Run to Win

The annual Clam Festival 5 mile road race was this morning in Yarmouth, Maine. The temperatures were not nearly as high as they were in years past, but the high humidity made the race tough for the 932 finishers this year.

Despite the lack of some of the annual favorites in the race, there was a very deep field this year which led to an exciting finish. Jon Wilson went out hard but spent the majority of the race near the middle to back of the lead pack. He retook control on the trails and in the park as he came into the last mile of the race, however, and made it look easy as cruised in 12 seconds ahead of everybody else in 25:44. A total of 12 people ran under 27 minutes.

Kristin Barry had a little less competition near the end, finishing the race in 27:59. She was followed by Sheri Piers in 28:31.

It was interesting watching the race from behind the finish line this year, as this is a race that I have run every year since moving to Maine. It is generally one of the hotter races each year, falling as it does near the end of July, and it certainly led to some of the sweatiest chip bands that I’ve ever had to remove from runner’s legs.

I quickly stopped congratulating people on how they ran and instead just pointed them straight to the water once I had gotten their chips off. That was about the extent to what some of the people were able to understand. One of the runners put a whole in his singlet in an effort to take it off and thought he was supposed to turn in his bib number instead of his timing chip!

(Full Results - Photos: Fun Run (a) - Fun Run (b) - CD 1 - CD 2 - CD 3 - CD 4 - Awards - Finish Line)

Jeanne Hackett interviewed Sheri Piers and Kristin Barry this evening at Peak Performance Multisport as part of her “A Running Conversation” lecture series.

The talk went for about 50 minutes, with a little better than half of that time devoted to Kristin and Sheri answering Jeanne’s questions and the rest of the time devoted to answering audience questions. The topics centered mostly around the Olympic Marathon Trials this past April in Boston, including the training and discipline that it took to get there.

This year’s Olympic Marathon Trials was the 7^th running for the women, and was the second time that 4 women from Maine competed. (For the trivia buffs, the other time was in 1996.) The evening began with a quick background on all 4 ladies and the stories that they brought with them to the Trials.

The Stories

Emily LeVan was the top Maine qualifier, having run extremely well in Boston in 2005 and 2006. She had the 12^th fastest qualifying time for any of the competitors who ran. She was also dealt a large emotional blow last November when she discovered that her 4 year old daughter had Leukemia. Emily and her daughter Maddie started the Two Trials website in order to raise money for the Maine Children’s Cancer Program, and they far exceeded their goals to raise a total of over $77,000 to date. (Click here to listen to an interview with Emily.)

Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first women’s Olympic Marathon in 1984, and has qualified for every Trials since then. She has competed in all but 2 of them. She was the oldest runner in the field at 1 week shy of 51 years old, and set an age group record for the marathon on her way to beating her goal of running a sub-2:50. She has a long and storied history with the Boston Marathon, and she wanted to finish her competitive marathon career in the city where it all began.

Kristin and Sheri’s stories are intertwined, because the two of them train and race together constantly. After months of training, they both went to run in the Philadelphia Marathon and crossed the line together with Trials qualifying times. Both women are in their mid-30s, both women work, and both of them managed to fit in their training around caring for their children.
(Click here to continue reading…)

Sheri Piers and Kristin Barry both ran very well at the Olympic Marathon Trials back a few weeks ago in Boston. They will be offering a retrospective tomorrow evening (Tuesday, May 13^th, 2008) at Peak Performance Multisport on Marginal Way in Portland, Maine.

The event is free and open to the public, and will begin at 6:00 in the evening. You can RSVP at the Peak Performance Website with the option of contributing a question that you would like answered during the panel.

More information and to RSVP visit:
www.mypeakmultisport.com

(Click here for more photos from the Olympic Marathon Trials)

The Sea Dogs Mother’s Day 5k was this morning at Hadlock Field in Portland, Maine. The weather was absolutely beautiful, with clear skies and warm temperatures. The race saw a record number of entrants for I don’t know how many years in a row now, with 1780 runners pre-registered and over 2200 runners registered for the race. There were 1926 finishers. Next year may have to involve a cap to the number of entrants into the race.

Dirigo had a very good showing, capturing 4 of the top 5 positions. Ethan Hemphill led the way, beating Judson Cake by 5 seconds to win in 15:14.

On the women’s side, the top 3 women were all Dirigo runners. Sheri Piers and Kristin Barry were neck and neck, both finishing in 17:26 with Carry Buterbaugh coming in 33 seconds later in 17:59.

I did not run today. I spent a few hours behind the table in preregistration before the race, and then prevented a small Korean woman from convincing her husband to run everybody over as she waited to cross the race course. Thankfully, I was able to refer her to the officer across the street when she paused to catch her breath, so she started screaming at him instead.

(Official Site - Full Results - Videos - Photos: Set 1 - Set 2 - Set 3 - Set 4)

Today was the women’s Olympic Marathon Trials.

