USATF NE 10km champs

The weather was looking great for the USATF NE 10km championships and I was hopeful that I might have a shot at breaking 36 minutes.  The new course at Lone Gull (Gloucester) looked to be slightly quicker than the old course with 30 less feet of climb (basically one bump was eliminated).  Teammates Tim Van Orden and Dan Verrington joined me for the carpool and the 45 minute drive went by quickly.  We arrived with plenty of time to get our numbers and hit the bathroom before they got crowded.  There was even a little time to catch up with some familiar folks.

At 8:10 we got a fairly big group together and ran the 1.25 miles out and back to the old start line.  This gave us a chance to see the new start line and also the last 1.25 miles we’d be racing (which was new).  Oddly, although I had been thinking about this race all week I was NOT feeling my typical pre-race nervousness.  That is never a good sign.  I live for that excitement and terror before the race!  I switched into racing flats and did another 1.25 over to the start with Jim Pawlicki.  I’d timed it pretty much dead-on as there was only about 3 minutes to go when I got to the line.  Based on my 100^th place finish last year I counted back 6 rows and tucked into the crowd.  I got over on the left side of the line next to the area blocked off for the women.  For some reason they never seem to get that area filled up so there is space to move once the race starts.

Over 800 shot off and with the new start we had a good size hill about 200 meters into the race.  It seemed like the pace was VERY slow to the hill and up it.  There wasn’t really any room to move as it was still tightly packed.  Once we got down the hill (and reached the old start line) things got rolling…really rolling.  I focused on some of my 50+ competition and a couple of fast women that I’m typically near in gp races.  Kassandra Marin was out strong and I found myself in lock-step with her cutting the tangents and already passing some of the fast starters.  We hit the mile in 5:49 which was disappointing.  I thought I was moving well and knew if I wanted to break 36 I’d need to be no worse than 5:45.  I hoped that the hill and the large number of people had been the reason for a “slow” mile.

Kassandra stuck with me as I fronted our little group with teammate Nick Taormina.  I was a little surprised as Nick had run 20 miles with me last week at the Baystate marathon preview and had mentioned he hoped to break 38 at Lone Gull.  I was glad for the company and we slowly reeled in fellow 50+ CMSer Joe Shairs.  I knew Joe was also hoping to break 36, so he was as disappointed as I was when we hit 2 miles in 11:40 (5:51).  Sub-36 was most likely out of the question, we hadn’t even hit the hardest mile yet.  Joe, Nick, and I now fronted a small group with Whirlaway 50+ ace Charlie Bemis tucked right in.  Charlie was one of the guys I hoped to focus on during this race (he’d beaten me by 10 seconds at the 5k).  He has a much better kick than me so I was hoping to ditch him before the end.

We reached 3 miles in 17:39 (5:59) and 18:19 through 5k.  I was now hoping that along with scoring some points (top 10 in the 50-54) that I still had a shot at my fastest time of the year for 10k, but I’d need to run a faster second 5k.  I think Nick dropped off the group between 3 and 4 but it might have been later.  It was great working with Joe and Nick.  There was no discussion but whenever whoever was at the front eased up one of us took over.  We did not slack off.  I could see Scott Anderson (another Whirlaway 50+) up ahead.  Scott always goes out hard and sometimes comes back.  He was coming back but we were running out of race.  We hit 4 miles in 23:27 (5:48) and 5 miles in 29:26 (5:59).  Scott was still a good 15-20 seconds ahead.  I was right with Joe and Charlie as we passed the old finish line.  Then Joe made his move.  I could not match it and he put 5 seconds on us in ½ mile.  Charlie pulled up alongside me and we matched strides from 5.5 to the 6 mile mark (35:21 – 5:55).  Joe took a peek at the final turn into the parking lot and although we’d closed it a little we weren’t going to catch him.  Charlie poured it on and I gave all I had and matched him stride for stride.  With 100 to go he had a little more and I could not match him.  He ended up crossing a step ahead of me.  Joe had kept the gap finishing 3 seconds up.  I was very happy with the effort and just RACING.  The time was a bit of a disappointment although it is my fastest time this year and only 3 seconds slower than my time last year at Lone Gull.

Our 50+ squad had a good day placing 6 of us in the top 20 but it wasn’t enough to challenge GSH.  We took second place and still hold the lead in the series with one race to go.

Splits:

5:49

11:40 = 5:51

17:39 = 5:59

23:27 = 5:48

29:26 = 5:59

35:21 = 5:55

36:31.5 = 1:10.5

1        29:37.2         Jordan Mann  M       M2029 OSAC

2        29:38.7         Collin   Leibold M       M2029 OSAC

3        29:38.7         Jacob  Thomson       M       M2029 BAA

4        29:41.6         Louis   Serafini          M       M2029 TH AC

5        30:12.5         Jonas  Hampton       M       M2029 BAA

6        30:33.3         Ruben Sanca  M       M3039 WRT

7        30:39.3         Teage O'Connor       M       M3039 GMAA

8        30:47.1         Ben     Groleau         M       M2029 WMDP

9        30:57.6         Dennis Roche M       M3039 WMDP

10      30:59.5         Amos  Sang   M       M2029 WMDP

                                                         

18      31:52.9         Scott   Mindel M       M3039 CMS

20      32:03.1         Pat     Fullerton        M       M3039 CMS

21      32:06.9         Scott   Leslie  M       M3039 CMS

30      32:38.6         Patrick Rich    M       M4049 CMS

47      33:23.1         Dave   Brooks M       M3039 CMS

49      33:32.7         Jack    Delehanty      M       M3039 CMS

58      33:54.3         Daniel  Raboin M       M2029 CMS

66      34:21.3         Arthur  Besse  M       M4049 CMS

71      34:25.9         Kevin  Hankens        M       M4049 CMS

81      34:53.4         Tim     Van Orden     M       M5059 CMS

84      34:58.8         Alan    Bernier M       M4049 CMS

103     35:49.2         Joshua Perks  M       M4049 CMS

118     36:00.5         Tom   Steele  M       M4049 CMS

125     36:28.2         Joe     Shairs  M       M5059 CMS

127     36:31.5         Dave   Dunham        M       M5059 CMS

130     36:43.5         Erik     Vandendries   M       M5059 CMS

133     36:49.4         Nick    Taormina       M       M4049 CMS

145     37:42.3         James Pawlicki         M       M4049 CMS

155     38:00.2         David  Lapierre        M       M5059 CMS

161     38:16.5         Dan    Verrington      M       M5059 CMS

166     38:30.6         Erin     Haynes F        F2029  CMS

187     39:37.4         Regina Loiacano       F        F4049  CMS

209     40:18.0         Leslie  O'Dell  F        F4049  CMS

212     40:26.8         Dennis Floyd  M       M4049 CMS

216     40:36.2         Philip   Savoy jr         M       M5059 CMS

250     42:25.2         Karla   Steele  F        F4049  CMS

252     42:40.1         Xi       Chen   F        F3039  CMS

266     43:22.6         Karen  McGahie        F        F5059  CMS

349     47:45.5         Sidney Letendre        F        F6069  CMS

372     48:33.4         Laura  Hast    F        F5059  CMS

375     48:52.4         David  Krom  M       M5059 CMS

507     55:04.5         Mary   Sharkey         F        F6069  CMS

670     03:10.9         Larry   Morris M       M7099 CMS

673     03:17.3         Annie  Ryan   F        F6069  CMS

750     10:30.8         Marta  Carlson F        F5059  CMS