahead of me.  Again, that meant there would be opportunities to key off of others.  The biggest drawback to the time trial start is that you can't race head-to-head so you can be beaten by someone you never see (I lost by 1 second to someone who started WAY behind me).

I got to Manchester a bit early, just to make sure I had enough time as city races can be a bit stressful.  I got in a nice 2 mile warm-up out/back on the rail trail (which we'd race on).  It was fairly warm for an early November race.  Fifties and sunny (it'd get into the 70s!), not super uncomfortable but not bad either.  I switched into my racing gear and then scurried to the start line, getting to my spot as the first few starters were heading out.  I was happy to see CMS teammates Iain Ridgway and Scott Leslie.  Both were competing in the marathon.  I also saw my prime competition Jeff Walker who I'd beaten by a scant couple of seconds at the 10 mile.  He'd be starting a minute plus behind me so hopefully I wouldn't be seeing him (and hopefully I'd be far enough ahead that I wouldn't pull him along).  My time came up and off I went.

My fist goal was to get up to Rock Rimmon feeling good.  After a mostly flat mile we'd climb up to the scenic viewpoint in Western Manchester.  This was just the start of a LOT of tough long uphills with absolutely brutal SHORT downhills.  Definitely not the way I'd want to run.  I was a bit surprised to be passed by a couple of guys in the first 2 miles (at least one was in the marathon) but I was feeling okay and my pace was close to what I'd hoped.  I kept thinking "get to the 5m mark and see how you feel".  Thirteen miles is a long way and feels much longer if you are having a bad day.  I did not want to have a bad day.  The big downhill got me to the rail trail and the gentle two miles heading back to Manchester.  I tossed my final pair of white cotton gloves dad had given me over the years (I've tossed hundreds of the gloves he got from General Foods over the years), as the day was warming up and I was as well.  The tough little hill heading up to downtown got me to 5 miles right at 32 minutes which had me right on goal pace.

At that point I upped the pace a bit as one of the relay runners went by (Nickson and NHTI runner who I'd raced a month earlier).  I tried to go with him but it was a bit too fast.  I did catch up to one of the marathoners who had passed me in the early miles.  Six to 8 miles had some tough ups and another steep downhill leading into Livingston park.  Somehow I thought I'd coast down the hills and work through the short dirt section in Livingston.  I probably pushed it a bit too hard and was really feeling it on this section.  I was worried as the worst climb of the day lay ahead.  I was not looking forward to climbing up to Derryfield park from 9.5 to 10.5 miles.  I hit 10 miles in a step over 64 minutes so I was still on pace.  I was now just thinking "get to the top and bury that last 5k".  Although I was slowing quite a bit I did pass another runner and began to close on Nickson.

I got past Derryfield and was relieved by the downhill on Mammoth road.  Ugh!  I forgot about the tough little "bump" at 11.5 miles.  I again felt like I was grinding to a halt.  After the bump I got rolling but downtown look so far away!  There was a lot of signage just before 13 miles and I had to read it a few times to ensure I went the right way (apparently some did not).  Then it was the final turn on Elm street and kick for the finish.  I had nothing left so it wasn't much of a kick.  I was happy to see that I was .4 under my projected time with an official time of 1:23:59.6.  I waited at the end of the chute to see Jeff Walker come in.  He got me by 10 seconds!

I headed back out onto the course to get in a 2 mile warm-down and to cheer on marathoners and half-marathoners who were out on the course.  It was an enjoyable way  to finish the day.

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