Run to Win

This week last year centered on racing, covering distances from the 100 meter to the 50 kilometer.

• First, Asafa Powell set a new 100 meter world record in Rieti, Italy with his time of 9.74 seconds. He has since run faster than that, but no longer holds the record.
• Second, the Back Cove Weekly Race Series finished up. 2007 was the first year that I was one of the sponsors, and I managed to win free shoes for a year by having the fastest 6 times on the course. I only won by an average of 1 second per race!
• Third, I wrote about my first ultramarathon experience at the Pisgah 50k Mountain Race. I had quite a few articles about the race, so anybody that is thinking of running might want to take a look through. The race is either today or tomorrow this year, and I wasn’t able to make it back. Hopefully next year.
  1. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Pre-Race Review
  2. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Race Review
  3. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Post-Race Review
  4. Pisgah 50k/23k Trail Races – 2007 Race Results
• This week 2 years ago also saw the Back Cove 5k Race Series finishing up, that time with Mike Caiazzo and Lindsey Davis taking the series honors. I won the last race, and placed 3^rd overall. I added on to my icing series from a few months earlier by explaining how to ice sensitive areas on your body such as your eyes or testicles, and I reviewed Breaking Away, a movie about cyclist in the 70s. On the news front, New Jersey began testing kids for steroids in an attempt to catch them young.
• This week three years ago, I pointed to some resources about deadlifting, namely a video on how not to deadlift and one on proper deadlift form.

This week last year was a busy one, with various news related posts and race results.

• The Back Cove 5k Race Series finished up, with Mike Caiazzo and Lindsey Davis taking the series honors. I won the last race, and placed 3^rd overall. This year, I bettered my average time by about a half of a minute, but none of the other top 5 ran this year other than Mark Goettel and he only ran a few of the races.
• The Portland Trails 10k was this weekend last year and was won by Mike Slinsky in 32:38, almost four minutes ahead of me. I got caught in the one place on the course that traffic could stop you by a guy with a moving trailer that wouldn’t get out of the way fast enough. Christin Doneski won the women’s race. The race this year is tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m., although I am not sure how they are going to handle trail closures.
• I added on to my icing series from a few months earlier by explaining how to ice sensitive areas on your body such as your eyes or testicles.
• I reviewed Breaking Away, a movie about cyclist in the 70s.
• This week two years ago, I pointed to some resources about deadlifting, namely a video on how not to deadlift and one on proper deadlift form.
• On the news front, New Jersey began testing kids for steroids in an attempt to catch them young. I also discussed it was worth paying for your baby to be admitted to a stadium or not.

The Back Cove 5k race series came to an end tonight. There were 59 people at the final race, which was run in a cool 60° with some fierce wind coming over Tukey’s Bridge. Blaine Moore won the race in 17:25, with Shale Rosen half a minute back. Lindsey Davis won the women’s race in 19:46, followed a minute later by Emily Durgin.

The final leaderboard for the overall standings are as follows:

I want to extend a big thank you to the sponsors of 18 of my last 19 mid-week workouts. The Maine Running Company on Forest Avenue, Portland Trails, and Mizuno made this race series possible, along with all of the individuals who volunteered their time and effort every week for the last 5 months.

Update: Eric Boucher’s pictures of the Back Cove 5k