Run to Win

The Maine Marathon was this past weekend, and local favorite Heather Pagano had a very strong showing in her debut marathon by taking the title in 3:06:54. She used the Weekly Back Cove Race Series this Summer as her training ground, and it seems to have served her well.

“It was overwhelming,” Pagano said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, I actually won my first marathon.’ It was pretty cool to break the tape. That made it real. I put my arms up, then said, ‘OK, I’m done. I’m going down.’”

Both Heather and men’s winner Art Siemers collapsed after the finish line and had to be helped away by race officials, as you can see in the finish line video below:
(Click here to continue reading…)

The Weekly Back Cove Race Series has now drawn to a close for 2008 with an absolute gorgeous evening with perfect running conditions.

Temperatures were in the high 60s with a light breeze. A total of 878 people ran across the finish line 2,192 times for an average of over 121 people per race. Only twice did the number of finishers dip below 100, with 97 finishers in week 4 and 88 finishers tonight.

Scott Gorneau (01:42:13) led the way, beating Phil Dirusso (01:47:34) by 43 seconds to win the race in 17:03.

Heather Pagano (01:52:40) ran uncontested in the women’s race, winning in 19:05. She also cemented her series win, bringing her overall time down by 22 seconds and winning by just shy of 10 minutes. She is pictured above with Mizuno representative Colin Ingram and community spirit award winner Michael Beaudoin (02:20:47). Michael has been running in the series from the very beginning, including 16 of the races this year. Tyler Jasud (01:39:33) maintained his lead to win the series on the men’s side, despite not running this week.

I was the only person to run all 18 races this year, marking the first year that I didn’t miss a race, and also marking the first year that I was actually on time to every race since I began running in this series. My total time this year was 06:13:00 for an average of 20:43 for each 5k, with a 4^th place finish in the standings with a time of 01:47:02, about 5 minutes slower than last year.

Last year, I was the only person to run over 13 races. This year, 11 people including myself ran at least 14 races in the series. I’d like to thank everybody for coming out this year and making the series a resounding success, and I’m looking forward to the 2009 series where we can hopefully grow it even more!

(Full Results – Leader Board – Runner’s List)

Week 14 of the Back Cove Series was yesterday evening, which means that there are now 4 races left until the end. The weather was absolutely beautiful with a light breeze, sunny skies, and temperatures in the mid 70s.

The race went out very fast, with Tyler Jasud (01:40:37) and Noah Schonenberg leading the way with a blazing fast sub-5:00 first mile. Noah fell off the pace within a quarter mile after that, but Tyler maintained the front position for the entire race to cross the line first in 16:38.

Scott Gorneau (01:43:43) used his 17:05 finish to bring his series time down by over a minute, but Tyler still has over a 3 minute lead on him. Fortunately for Scott, Tyler is still in school and isn’t eligible to win the shoes.

Heather Pagano (01:53:02) won the women’s race in 18:45 for 9^th place overall. Not only did she finish in 9^th, but this was her 6^th race so she jumped straight onto the leader board in 9^th overall with an almost 11 minute lead over Katie Davisson (02:04:00).

I ran hard during the race, working my way up to 2^nd for most of the run. I would have had to work harder than I was willing to to catch Tyler, though, and Scott overtook me with a little less than 2k to go and beat me handily by 5 seconds. My series time did drop by over 2 minutes, which moved me into 4^th place overall. I don’t expect to race or run any more of them as anything but interval workouts, so I don’t expect to improve too much going forward this year.

(Full Results – Leader Board – Photos)

It was a beautiful evening for a run tonight. Now that week 12 is under the bag, there are only 6 races left so if you haven’t run yet then you need to show up next week in order to appear on the leader board.

Chris Harmon made his first appearance since week 3, repeating his first place performance. Heather Pagano ran her fastest time this season, coming across first in the ladies’ race in 18:32. She’ll still need to cut another 16 seconds off of her time in order to retake the course record.

Scott Gorneau (01:44:50) didn’t race this week, but maintains his lead in the overall standings. Chris Reynolds (01:49:31) made his debut on the leader board in 3^rd place.

For myself, I fell back a little as David Mann (01:50:51) improved his time by over half a minute to push me back a spot. I did not improve my time at all as I took a nice leisurely jig jog with my wife. My race was actually at a 20 second per kilometer slower pace than my warmup or cool down.

(Full Results – Leader Board – Photos)

It was a good night for a race. It was relatively warm, but nowhere near as humid as it has been. This led to the gravel path around the Back Cove being nice and dusty, leaving a fine layer of grit on everybody’s legs.

Matt Lane won the race in an easy 17:12, almost 80 seconds behind his performance in week 4.

The real excitement came in the women’s race, though, as the course record has now been broken twice in the same season. This time, Joan Benoit Samuelson took the lead after deciding to drive down from Freeport 40 minutes before the race was supposed to start. She was jogging over to the starting line from the parking lot as everybody was lining up. Joanie cut 30 seconds off of Heather Pagano’s previous record, finishing in 18:11.
(Click here to continue reading…)

It was rather humid tonight, although it was ideal running weather otherwise. There are now only 10 races left in this year’s Back Cove race series, and the 150 finishers this evening brought the total number of runners to have run at least 6 races so far to 47.

Tyler Jasud and Heather Pagano led the way, finishing the race in 17:26 and 18:48 (respectively.)

The two Davids (Manz and Mann) are still leading the overall leaderboard. I’ve moved up two places from 9^th to 7^th overall. Similarly to last week, I ran easy and turned into a 20+ kilometer run coupled with a run earlier in the day that brings me over 20 miles total.

(Full Results – Leader Board)

Week 7 is now in the books, with almost 160 runners finishing on a warm, sunny day in the mid-70s. These huge crowds are very exciting to see week after week. There are now 37 runners who have run at least 6 of the races, building the leaderboard over half again from last week’s 22.

Stan Pyle led the way this week, winning the race in a (for him) pedestrian 16:41. Tyler Jasud was 15 seconds behind him.

Heather Pagano followed up her performance from 2 weeks ago with a new women’s course record of 18:40! Way to go, Heather! Her season seems to be ramping up very quickly.
(Click here to continue reading…)

The warm temperatures this evening were offset by a steady breeze, but the recent layer of rock dust laid down along the path did make it difficult to breathe in places. Both the men’s and women’s races saw some new faces in front this week, with both winners taking at least a couple of minutes lead over their nearest competitors. Kirby Davis led the way with a 16:01 finishing time, while Heather Pagano took advantage of other runners around her to run a 2 and a half minute personal best in 19:27.

I meant to run the race in 4 minute per K pace (20 minutes), and I mostly held onto that pace or only slightly quicker. Heather goaded me into running a bit faster than I’d meant to. I got a good warmup and cooldown to finish the day with 19 kilometers under my belt, and then went to the grocery store where I learned that the labels are correct; Borax is indeed an eye irritant.

There were 142 finishers this week. Only 1 more week before the initial leader board becomes available, and this year promises to be a good one. Quite a few people have run all 5 races so far, with even more having only missed 1 race to date. I expect that the tops of the leader boards will be much more competitive this year than they were last year.

(Full Results – Photos)