Run to Win

It was another beautiful Maine evening tonight for the 17^th running of the Weekly Back Cove Race Series. This was the second to last race, and it brought 6 more people into the overall leader board which now stands at a record 114 people. There are 27 people who have run 5 races, so hopefully a large percentage of those people race next week to pad that number as much as possible.

Tonight’s race was sunny and 68° with a slight breeze. There was a lot of dry gravel dust up in the air, but conditions were very pleasant for running. Dan Franek took advantage of that, going out for the first mile with Henry Loughlin and then dropping a couple of hammers to open up a 57 second lead over the next couple of miles to win in 16:53. Molly Susla led the way for the women in 20:46.

Not surprisingly, there were no movements near the tops of the leader board. None of the top runners were around tonight to improve their times, and it is extremely unlikely that even given an Olympic level performance that anybody is going to catch the leaders.

I managed to forget to bring shorts with me to the race. I had a shirt, socks, shoes, even a hat that I didn’t wear, just no running shorts. I wound up having to stop along the way to the race and buy some basketball shorts for a couple of dollars. I kept my workout pretty easy tonight, pacing a friend through some even splits and treating it as a tempo run.

I also added a new feature this week, which allows you to see a breakdown of everybody who has run a race in the series based on the number of races that they have run. You can check it out here: http://backcove.runtowin.com/runners.php

(Full Results - Leader Board)

The L/A Bridge Run was this morning, concluding the 1^st Annual Lewiston/Auburn Triple Crown racing series. Conditions for the race were favorable, with temperatures in the low 60s, overcast skies, and only a very light breeze albeit with a bit of humidity mixed in.

Ethan Hemphill returned again this year to claim the victory, splitting the distance between his performances from the last two years to finish in 15:29, 20 seconds ahead of Nicholas Wheeler. The race was a little closer on the women’s side, where Lauren LaRoche’s 18:40 was only 15 seconds ahead of Tina Meserve.

There were a few guys that went out for the cameras at the beginning of the race but who quickly faded (all but one not even making it to the bridge before falling back,) but a lead pack of 5 runners quickly formed and put a little distance on the field after going through the first kilometer in 3:05.

Towards the end of the second kilometer, I was behind the pack which had whittled down to 3 guys with a few others starting to string themselves out. I ran it in 3:12, slower than I wanted to go but still on pace.

Everything fell apart by 3k, though and I barely managed to hang on for the rest of the race. I got passed by a few guys and finished in 6^th place overall with a time that was at least 45 seconds too slow. Most of the people that I spoke to felt that they had all run slower than they thought they would going into the day, but that is small consolation.

I did secure a 3^rd place finish in the Triple Crown Series, however.

Here were the final standings for the 3 races:

(Full Results - Triple Crown Results - Photo Credit: Erin Moore - Penta Photos: Kids Race - Start Line - Finish Line 1, 2, 3 - DCY: Photos & Video)

There have been 15 races so far in the Weekly Back Cove Series, which means that there are 3 weeks left to go after this evening’s race. The conditions were absolutely beautiful tonight, with clear skies, a light breeze and temperatures in the low 70s. Others must have agreed with me, because there were 109 finishers in tonight’s race.

Dan Vassallo came out to give the series a try, and in doing so he lowered Troy Hull’s 2004 record by 9 seconds to win the race in 15:39. He led 2^nd place Claton Conrad by 46 seconds.

Liz Turner also came out for the first time this year to win the women’s race in 19:22.

With none of the principal players competing tonight, the series standings remained the same at the top.

I used the race as a final tune-up workout to get some 5k race pace repeats in. I ran the first kilometer easy, the second kilometer in 3:08, the next two kilometers easy, and then ran the last kilometer plus at 3:03 pace. I felt very comfortable the whole way through and didn’t have any trouble on the repeats, so I’m hoping that I can string 5 of those together in a row this weekend and meet my goals.

(Full Results - Leader Board)

This has been a jam-packed weekend; there was a lot going on! If only NBC actually broadcast the races, I’d be all set. I’d sit there and watch commercial after commercial.

First, the women’s marathon. I almost cried when Deena Kastor broke her foot barely 3 miles into the race. Magdalena Lewy Boulet made it a bit further, but also dropped out due to an injury. Blake Russell was the only American to finish, taking about half a minute longer than it did in the Trials back in April and coming in 27^th overall.

It was an exciting race, though. After a pedestrian pace over the first half of the course (I could have kept up), Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania was the only runner to have the courage to go for it. Nobody ever came close to catching her as she crossed in 2:26:44. The race for the next two medals was close, though, as Catherine Ndereba edged out Zhou Chunxiu for the silver medal. Catherine was the only woman to medal that I had predicted before the race, as Paula Radcliffe fell apart and finished in 23^rd. (Deena was my other pick.)

The men’s 100m proved pretty interesting, as Tyson Gay failed to make the finals so he didn’t win the silver medal I thought he’d get. Usain Bolt ran away with it as expected, though, crossing the line in a world record 9.69 seconds despite showboating the last few steps.

The women’s 100m finals was very interesting, with 3 quarters of the field made up of Jamaicans and Americans. The Jamaicans swept, though, keeping every other country off of the medal stand.

On the 1500m front, Bernard Legat missed making the finals by 0.02 seconds. He didn’t even realize it until after he’d left the track.

And of course, last but not least, we go back to Friday and the women’s 10,000m, where Shelane Flanagan managed to set the American record in 32:22 to bring home the bronze medal.

