Run to Win

The Back Cove 5k Race Series was scheduled to go for 19 weeks this year, rather than the 18 weeks that it has been for the past 2 years. However, the last race is being dropped due to scheduling difficulties and so the series will end on September 09, 2009 instead of on September 16^th.

Awards will be given out before the race next week on 9/09. Right now, Curtis Wheeler (01:44:06) and Abbey Gosling (01:54:10) are at the top of the leaderboard.

Abbey will be almost impossible to catch her 13 minute lead, especially with only 2 races remaining.

Curtis could still be caught by Scott Gorneau (1:44:53), who trails by a mere 47 seconds over their top 6 races. Scott could take the lead if he ran one of the remaining races in 17 minutes flat, and could tie for first place if he runs both races in 17:20. He has run faster than that 17:20 time twice now in the series. If Curtis races at least one more time, though, he stands to drop his time by 2 to 3 minutes which will make him uncatchable.

The leaderboard is determined by an individual runners top 6 times throughout the 18 week series. Check the links below if you would like to see where you stand on the leader board, or if you would like to see what place you are in when you factor in every race amongst everybody who has run the same number of races as yourself!

(More Info: Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List)

152 ran ahead of the rain in humid weather in the low 70s last night during the Weekly Back Cove 5k.

Ed Parrot won his debut weekly 5k appearance with a time of 17:20. Emily Durgin repeated her performance from 2 weeks ago, winning the women’s race in 18:36.

cutting 20 seconds off of her overall time on the leader board to 1:54:21. There weren’t any changes at the top of the men’s leader board, with me still leading the way in 1:45:59.

The leaderboard gained 5 new runners this week and now stands at 89 runners having run at least half of the 12 races so far. The list of folks who have run all 12 races is down 1 from last week to only 3 people.

Abbey Gosling may have come in second place last night with her 19:05 finish, but it was fast enough to drop her overall time down another 10 seconds to 1:54:10 (a 19:01 average.) I am still sitting at the top of the men’s leaderboard in 01:45:59, despite not running the past few weeks.

It’s also quite unlikely that I will run at any point in the next few weeks. My injury from last week has become much worse, and though I seem to be recovering relatively quickly I am not planning on trying to come back too fast. Maybe by September I’ll be able to run in the last few races.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)

200 runners took part in last night’s Back Cove race, enjoying the sunny temperatures in the low 70s in downtown Portland.

(Somebody pretending to be) Jorma Kurry ran for the first time this year, finishing first in 16:32 with nobody anywhere near him. Abbey Gosling has started a new win streak with her 19 minute finish, cutting 20 seconds off of her overall time on the leader board to 1:54:21. There weren’t any changes at the top of the men’s leader board, with me still leading the way in 1:45:59.

The leaderboard gained 10 new runners this week and now stands at 84 runners having run at least 6 of the 11 races so far. The 4 people that had run all 10 races through last week all came back this week, so we still have 4 runners who have finished every race so far this year.

I didn’t make it to the starting line this week. I hurt my right foot on Tuesday evening so I decided to take it easy yesterday and not do any running, and stuck to just doing pushups instead.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)

This week’s Back Cove race consisted of 214 runners braving temperatures in the low 70s with clear skies.

Curtis Wheeler led the way handily, winning the race in 16:59. Abbey Gosling’s win streak was broken, however, as her time of 18:50 was 25 seconds behind Emily Durgin’s 18:25.

Abbey’s 1:54:41 overall time on the leaderboard is still almost 13 minutes ahead of her closest competitor. On the men’s board, as predicted, I came onto it in first place with an overall time of 1:45:59. I expect that Curtis will take over that number 1 spot next week if he runs, however.

The leaderboard is growing, with 74 runners having run at least 6 of the 10 races so far. We are down to only 4 people that have run all 10 races, however, down from last week’s 6 runners.

