Run to Win

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)

Dirigo RC had a good showing this weekend with strong performances in the Philadelphia Marathon and the New England Cross Country Championships.

Sheri Piers and Kristin Barry both ran very strong marathons in Philadelphia, starting and finishing together in 2:45:36! They were 59^th and 60^th overall, placing 8^th and 9^th for the women’s race. There were 2726 women in the race and 6677 finishers overall. The 2008 qualifying time for the women’s Olympic Marathon Trials is 2:47:00 or better for a “B” standard, which both Sheri and Kristin made with ease! Now there will be two more great runners to cheer on in April on the day before the Boston Marathon.

Speaking of Boston, this weekend was the 2007 USATF New England Cross Country Championships. Dirigo won the Masters 8k championship race after being led by strong performances from Todd Coffin and Pete Bottomley. The men’s open team was led by Kirby Davis in the 10k.

The 40th annual Yarmouth Clam Festival is this weekend, and the 24th running of the Clam Festival Classic 5 mile road race was this morning. The temperature was a cool 84 degrees (compared to last year’s 96 fahrenheit) despite starting at 8 o’clock in the morning.

Bob Winn held a course record of 23:58 on a short course, and Todd Coffin has the official course record of 25:06 on the recertified and full distance course. Matt Lane of Menlo Park, California decided to come into town for the clam festival, and he smashed both records with a time of 23:48, followed not so closely by Patrick Tarpy of Yarmouth in 24:29 (also a record setting pace). Kirby Davis followed in third place with a time of 25:38, having run 5:07 splits almost every mile.

Joan Benoit Samuelson won the women’s race for the third year in a row in 29:30, and she had her fair share of supporters all along the course. Erin Lane came east with her husband and took second place in 29:54, followed by local runner Kristin Barry in 30:06.