Run to Win

Both of the leaders this week had no challengers. Mike Payson (16:36) ran out ahead of everybody else this evening in the second installment of the Back Cove Weekly 5k, beating Scott Gorneau (18:12) by over a minute and a half. Kelley Holmes (18:57) improved by over 6 minutes from last week’s race to take first for the women, beating Emilia Bedilia (21:30) by over two and a half minutes.

My wife and I ran a bit further back in the pack, taking 108^th and 109^th place respectively with a time of 28:38.

The full results can be seen at the website: http://backcove.runtowin.com/

(Photo Credit: Don Penta)

I got this note in my email the other day and thought that I should pass it along:

The Portland City Council will be recognizing the tremendous accomplishment of some of our running comrades (Todd Coffin, Mike Payson, Rob Pierce, Tom Ryan, Dan Franek, Mark Goettel, Peter Bottomley, and Christine Snow-Reaser) for winning SILVER in the recent USA Cross Country meet in Ohio. The PPH failed to recognize this MASTERS TEAM for its achievement. However, we can show up at the Council meeting to pay homage to these outstanding athletes.

Anybody that is interested in cheering on the masters runners from Dirigo who did so well at the national cross country meet in December can do so tonight at 7:00 pm at the Portland City Council meeting.

Pete Bottomley wrote an excellent race report of the masters’ race if you’d like to refresh your memory about how everyone did.

The following race recap was written by Pete Bottomley, the Director of Sales & Marketing at Coast of Maine Organic Products, Inc. Pete is a masters runner for Dirigo, R.C. and competes in mostly middle distance races in Southern Maine. He ran his first marathon this past April in Boston, and this past weekend traveled out to Ohio to compete in the USATF Club Cross Country National Championships. Pete is also the race director and primary fund raiser for the New England Mile.

Dirigo splashed onto the front pages of the National running scene this past weekend at the USATF XC NATIONALS in West Chester, Ohio.

Our team was represented by Christine Reaser in the Women’s Masters and Todd Coffin, Dan Franek, Mark Goettel, Mike Payson, Rob Pierce, Tom Ryan and me in the Men’s Masters. I don’t know how to describe the course other than to say it looked like the Alaskan tundra, but more stark and the permafrost was melting! The recent 3-4 inches of slushy snow obscured the bumps and ruts in the prairie trails on which we would race the next day.

We went to bed wishing we had brought 1” spikes and hopeful that the snow would be gone by race time.

In the morning, the snow was still there and we headed over to the course telling each other that this situation was actually perfect for us Mainers!!!
(Click here to continue reading…)

The USATF Club Cross Country Championships were this morning. Peter Magill of team Fluffy Bunny won the masters’ 10k in 34:20.2, leading his team to first place with 59 points and a total time of 2:58:04.7.

Dirigo had a strong showing to improve 3 places and capture 2^nd place this year, trailing by 12 points with a 1 minute and 27.7 second deficit. Michael Payson led the way, finishing 7^th in 35:17.2.

GCS Triad (Formerly Gate City Striders, PR Racing and Moose Milers), a Maine/New Hampshire team, finished in 13^th place with 357 points in the masters 10k. They finished in 36^th place with 1088 points in the open 10k.

Christine Reaser was the lone female Dirigo competitor, and had a strong showing in the masters 6k race despite falling on a hay bale. She ran 23:15 and trailed winner Joan Nesbit Mabe by less than half of a minute.

(Results: Masters 6k – Masters 10k – Open 6k – Open 10k – Press Release)

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)

The Mid-Winter Classic was this morning in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It was a chilly day with temperatures in the high teens/low twenties, but the wind was something fierce. Not much of a factor on the back of the course, the start and the finish were both very chilly and very hard to run through the wind.

Ethan Hemphill set a new course record of 52:45, 16 seconds better than the previous record from two years ago. He ran with Ryan Robitaille through mile 7+, but left him behind in the last 2 miles to win by over a minute. Sheri McCarthy-Piers won with a commanding lead over second place Kendra Hodder, beating her by over 3 minutes in 62:39. Todd Coffin also set a course record, beating teammate Mike Payson’s masters record by 23 seconds in 54:19. Christine Reaser won the women’s masters race in 66:46.

The race set records in both the number of registrations as well as the number of finishers, which is great news for a very early season race with less than stellar weather for running. There were 660 finishers today. I was 26^th overall in 61:32. I did not quite meet my goal of of running negative splits, despite working much harder through the second half of the race.

The volunteers at the race were great. A race like this requires a lot of people to make it happen, and as of the few days before the race there were not nearly enough people committed. Around a half dozen of those who were committed had to call and cancel due to having the flu. The last 3 days before the race, though, plenty of volunteers stepped forward and they did a great job. The race also had a great spread afterwards. There was plenty of water, gatorade, accellerade, bagels, oranges, pizza, banannas and yogurt. The two course records both awarded their winners with a $100 bonus, and the other prizes consisted of head bands. An appropriate prize for a winter race.

(Full Results)

Dirigo running club went down to the Florida Keys this past weekend to run the Half Shells half marathon, and managed a 1-2-3 sweep.

KEY WEST � For the second consecutive year, runners from Maine dominated the Half Shell 1/2 Marathon although the change in climate was a rough transition for some.

Last year David Weatherbie, from Cape Elizabeth, was first overall and appeared to be headed for his second-straight title, but Dirigo Running Club teammate Mike Payson, from Falmouth, passed Weatherbie near the eight-mile mark on College Road and finished one-minute ahead with a 1:18:14 time to take top honors over 432 total finishers in the ninth annual event.

Peter Bottomley, also from Cape Elizabeth, made it a clean sweep with third place, running a time of 1 hour, 22 minutes and 36 seconds over the 13.1-mile course, which started and finished at Lands End Marina.

All in all, there were 9 Maine finishers in the top 50. That is not too shabby of a turn out, even without Dirigo leading the rest of the pack by almost 4 minutes.

Michelle Weiler won the women’s race in just over 90 minutes, almost 3 minutes ahead of second place Brenda Wilson.

(Sources: Race Results – KeysNews.com [registration required])

The USATF Club Cross Country Championships were this past Saturday. Linda Somers Smith of Washington won the female master’s 6k race in 22:15, leading her Asics Aggie Running Club teammates to a victory of 1 minute and 14 seconds over Club Northwest. Tracy Lokken led the Front Line Racing Team to a 1 minute and 11 second victory over Fleet Feet Racing – Boulder by finishing the 10k course in 32:44. The open races were won by Amy Hastings in 19:59 for the 6k and by Matthew Downin in 30:13 for the 10k. The Boston Athletic Assoc. and ZAP Fitness took the team awards.

Dirigo had a showing in the men’s 10k, placing 5^th. Todd Coffin (33:41) and Dan Franek (34:19) led the way, placing 12^th and 26^th, respectively. Mike Payson (35:31), Pete Bottomley (35:32), and Tom Ryan (35:44) rounded out the scoring for a total of 170 team points. Dan Dearing (37:39) and Peter Hall (38:07) also competed. Tom Ryan was 2^nd in the 50+ bracket.

In the women’s 6k, Christine Reaser was 9^th over all in 23:22.

A 24 hour monsoon saved the race from not living up to it’s “Mudstock 2007″ name, leaving the course sloppy and wet. Over 500 master’s from 60 teams lined up at the start, leading to the largest field for any USATF cross country race to date.

(Full Results – Picture)