USATF NE 4 mile championship

 Although I’ve raced in 183 USATF NE championships, I hadn’t done a road championship since November of 2022.  It was good to get back out there and as always it was great to see so many familiar faces.  I love the camaraderie at the Grand Prix races.  We go out there and want to beat everyone but also enjoy meeting up with friends from our club and other clubs and rejoice in the common goal of testing ourselves over whatever distance.

I picked up Danny V at 7:30 am to give us ample time to get to Bedford NH and park, knowing that it is easily a 10 minute walk to number pick-up.  We randomly parked next to a new CMS 50+ woman who had just joined the club and not done a GP race before.  She had a lot of good questions that a runner should ask (especially about seeding on the start line).  We headed over to pick-up with teammate David Principe who hadn’t raced in a year (!!!).  After picking up numbers we bumped into Jim Pawlicki (now running for Notch) and Joe Shairs who is just crushing the 55+ age group.

We had just enough time to get back to the car and it was time to warm-up.  There was a lot of traffic on the road as people would be rolling in until the roads shut down at 9:15.  Dan wondered if the race would start on time and I assured him that a Millenium race ALWAYS starts on time.  We did an “easy” three miles that did not feel easy.  I tried to convince myself that was a good sign.  I was hoping to run under 26:00 (6:30 pace) as I’d done a 5k two weeks ago at 6:26 pace.  I thought that 6:20 pace was possible (25:20) if all went well.

I tried to seed myself appropriately figuring 10-15 rows back would be about right.  I saw Jim Rhoades and Shawn Conway and tried to sneak in behind them (as I figured both would kick my ass).  Right at 9:30 we were off and running.  Conditions were great with temps at 44 degrees and a 5-10mph breeze.  I managed to stay on my feet as we surged forward (6 seconds to the line) and then got running slowly the first part.  I was very cautious at the first turn and after that running was fairly wide open.  Many were passing me as we went up the little hill.  By the half-mile (3:07), I started catching people (including a fast starting Dave Lapierre).  I was still getting passed until about the mile (6:07 Garmin split – about 6:10 for the course marker).  After the mile I think the only person to pass me was Doug Martyn who had stopped at 1.5 to re-tie his shoe.  A 6:06 second mile got me to 2 miles in 12:13 (12:20 for the course marker) and I was now thinking that I might have a shot at 24:30 which would be well under my goal.  I felt pretty good although a bit frustrated that as I was catching people they were NOT cutting the tangents and I had to maneuver around them.  A 3:03 and 3:08 (Garmin) and I was at 3 miles in 18:24 (18:35 course marker) and I was feeling ragged but had kept contact with Shawn Conway and could still see Jim Rhoades and fellow 55+ runner Alex McHenry up ahead. I did not lose motivation but the ‘little’ hill and a bit of a breeze gave me my slowest split of the day (3:11).  I did bounce back a bit for the final kick (3:05) but certainly didn’t outkick anyone.  I hit the line in 24:54 with a chip time of 24:48.  I cannot complain as this was way ahead of where I thought I’d be.  The field was much deeper than 2 years ago.  In 2022 I ran 26:00 and was 236^th place, this year I ran 1:12 faster and only moved up to 227^th.  I just managed to score in the 55-59 age group with a 10^th place finish and was 22^nd in the 50+.  I took solace that only 2 guys (Charlie Bemis and Doug Martyn) older than me beat me.  Looking forward to the new age group in 6 weeks!

 

finish pic from krissy

Old school, older school, oldest school

Joe Shairs (tops in the 55+), Danny V 7th in the 60-64

Place	Time	Pace	Name	Sex	Age	City	State
1	22:57	5:45	Joe Shairs	M	55	Peabody	MA
2	23:06	5:47	Scott Grandfield	M	58	Rehoboth	MA
3	23:06	5:47	David Principe	M	57	Johnston	RI
4	23:16	5:49	Jason Cakouros	M	58	Milton	MA
5	23:47	5:57	Bob Tremblay	M	56	Chelmsford	MA
6	24:24	6:06	Jim Rhoades	M	55	Lowell	MA
7	24:30	6:08	David Harper	M	57	Leominster	MA
8	24:39	6:10	Alex McHenry	M	58	South Burlington	VT
9	24:43	6:11	Sadik Tokgoz	M	55	Waltham	MA
10	24:48	6:12	Dave Dunham	M	59	Bradford	MA
11	24:59	6:15	Tom Dolan	M	55	Andover	MA
12	25:05	6:17	Terrance McNatt	M	59	Needham	MA
13	25:06	6:17	Wayne Levy	M	58	Waban	MA
14	25:06	6:17	Jonathan Morris	M	55	Methuen	MA
15	25:45	6:27	Steve Bosic	M	55	Waltham	MA
16	25:53	6:29	David Lapierre	M	59	Chelmsford	MA
17	26:13	6:34	Joe O'Leary	M	56	Medford	MA
18	26:30	6:38	Christopher Smith	M	57	Woburn	MA
1	0:24:03	6:01	Charlie Bemis	M	61	Derry	NH
2	0:24:21	6:06	Doug Martyn	M	63	North Andover	MA
3	0:24:49	6:12	Constantino Rago	M	62	Boxford	MA
4	0:26:14	6:34	Gary Cattarin	M	60	Marlborough	MA
5	0:26:18	6:35	Tom Amend	M	67	Gloucester	MA
6	0:26:21	6:36	Norm Larson	M	68	Burlington	VT
7	0:26:30	6:38	Paul McGovern	M	64	Methuen	MA
8	0:26:33	6:39	Richard Jordan	M	61	Marblehead	MA
9	0:26:40	6:40	Dan Verrington	M	61	Bradford	MA
10	0:26:48	6:42	E J Hrynowski	M	61	Arlington	MA