Run to Win

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)

Week 13 of the Back Cove Racing Series was this evening, which means that if you haven’t run yet then you will not be able to get onto the leader board. Who is going to win the free shoes for a year? Every week now people will start falling off of the list of people who might possibly jump out from nowhere near the top of the standings, and the people there now will be fighting to improve their positions.

There were 123 people who came out this evening, despite the wet weather that mostly held off during the majority of the run. Stan Pyle broke out his trusty green cross country spikes this evening to help lend himself some traction on the wet gravel, and it must have worked because he blew the competition away by almost a minute with his 15:53 finish. Stan will need to run 4 of the remaining 5 races in order to qualify for the free running shoes for a year.

Scott Gorneau (01:44:50) was again absent this week, which cost him his lead position in the standings as Tyler Jasud (01:41:51) made a debut on the leader board with a solid lead of 3 minutes.

A similar story was found on the women’s side this evening, as Katie Davisson (02:04:00) also completed her sixth race and took over the lead position in the standings.

For myself, I improved my time on the leader board but not my position. Today was an interval day, running 3 by 1 kilometer repeats with a kilometer running recovery between each. There were plenty of people to chase on the second two repeats, which helped to keep me honest as I ran 2:58, 3:15 and 3:08 for a 3:07 average. I was aiming for anything below a 3:12 average for the 3 repeats, although I would have preferred that all 3 actually be below 3:12.

(Full Results - Leader Board)

The Weekly Back Cove Race Series has begun, and is back and better than ever. The series works much in the same way that it has in years past, with a 5 kilometer race every Wednesday evening along the Back Cove path in Portland, Maine at 6:00. The races will run for 19 weeks between May 14^th, 2008 and September 10^th, 2008. The race is free of charge, and you only need to register for the first race of the year that you run. Remember to keep your bib number, though, as you will use the same one every week.

Your top 6 times from the 19 week series will be added together to get a cumulative time, with the best male and female runner winning free shoes for a year from Mizuno. There will also be a new award this year, the Maine Track Club Running Community Spirit award for the individual(s) who best represent the community spirit of the Back Cove race series.

The website has a brand new face this year, which you can see by visiting:
http://backcove.runtowin.com/index.php

Each week the latest results will be displayed on the website, and as the series goes on there will be new features added in to let you see exactly what is happening with all of your favorite runners. There is also a race map now available, which you can view at:
http://backcove.runtowin.com/map.php

Here is a copy of the map with the mile markers shown:

Much like last year, the weather was absolutely beautiful for the first week of the race. Unlike last year, however, there were more than twice as many runners finishing the race! Last year’s first week total only came to 54 runners, but 109 people crossed the line this week. The average number of people to cross the line last year was only 79 runners, and there were only 3 weeks where there were more than 100 runners, so this year looks like it is going to be another record breaking year for the series.

In a repeat showing of last year, Dan Franek set the mark early with a win in tonight’s race with a time of 17:21. Katie Davisson was the first woman to finish this year with a time 19:44.

I hope that you can make it out there this year at least once, if not the 6 times necessary to score in the grand prix. For myself, I hope to make it each week. For the past 2 years I have made it to all of the races except for 1 each year, first because I was on my honeymoon and then because I was at a conference in Texas.

(Photo Credit: Don Penta)