USATF NE masters championships

 I’ve been having trouble getting excited about racing this year.  I just can’t seem to find anything that sounds like a “must do”.  I had chatted a bit with Kara Haas at the race a couple of weeks ago and she mentioned that the All-Terrain series was starting with the mile at the USATF NE masters championships.  I’d done the ATR last year but wasn’t sure if I’d be doing it this year.  After checking out the other races involved I decided to take up the challenge.  I also decided I wanted to do a couple of shorter races and saw that the 200 was right before the mile and the 400 was right after.  That sounded interesting.  Even better, there was a 4x200 and 4x400 to close out the meet!  I contacted my CMS teammates to see if I could convince anyone to try the relays (with my fallback plan being to run the open events).  The guys came through and we had enough to run TWO CMS teams in both relays!

 

This was exciting to me as I’d never run in a 4x200 and had not been on a 4x400 team since high school.  On race morning I loosened up with a four mile run and then just killed time until I picked up Dan Verrington for the 90 minute drive to Providence.  We arrived about 2 hours before my event but just in time for Dan to pick up his number and then start his warm-up (he’d be doing the 3,000 meters along with the two relays).  After what felt like forever it was finally time for me to warm-up and I hit the sketchy roads in the Federal Hill section.  The 50 degree day made warming up outside comfortable.  By comparison it was warm and very dry on the indoor track.  I switched into my carbon fiber indoor track spikes and did another mile with some strides.  I felt lousy and nervous. I’d seeded myself at 5:25 and had run a 5:32 on the treadmill last week so I thought I was close to being able to muster 40-41 second laps.

 

I was in heat one which was all of the “older runners” except Todd Callaghan for some reason.  Teammate David Principe had been running basically every event on this day and I hoped to go with him for as long as possible.  Off we went with Arthur Besse, Steve Brightman, and another guy out ahead.  Principe was running right at the pace I wanted so as hoped I hung on him.  At 600 meters I tried to go by him and he picked it up.  Over the next four laps every time I moved up on him he elevated the tempo just enough that I could not go by.  I just didn’t have the juice to make a big move we were running consistent 41s which felt plenty fast to me. Dave had a good kick and although my last lap was a little under 40 he put 1.5 seconds on me.  I ended up taking fourth place and second in the 55-59 age group with a 5:28.  Not a miserable performance but not quite what I was hoping for.

 

M50 1 Mile Run

1 Arthur Besse              M50 Central Mass          5:03.59 1

2 Todd Callaghan          M53 Central Mass          5:05.71 2

3 Steve Brightman         M54 Central Mass          5:13.82 1

4 Matthew Theodore     M52 Unattached            5:32.35 1

5 Jeffrey Townsend       M51 Athletics Ea            5:40.29 1

 

M55 1 Mile Run

1 David Principe Sr        M56 Central Mass          5:26.90

2 Dave Dunham            M58 Central Mass          5:28.45

3 Timothy Irish             M56 Sunrise Stri            6:39.69

I did a short warm-down then hung out for about an hour until it was time to warm-up for the relays.  Scott Grandfield, Todd Callaghan, Steve Brightman, and Scott Leslie were the CMS A-team, they’d be running in the 40+ division as Scott Leslie was in his 40s.  I would be running with Dan Verrington, Doug DeAngelis, and David Principe on the 50+ team (since we were all 50+).  During our warm-up we got the scoop on exactly where the exchange zone was.  Having not done anything like this before hearing about the “2 lane stagger” nearly made my head explode.  Luckily, we had lane 1 so we could just run and not worry about it. It was all really a blur, getting the baton from Dan and then just going as fast as I could (34 seconds) and dishing it off to Doug.  Man, he flew!  Principe also ran pretty darned fast.  We ended up third overall and first in the 50+ (the only team entered) so we were New England Champions!  The NE 65+ club fielded a team of runners all over the age of 85, they set a US record.

 

4x200 Meter Relay

1 Central Mass Striders 'A' 2:02.09         M40

2 Ronald McDonald House 2:07.20

3 Central Mass Striders 'A' 2:19.83         M50

4 NE 65 Plus Runners 'A' 3:48.44           M60

5 NE 65 Plus Runners 'A' 5:40.02           M85 PENDING US RECORD

 

With the 4x800 next, we had just enough time to recover but not enough to really tighten up while waiting for the final event of the night.  For simplicity we kept the same leg order (Dan, me, Doug, David) and we were also in lane 1 again so no worries about cutting in or exchange zones.  Really the only worry would be not running over the 85 year old guys who were going after another US record.

 

Dan and I had a rough exchange of the baton, I think he was trying to hit his watch and handoff at the same time.  He was coming down the final straightaway and was lapping one of the guys so he did also have to go out into lane 2 for a bit.  It felt like it took me the first 100 meters to get up to speed and then I was just trying not to fall apart as I tightened up over the last 100.  I also did a less than spectacular job of handing off to Doug but none of us dropped the baton or ran out of the exchange zone so I’ll call that a “clean” run.  I ran a 74 second leg (maybe a little faster but not sure) and our squad ended up in third place overall and New England Champions in the 50+.  The CMS fast guys took the win and the NE 65 team set another US record.

 

4x400 Meter Relay

1 Central Mass Striders 'B'          4:25.09             M40

1 Ronald McDonald House 'A'     4:32.38

1 Central Mass Striders 'A'          5:00.82             M50

2 New England 65 Plus 'B'          8:50.68

1 New England 65 Plus 'A'          13:20.35           M85 PENDING US RECORD

 

Dan, Doug, and I finished the long day off with a short 1 mile jog outside.  I was happy that although there seemed to be a bit of reluctance at first, all of the guys seemed to have a lot of fun doing the relays.