Run to Win

The annual Clam Festival 5 mile road race was this morning in Yarmouth, Maine. The temperatures were not nearly as high as they were in years past, but the high humidity made the race tough for the 932 finishers this year.

Despite the lack of some of the annual favorites in the race, there was a very deep field this year which led to an exciting finish. Jon Wilson went out hard but spent the majority of the race near the middle to back of the lead pack. He retook control on the trails and in the park as he came into the last mile of the race, however, and made it look easy as cruised in 12 seconds ahead of everybody else in 25:44. A total of 12 people ran under 27 minutes.

Kristin Barry had a little less competition near the end, finishing the race in 27:59. She was followed by Sheri Piers in 28:31.

It was interesting watching the race from behind the finish line this year, as this is a race that I have run every year since moving to Maine. It is generally one of the hotter races each year, falling as it does near the end of July, and it certainly led to some of the sweatiest chip bands that I’ve ever had to remove from runner’s legs.

I quickly stopped congratulating people on how they ran and instead just pointed them straight to the water once I had gotten their chips off. That was about the extent to what some of the people were able to understand. One of the runners put a whole in his singlet in an effort to take it off and thought he was supposed to turn in his bib number instead of his timing chip!

(Full Results - Photos: Fun Run (a) - Fun Run (b) - CD 1 - CD 2 - CD 3 - CD 4 - Awards - Finish Line)

It has been an interesting week since winning the Cox Sports Marathon this past Sunday. Thanks for all of the comments and congratulations over the past week. It has meant a lot to me, whether it has been in person or on the phone, through email, comments on this site or on others. It’s been a pretty good week that way, and I appreciate it a lot.

Now that my goal marathon for the Spring is out of the way, my next goal is to finally run a sub-16 5k this Summer or Autumn. I have 3 races targeted starting in late August, so my priority for the rest of this month is to recover from a relatively tough training schedule over the past 6 months. It has been one of the most strenuous winters in terms of how much work I managed to get in since I graduated from college, and was well worth it. Now, my body needs a little break.
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I got down to the Patriot’s Day 5 Miler today, which is Veteran’s Day.

I’m glad that I got there early; they put me on parking duty and I got to warn people to park higher and higher up the Eastern Prom as the parking lots filled up. Between the race and a boat launch, they filled pretty fast. Once I was basically in the road, there was only 5 minutes left to the start of the race and the few people still coming in were there for the boat launch and most tried running me over rather than listening to what I had to say so I let them head down and not find a place to park.

The race had great weather. It was 44° out and quite sunny. There was a chilly breeze, but the runners did not seem to mind it as much as us folk that were just standing around. The start began over by the East End Beach, and the finish was about ⁸/₁₀ of a mile away near Marginal Way. The trail looks like it is finally getting repaired and is in much better shape than the last time I was over in that area.

I had a front row seat (well, standing position) at the finish line, and got to hit the plunger as each runner crossed the line to mark their time. The general consensus was that the course was a little short, with Ethan Hemphill powering into a sub-25 first place finish. Christine Reaser won the women’s race.

There was a great turn out today; there were around 130 runners for a noon start in mid-November.

(Results)

This past Patriot’s Day, I was running the Boston Marathon in the wake of a Nor’Easter. Up here in Portland, though, the Nor’Easter was in full effect, which caused the cancellation of the Patriot’s Day 5 Miler by the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Greater Portland. It was not safe to hold the race, and while I was running down in Boston the storm was tearing apart the trails and roads here in my home town. There is still quite a bit of damage (especially along the water front) that has yet to be repaired over 6 months later.

The cancellation of the race meant that the longest running race in the state of Maine was going to lose its title to a “young” race that was only a little over half of it’s age. All is not lost, though, because they have finally rescheduled the race for Veteran’s Day!

There will be no entry fee to run, and the course has been modified to avoid having to close down traffic. The start and finish will be near the Eastern Promenade boat launch, and long sleeve shirts will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis. There will still be cash prizes for the top 3 male and female runners.

In order to run, you must fill out an entry form and bring it with you. Registration for the original Patriot’s Day race does not count; you must have a new entry blank filled out when you arrive. The race begins at noon on Monday, November 12^th, 2007. You will want to make sure that you arrive a few minutes early to register and hopefully receive a shirt before they run out.