I realize that I’m skipping over the women’s steeplechase, but I don’t want to know the results of that race until I find a video somewhere of the entire race.

Week 14 of the Back Cove Series was yesterday evening, which means that there are now 4 races left until the end. The weather was absolutely beautiful with a light breeze, sunny skies, and temperatures in the mid 70s.

The race went out very fast, with Tyler Jasud (01:40:37) and Noah Schonenberg leading the way with a blazing fast sub-5:00 first mile. Noah fell off the pace within a quarter mile after that, but Tyler maintained the front position for the entire race to cross the line first in 16:38.

Scott Gorneau (01:43:43) used his 17:05 finish to bring his series time down by over a minute, but Tyler still has over a 3 minute lead on him. Fortunately for Scott, Tyler is still in school and isn’t eligible to win the shoes.

Heather Pagano (01:53:02) won the women’s race in 18:45 for 9^th place overall. Not only did she finish in 9^th, but this was her 6^th race so she jumped straight onto the leader board in 9^th overall with an almost 11 minute lead over Katie Davisson (02:04:00).

I ran hard during the race, working my way up to 2^nd for most of the run. I would have had to work harder than I was willing to to catch Tyler, though, and Scott overtook me with a little less than 2k to go and beat me handily by 5 seconds. My series time did drop by over 2 minutes, which moved me into 4^th place overall. I don’t expect to race or run any more of them as anything but interval workouts, so I don’t expect to improve too much going forward this year.

(Full Results - Leader Board - Photos)

Yesterday was the 1^st annual Bradbury Mountain Breaker, a tough 2 loop course up and down Bradbury Mountain that took the runners over some very rocky and rooted trails with knee deep puddles. As you can see in the picture to the right, the “Go Straight Ahead” arrows were more accurate than usual, also telling you to “Go Straight Up”…

I did not run; I got course change duty as the first two laps took different trails back down to the bottom and I had to change the course markings at the top between loops. My camera gave out relatively quickly, so I didn’t get too many pictures of the runners and most of them are as they are trying to summit, which involved more walking and climbing than running for almost everyone (read: the smart ones.)

Peter Keeney won the race in 1 hour 10 minutes and 41 seconds, after having run in second place for a good part of the race. He was followed up about two minutes later by Scott Dorrity and Floyd Lavery.

Katherine Creswell and Amy Ahearn led the women’s race, coming in together in 1 hour 18 minutes and 24 seconds.

There were no broken bones during the race, thankfully, although there was one dislocated finger and many cuts and scrapes. I didn’t need to use the first aid kit up at the top of the mountain, but the ones down at the finish line saw their fair use.

The post race refreshments were provided by volunteers and runners, so there were lots of goodies such as cookies and brownies and home made granola. I assumed that there would be plenty of sweets so I baked a couple of loaves of bread which disappeared pretty quickly.

(More Info: Trail Monster Running - Full Results - My Photos - Jim’s Photos - Don’s Photos)

Week 13 of the Back Cove Racing Series was this evening, which means that if you haven’t run yet then you will not be able to get onto the leader board. Who is going to win the free shoes for a year? Every week now people will start falling off of the list of people who might possibly jump out from nowhere near the top of the standings, and the people there now will be fighting to improve their positions.

There were 123 people who came out this evening, despite the wet weather that mostly held off during the majority of the run. Stan Pyle broke out his trusty green cross country spikes this evening to help lend himself some traction on the wet gravel, and it must have worked because he blew the competition away by almost a minute with his 15:53 finish. Stan will need to run 4 of the remaining 5 races in order to qualify for the free running shoes for a year.

Scott Gorneau (01:44:50) was again absent this week, which cost him his lead position in the standings as Tyler Jasud (01:41:51) made a debut on the leader board with a solid lead of 3 minutes.

A similar story was found on the women’s side this evening, as Katie Davisson (02:04:00) also completed her sixth race and took over the lead position in the standings.

For myself, I improved my time on the leader board but not my position. Today was an interval day, running 3 by 1 kilometer repeats with a kilometer running recovery between each. There were plenty of people to chase on the second two repeats, which helped to keep me honest as I ran 2:58, 3:15 and 3:08 for a 3:07 average. I was aiming for anything below a 3:12 average for the 3 repeats, although I would have preferred that all 3 actually be below 3:12.

(Full Results - Leader Board)

Imagine that you are in a race, and you have been working with another runner for many miles. You know that you are both running faster than you could have alone, and there’s a $1000 pot for the first place finish. Would you be able to share that win, and the pot, or would you be too competitive and try to pull away, even if it meant a slower time over the long run?

That was an easy question for Erik Skaden and Mike Wolfe to answer. They agreed to run the final 25 miles of the Tahoe Rim Trail 100-Mile Endurance Run together, and to cross the line in unison.

The pair crossed the finish line at Spooner Lake together in 18 hours, 59 minutes, 10 seconds.

“We were running the same pace,” said Wolfe, a Missoula, MT, resident and two-time national champion in the 50-mile trail run. “When you run with someone, you run faster. It was fun.”

They split the money and also shared in the USATF 100 mile championship for the year.

I don’t know that I would be able to do that. I certainly have no problems helping out a fellow racer, especially in long races like a marathon or ultramarathon. It certainly beats running alone. But I’d still think that I would be tempted to test myself against whoever I was running with in the final miles of the race, even if it meant that I lost.

(More Info: RRCA)