This race was more of a tempo run for me this week. I ran to the Back Cove from work, where I saw Madeleine, Erin and Matt Lane out for a jog and decided to run with them for a short ways. The next thing I knew I barely had enough time to get from Tukey’s Bridge to the starting line, but I did make it a good 30 seconds before the start of the race. This turned my 5k into basically an 8k tempo in the middle of a 16½ mile run. I was rather tired and hungry by the time I got home.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)

142 people braved the weather this evening, although the rain held off until after the race was over.

Curtis Wheeler ran ahead of Noah Schoneberg, only beating him by 2 seconds in 16:51. Abbey Gosling continued her trend of leading the women with her time of 19:04.

For myself, I got in an almost 7 mile warmup by running there from work, and then did a 3 by ½ mile workout with folks to chase. By the time I got done with my cool down I’d gotten in over 15 miles this evening, which is probably why I’m so tired.

The leaderboard has seen some shaking up, with both the men’s and women’s board being led by a newcomer onto the list. Lilian Childress jumped onto the board with a cumulative time of 2:07:36, which gives her an almost 20 minute lead over second place. Next week I expect another new gap to be opened up, although not quite as large as this one.

On the men’s side, Daniel Salvo opened up about a 3½ minute lead with his cumulative time of 1:49:52.

The list of folks that have run all 9 races has gone down to 6 people, from last week’s total of 7.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List)

188 runners made their way out in the fog and wind last night to compete in cool temperatures that hovered right around 60 degrees.

Claton Conrad took it out in about the same pace as last week’s race, finishing only 2 seconds slower in 16:13 for his 1^st trip around the Back Cove this season. Despite a guy yelling to me at about a mile and a quarter, there was no chance of anybody being able to “run him down” last night though, as I finished over a minute behind him in 17:14.

Abbey Gosling is establing a trend, winning the women’s race in 19:16. She is now 4 for 4 in the wins category for her participation in the race this year; 2 more races and she should debut nicely on the leader board.

Kellie Stratton knocked 2 minutes and 17 seconds off of her cumulative time on the leader board this week, but it wasn’t enough as Julianne Baroody ran her 6^th race and came onto the leader board with an almost 12 minute lead.

Nathan Augustine did not improve his time at all, but he has the distinction of having run in all 8 races to this point, a distinction held by only 7 people.

Seth Differ came onto the leader board in the lead for the men this week, with about an 11 minute lead over Nathan. I expect that the leader board is going to be shaken up quite a few times over the next few weeks until it settles out for the rest of the season and becomes a battle between fewer players.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List)

175 runners were met with some fog at the Back Cove this evening, with Michael Payson leading the way by bringing in this year’s fastest time to date: 16:11. Curtis Wheeler was chasing him down, a mere 9 seconds back.

Abbey Gosling again won the women’s race, this week in 19:20.

Kellie Stratton debuted on the leaderboard this week in first place with almost a 2 minute lead.

Nathan Augustine improved his lot to first place by knocking almost 3 minutes off of his cumulative time; he has now made it to all 7 races so far.

I didn’t make it to the race this week; with my legs as sore as they are I decided to do a few easy barefoot miles on the streets near my house with my wife.

We also found a small bug with the Back Cove website software, so if your name didn’t appear in last week’s results that should be resolved soon as we update the standings now that the technical glitch has been fixed.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Photos)

Under some blue skies and lots of wind, there were 161 runners out in the 70 degree temperatures for tonight’s Back Cove 5k.

Scott Gorneau ran it in with Kurt Wente in 17:18 and 17:28 (respectively); this is Scott’s second race this season after having not run since the first week.

Abbey Gosling had a slightly larger lead in the women’s race, finishing faster than 2 minutes over Lilian Childress with a time of 19:11.

Now that it has been six weeks, that means that there is finally a leader board! You can now compare how you are doing against everybody else that has run at least six of the races.

The initial leaderboard isn’t quite as large as last year’s 22 members, but there’s still over 6 times as many people that have run the initial 6 races over 2007. 10 men and 3 women have made their way onto the board, with Dino DeSanctis leading the series and Alissa Poisson becoming the early front runner for the women.

I’ve only run half of the races so far this year, sadly. (I did get a good track workout in with my team tonight though.)

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Photos)