I’d been thinking about this race for quite a while. Last year the New Hampshire 10 mile (USATF champs) was the final race I ran before ending up sidelined with a sacral stress fracture. I wanted redemption this year as it was my worst race of 2019. On Thursday morning leading up to the race my left glute/hip was quite sore. I wasn’t especially worried until the afternoon run when I felt much worse. Definitely had some sort of strain. Nothing left to do except hope I could race on it.
Race morning was just about ideal for racing with temps around 60 and
a light rain (that’d be off and on). I did a gentle 2 mile warm-up and
didn’t feel bad, just a bit tired. Maybe the early race start and worries
about the glute had me feeling sluggish. At 6:45am the first group was
called to the staging area. We’d be lined up (socially distanced) based
on our projected finish time with the fastest going first and everyone
following at 10 second intervals. Not quite racing in the traditional
sense but as close as we can get to real racing right now. Jeff Walker
was my main rival in the 50+ age group and he’d be starting 20 seconds ahead of
me. Alyssa Anderson (former GLRR & CMS teammate Tom Anderson’s wife)
would be starting 10 seconds in front of me. I was hoping to catch Alyssa
in the first 3 or 4 miles and work with her as we were both aiming for a
1:04. It was a little weird standing in line as each runner was announced
and sent on their way. I did a lot of walking in place to keep the blood
flowing and 6:40 after the first starter I was on my way.
With a goal of 1:04 I wanted to be around 3:10 for the first FLAT ½
mile. I was a bit shocked when I hit the half in 3:25. Wow! Way too
slow, but it felt pretty fast. I could hear the guy who started 10
seconds behind me closing and he flew by just before I hit the mile
(6:47). I had two thoughts when I saw the split. “I’ll be lucky to
break 65” and “Maybe it isn’t as bad as I think”. The second thought was
due to the tough little ½ mile long hill we’d climbed. My glute was just
sore but not slowing me down so I concentrated on finding the right pace.
Alyssa had caught Jeff and they were both about 25 seconds ahead at 2
miles. I slowly reeled in the gent who had caught me early on and got
within a couple of seconds by 4 miles (26:08 = 1:05:20 pace). I was
feeling a lot better as the worst of the hills were almost behind us and the
pace would definitely be quicker in the second half. A little before 5
miles we did the out & back section of road which was a great time to see
exactly where the competition was. Alyssa had fallen off a little behind
Jeff and I didn’t see anyone behind who might be closing on me. I finally
drew even with the guy I’d been tracking as we hit 5 miles (32:32). He
asked if we were done with the hills and I told him “no, but we’ve done the
hardest ones”. We really only had a few “bumps” left in the second half
and a good quick last 2 miles. I was feeling good and stopped thinking to
myself “wait” and shifted to “go”. The next 2 miles were my fastest of
the race with a 6:06 and a 6:02. That brought me up to Alyssa (we ran
together from 6 to about 7.5). It also got me a bit closer to Jeff.
By 8 miles he had about 15 seconds on me (which would mean I was five seconds
ahead of him on overall time). At nine miles I’d closed to about 10 seconds
(with a 6:09 mile). The last mile was on the Rockingham rail trail and I
just couldn’t muster much of a kick. We turned off the trail for the
final run to the tape and I couldn’t see Jeff so I had no idea how much he’d
got on me. My last mile was 6:10 which brought me in with a 1:03:26. The
second 5 miles took me 30:54 which was faster than I’d raced the Luti 5m back
in July. Needless to say I was very happy with that. I talked to
Jeff for a moment and later found out I’d beat him by 4 seconds! This was
my first age group win at a ROAD New England championship!
Millennium did an incredible job putting on this race given the
current pandemic. Everything seemed to go very smoothly. It was
great to be back out there and see so many familiar faces! Hopefully
we’ll be back out racing again soon. It was also nice to see some tight
competition up front as the top three finishers were all within 7 seconds.
I’ve got to get my glute checked out, a big knot is making it very difficult to run without limping. Luckily not much on the calendar for upcoming races!
32 M55-59 1 Dave Dunham 56 Bradford MA 1:03:26.0
33 M55-59 2 Jeff Walker 56 Westerly RI 1:03:30.1
43 M50-54 1 Mark Crane 53 Nashua NH 1:06:35.7
47 M50-54 2 Dan Somes 52 Centerville MA 1:07:33.8
50 M55-59 3 Paul Donovan 55 Hollis NH 1:08:20.8
54 M50-54 3 Andrew Bragg 50 Pepperell MA 1:08:54.8
66 M55-59 4 Conrad Struckman 59 Hollis NH 1:11:17.6
67 M55-59 5 Michael McGuire 55 Stratham NH 1:11:24.0
68 M50-54 4 Kent Sirimoglu 53 Nashua NH 1:11:37.5
75 M55-59 6 Bill Newsham 55 Brookline NH 1:12:21.4
76 M50-54 5 Dave Beliveau 52 Goffstown NH 1:12:30.7
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