Angels

 Next up was the “Angels 5k”.  This was the sixth race in the CARS, as with the previous weekend I was not planning on being here but with my knee issues I was not away for this race. It was nasty hot all week with temps in the 90s and tropical dew point readings.  I felt miserable most of the week, not to mention my knee which was bad enough that I went back in for a very early follow-up.  Race morning was not HOT but it was soupy.  75 degrees but dew points also in the 70s.  The race was at 8 am, so at least it wouldn’t be brutally hot.
 
I headed out for a course preview warm-up and ran the last mile with Ernie Brake and Tim Cox.  I was hoping to give Ernie a good race but was feeling pretty flat.  I was dripping wet changing into race gear and then headed out for another mile with some strides.  A decent field of nearly 200 lined up and shot off at the start.  I found myself in 15th place and was having a lot of trouble getting going.  Ernie had already gapped me by 200 meters in and I found myself running with Allison Davis, the top woman in the CARS.  She was out a little quick but I was also struggling, I’d started the year beating her by nearly a minute and every race she has gotten closer.  I don’t want ANYONE beating me and don’t really care if it is a man or woman.  I locked onto her as we hit the downhill into the mile mark.  Ernie was up ahead in the pack with Tim Cox and Sam Wood already more than 10 seconds ahead.  At 1.2 Allison said “Tim is fading, let’s catch him”.  I didn’t say anything, I was pretty sure Tim would NOT fade and his group was already 15 seconds ahead.  At 1.6 we hit the tough hill and I pulled away from Allison and finally started making up some ground on Ernie.  At 2 miles I was about 10 seconds back from Ernie, but I just couldn’t get rolling as the course flattened out.  At each turn Ernie looked back, so I knew he was nervous.  With ½ mile to go I’d closed to about 5 seconds but wouldn’t get any closer as he had a decent kick (and I didn’t).  It took all I had to crack 20 minutes!  Dang, I’d run nearly 30 seconds a mile faster a few weeks ago.  Ugly.  That is my sixth race in the 9 race series.  Since it is a best 6 finishes, I don’t need to run any of the remaining races.  If my knee allows I’ll do the Woodchuck 5k on July 27 and that will be the end of racing for a while.  More on that later.
 
1          16:57    Eli Lemire                      M18      Weare,  NH
2          17:33    Dylan Schulze               M33      Goffstown, NH
3          18:40    Steven Groulx               M23      Chester, NH
4          18:51    Spencer Pidhunrey        M17      Auburn, NH
5          19:05    Timothy Cox                  M51      Northwood, NH
6          19:07    Sam Wood                    M38      Laconia, NH
7          19:42    Max Bowman                M18      Berlin, NH
8          19:50    Ernest Brake                 M62      Sutton, NH
9          19:54    Jason Schoeller             M25      Manchester, NH
10        19:57    Dave Dunham               M60      Bradford, MA
11        20:02    Max Goupil                    M14      Contoocook, NH
12        20:07    Allison Davis                 F36       Contoocook, NH
13        21:05    Graham Hayslip            M33      Canterbury, NH
14        21:32    Norman Goupil              M46      Contoocook, NH
15        21:50    Richard Clymer              M63      Concord, NH