Click here to download the registration form (pdf)

The Pat’s Pizza 5 Mile Classic at the Yarmouth Clam Festival was this morning. Pat Tarpy came back to Maine to attempt to set the course record. Two years ago, he ran a course record 24:29 but was soundly beaten by Matt Lane, who ran an impressive 23:48. This year, having already run the fastest mile on Maine soil, he set his sights on breaking Matt’s record. He went out strong and on pace, but fell back a little in the last mile to finish 8 seconds shy in 23:56. He has, however, now broken the course record from before the course was certified. Jeff Caron took second place but was over a minute back in 24:58.

The women’s race was much closer, with Kristin Barry and Sheri Piers repeating last year’s 1-2 finish. They were only 7 seconds apart, running 28:56 and 29:03, respectively. I didn’t see Joan Samuelson at all today, but she came through a hair under 30 minutes, just as she has for the past few years.

Despite the coolest weather since I began running this race, I did not do quite as well as I had hoped to. My goals were about a half minute to 45 seconds faster than I ran, which shows that I should have followed last year’s strategy of running negative splits. My last two miles were a solid and even effort, but they were both about 9 seconds per mile slower than they were in 2006. I came through in 28:02, which will hopefully serve as a good wake up call for my legs so that I can perform well in two weeks at the Beach to Beacon.

There were also 290 children who completed the kid’s 1 mile fun run, and 917 finishers in the 5 mile race.

(Full Results - Clam Festival - Fun Run Results - Photos)

This week last year I had settled into the house and had time to write quite a bit. All of the news had to do with running, and there were various tips on working out and weight lifting.

• I finally got back to my animated series this week last year. This time, the animation was of my photographer performing a bridge rather than of myself. In general, he’d do the exercise while I set up the camera, and then we would swap positions and he’d snap the pictures. We didn’t get any good ones of myself, so I used the ones of him. I also discussed the benefits of doing bridges after a query from Bud Gibson on the subject.
• The Patriot’s Day 5 Miler is always on the same day as the Boston Marathon (except this year when it got cancelled). Last year was the first time that I ran the race here in Portland.
• I recommended that you always run facing traffic, unless there are local laws to the contrary.
• In marathon news, Paul Tergat got injured and had to scratch the London Marathon, and Lance Armstrong announced he’s running the New York Marathon. Rumor has it that he is running it again this year, as well.
• I continued my thoughts on the New Rules with New Rule #12 (fast vs slow lifting) and New Rule #13 (warm ups may not make you warm).

The 2006 Yarmouth Clam Festival official results are now available.

In a repeat of their victories at the Portland Sea Dogs Mother’s Day 5K, Ethan Hemphill, 34, of Freeport and Kristin Barry, 32, of Scarborough claimed top honors at the 25th annual Clam Festival Classic 5-Miler.

Hemphill overcame a challenge from Gorham’s Mike Downing, completing the course in 26 minutes, 15 seconds — nine seconds ahead of Downing. Yarmouth’s Christian Muentener, the 2003 champion, placed third in 26:32.

Barry’s time of 28:46 was good enough for a 31-second victory over Sheri Piers of Falmouth. Erica Jesseman, 17, of Scarborough rounded out the top three in 29:34.

See yesterday’s write-up for my own thoughts and memories of the Yarmouth Clam Festival Classic.

The results of the Patriots Day 5 Miler are now up at the Maine Track Club’s website.

As I mentioned yesterday when discussing my Patriots Day race, the weather was fairly conducive to a quick time if not a record breaking time. A small bit of headwind early in the race was tempered by a lot of tailwind later in the race.

Ethan Hemphill of Dirigo won the race for the fifth time in a row with a time of 25:38, over a minute slower than would have been necessary to win the $1000 purse for running under 24:30.

Heidi Westerling of New Hampshire ran a solid 28:44, beating second place Kristin Pierce Barry by 52 seconds. She ran on my shoulder through the wind for the first two and a half miles, but I was unable to keep up with her after she dropped a few spare hammers she must have been carrying.

There were 432 finishers.