Some Racing Happened

I started a post after VCM that I never got to finish, so here it is with what other races and happenings that have occurred.

Thanks to Jack Pilla and Hoka One One New England I was able to run the relay at the VCM.

I ran a two-person mixed team with Jackie.  I expected to not run great, as my training has been pretty non-existent.  People kept saying, oh you will probably surprise yourself, you will run fast.  Well, I know my body pretty well and generally have a good idea of the shape I am in.  I thought if the stars aligned perfectly I could possibly run 6 min pace.  I went out just over that pace and had some miles just under and just over.  I went through 10k in 37:21 (6:00.6 pace) and 10 miles in 1:00:42 (6:04.2 pace).  The watch was reading way long, so it "appeared" I was running faster than the race marks, but I know better than to rely on the GPS.

The last 3 miles were a bitch,. I was in major slow-down mode.  I crossed the 13.1 mat in 1:20:57 (6:10.5 pace), running the last 3.109375 in a dreadfully slow 6:30.7 pace. haha

Jackie wanted to break 7 min pace and pretty much ran that on the dot, negative splitting.

We finished 2nd in our division out of 295 teams.  Not too bad.

The rest of the trip was fun, the main reason I wanted to go.  Burlington is a cool town with a lot of good places to eat and drink!

The week after VCM I was signed up to run Cranmore.  I was originally looking forward to Cranmore and just running different race and just racing in general, hoping it would get me out of my funk.  Well, the Friday I was supposed to leave for Cranmore, I just wasn't feeling it.  More the trip in general than the race itself.  So, I said F-it and stayed in RI.  It was the right choice.  It was a better weekend.  I was able to go to DJ's last RI state meet and got to go bowling.

The next weekend was Gaspee Days 5k.  My first 5k ever and this was 20 years from that date, so of course I had to run.  I knew it would be slow, but I didn't really care.

It was a hot ass day, but I was excited to have double digit Turtles out racing.  I ran pretty stupidly (for my fitness level) and suffered on the way in.  It seems I run well here every other year over the last 4 years.  When I run well I have that moment of WOW, I don't train for 5ks and I ran semi-fast...I wonder what would happened if I tried harder...that generally fades in a week or so.  haha  Although I ran Gaspee for the first time in 1997, I have only run it 8 times...but it seems to be the new norm to run it

1997-20:12
1999-19:22
2001-17:21
2012-17:20
2014-16:46
2015-17:36
2016-16:47
2017-17:52

Next up on the schedule was the Ribfest 5 Miler.  Back to the USATF-NE Grand Prix Series.  Ahhh...I remember being motivated for this...not so much now.  I was still game for the race though.  I now had a good idea of how bad my fitness level was and knew I would not make the same mistakes I made at Gaspee.  Come the Thursday before the race, I did something to my back, which is still killing me, but this made me even more conservative in the race.

I went out at 6 min pace and felt pretty good leg-wise.  I was thenable to track down a good amount of runners over the last half of the race.  My last mile was my fastest at 5:45 (downhill last .25ish).  Overall I was pleased with 29:38...that's pretty much my marathon PR pace! Yup, I have some work to do.

Now, I am feeling slightly more motivated than I had been feeling.  I just need to figure this back thing out.  It certainley feels better when I am up and about, sitting SUCKS!!

USATF-NE GP Race # 2: New Bedford 1/2 Marathon

The second USATF-NE GP race was upon us and another race where my body was not happy with me leading up to it. I had a solid 2 weeks after Amherst, one really good work out and then woke up one morning with some pain in the back of my knee, in which I ran 13 hilly miles on and then the next day I had to stop mid-run because the pain was too much. The was the Sunday leading up to New Bedford. I had pain to the touch behind the knee into my outer hamstring on Monday and somewhat on Tuesday. I took those two days off, along with Wednesday to be sure I was doing everything I could to make it to the starting line on Sunday. I haven’t taken three days off in a week in about a year. I ran 2 miles on Thursday with no pain, but a very tight leg. I then ran 3 miles on both Friday and Saturday with no pain and less tightness, so….what’s 10 more miles?

