Run to Win

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)

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)

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…)

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)

The Back Cove 5k Race Series concluded tonight with some great competition. Mark Goettel led three other runners to sub-17 times in a blazing 16:37.

For the past few weeks, people have been making fun of me for worrying about who might place first in the overall series since I had a pretty comfortable lead. I knew that Scott Gorneau (4^th in 16:57) and Chris Gatchell both had a chance to catch me, and I knew that they were going to go for it. Chris came in right behind Mark to take second place in 16:39, and was only 6 seconds behind me in the overall standings with a cumulative time of 01:42:35.

Carol Fanning and myself took the series wins. Carol had a more comfortable 1 minute lead over second place than I did. We are pictured below with Colin Ingram, the New England Mizuno representative, who came to Portland from New Hampshire to present us with our gift certificates and to watch the race. The final standings are available by clicking on the picture, and the series race leaders are listed below the picture.

2007 Back Cove 5k Winners

I would like to thank everybody for coming out for the series this year. There were almost 900 runners this year who ran at least one race, and 54 runners who ran at least 6 races. There were 3 races with more than 100 people, and other than May 16^th (with 17 people) there were at least 49 people racing every week! Taken as a group, each race averaged over 73 finishers, with 1,315 people crossing the line this year.

A very special thanks needs to be given to Stu Palmer for all of the hard work that he has done making sure that the event went off without a hitch every week, and to all of the sponsors who made the race possible. That includes John Rogers of the Maine Running Company, Portland Trails, and Mizuno running shoes.

(Photo credit goes to Stu Palmer!)

Back Cove 5k » May 2007

Photo by Erik BoucherThis morning, I published a case study detailing how I decided upon a race plan and what I hoped to accomplish in this evening’s Back Cove 5k race.

The race results are in, and we can now see how closely I followed the plan. I did a pretty good job at following the plan, but not quite as well as I did when I ran the Eastern States 20 Miler this past Spring.

Race Results

(Click here to continue reading…)