Aviation Museum 5m

 I had not raced in a few weeks and searched Running in the USA database trying to find something that was interesting.  I came across a race in Londonderry NH that ran on the new section of rail trail near the Manchester Airport.  I was interested right away!  I’d first run on the section of rail trail (more of a trail trail at that time) back in 1989.  The race started early (9am), wasn’t a first year event (avoid those when possible) and had a reasonable entry fee ($35 day of).  The week before I headed up to the Aviation Museum (the starting point) and ran the course twice to get a feel for it.  The five mile loop was not easy with the first 1.5 miles climbing 200’, that also included a .7 stretch from 1.2 miles to 1.9 miles of rough cart path.  It was rocky and quite wet when I scouted the course.  After that the course had a mile on road before getting on the very scenic Cohas Brook section of the rail trail.  At the four mile mark the trail ended and after a nice 30’ drop there was a tough little 40’ climb before the last half-mile which then dropped 50’ to the finish.  My preview was run in loops of 41 minutes and 36:55 (pushing it a bit).  I felt that based on the course and my effort I could muster something under 33 minutes in race conditions. My hope was to run about 6:30 pace (32:30) with the first 2 miles under 14 minutes and the last 3 in 6:20 pace.

 

I showed up on race morning and was greeted with sunny skies and temps in the 50’s, there was a little wind but nothing terrible.  It was going to be a nice day to race.  I signed up and then headed out to run out/back over the last 1.5 miles of the course.  It is always a good idea to check things out and see if course markings are in place and get a feel for how the finish will be.  I felt lousy, which isn’t unusual.  I’d had a good little workout early in the week and was hoping I’d feel good on race day but maybe it was just pre-race jitters.  I was surprised to see about 50 Army guys out running ¼ mile repeats on the rail trail.  I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t using the whole trail instead of the tiny section.  The course was well marked with every turn signed and manned (even an hour before the race) they also had cones on the main road and signs warning drivers of a race in progress.  All good signs.  I quickly changed into racing flats and headed out for another mile.  After a rousing rendition of the National Anthem off we went.

 

I was in the lead right away and by the first turn (about 1/3 of a mile in) footsteps had faded and I was on my own.  My watch beeped at the half-mile (3:10) which was better than I expected.  I hit the mile in 6:33 and then just made sure I didn’t wipe out on the trail section.  This was my slowest half-mile (3:41) but the downhill after that (2:56) had me at 6:37 for my second mile and 13:10 for two.  I was thinking at that point that even though there was a long way to go, I might be able to crack 32 minutes.  A 6:12 and 6:10 got me past the Army guys who were still running laps!  I hit four miles in 25:32 and now my only worry was that the course would be short (which was weird as Mapmyrun showed 5.0 and my scouting had it pretty much at 5). I pushed right to the line and was rewarded with my first win of the year!  I ended up with a 30:59 for 3.88 miles.  Had it been 5 I would have run about 31:40 (6:22s), and I won by over 2.5 minutes.  I think on a flat course and with competition I might be able to run close to a legitimate 5m in 31-flat which is a good sign that my training is finally starting to pay off in a race.

 

Place     Time      Name                   Sex        Age        City, St                Cat         CatPL

1          30:59     Dave Dunham     M          60         Bradford, MA       M60      1

2          33:36     Finn Bilodeau      M          17         Littleton, MA       M00-39  1

3          33:51     Jennifer Ouellette F          36         Manchester, NH   F00-39   1

4          36:39     Joseph Wanja      M          36         Dracut, MA         M00-39  2

5          37:40     Rich Moran         M          39         Madison, WI       M00-39  3

6          37:50     Kevin Reigstad     M          58         Bedford, NH        M50      1

7          40:54     Krista Morris       F          41         Allenstown, NH    F40       1

8          41:41     Matthew Shapiro  M          52         Hudson, NH        M50      2

9          41:51     Cassandra Saikin  F          36         Littleton, NH       F00-39   2

10         42:01     Raj Bandaru        M          51         Londonderry, NH M50      3