The weather leading up to New Bedford was looking a bit ify at best. On Friday the forecast called for 3 to 5 inches of snow and 20 to 30 mph winds. YAY! When all was said and done, the temps were good, there was no snow or rain…BUT there was a lot of wind. New Bedford is always windy, but this was WAY windier than usual.

Around 5 miles

So, onto the race… The gun went off and.....we walked over the line. Once we got going we hit some swirling odd mostly headwind through the 1st mile. I wanted to run in the 5:45 range for these first few miles and I hit the first mile in 5:46. I was trailing a large pack that was about 20 feet ahead of me, so I made a small surge to catch up. There had to be 25 guys in this pack, it was nice to just latch on and let the pack do the work. Unfortunately the pack was short lived. We only stayed together through around 2.25 miles. Hathaway Road went by quick, the wind wasn't blowing as bad there and it got down right warm as the sun popped out. I felt like I worked way to hard from mile 3 to 4, only to run a 5:59 mile. After that mile we were on the fastest section of the course. Dave caught up to me and I felt a bit better, felt like i started rolling well. The next 2 miles were 5:25 and 5:36. The speed came to an end shortly after that as the wind started blowing again, but we were able to slide through 9 miles at 5:45.3 pace. That' where all the fun would end.

As you hit the 9 mil mark you could look down and see the white caps crashing in the harbor and the flag straight out flapping away, in the unfavorable direction. Once we hit that corner it was like hitting a wall. The wind would blow hard then a tad less, then harder. Dave had 15 secs on me at this point, but was basically alone up ahead. I had the advantage of having 3 or 4 guys to run with. We were in a pack bouncing off each other as our bodies got hit by the wind in different ways. It was brutal. We caught up to Dave just before the 10 mile mark, which I hit in a blazing 6:30. The next ¾ of a mile were no better, we were just getting beat down by the relentless wind. Finally hitting the 11 mile mark in 6:21 we were clear of the worst wind of the day. My legs were left feeling like Jell-O and as much as I tried to push on, I just couldn’t get it going. Hitting the 12 mile mark brings on the hill and one last kick in the balls before having some downhill to the finish. I did not run the hill well and for once Dave actually gapped me on a hill! I was passed by a couple runners when we crested and I was just done. I gave one hard push when we turned the corner onto Rt 6 and got hit by more wind. We turned the final corner onto Pleasant Street, ironic no? And I was able to muster up something that resembled a kick to pass two runners that passed me at the top of the hill. My finish time was 1:17:47 (same pace as Baystate?) It is not a time to be thrilled with, but considering I wasn’t able to finish my run the previous Sunday, I am happy with how I performed.

After the race, a very short cool down back to the car was all I felt like doing as it was getting pretty chilly and then off to The Pour Farm for some tasty beverages and food.

I have now run New Bedford 8 or so times. It was my first ½ Marathon, it is a race I have run hard in and PR’d and a race that I have used as a marathon paced long run. So, I have experienced it in many different forms. This year’s weather added to the variety! One thing that has stayed the same at New Bedford and I am surprised by it every time for some reason…but the cops out working the race are by far the most friendly encouraging cops I have ever encountered in a race! It is great to see!

Anyway, onto the next USATF-NE GP race at the Frank Nealon Boston Tune-Up 15K in Upton, MA on April 1st.

If anyone is looking for some fun at the end of April, there is only one place to be…The Fool’s Mile at the Foolproof Brewing Company. Come check it out!

Oh yeah, I have a blog!

It has been over a year since I have done a blog post.  Not much in the way of racing happened in 2016, it was just a year laced with a lack of motivation.  I raced a bit in the early months, but then didn’t race in about 4 months leading up to the Newport ‘Almost’ 10k.

Since the Newport ‘Almost’ 10k, I have raced 3 more times.  Here is a re-cap of 2 of those races and Newport.  I also did the Krispy Kreme Challenge this past weekend for the 3rd year in a row, but will re-cap that later!

