Run to Win

The New Bedford Half Marathon in Massachusetts was this morning. It is the first of seven races in the USATF New England grand prix racing series. The temperature was in the high 30s with some strong wind but not as strong as in years past. It was much stronger at 9:30 in the morning than it was at race time.

The course is pretty flat, with some hills in the first few miles and one decent sized hill over the last mile of the race. There are 4 or 5 miles of (mostly) gentle downgrade in the middle of the course. Those miles correspond with when the wind is at your back, but it comes straight into your face from mile 9 through most of the rest of the run.

There were 1666 runners this year. Derese Deniboba won with a time of 66:29, almost 2 minutes ahead of New Balance Boston’s Ryan Carrara.

Ethan Hemphill led the Dirigo runners, outsprinting a few competitors to finish 11^th in 69:45. I rounded out the scoring for our team as the 5^th man in 76:31.

Heidi Westerling led the women’s race, finishing 65^th overall and winning with a time of 74:30. She passed me about 4 or 5 miles into the race. Molly Taber came through in 5^th for the women with a time of 77:16 for her warmup for the Olympic Trials in April. She ran the majority of the middle miles with me, but decided not to let me break the wind for her in the back stretch and fell back a little.

The Boston Athletic Association dominated in the team race, winning the men’s race with a combined time of 5:47:57 and the women’s race in 3:49:47. Scores are the aggregate time of the first 5 runners on a team for the men’s race and the first 3 runners on a team for the women’s race. The men’s team won by about 9 minutes and the women’s team won by about 5 minutes.

Dirigo finished 5^th overall, following the Merrimack Valley Striders by only 30 seconds. Our combined time was 6:02:28.

(Full Results)

This morning could not have gone any better for the race directors at the Mid Winter Classic. The 10 mile race seemed to go off without a hitch, from volunteer support to record participation, and even including beautiful running weather. It was about 34 degrees out with an average 5 mile per hour wind, which is much better than the low teens and high winds that we dealt with last year.

There were over 850 registered runners and a record 691 finishers this year. (Full Results)

The course begins on the access road between Cape Elizabeth Middle School and Cape Elizabeth High School, and runs counter clockwise through town to finish up behind the high school. There is a total of 1400 feet of elevation gain along the way, with a net drop of 22 feet from start to finish.

Ethan Hemphill was 14 seconds off from his record pace that he ran last year, finishing in 52:59, but he was 2^nd this year. First place honors went to Rick Rountree of Vermont, who shattered the record with a time of 52:03. The four runners following Rick in the top 5 were all Dirigo Runners.

On the women’s side, Sheri Piers repeated her winning performance from last year. She shaved over 4 minutes off of her time, though, finishing the race in 58:25. It’s a good thing, too, because this year she had competition. Kasie Enman was breathing down her neck, trailing Sheri by only 4 seconds in 58:29.

Once again, the race course support was stupendous with numerous volunteers making sure that the runners had a good experience. The food was again excellent, having the same spread of pizza, bagels, yogurt, bananas and beverages that were out last year. The awards this year were backpacks, which I thought was pretty neat.

My own race went pretty well. I said before the race that I wanted to go out in 6:15 (NOT 5:45) and then carry 6 minute pace through the next few miles and see what I had in the second half. My original goal (a few months ago) was 57-60 minutes, and I was going to aim for 60 since I haven’t done the speed work, just the base work. I did wind up going out in 5:45, but then I settled in at that pace for almost the entire race. My splits were (approximately): 5:45, 5:59, 5:43, 5:45, 5:43, 5:51, 5:47, 5:56, 5:49, 5:37. All in all, a very even pace to bring me through in 57:58 for a 13^th place finish.

Photo Collections:

• Photos by Don Penta (Part 1 of 2)
• Photos by Don Penta (Part 2 of 2)
• Photos by Sandy Walton at Mile 6 (updated link!)
• Photos by Beth Rand
• Photos taken at Mile 5
• Photos taken at Mile 9
• (Race Videos) (updated link)
• Maine Track Club Finishers (Gallery of MTC runners with names/times)

There were quite a few photographers out on the course. As I find links to online photo collections, I will update this article and include them here.

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)

The Craig’s Cup 5k cross country race was this morning, which once again served double duty as the Maine USATF cross country state championship race.

There were over 200 people registered runners and 180 finishers this year, which had near perfect racing weather and conditions despite the heavy rain over the past day and a half.

The course was not nearly as wet as I would have expected that it would be, leaving the runners only moderately dirty rather than drenched in mud. Dirigo managed to beat Triad/PR Racing by exactly 3 minutes, with cumulative times of 1:25:06 to 1:28:06.

Ethan Hemphill repeated his win from last year, bettering his time by 4 seconds to finish in 16:29. His margin of victory was 12 seconds. Christine Reaser won the women’s race with a bit more breathing room, finishing in 19:43.

(Full Results – Photos » Set 1 – Set 2)

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)

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

(Click here to continue reading…)

Last weekend it was too hot to use the computer and I was otherwise occupied, so I never summed up the articles from the previous year.

• The Complete Running Network was relaunched. My biggest complaint with my first impressions was that they had gotten rid of the running blog aggregater service, but that service returned a few months ago. The site held a launch contest, but they never announced who won.
• I gave some reasons that running takes practice just like any other sport in response to an article published at Complete Running.
• There were just shy of 300 finishers in the L/A Bridge Run, which I finally ran this year. Not surprisingly, Ethan Hemphill won both years.
• I found the “Athletes Against Doping” website, which contains a lot of information about what substances are banned in each sport and who the governing bodies are. They have put a new theme in place since last year.
• Two years ago, I explained what EPO was after the furor with Lance Armstrong brought it to attention. In more positive news, Kenenisa Bekele set the 10k world record with a time of 26:17.53.

This morning got warm quite quickly with the humidity rising fast for the start of the Lewiston/Auburn 5k Bridge Run. 353 people decided that it would be a good idea to get out and run first thing in the morning, which is almost 60 people more than last year. The race begins on Riverside Street past the Rolodome on the Auburn side of the river, and loops back and forth over the bridges between Lewiston and Back.

The lead pack took the first mile between 5:00 and 5:05; the second mile was not accurately marked.

Ethan Hemphill (15:52) repeated his performance with last year’s win, although he was a good 38 seconds shy of last year’s record setting time. The former women’s record holder, Tina Meserve (18:19) captured first place but couldn’t regain her record in the heat.

I managed to finish in a respectable 16:38 for a 3^rd place finish.

(Full Results – Photos: Set 1 – Set 2 – Set 3 – set 1 not yet available – Auburn Photo Finish)