Run to Win

Photo by David Colby Young
Photo #68 of 124The Elliot Festival Day 5k was this morning in Elliot, Maine. There were 683 finishers this year, including Kay West (pictured right) who finished below the USATF age group guidelines time in 1:28:53; she was the oldest finisher at 97 years of age!

The weather conditions were near perfect for running, with clear skies and cool temperatures in the mid-60s. The course is slightly aided with about 5 feet of total elevation loss.

Ethan Hemphill did not face the stiff competition that he had last year, but bettered his time to win the race in 15:08. There were 20 finishers under 17 minutes, when Mariko Holbrook came in to win the women’s race by a healthy 26 seconds.

Team results for this race are based upon an age and sex graded time, so despite winning the race Ethan did not even score to help Dirigo in their almost 2 minute win over Whirlaway Racing. The age graded times of Tom Ryan, Mike Payson, and Pete Bottomley were all faster than Whirlaway’s first runner.

Dirigo had a good showing at the race; my time was not even fast enough to make it into the team results. I failed to meet my goal of running under 16 minutes. I was right on pace through 2 kilometers (6:24) but wound up running at about the same pace as I have for most of this season. My 16:37 was a 1 second season PR.

In a reversal of last year specifically, and just about any race with a downhill finish generally, I managed to out sprint TJ Hesler by about 4 seconds coming into the finish line. I did not manage to keep up with Chris Gatchell, who ran a personal best 16:16 (congratulations!)

(Full Results - Team Results - Race Photos: Set 1 - Set 2 - Set 3)

The Back Cove 5k Race Series concluded tonight with some great competition. Mark Goettel led three other runners to sub-17 times in a blazing 16:37.

For the past few weeks, people have been making fun of me for worrying about who might place first in the overall series since I had a pretty comfortable lead. I knew that Scott Gorneau (4^th in 16:57) and Chris Gatchell both had a chance to catch me, and I knew that they were going to go for it. Chris came in right behind Mark to take second place in 16:39, and was only 6 seconds behind me in the overall standings with a cumulative time of 01:42:35.

Carol Fanning and myself took the series wins. Carol had a more comfortable 1 minute lead over second place than I did. We are pictured below with Colin Ingram, the New England Mizuno representative, who came to Portland from New Hampshire to present us with our gift certificates and to watch the race. The final standings are available by clicking on the picture, and the series race leaders are listed below the picture.

2007 Back Cove 5k Winners

I would like to thank everybody for coming out for the series this year. There were almost 900 runners this year who ran at least one race, and 54 runners who ran at least 6 races. There were 3 races with more than 100 people, and other than May 16^th (with 17 people) there were at least 49 people racing every week! Taken as a group, each race averaged over 73 finishers, with 1,315 people crossing the line this year.

A very special thanks needs to be given to Stu Palmer for all of the hard work that he has done making sure that the event went off without a hitch every week, and to all of the sponsors who made the race possible. That includes John Rogers of the Maine Running Company, Portland Trails, and Mizuno running shoes.

(Photo credit goes to Stu Palmer!)

Back Cove 5k » May 2007

Photo by Erik BoucherThis morning, I published a case study detailing how I decided upon a race plan and what I hoped to accomplish in this evening’s Back Cove 5k race.

The race results are in, and we can now see how closely I followed the plan. I did a pretty good job at following the plan, but not quite as well as I did when I ran the Eastern States 20 Miler this past Spring.

Race Results

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Choosing a race plan can be difficult at times, especially when a race is not one that you are trying to peak for. Should you run it as a hard sprint, leaving nothing on the track or course from start to finish? Should you formulate a strategy about when to run hard and when to conserve your strength? Is this race something that you are just going to train through and treat as a workout with other people to chase?
Back Cove 5k » July 2006

Photo by Erik Boucher

The Race

Tonight is the second to last Back Cove 5k in the 19 week (18 race) series. This is a case study about how I went about choosing the race plan that I am going to use this evening.

The weekly winners of the race get a little recognition in the results on various websites and in the newspaper, but there is no physical prize. The series winners get 4 pairs of Mizuno running shoes and are the man and woman who have run the fastest of any 6 of the 18 races. Currently, I am in the lead for the shoes.

Most of the season, I just ran the race as a tempo run or as some sort of interval workout. The past few weeks, with the better weather, I have been actually racing them in order to bring my overall time down a bit. My last two races were both sub-17 minutes on what is notoriously a slow course. The obvious plan of action for this evening would be to further pad my lead to ensure that I win the shoes. There is a small complication with that plan, however.
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Tonight was the 16^th Back Cove Weekly 5k. The number of people who ran dropped off a bit from recent weeks, despite excellent running weather, but 58 people got to enjoy the race.

There are only 2 races left in the series, and I recommend getting out there for at least one of them. They will both be on Wednesday night at 6:00 pm over the next two weeks.

It came a bit late, but I finally implemented a feature that will allow you to look up a runner’s race history throughout the series. Just click on their name in the weekly results. I still need to update the series standings to also link to the history pages.

The standings for the race shoes is anything but decided on the men’s side, although Carol Fanning has a full 1 minute lead over Emily Hickey.

For the men, Blaine Moore (your ever-so-modest author!) is currently in the lead and has been for a few weeks now. For the past two weeks I have been running in the high 16-minute range, bringing my cumulative time down by over 3 minutes in the past 4 weeks. Unfortunately, with a 50k in a week and a half, my time is not likely to improve too much.

Scott Gorneau has moved into 2^nd place with his first week on the leader board, and he has a few slow races to drop off from early in the season now that he has the required 6 races under his belt. He is currently only a minute and a half back from taking first place.

Scott will have his work cut out for him, though, because Chris Gatchell is poised right now to win the entire thing despite not appearing on the leader board. He is required to run the last two races in order to be eligible for the year’s supply of shoes from Mizuno, but his average race time is only 1 second behind mine.

Eric Neutz is currently in 3^rd place. He led the leader board for most of the Summer, but he will have his work cut out for him to run fast races over the next two weeks now that his cross country season has started again. In fact, I think that it would be silly of him to try.

So, I hope to see any local readers next week or the week after for a last jaunt around the Boulevard in downtown Portland, Maine. Don’t forget that the Portland Trails “Trail to Ale” 10k is the weekend following the last race, and runs part of the race along the Back Cove 5k course.

Yesterday morning was the Craig’s Cup 5k. The race also doubled as the Maine USATF championship cross country race. The results were a little late getting up. It was an absolutely beautiful day to run, with race temperatures in the low 40s. In the sun, it was very comfortable; the breeze and the shade made it a bit chilly but not too cold to need anything to warm you up during the race. The course was very soft; there was some mud on the trails in spots but it did not stick to your racing shoes. The grass was a bit damp but not enough to get into your socks. In other words, it was a course made for a good pair of spikes.
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Here is a quick breakdown of races this Fourth of July. I’ll cover the Bridgton Four on the Fourth, the Freeport L.L. Bean 10k, the York Four on the Fourth, the Kennebunkport Goose Rocks Beach 5K, the Winthrop Friends on the Fourth 5k and the Sebec Village Fourth of July 5k.
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