The USATF New England 5km championships moved to a new venue this year, the Great Bear 5k in Needham MA. I’d never done this race although it has been around for 20 years. I guess it never timed out and in my mind Needham is a “city” race which I don’t like due to logistics, crowds, etc. I had some concerns as the link on USATF and on other sites went to a dead-end. The actual website was also not great with little information (I was concerned about parking). I did find the course map on the USATF NE certified course list and then drew it on Mapmyrun so I could get an idea of the terrain. It looked like a decent course with about ½ mile before the first turn which is good for a packed 5k. The last ¾ mile would be tough with 60’ of climb. It doesn’t sound like much but is definitely noticeable when racing a 5k. My goal was to hopefully crack 19 minutes, as my best time this year was set indoors (19:07) early in the year. Based on the course topography I wanted to be no slower than 6’s for the first two miles then hopefully hang on for the last tough part.
I picked up teammate Dan Verrington and we were at the race site early in anticipation of parking issues. We parked ½ mile away in a big lot and could have parked closer at that early hour. We parked right next to teammate Joe Shairs who also arrived early to be safe. We hiked to the start and got our feet soaked in the playing field you had to cross to get to the school. Fortunately (for me) I never warm-up in race socks so I’d have dry feet for the start. With the drizzle and 55 degree temps it’d be nice for racing but feet would get wet anyway once we got under way. Number pick-up went without a hitch and soon after it was time to warm-up and preview the course. I was surprised by how many people ran the course in reverse for a warm-up. Not sure why you would do that. It makes much more sense to view it as you will race it to get some landmarks in your head and any things you need to watch out for. I felt lousy during the warm-up which is typical. Dan was coming off of a sub-19 5k and he seemed ready to rock. This would be our last time carpooling to a race as he is headed off to retirement in Vermont soon. We changed into race gear and did another mile over to the start line. I threw in 3 sets of strides to try and loosen up a bit and felt flat. The crowds were already lining up as about 900 would take part including nearly 500 USATF NE members.
I counted 20 rows back and started to look for a spot to slide in, figuring I’d finish in around 200th. I saw a big group of Whirlaway guys which included top 60+ runner Charlie Bemis and I parked myself 2 rows behind them. Terry McNatt (CSU) who I’d run with for much of the 15k in March was also right there, so it looked like I was in the right place. Teammate Tim Van Orden joined me as he has only run a few times this year due to injury but was jumping in to help out the 50+ squad which was “light”. They walked us up to the start which spread things out a little bit and after a slight delay (started around 10:03) we were off. I passed Charlie and Terry within the first ¼ mile which was a little surprising (although I think Charlie is coming off of an injury). Soon after I caught Constantino Rago (BAA) who is also one of the top 60+ guys. TiVO and I were working together and steadily passing people. We hit the mile in 5:53, I was feeling good and happy to be under 6’s. It had been really crowded for the first half-mile and but I didn’t panic even though it felt like I should be going faster. I think that paid off as we continued to pass people. We would end up passing 95 people, mostly in the first 2 miles and only two guys would pass us during the entire race. We hit two miles in 11:42 (5:49), and I was thinking “hang on”. There were a couple of dicey moments during the race when people just slowed or didn’t cut tangents, so I did have to do some last second zig or zagging. The last ¾ mile climb was pretty much what I thought it’d be. It wasn’t terrible but it knocked the pace way down. TiVO made a big move on the last of the climb but I got back around him at 3 miles 17:57 (6:15) and kicked for all I was worth. I crossed the line in 18:37.8. This was my first USATF NE grand prix win in my new age group! Although I outright won 14 grand prix races as an open runner, I’d only won twice before in any age group (the 10 mile in 45-49 in 2013 and the 10 mile in 55-59 in 2020).
Our team had a great day with Dan taking 4th in the 60+ and Gary Cattarin taking 9th which got us a first place! The 50+ team also scored a victory with Arthur Besse, Joe Shairs, Tim Van Orden, me, Dan Verrington scoring.
1 18:37.8 Dave Dunham M60 Bradford MA 05:59.5 CMS
2 19:14 Charlie Bemis M61 Derry NH 06:11.2 WRT
3 19:17 Constantino Rago M62 Boxford MA 06:12.1 BAA
4 19:27 Dan Verrington M61 Haverhill MA 06:15.4 CMS
5 19:31 Craig Mercier M64 Burlington MA 06:16.6
6 20:16 Peter Cannon M60 E Greenwich RI 06:31.1
7 20:20 Richard Jordan M61 Marblehead MA 06:32.4 Notch
8 20:25 Gary Cattarin M61 Marlborough MA 06:34.0 CMS
9 20:34 EJ Hrynowski M61 Arlington MA 06:36.9 GLRR
10 20:51 James Gildea M62 Weston MA 06:42.4 BAA
60+ Teams
1 CMS 58:29 – Dunham (18:37), Verrington (19:27), Cattarin (20:25)
2 BAA 1:01:50 – Rago (19:17), Gildea (20:51), Tingle (21:42)
3 WRT 1:02:15 – Bemis (19:14), Warren (21:09), Peijffers (21:53)
4 GLRR 1:05:12 – Hrynowski (20:34), Tang (22:10), Hagerty (22:28)
5 NE65+ 1:05:54
6 Notch 1:08:02
7 CSU 1:08:28
8 SRR 1:10:16
9 HFC 1:15:47
10 HHS 1:21:25
