Looking back - Dec. 2014

 10 years ago: December (2014) – I was able to do a little bit of everything this month with races on the road, cross-country, and snowshoe.  I started the month running my tenth Mill Cities Relay.  This year as last I was racing for the Gate City Striders, but for the first time I’d be on a senior (age 50+) team.  We had a very solid team with all of the guys projecting to run under 6:30 pace.  I was on the long leg and almost immediately I heard footsteps and was caught by Aharon Wright from the Somerville Road Runners (SRR).  He was moving pretty fast but this might be my only chance to run with anyone. We hit the mile in 5:52 which was way under my 6:10 projected pace.  Wright kept checking his watch (like every 15 seconds) and was throwing in a lot of surges, so I’d fall back and then catch up.   We got onto the bike path along the River around 2 miles into the leg and I was getting warm so I took off my gloves.  D’oh!  I dropped the baton!!!  That meant a quick stop, turn, and recover.  That put me about 10 seconds behind Wright with a long way to go.  The wind seemed to have picked up and I was starting to struggle (the last 3 miles were my slowest three of the day).  I couldn’t muster a kick and with ½ mile to go I lost ground again but reached the hand-off well ahead of schedule with a 55:40 (5:52 pace).  We ended up taking 16th overall and 2nd in the 50+.  Whirlaway nuked us by over 5 minutes, but even being that close to WRT is an accomplishment.  GCS ended up taking the overall Mill City Relay title, along with the award for the most teams entered.

 

The following weekend was a trip to Bethlehem PA for the US team XC championships. It was especially appealing to me because of the team aspect.  Back in the day the Central Mass Striders won the open championships a number of times.  I’d also raced for CMS on the master’s team a few years back in North Carolina.  This would be my first time on a senior XC team at the championships.  We had the same group (Dave La, Dan V, Martin T, John G, Paul Baz, and me) that had won the New England championships a month ago.  My hope was to finish in the top 25 in the 50-54 and a team finish in the top ten.

 

Nearly 600 runners from age 40 to over 85 took off in a sprint.  The start was wide and really the entire course was wide so there was no panic about not being able to move.  Martin shot out as expected and I found Dan right beside me in the early going.  I could see Jim Pawlicki and Joe Shairs a little ahead so it looked like I was where I should be.  There certainly were a lot of people to work with.  I had a very steady race, slowly gaining on guys in front of me and only getting passed by a few (notably a slow starting Mark Reeder of GLRR who ran an excellent race).  After the mile (5:44) I only gave ground to two or three guys and they were guys I passed on an uphill who then went by on the down.  My kick wasn’t what I would have hoped for and the group of four guys I was with 1km to go all beat me to the line.  I was happy with my time (36:36.9) and place (127 out of 588) and especially happy with cracking the top 25.  I finished 22nd in the 50-54.  Our team had a great run taking 8th in a field of 24.  The masters also did well finishing 7th in a field of 34 teams.  Paul Baz had the best individual finish of the day taking 4th in the 60-64.

 

50+                                    

Pl          Names               Age       Team    Time

30         Devlin, Jeff          50         Downingtown R Club        33:57.2

48         Barbee, Kenneth  50         Greater Philadelphia TC     34:24.7

53         Magill, Peter        53         Cal Coast Track Club         34:33.3

                                               

127       Dunham, Dave    50         Central Mass Striders        36:36.9

148       Verrington, Daniel 52         Central Mass Striders        37:03.2

176       Tighe, Martin       56         Central Mass Striders        37:37.3

250       Gillis, John          50         Central Mass Striders        39:13.7

289       Bazanchuk, Paul   60         Central Mass Striders        40:22.7

409       Lapierre, David    50         Central Mass Striders        44:18.1

 

 

My final two races of the month were at the BU mini meet.  Doug DeAngelis and I worked together in the 3,000 meters alternating the “lead” (we were well back and alone) with Doug kicking my ass over the final 400 meters.  No complaints as I finished under 10 minutes (9:55.3) which was a pleasant surprise.  I finished the day running a very painful 400 meters.  I seeded myself at 75 and managed a 70.7 but struggled after going out in 34.5.  Both times were senior personal bests.