10 years ago & 5 years ago

10 Years ago:  My ongoing plantar fascia issues ended me up getting laser topaz surgery the sidelined me for five weeks.

5 Years ago:  I started off the month by getting the results from my second MRI.  Nothing unexpected, the tendon that was partially torn is still partially torn (extensor digitorum tendon). The surprises, at least to me, were that my tibialis posterior tendon has a high grade tear and just a “sliver” remaining. It is never a good sign when the term “sliver” is thrown around. The ankle swelling and pain related to arthritis around the navicular is painful enough that I’m limping just walking around.  During the month I got a few opinions and continued running as long as the pain permitted.

After running on the Manchester rail trail, I headed over to Derryfield park to watch Dan Verrington and his dog Kutya compete in their first race together. Dan has been running with his pup for the last few months getting in 5-7 miles per day. They started their racing career in fine fashion with a second place overall and first dog, with a 17:50 for a hilly 5k.

Destiny Rescue 5k trail race - I found the Destiny Rescue 5k trail race for Saturday morning and since I'd raced at Wason Pond (Chester) before I thought it'd be fun to go back.  I showed up a little early since I had some concerns with this being a first-time race. I signed up ($25) and headed out to preview the course after discussing how it was marked with the course marking volunteer. It seemed pretty straight forward but there were a few turns and a section that overlapped.

There weren't a lot of markings but if you paid attention at the trail junctions it was pretty easy to follow. I got in my 3 mile warm-up, changed into Inov-8's and headed back for another mile with strides. About 100 lined up and the race headed off on time.

One guy took it out very fast and two high school kids were close behind him. I got into my own pace and could hear a guy right behind me (and he sounded in control). We rolled up on the first major intersection and as we reached it I realized the 3 ahead of us had gone left instead of right. I called out and continued on. The guy behind me was Patrick Connelly a Chester local who knew the woods well. I'd raced him last time I did Wason Pond back in 2011. That time I was able to take him by 45 seconds.  At the time I didn't know it was him, just that it was a guy sticking with me.

Half-way through the race he made a move and I couldn't cover it. He put 5 seconds on me in about 200 meters then slowly increased that to 10 seconds by the 2 mile mark. I felt the effort was there but I just didn't have the turn-over. My foot was really hurting but I don't think it was slowing me down any.

Patrick rolled on and took the win in 18:21 and I picked up 2nd in 18:34. The three who went off course took the next 3 places. I'm not sure how much they lost but it would have been interesting had they stayed on course. I finished the morning with another loop of the course with 6 place finisher Tim Burke. It was nice to have someone to run with and chat.

1 18:21  5:55  Patrick Connolly   M         51  Chester, NH            1/11 M50-99

2 18:34  6:00 Dave Dunham      M          51  Bradford, MA          2/11 M50-99

3 19:15  6:13 Zach Hartman      M          15  Kennebunk, ME       1/6  M13-19

4 19:22  6:15 Thomas Leo         M          26   Manchester, NH   1/5   M20-29

5 19:23  6:15 Jack Longo           M          16  Madbury, NH          2/6  M13-19

90 finishers