USATF NE 10m championships

USATF NE 10m championships:  My mid-week migraine left me feeling hungover right up until the weekend.  If this had been a non-team race I would have skipped it.  That is the thing about series races, you really can’t miss one.  This was my 135^th USATF NE grand prix race (they’ve had 241), I’m not sure how many more I’ll do.  My expectations had been high prior to getting sick.  Last year I ran 1:01 here which was easily my best race of 2018.  I knew I wasn’t going to run a 1:01 but was hoping that 1:03 was in the cards.  After an “easy” 2 mile warm-up I knew that 1:03 was not realistic.  I still thought running under 6:30 pace (65 minutes) might be do-able.  With the rolling (read: hilly) terrain splits would be meaningless, I’d just need to try and run an even effort.  Teammate Dave Lapierre was running well and had run 1:04 last year so it made sense to line up with him and try to work together.  We lined up 10 rows back and could see many of our fellow 55+ runners nearby.

We stayed out of trouble in the early going as people sorted themselves out.  I checked my watch at ½ mile (3:11) and we were right on for a sub-65 considering the flat early miles.  I never looked at my watch again, just tried to gauge my effort and keep my eyes on Senior runners ahead of me.  After the mile I gapped Dave and kept my focus on Chris Smith (SRR), he had beaten me by about 20 seconds at Lynn on Wednesday and I hoped I could give him a race over 10 miles (I couldn’t).  I felt I was running the uphills well but I just couldn’t get going on the faster running.  I catch people on the ups and they’d pull away on the downs.  I kept thinking “try to feel good to 5 then see what happens”.  Suddenly I was at 5 miles!  The short out & back section right after 5 miles is a great opportunity to scout the competition.  I saw teammates Joe Shairs, and Ed Sheldon both running very well.  Up until that point I’d totally put out of my mind everyone behind me, but upon seeing how close Dave was reminded me I needed to hold it together.  The long downhill after that did nothing to help my confidence.  The gal with headphones who had STOPPED at the water-stop went flying by.  Ouch!  I thought I had a pretty good climb on the longest hill of the day going up beyond 7 miles.  I kept thinking get over this hill and then there is only one more hill.  I was really trying to talk myself into this.  On the downhill after that a bunch of people glided on by.  Just before 8 miles D-la sidled up and continued on.  I tried to latch onto him but was going as fast as I could muster.  I didn’t feel like I ran out of gas or blew up but I just couldn’t get going any faster.  A couple of more went by me in the closing mile and Terry McNatt (CSU) put 3 seconds on me in the last 50m.  The breeze he created going by me nearly knocked me down (kidding).

I took a moment to recover then gathered up D-La and Ed Sheldon for a warm-down, a couple of others joined us including Rob Ashby (50 years old, over 100,000 miles run, and ran 2:38 at Boston this year!).  The warm-down was the best part of the day.  The Rockingham Rail Trail is an ideal place to start the healing process after this race.  Flat soft dirt trails, my favorite.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do now.  My blood work came back negative so perhaps I’m just still recovering from the mystery illness and the migraine.  I’ll take a few easy days and the regroup.

The team had a fine day taking both the seniors and masters categories.

USATF NE 10 mile championships Auburn, NH     8/24/2019

                        USATF Age Group: Men 55-59

Place  Name                           Club        Age S Nettime   Pace    

    1   John Sullivan                 HFC         59 M 1:01:30.4  6:10

    2   Charlie Bemis                 WRT        56 M 1:01:35.9  6:10

    3   Ed Sheldon                    CMS        55 M 1:01:37.1  6:10

    4   David Lapierre               CMS         55 M 1:04:01.9  6:25

    5   Dave Dunham                CMS         55 M 1:04:37.9  6:28

    6   John Noland                  WRT        56 M 1:06:47.4  6:41

    7   Paul Hammond              WRT        59 M 1:07:30.1  6:45

    8   E J Hrynowski                GLRR       56 M 1:07:58.4  6:48

    9   Ken Warren                   WRT        57 M 1:09:18.6  6:56

   10  Mike Early                      GMAA      55 M 1:09:34.6  6:58

                          USATF Division: Men 50+

  1. 5:09:43.2 Central Mass Striders                   (1:01:56.7)

  1    58:17.9    David Principe                M  52

  2  1:01:08.4   Joe Shairs                      M  51

  3  1:01:37.1   Ed Sheldon                     M  55

  4  1:04:01.9   David Lapierre                M  55

  5  1:04:37.9   Dave Dunham                 M  55

  2. 5:24:09.4 Greater Springfield Harriers             (1:04:49.9)

  3. 5:36:27.0 Whirlaway Racing Team                   (1:07:17.4)

  4. 5:38:51.7 Green Mountain AA                       (1:07:46.4)

  5. 5:42:30.8 Greater Lowell Road Runners           (1:08:30.2)

  6. 5:43:24.5 HFC Striders                                   (1:08:40.9)

  7. 9:22:08.9 NE 65+                                          (1:52:25.8)