I closed out the month at the Brown Bear Invitational in Attleboro. This race was also part of the USATF NE cross-country series last year and it features a real XC course. The park formerly was a golf course and now has a dedicated cross-country course. For the 8km (4.97 miles) we’d be doing four slightly different loops. It is not only a good course for racing but also a spectator friendly course. I got there early and had plenty of time to gather my number and then head out for a couple of miles on the road and a mile on the course (after the women finished their race). I felt lousy, pretty much how I’ve been feeling for the last couple of weeks. Based on my 5k XC times I hoped to be within 2 minutes of the time I’d run last year, so my goal was 34:11 (about 6:50 per mile). It was cool hearing all of the University Club Teams gathering together and giving their team chants. Sadly, CMS did not have a full squad with only four of us in attendance, and we did not have a team battle cry. There was a collective groan after the starter announced the start commands then said, ‘one minute until the start’. Everyone was ready to go! 233 took off at the start for the short and quick first loop that brought us back by the start at 1 kilometer. I tried to ease my way into the race and also focused on John Barbour (who I’d run much of the first XC race with a month ago). I just could not go with him. I did consistently pass people for the first two miles (6:38 & 6:49) and then basically stayed with the guys around me the rest of the way. A couple of guys flew by around 3.5 miles and I thought they were lapping me but it turned out they thought the race was a 6k! The women ran a 6k but we had another loop to go! My splits were steady over the last 3 but I was running this fast for tempo runs last year. Ugh. I reached the finish in a disappointing 34:24. Ugly, but I got it done. Maybe I’ll find some turnover next week at the next XC race? The race was not well attended by USATF age-group runners so despite my slow time I finished 6th in the 50+.
Place Time Name Age Team
1 29:30.8 Steve Brightman 54 CMS
2 29:36.9 Jason Cakouros 58 Hfc
3 30:01.8 Dave Dugan 52 Tracksmith
4 32:19.9 Brian Ruhm 58 GCS
5 32:25.3 David Harper 56 CMS
6 34:24.5 Dave Dunham 59 CMS
7 34:47.5 Peter Cannon 59 Unattached
8 37:15.0 Paul Stacy 56 Unattached
9 40:45.5 Timothy Irish 56 Sunrise
10 44:25.5 Scott Casper 55 GLRR
I closed the book on September with a warm-down at the North Attleborough Town forest. This was a significant location as the northern corner of the forest has a monument where four towns meet (Mansfield, Plainville, N. Attleborough, Foxboro). There are only four places in Massachusetts where four towns meet. I’ve now visited two of them and have plans to bag the others in October.
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