USATF New England 5k championships – I was not planning on running the “Paddy’s” 5k this weekend but on Friday I was asked to be a “warm body” as the CMS 60+ did not have a full team and it would also fill out the 50+ which only had four guys. I’d been feeling a lot better since the cortisone shot on Monday and with no pressure to run faster than 7’s (I said I could at least give that based on my tempo run on Wednesday) I committed to the race.
I got up at 5 a.m. on Sunday and hit the road soon after for a nice and easy 3 miles to loosen up a bit. I find I can run faster later if I put in a few miles in the early morning. I arrived in Portsmouth a little more than an hour before the 10 a.m. start time and did a quick recon to check the distance to the start. I bumped into a few familiar faces which isn’t too surprising at a USATF race (teammate Joe Shairs, long-time GBTC Tom Derderian, Dave Audet, and a bunch of others). It was 30 degrees, sunny, and windy when I headed out to preview the course. A group of chatty runners was right behind me for the first 2 miles, it was funny when they went by. The group was most of the Whirlaway women’s team. I said “hi” although I didn’t really recognize anyone. Dan Vassallo caught me with ½ mile to go and we got to chat a bit about his win at the 30k last week.
I was glad to see how wide the course was and there was not a turn until 1.2 miles. That would be helpful with nearly 2,000 entrants. The first 1.5 was a steady downhill of about 40’. Most of the 40’ of climb would be in the last mile (which would probably be a bit slower anyway with the wind and an out/back section with a 180 degree turn). I was hoping to run around 19 minutes through 3 miles but figured with the course that’d probably be splits of 6:10, 6:20, and 6:30. I quickly switched into race gear and headed out for another mile. The racing flats felt “bouncy”, and I felt pretty good. The only issue I had was trying to decide the correct number of layers for the conditions. If it wasn’t windy I’d probably go with singlet and shorts but it seemed pretty cold running into the wind. I made my choice and then ran over to the start, arriving with 3 minutes to spare. I like that Millenium races have a countdown clock and they always start on time. I got to one side (safer) and worked my way back trying to guess about 200th place which was a loose guess on where I’d finish. I saw long-time USATF runner Terry McNatt and figured two or three rows behind him would be perfect as based on his race last week I’d like to keep him in sight. I was a little surprised to get a friendly punch in the arm from Brandon Newbould, what was he doing this far back? It is always tricky trying to find the correct place to seed yourself. I think I pretty much got it right as after the race using the chip time and gun time I figured out that I passed 105 people and only 11 people passed me. I probably was within two or three rows of where I belonged.
Off we went with a nice 11 second walk to the line then right into racing with just a bit of human traffic to be worried about. I stayed to the left side of the road hoping to avoid any trouble. I did have to jump onto the sidewalk once as three guys who were running together were going VERY slowly (did not seed themselves properly). I settled in with an eye on Terry and reached the half-mile in 3-flat. Soon after I nearly went down when I got my heel clipped. Weird since it wasn’t badly packed by that point and it wasn’t like I’d slow down or something. Anyway right after that I passed Terry and a pack of four Whirlaway guys pulled away on the left. I tried to latch on since the group contained Paul McGovern and Charlie Bemis who are both in their 60’s. It was a short lived attempt as I knew right away the pace was too hot for me. I passed the mile in 6:07 felling pretty good, we turned the corner at 1.2 miles and everyone went wide. I think that people thought they needed to be on the far side of the cones which were in the center of the road. You didn’t, but I wasn’t sure either so I stuck just to the left of the cones and as the road curved left I could see people cutting back over so I did the same. It was still fairly tight running and just before 2 miles (12:15) Terry came back by me. I tried to keep him close as we did the little out/back and 180 degree turn. I was really feeling the wind and the 40’ of climb as my turnover was not anything great. Terry pulled away and I had nothing left in the tank. I crossed in 19:41 which was just about what I thought I could do if I had a very good day. So, I guess I had a very good day. I did a quick check at the instant results board and was surprised to see I got 3rd. Later I was happy to find that the Senior team took second place with me as the 5th man. Obviously Greg Putnam was missed, he would have run 3 minutes faster! I closed out the weekend with my first outdoor bike ride since mid-January. It was nice to get rolling outside enjoying the scenery and conversation (when I wasn’t suffering on the hills).
USATF Individual Men 60-64
Place Bib Name Club Age Sex Nettime Pace
1 666 Charlie Bemis Whirlaway Racing Team 62 M 18:48 6:03
2 735 Terrance McNatt Cambridge Sports Union 60 M 19:39 6:20
3 1188 Dave Dunham Central Mass Striders 60 M 19:41 6:20
4 775 Constantino Rago Boston Athletic Association 63 M 20:06 6:29
5 708 Peter Cannon Tracksmith 61 M 20:20 6:33
6 675 Richard Jordan Notch Run Club 62 M 20:42 6:40
7 664 Bob Callanan Winners Circle Running Club 60 M 21:01 6:46
8 828 Kenneth Warren Whirlaway Racing Team 63 M 21:35 6:57
9 1073 Joseph Sullivan Somerville Road Runners 63 M 21:53 7:03
10 269 David Audet Millennium Running 60 M 22:00 7:05
USATF Individual Men 65-69
Place Bib Name Club Age Sex Nettime Pace
1 577 Paul McGovern Whirlaway Racing Team 65 M 19:11 6:11
2 605 Tony Bates Green Mountain AA 65 M 20:10 6:30
3 836 Norm Larson Green Mountain AA 69 M 20:54 6:44
4 272 Tom Amend NE 65+ 68 M 21:01 6:46
5 1101 Craig Mercier NE 65+ 65 M 21:08 6:49
6 548 Seamus Daly Notch Run Club 65 M 22:19 7:11
7 824 Brian Sherras Boston Athletic Association 67 M 22:26 7:13
8 871 Garrett Tingle Boston Athletic Association 68 M 22:27 7:14
9 712 David Kelly Winners Circle Running Club 69 M 23:09 7:27
10 432 Tim Hagerty Greater Lowell Road Runners 66 M 23:18 7:30
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