Wayland XC festival

I started vacation on Friday but plans to camp over the weekend got moved to mid-week, so that opened up the possibility of racing. I was pleased enough with how my rehab back from knee surgery was going that I decided to try my hand at the Wayland XC festival.  I've done the race 5 or 6 times and they always do a good job with a reasonable entry fee, well marked course, and true XC style running (grass, dirt, roots, rocks, and hills).  My only gripes about the race are the lack of ages in the results (so you can't see your age group competition) and numbers being handed out in a packet for each team.  This would come back to bite me.

Dan Verrington and I met up in Chelmsford and carpooled to Wayland High School.  Only a 50 minute trip for me but well over 3 hours for Dan.  We had a chance to catch up a bit and arrived at the race with plenty of time.  As the first CMS to arrive we were given the team numbers.  We bumped into Steve Brightman and I gave him his number (I swear I checked multiple times) and he noted that Warren Angel our other teammate was not coming.  Dan and I went out on the course and did an easy 2 miles to loosen up.  We skipped the hill part of the course but got a refresher on the flat, grassy, and slightly damp part of the course.  Todd Callaghan caught up to us, he was a day of entrant.  So now we might have a full five man team (if Warren did show up).

I switched into spikes and headed out for another mile.  My knee and ankle were both sore and my hip was bothering me today.  I guess only 3 things isn't such a bad day.  Based on my earlier races (pre-surgery) I have been running 30 seconds slower than last year.  With only 6 weeks of running since surgery I figured a minute slower might be attainable.  Last year I ran 20:30, so I was hoping I'd be under 21:30.  I hoped to keep Dan in sight.

116 lined up and dashed up the opening hill.  There were not many behind me when we got to the top.  Dan was already pulling away and I felt uncomfortable.  I felt a little better as we got going and was keeping up with Dan (5 seconds behind).  At the mile I was 10 seconds back but every time he caught someone I'd catch them as well.  There weren't too many to pass but it was nice chasing people down.

The climb up to the aqueduct was tough and I came to a crawl Dan really worked the top part and then we hit the downhill and I reeled him back in.  At the bottom (2 miles) I was barely 2 steps behind but wheezing from the effort.  Dan accelerated and the result was never in doubt.  Although I didn't slow he really buried me over that last part to take the win in the 60+ in 20:24, I came in 18 seconds later with a 20:42.  No complaints from me getting 2nd and running within 12 seconds of my time from last year.  I'll have to see how my knee holds up after the "shock" of XC footing.

Unfortunately Warren didn't run so we did not have a full team.  Apparently I gave Steve the wrong number which messed everything up.  After clearing it up, Steve won the 50+ with Todd taking second a few seconds later.

Onward!

Age group Pl	Time	Age Graded time	Name		Age	AG %
1	18:04	15:15	Steve	Brightman	55	84.21
2	18:11	15:22	Todd	Callaghan	55	83.67
3	18:55	16:31	Ethan	Nedeau	51	77.85
4	19:40	16:20	Stephen	Neri	57	78.66
5	19:45	17:14	Kevin	Hill	51	74.56
6	20:01	17:28	Jason	Matuelwicz	51	73.57
1	20:25	16:14	Daniel	Verrington	62	79.11
2	20:43	16:46	Dave	Dunham	60	76.61
7	21:15	17:30	David	Teszler	58	73.42
1	21:36	15:55	John	Barbour	70	80.73
8	21:40	18:18	Jay	Francis	55	70.22
9	22:45	19:51	Matt	Story	51	64.73
10	22:53	18:42	Bill	Newsham	59	68.77
11	23:08	19:13	Paul	Stacy	57	66.88
3	23:25	17:28	Peter	Wasylak	69	73.62
4	23:33	18:05	Tim	Hagerty	66	71.08
5	23:40	18:10	Paul	Corcoran	66	70.73
6	23:45	17:42	Kenneth	Goodin	69	72.58
12	24:00:00	19:56	Timothy	Irish	57	64.46
7	25:16:00	20:17	Harris	Hardy	61	63.37
8	26:33:00	20:34	Matt	Lynch	65	62.48
2	27:50:00	19:42	Peter	Hogan	73	65.22
3	28:17:00	19:03	Paul	Grant	76	67.46
4	30:11:00	21:03	Glenn	Stewart	74	61.08
5	30:54:00	20:49	Dave	Truesdell	76	61.75
6	35:32:00	24:22:00	Tom	Derderian	75	52.75
7	44:36:00	28:16:00	Raymond	Boutotte	79	45.46