Finally, the long anticipated Capital Area Race Series (CARS) kicked off! The series was shelved in 2020 (although I did run a couple of the races as boot-leg DIY events). The schedule was a bit shuffled this year and the first race was the Canterbury Shaker Village 5k XC. I was still feeling the impact of my second COVID shot on Thursday. I felt better but not 100% as I was a still a bit shaky and even felt a little hungover. The 10am start meant it’d be warm (at least warm for mid-May) and buggy for this tough and hilly cross-country race. I met up with a bunch of the gang and we went out to preview the course. That is always important as you never know how well it will be marked. It was fun catching up with the guys and also ragging on Christin Doneski (for sandbagging – she was seeded with #45 a good 30 spots behind where she probably should be). The course was much drier than years past and had just a couple of minor tweaks from how it had been run in the past. After the warm-up I headed back and switched into trail shoes and got in another mile before heading to the starting corral. This would be another race with runners heading off in time-trial format. This time a runner would go every 5 seconds.
I was the seventh
runner to start and could see the six guys in front of me as we traversed the
edges of the cow pasture in the first ½ mile. After that I couldn’t see
anyone and was on my own for a while. I felt pretty dodgy and kept
thinking I’d run the big hill (1.5 – 1.7 miles) well and that’d close me on the
guy in front of me. Instead I got to the big hill and the young kid from
Oyster River who started 10 seconds after me was breathing down my neck.
He almost caught me on the climb but I held him off. It was good to have
someone to work with and I did my best to stay ahead of him.
That worked until
about ¼ mile to go when things flattened out and he sprinted away. I
shuffled into the finish pretty beat and disappointed at how slow my time
was. I kept my eye on the clock and teammate Scott Clark came storming in
16 seconds after I finished. I’d started 20 seconds ahead of him so he
got me by four seconds (2 years ago Scott got me by 2 seconds in this race) to
take the 50+ title. I did get the consolation prize as the top age-graded
masters finisher. Ernie Brake’s team ended up beating our squad by .07 points!
I a weird twist his team took us with their third runner getting a time for his
5k split on his Garmin instead of his actual time. Five people went off
course at the mile and essential cut from the mile to the 2 mile mark. When
they approached the finish line leading the race they were directed BACK out
onto the course and ended up running about 4.5 miles. Nice that the race
allowed them to score with the 5k split but kind of a bummer as the 5k they ran
did not include the toughest hill in the race. In the long run it
probably doesn’t mean anything as the series is a best 5 of 7 races and this is
the slowest race so the points earned will most likely be the least. We
have a month until the next CARS race and I’m hoping that by then it won’t be a
time-trial start (and I can take a shot at Clark!).
2 Ed Stowell 18:07
3 Ben Neff 18:13
4 Colton ham 18:45
5 Jotham Burnett 18:49 40+
6 Michael Eddy 19:32
7 Warren Bartlett 19:36
8 Scott Clark 19:53 50+
9 Dave Dunham 19:57 50+
10 Ernie Brake 20:23 50+
11 Jim Angell 20:24 50+
16 Christin Doneski 21:36 first female & 50+
18 Doug Deangelis 21:44 50+
28 Jim Pawlicki 22:44 40+
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