5 years ago: December 2017 - Mill Cities relay 12-03: This was my 12th time running the MCR. Dan Verrington and I met up at the end of the long leg as we’d both be covering that leg for different Winner’s Circle teams. Dan was running on a fast 50+ squad and I was on a mixed 50+ team (three men and two women). I decided to warm-up with Dan knowing that he would be starting 15-30 minutes before I would. Right around our scheduled time my teammate came into view. I grabbed the baton, slapped it around my wrist as I hit my watch and took off. About half of the 213 teams had already gone by so there would be a lot of people to catch. I reached the mile in 6-flat which was promising as I’d set my goal at 6:00-6:15 pace I’d been counting how many I passed right from the start and by 6 miles (35:54) I had gone past 40 people. I must have been pretty much at max along the way as my 9th mile was a 6:06 (my slowest of the day). I hit my watch and got 57:29 for the 9.6 miles which was right on 6:00 pace. I had ended up passing 64 people during my leg, so nearly 1/3 of the entered teams. We took 64th place overall in the relay and 6th in the mixed 50+ scoring, out of 16 teams. The club took 2nd place in overall points. Fantastically fun day!
USA XC championships – Lexington KY 12/09. Although team nationals in KY wasn’t really the focus of my season it was the finale. I thought team XC would be fun as the 10km distance was more suited to me. CMS would be fielding a team but only a 40+ squad. It would have been nice to have a 50+ team but just getting the group to the 5k XC champs (and New England’s) was great…and a lot of fun. The course was fantastic! The start was very wide and when it did narrow at about 800 meters it was still the width of a road and would never get any narrower. I got to the race by 9:30, and headed out on my own at 9:45. It was about 20 degrees and the wind was strong. The course wasn’t muddy but was GREASY in spots where there was frost or the grass was packed down from the early races. Nearly 300 of us toed the line. My goal was to settle in for the mile then pass as many people as I could. I reached the mile in 5:58 and thought it wasn't too bad. Things had thinned out by the time I hit the start/finish a little after 2.5 miles. I was passing people the whole way. There were a lot of GLRR spectators and others yelling for New England runners which was nice. I reached 6m in 35:47 and felt I had a good finish over the last .3.
It is so hard to figure out if I had a good race or not. Places rarely give any indication as they are so dependent on the strength of the field. I think I ran a smart race and at the end had nothing in reserve so I guess that qualifies as a good race.
50+ results
1 33:37 Peter Hammer Needham MA 51 10 BAA
2 34:15 Carl Combs Cheney WA 52 25
3 34:17 Kent Lemme Pittsfield MA 51 26 GSH
8 35:15 Michael Nahom GSH 50 54
11 35:21 Mark Hixson GSH 52 63
21 36:25 Francis Burdett GSH 52 101
25 36:56 Alejandro Heuck GSH 52 120
28 37:13 David Principe CMS 50 129
31 37:34 Dave Dunham CMS 53 136
34 37:50 Wayne Levy BAA 52 142
36 38:04 Chris Lawrence BAA 54 152
Perry’s Birthday race: I picked the "Birthday race" in Concord as the price was good (whatever you wanted to donate) and the weather look to be manageable. I knew it was hilly but hoped to crack 24 minutes. I saw a few people I knew which was nice. Exchanged greetings with Tom & Ellen Raffio and Dave Audet and of course birthday boy Perry Seagroves. A smallish field lined up and I got a warning from Dylan Tuttle about one of the NHTI guys who was known to take it out hard. He wasn't kidding. Zoom that kid was out as I settled into a reasonable pace. My watch beeped at 1/2 mile and the Dylan hopefully asked "1k?", he probably wasn't happy with my answer. "half". I hit the half in 3:13 which put me about 15 seconds behind River Groves (NHTI's top XC runner with a penchant for going out very hard). I hit the mile in 6:26 (3:13) and the kid was still about 15 seconds up but knowing I'd maintained as he slowed gave me hope. He shed his sweatshirt just before 2 miles and I thought he must be getting serious since I'm catching him. I caught him at the 2 mile mark with a 12:27. Suddenly the he just stopped! I reacheed 3 miles in 18:35. My last (downhill) mile was 5:11.6 for a fastest mile in nearly 2 years.
Pl Time Name Age Sx City, St Pace Team
1 23:48 DAVE DUNHAM 53 M BRADFORD MA 5:57 CMS
2 24:48 RIVER GROVES 19 M NORTHWOOD NH 6:12 NHTI
3 25:09 JASON SCHOELLER 19 M PEMBROKE NH 6:18 NHTI
4 25:44 DYLAN TUTTLE 21 M CONCORD NH 6:26
5 26:19 ANDREW SHEPHERD 18 M NEWURY NH 6:35 NHTI
6 26:52 DAVE AUDET 52 M CONCORD NH 6:43
15 32:23 PERRY SEAGROVES 64 M CONCORD NH 8:06
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