Newport ‘Almost’ 10k

This feels like many moons ago.  This was my 15th time running this race.  I remember not being overly pumped up about racing, but when I saw some WTAC guys in the lot; I knew I had to be ready to rumble.  There were a few Turtles running…and with Bronson and Dave running, I knew we would be good to go for the team title.  There were other notable runners besides the WTACers.last year’s winner, who passed me at 5.5 miles for that win and also Steve Brightman.

The race couldn’t have played out much better for the shape I was in at the time.  We had a huge pack through around 3 miles.  At that point Bronson and I made a small gap.  I was able to hang on to him until almost 4, but then as expected he pulled away.  Shortly after that Dave caught up and went right by me.  I gave it a solid go to stay with him, but I just could not hang.  I could tell last year’s winner was now catching me and he did right before 5.5…can we say deja vu.  He ended up passing me and catching and passing Dave at the 6 mile mark.  I finished strong enough in a time of 34:24, faster than the 2015 time of 34:40.  I was definitely happy with the performance, as I did not feel like I was in that kinda shape at all.

Wallum Twilight Trail Race

On a whim I decided to give this race a go, even though I had a race the next day.  I have seen this race listed for the last couple of years, but I always tend to notice right before race day and never go.  It is billed as a snowshoe race, but with no snow to speak of, it was a night trail race instead.  Past results show it is a pretty small low-key race, which is what I was looking for.  Of course, low key does not mean no competition.    I went out for 6 miles the morning of the race, got back and checked the entry list and saw that Scott Leslie and Pat Caron were signed up.  I knew there was no way and hell I would beat Scott and Pat has been running really well from what I have seen.

Fast forward to race time.  The ‘gun’ goes off and boom, Pat flies to the front and he wasn’t messing around.  Scott gave chase and I was a bit behind with some others.  We started up a wide dirt road and then though a parking lot and then down a short hill with some snow and rocks, which I ran on my warm up.  I found myself go from 20 meters back to on the heels of Scott on this section all the way through the mile, passed in around 6:04.  At that point we are on a mile long straight, flat, non-technical rail trail.  This is where I knew I would start falling back.  I ran a decent 5:43 mile, but could no longer see Scott and Pat had gapped me pretty good as well.

Once off the rail trail, we turned right onto a trail that was wide, but a bit rocky and wet and generally uphill.  You pop off of that trail and follow the dirt road from earlier back into the finish, around 3.4 miles after you started.  A very uneventful race, but I was happy to stay within 33 secs of Scott and 23 secs of Pat.  Not a horrible run.

New England/Northeast USATF Masters (30+) Track Meet

This would be my 2^nd time at this meet and my first race representing a different USATF team since joining Turtles in 2000.  It was a bit weird wearing the blue and white colors of CMS, but I was excited for more of a team experience in the USATF-NE Grand Prix this year and this was a nice way to break in the singlet before the series gets underway in Amherst.

I am not a track runner and I don’t even really enjoy running track races, especially indoor track races.  I decided to only run the 3000 meters this year, afterrunning the 3000, mile and 4 x 800 the previous year.  One race on the oval of hell would be enough.  I had the goal of breaking 10 mins.  I was not overly confident that I would do this, but figured that was the only possible goal to have.

There were a bunch of runners in the race that I knew and I had an idea of what they have run recently, so it was easy to have an idea if I was in the right place.  Also, 10 mins is easy math, 40 sec laps.

I made sure not to ge tout too fast and fell into around 7^th place or so for the first few laps.  We were a bit slow, but I was OK with that.  I remember being 2:43 though 800 meters and shortly after that I made a move around some runners to get the pace moving a bit.  I believe I led that pack from there to around 3 or 4 laps to go.  I was able to get the pace back under 40 secs per lap and we were now on pace to break 10 mins.  The leading drained me a bit and I was passed by 3 guys that were on my ass the whole way.  I held on pretty well though the finish to get a finish time of 9:55.  I believe that was 8 secs faster than last year.  I’ll take that.

In other news for the year...on top of joining CMS....I was also asked to be part of Jack Pilla's Team Hoka One One New England.  I look forward to representing them as well!

Some new Hoka One One Speed Instints