I closed out the month with the VFW 5k in Manchester NH. I had high hopes for this race as I’d run pretty fast on the same course back in November (18:02). I had my sights set on maybe sneaking under 18 minutes which I hadn’t done since February. The field was very small with only 41 finishers. I was seeded first (I’d submitted 18:15 as my time based on recent races) and would get a five second start ahead of Mark LaPrade. I was worried about Jim Angell who would be starting 10 seconds back, I’d beaten him at Canterbury, but he’d got me earlier this year. If nothing else, it’d be interesting. I met up with teammate Jim Pawlicki and we scouted the course as a warm-up and bumped into Keith Kelly (not the Providence one) who was out running with his dogs. It looked to be a really nice day to race with temps in the upper 40’s and the rain holding off. I went out for another mile in my race flats and while not paying attention entered the gated community on the other side of the ballpark. The gate was retracted, and I never noticed it until I turned around to head back and the gate was closed! There was no way out and the clock was ticking. Eventually I climbed the gate and made it back to the start line with less than a minute to spare. That’d be the big excitement for the day. I went out what felt to be a quick pace and ¼ mile in Mark went flying by. I was not surprised as he does start quickly. I tried to latch onto him and by ½ mile (2:56) I was a stride or two behind him. I hit the mile in 5:53 which was 8 seconds slower than I’d hoped, but I was struggling. I kept about the same distance between Mark through the turn and was still thinking I might be able to get by him at 2 miles (5:49/11:42). I knew sub-18 was out (and winning the race as well) but knew Jim Angell would be gunning for me. I had a disappointing last mile (5:55) with no kick and no energy. I did hold onto second place.
1 Mark LaPrade 18:07
2 Dave Dunham 18:19
3 Jim Angell 18:28
4 Robin Friedman 19:52
5 Jim Pawlicki 20:39
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