Looking back - February 2021

 5 years ago - I lost my streak of 406 days of running when the oblique injury hit me mid-month.  I only missed four days but could only run short and easy.

 

I headed up to Bedford NH for the Super Bowl 4 mile, it was 19 degrees, cloudy, and calm when I headed out to run the course as a warm-up. I was pretty cold running another mile over to the start.  With two people starting every 10 seconds there wasn’t likely to be anyone to run with but seeing the guys in front and worrying about others catching up would be a good motivator.  I noticed that my right shoe had come untied.  Ugh!  I had double-knotted both shoes as always but should have re-tightened right before the start.   I was a little cautious on the downhills (nothing too steep) but otherwise the shoe pretty much stayed in place.  I struggled a bit on the final uphill but still managed a 5:55 mile (4m = 23:32) and kicked for home over the slightly long 4 mile course (most got 4.05 – 4.08).  I ended up taking first in the 50+ but was 37 seconds behind Casey Carroll who will be turning 50 SOON.

 

 

Place  Div     Div Pl  Name                      Age    Gender         Bib #  Time

1        MOPEN         1        Samuel Fazioli                   28      M        103          20:25

2        MOPEN         2        Evan Thornton-Sherman    16      M        102          20:53

3        MOPEN         3        Thomas Paquette    29      M        106     21:03

4        M35-39         1        Dan Chruniak          37      M        108     21:27

5        M30-34         1        Conor Sleith            34      M        115     21:40

6        M25-29         1        Andrew Schwingel   27      M        107     21:52

7        M25-29         2        Cameron Cook                   26      M        105          21:52

8        M25-29         3        Mark Rabasco                    26      M        111          22:13

9        M30-34         2        Jason Dedonato                34      M        112          22:26

10      M35-39         2        Nathaniel Olson                 37      M        117          22:28

11      M35-39         3        Corey Girard            38      M        119     22:53

12      M45-49         1        Casey Carroll           49      M        122     23:10

13      M25-29         4        Madhav Rajan                   29      M        118          23:12

14      M30-34         3        Kevin Sheehan                  31      M        113          23:20

15      M13-19         1        Matthew Reynolds   19      M        114     23:25

16      M30-34         4        Steven Vargo           32      M        124     23:26

17      M35-39         4        Dan Donato            39      M        123     23:34

18      M55-59         1        Dave Dunham                   56      M        127          23:47

19      M35-39         5        Brent Wilmot           39      M        126     24:04

20      FOPEN          1        Heather Stover                  34      F        140          24:06

25      M45-49         2        Mark Laprade                    48      M        131          25:01

 

 

Start                                                    Finish                              Untied laces

 

My hip, glute, calf issues all continued to worsen during the week.  I’d find out later that I had a strained oblique muscle.  That explained the lightning bolt of pain shooting through my hip.  I actually didn’t feel too bad when I arrived at Delta Dental for the Morrill Farm snowshoe race.  Traction was tough in the sugary snow and it would only get worse as the field chewed it up during the two loops of 1.8 miles. About 70 lined up with 50 finishing the two laps and 19 choosing to do one lap.  First time snowshoer’s Steve Brightman and Kevin Crowley shot out with John Carton in between them.  I got around a fast starting Ellen Raffio and was all alone in fourth place by ½ mile into the race.  It felt FAST.  I was hoping to finish in the top three as that would earn me a fleece blanket.  That hope faded a bit as the top three slowly pulled away.  My hip and calf started to hurt on the second loop and every slip and slide made it worse.  For a short time, I thought I might have a shot at third but Kevin ultimately finished 35 seconds ahead.  I got fourth place overall which was only good enough for third in the 50+ age group!  In all 11 of the top 15 were 50 or older.

State capitol dome in the background

    

Me, Carton, Brightman, and Boule – top four 50+                            Morrill farm plastic cow

The next day I was off to Hopkinton NH for the second race in the Hopkinton 5k series.  I was sore from the day before (and the accumulated soreness in my hip) but had signed up for the series and wanted to do all of the races.  I was hoping I could run between 6-6:20 pace and as I switched into racing flats, I saw that Mark Laprade was warming up.  The top couple of guys from the first race were back with Jim Angell (my CAR series teammate) and Eli Lemire (only 14 years old) ready to give me a race.  I I figured I’d go out carefully (the first 100 meters was snow covered) and then hopefully up the tempo.  I was a bit shocked when Mark went by me at about 1 minute into the race.  My hip was killing me, and it felt like a shot of electricity pulsing through my side.  Jim and Eli both caught me around ½ mile in.  That was not how I’d planned things to play out!  I was having trouble breathing deeply with the pain in my side but tried not to lose contact.  We were all VERY careful as the 200 meters before and after the turn were on a dirt road which was now a combination of snow/ice.  All four of us were together as we got back onto dry road and it was ‘game on’.  I had a decent last mile (6:00) but they just eased away.  Jim crossed the line first but none of us were sure who won since Eli had started five seconds after Jim.  The official results had Jim winning by 1.1 seconds.  Pretty exciting finish.