Run to Win

Like last year, I volunteered at the race rather than running it. For the past couple of days I was (only slightly) regretting having committed to volunteering since I thought that 1 week post-marathon I’d be too sore to want to race a 5k, but I’ve been feeling good and racing would have been fun today.

So was volunteering, though. I got some good photos with my cell phone and I did my part to help things run smoothly, such as running race day registration numbers up to the folks in the press box, helping out with traffic on the course, and helping with results after the race.

While there was no lack of former Dirigo runners, current Dirigo teammates of mine were conspicuously absent today. I only saw 4 total. It was still a pretty quick day, with 6 runners under 16 minutes and another runner just missing it. Curtis Wheeler was the first over the line in 15:16, with Christine Reaser crossing first for the women in 19:00.

Almost 2000 people total ran, with 107 mother/child teams taking part.

(More Info: Results – Race Photos – More Photos)

This morning held perfect cross country racing weather for fast times at the Craig Cup Run for Life 5k at Twin Brooks Recreation Center in Cumberland, Maine. 104 runners crossed the line in temperatures in the low 60s with a breeze that wasn’t strong enough to find its way into the trees.

Ethan Hemphill had some good competition midway through the race, but managed to pull ahead for an 11 second lead over Jeff Sprague (16:44) and Robert Gomez (16:48) for a winning time of 16:33.

Carry Buterbaugh had a larger lead over Christine Reaser (20:19), and was the only woman under 20 minutes with a time of 19:31. Jeanne Hackett was 3^rd in 20:40.

I did not run this year, instead volunteering to help out. I did get some video footage of the race, which will be available tomorrow.

(Full Results – Awards – Videos)

The weather this morning for Eliot was much better than what the forecasts had called for. Rather than the torrential downpours and wind we were expecting, the runners were treated to a very humid but relatively cool and very calm morning with temperatures in the low 60s. Fog may have blanketed everything and all of the events for the Eliot Festival Days (except for the race) may have been canceled, but 412 runners still came out to run.

The men’s field was very competitive, with 13 runners going sub-16. Not quite the 25 sub-16s of 2005, but a good jump on the past few years where only 7 or 8 sub-16 runners competed. Louis Luchini was unchallenged at the finish line in 14:39, while Robert Edgerton only managed to edge out Patrick Moulton by 1 second with a time of 14:53.

Carry Buterbaugh also had a strong lead at the finish line, finishing 22 seconds ahead of Johanna Fickenscher in 18:11. Christine Reaser took 3^rd place in 19:13.

In team racing, Dirigo won the day no matter how you scored the race. It seems as though they went on finishing time at the awards ceremony, but the final results have the scores age graded (as they were supposed to.) All that meant was that 2 of our 3 scorers were different. PR Racing finished in 2^nd place, about 3 and a half minutes back.

The food at the end of the race was pretty good, with plenty of fruit, bagels, bread, pasta salad, cookies, and soup for all of the runners. There was even some left after people finished their cool downs.

I am not sure if there was a problem with the sponsorship, though, because the prize structure did not seem to pan out. The race announced that it would pay out 10 places, male and female, but they decided only to pay out 5 places and also reduced the money earned at that. This does not strike me as a good way to convince top talent to return to your race, especially with the constant turnover in race directorship. I think that Eliot’s best days may be past, which is shame because it used to be such a good showcase for New England talent.

My own race went well, but I still failed to meet my season goal. I finished in 16:30, going out a few seconds slower than I wanted and then falling apart near the end. One of my teammates kept himself motivated at the end by watching my form fall apart in the last half mile, although I still kept my lead on him as I struggled to the finish line.

(Full Results – Team Results – Official Photos – Photos & Videos)

The 2008 running of the Irish Road Rover 5k was this morning in relatively warm but very windy conditions. The team competition was broken into 3 separate types of teams, club teams, open teams and corporate teams.

(Click here to continue reading…)

I got this note in my email the other day and thought that I should pass it along:

The Portland City Council will be recognizing the tremendous accomplishment of some of our running comrades (Todd Coffin, Mike Payson, Rob Pierce, Tom Ryan, Dan Franek, Mark Goettel, Peter Bottomley, and Christine Snow-Reaser) for winning SILVER in the recent USA Cross Country meet in Ohio. The PPH failed to recognize this MASTERS TEAM for its achievement. However, we can show up at the Council meeting to pay homage to these outstanding athletes.

Anybody that is interested in cheering on the masters runners from Dirigo who did so well at the national cross country meet in December can do so tonight at 7:00 pm at the Portland City Council meeting.

Pete Bottomley wrote an excellent race report of the masters’ race if you’d like to refresh your memory about how everyone did.

The following race recap was written by Pete Bottomley, the Director of Sales & Marketing at Coast of Maine Organic Products, Inc. Pete is a masters runner for Dirigo, R.C. and competes in mostly middle distance races in Southern Maine. He ran his first marathon this past April in Boston, and this past weekend traveled out to Ohio to compete in the USATF Club Cross Country National Championships. Pete is also the race director and primary fund raiser for the New England Mile.

Dirigo splashed onto the front pages of the National running scene this past weekend at the USATF XC NATIONALS in West Chester, Ohio.

Our team was represented by Christine Reaser in the Women’s Masters and Todd Coffin, Dan Franek, Mark Goettel, Mike Payson, Rob Pierce, Tom Ryan and me in the Men’s Masters. I don’t know how to describe the course other than to say it looked like the Alaskan tundra, but more stark and the permafrost was melting! The recent 3-4 inches of slushy snow obscured the bumps and ruts in the prairie trails on which we would race the next day.

We went to bed wishing we had brought 1” spikes and hopeful that the snow would be gone by race time.

In the morning, the snow was still there and we headed over to the course telling each other that this situation was actually perfect for us Mainers!!!
(Click here to continue reading…)

The USATF Club Cross Country Championships were this morning. Peter Magill of team Fluffy Bunny won the masters’ 10k in 34:20.2, leading his team to first place with 59 points and a total time of 2:58:04.7.

Dirigo had a strong showing to improve 3 places and capture 2^nd place this year, trailing by 12 points with a 1 minute and 27.7 second deficit. Michael Payson led the way, finishing 7^th in 35:17.2.

GCS Triad (Formerly Gate City Striders, PR Racing and Moose Milers), a Maine/New Hampshire team, finished in 13^th place with 357 points in the masters 10k. They finished in 36^th place with 1088 points in the open 10k.

Christine Reaser was the lone female Dirigo competitor, and had a strong showing in the masters 6k race despite falling on a hay bale. She ran 23:15 and trailed winner Joan Nesbit Mabe by less than half of a minute.

(Results: Masters 6k – Masters 10k – Open 6k – Open 10k – Press Release)

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)