Amherst 10 mile
This has been a strange year so far, with historic snow
totals and record cold. I’ve also had a rare year where I didn’t race at all in
January. I missed the entire month of January due to a partially torn ligament
in my foot. With less than four weeks of training prior to this weekend I
wasn’t expecting much. The Amherst 10 mile was selected as the USATF New
England championship and the first race in the 7-race Grand Prix. It was a
popular pick although racing in the winter can be hit or miss. My goal heading
into the race was to help support the CMS senior
team which would need all five of us to finish in order to score. I
didn’t have much in the way of indicators to figure out what shape I was in, but
having only run one mile under 7 minutes and having very little mileage in the
bank, I wasn’t expecting much. My goal was to hit 1:10 or 7 minutes per
mile.
Dave La and I did an easy mile warm-up and then headed to the
line. I seeded myself about 15 rows back which was probably a little further
back than I should have gone but it was smarter than getting caught up with
faster starters. I set my GPS to give me splits every half-mile so I’d get more
feedback. I also chose to wear headphones so I wouldn’t have to hear any snide
remarks about how “slow” I was running. It took me 7 seconds to cross the start
line then things cleared out quickly. The footing was fine and the new start
line eliminated the nasty tight turn 200 meters into the race. I tried to find
a good rhythm and passed ½ mile in 3:34, so with my 7 seconds differential I was
a little under 7’s. The next ½ was much faster with a lot of downhill and I
rolled through the mile in 6:36. At that point I felt I could adjust my goal as
I felt pretty comfortable and 65 minutes might be a reachable goal. A fast
downhill mile (6:11) and then we hit the hardest mile on the course with a lot
of uphill. I slowed to a 7:09 which would be my slowest mile of the race, but
during the same mile I passed a lot of people.
As we hit the dirt road section my focus shifted to picking
out the best footing. There was packed snow, mud, and a little ice, but it has
been MUCH worse on that section of road. I kept looking up ahead an picking out
the next group to catch. There always seemed to be a few fast Whirlaway women
in the next group and every time I caught one I’d see another up ahead. That,
and teammate Dave Mingori passing back and forth, kept me moving along. Slow
miles of 6:32 and 6:34 brought me to half-way in 33:02. I knew the second half
was faster so I still held hope of running about 65 minutes. I saw Kristin
Doneski (WRT), 30 seconds ahead and thought “go after her”.
We rolled back onto pavement and miles of 6:02, 6:10, and
6:01 got me past Doneski. Amanda Wright (Sisu) stormed by me at this point and
I tucked in and followed. I was definitely getting tired, probably because my
longest run this year was 9 miles. My breathing felt easy but my legs did not
want to cooperate. I could go okay on the uphill but downhill I couldn’t really
get going. The 8th mile was a sluggish 6:48, and then we turned for
the “new” finishing mile. The old finish stayed straight and climbed a lot more
with the entire drop at the very end of the race. The new final mile was a
steady down and flat with just a few easy turns. I turned in a 6:16 for the
final mile but Wright pulled away as she went into her finishing kick and
Doneski floated by me like I was standing still.
I crossed the line in 64:19 (64:12 chip time) for a new 50+
PR and 17th place in the 50-59. My old 50+ PR was nearly 6 minutes
slower, but that was on the Pack Monadnock course (2,900’ of climb). I’d like
to knock another 2 minutes off my 10 mile time in three weeks when I run the New
Bedford ½ marathon. Hopefully by then the addition of some decent mileage weeks
will get me to the line in a bit better shape.
The team did really well with the masters taking first place
and our senior team placing fourth. The mid-30 degree temperature and sunny
skies were a bit of an anomaly for this winter!
50-54 Pl 50-59 pl O'all
Name Team Age Time
1 1 42 CHRIS LAWRENCE
BAA 51 0:57:42.8
2 3 77 ALEJANDRO HEUCK
GSH 50 1:00:20.5
3 4 79 CHARLIE
BEMIS WRT 52 1:00:20.1
4 5
92 DAN VERRINGTON CMS 52 1:00:51.6
5 6 96 MIKE
COONEY WRT 53 1:01:01.5
6 7 97 SCOTT ANDERSON
WRT 50 1:01:13.5
7 8 106 DOUG MARTYN
WRT 54 1:01:42.6
8 9 107 JOE MCNAMARA
GMAA 51 1:01:47.3
9 12 122 E J HRYNOWSKI
GLRR 52 1:02:58.1
10 14 127 MIKE
EARLY GMAA 50 1:03:43.4
11 15 132 SERGIO BRENA
GSH 50 1:03:55.6
12 17
139 DAVE DUNHAM CMS 50 1:04:12.7
13 20 172 ROBERT
HEPNER 52 1:06:27.8
20 31
229 PHILIP SAVOY CMS 52 1:11:36.0
21 38
264 DAVID LAPIERRE CMS 50 1:14:26.1
50-54 Pl 50-59 pl O'all Name Team Age
Time
1 2 59 ROBERT CIPRIANO
SRR 55 0:58:46.9
2 10 112 CRAIG FRAM WRT
56 1:01:57.9
3 11 119 PAUL HAMMOND WRT
55 1:02:46.4
4 13 124 TONY BATES GMAA
55 1:03:27.4
5 16 135 PATRICK STUMBRAS
BAA 57 1:04:02.0
6 18 149 NORM LARSON GMAA
59 1:04:28.5
7 19
160 JOHN GRIEGO CMS 56 1:05:56.9
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50+ Teams
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1
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WRT
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5:06:25
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2
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GMAA
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5:24:56
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3
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BAA
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5:34:52
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4
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CMS
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5:37:33
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5
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GLRR
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5:38:05
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6
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GSH
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5:46:13
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7
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SRR
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6:07:04
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8
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NMC
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6:17:21
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9
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SMAC
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6:29:50
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10
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GCS
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6:48:23
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