Congratulations to all of the women that finished!

Magdalena Lewy Boulet led most of the race, building a 40 second lead within 4 miles and extending that to almost 2 minutes throughout the race. In the last lap and a half, though, Deena Kastor dropped a few hammers and sped by her to win the race in 2:29:35. Blake Russell was 3^rd and will also represent the US in Beijing.

The Maine women had great races. Sheri Piers turned on the afterburners and ran a speedy 2:38:46, finishing 16^th overall. Emily LeVan was 67^th in 2:45:45, followed by Kristin Barry in 2:46:58 and a 74^th place finish. Joan Benoit Samuelson made her 2:50 goal, finishing with a time of 2:49:08 barely a week before her 51^st birthday. Great job ladies!

I’ll have more details later as well as a link to where you can view all of the over 200 photos that I took in a few days. In the meantime, you can look at the full list of results here: Boston Trials 2008 Results Page

The Maine Running Company is holding a “fund” run for Emily and Maddie LeVan Thursday, April 3^rd, at 6:00. There will be a discussion about training for the Olympic Trials that will include Emily LeVan, Sheri Piers, and Kristen Barry. The Two Trials fund raiser has raised over $41,000 of the $52,400 goal so far, and there will be stations set up where you can receive a “Two Trials” reminder bracelet for a $10 donation. Following the talk, there will be 2 mile and 4 mile runs down by the Back Cove.

If you are going to be in the southern Maine area tomorrow evening, then I really encourage you to go and listen. It is bound to be a great talk, and all of the money raised will support a good cause. So far, Wright Express has offered to match $1000 for participation of 100 people or more, and the Maine Running Company has put out a corporate match challenge to help raise money.

I was really looking forward to going tomorrow night, but will unfortunately not be in attendance. I do not believe that I am contagious, but I don’t want to risk getting any of the 3 ladies sick just a few weeks before the marathon trials. Nor do I want to risk getting Maddie sick as she goes through another round of chemotherapy and steroid treatments. That being said, if anybody that does go is interested in taking some notes, video, audio, or photos of the event I would be more than happy to publish them here at Run to Win. Just send me an email or comment below to let me know how to get in touch with you.

If you are interested in learning more about the Two Trials fund raiser, you can listen to an interview that I did with Emily a month ago that touched on the treatment for her daughter’s cancer, her training, and the upcoming trials. You can listen to the interview over at my other site:
http://www.marathoning.org/members/41/an-interview-with-emily-levan.html

This morning could not have gone any better for the race directors at the Mid Winter Classic. The 10 mile race seemed to go off without a hitch, from volunteer support to record participation, and even including beautiful running weather. It was about 34 degrees out with an average 5 mile per hour wind, which is much better than the low teens and high winds that we dealt with last year.

There were over 850 registered runners and a record 691 finishers this year. (Full Results)

The course begins on the access road between Cape Elizabeth Middle School and Cape Elizabeth High School, and runs counter clockwise through town to finish up behind the high school. There is a total of 1400 feet of elevation gain along the way, with a net drop of 22 feet from start to finish.

Ethan Hemphill was 14 seconds off from his record pace that he ran last year, finishing in 52:59, but he was 2^nd this year. First place honors went to Rick Rountree of Vermont, who shattered the record with a time of 52:03. The four runners following Rick in the top 5 were all Dirigo Runners.

On the women’s side, Sheri Piers repeated her winning performance from last year. She shaved over 4 minutes off of her time, though, finishing the race in 58:25. It’s a good thing, too, because this year she had competition. Kasie Enman was breathing down her neck, trailing Sheri by only 4 seconds in 58:29.

Once again, the race course support was stupendous with numerous volunteers making sure that the runners had a good experience. The food was again excellent, having the same spread of pizza, bagels, yogurt, bananas and beverages that were out last year. The awards this year were backpacks, which I thought was pretty neat.

My own race went pretty well. I said before the race that I wanted to go out in 6:15 (NOT 5:45) and then carry 6 minute pace through the next few miles and see what I had in the second half. My original goal (a few months ago) was 57-60 minutes, and I was going to aim for 60 since I haven’t done the speed work, just the base work. I did wind up going out in 5:45, but then I settled in at that pace for almost the entire race. My splits were (approximately): 5:45, 5:59, 5:43, 5:45, 5:43, 5:51, 5:47, 5:56, 5:49, 5:37. All in all, a very even pace to bring me through in 57:58 for a 13^th place finish.

Photo Collections:

• Photos by Don Penta (Part 1 of 2)
• Photos by Don Penta (Part 2 of 2)
• Photos by Sandy Walton at Mile 6 (updated link!)
• Photos by Beth Rand
• Photos taken at Mile 5
• Photos taken at Mile 9
• (Race Videos) (updated link)
• Maine Track Club Finishers (Gallery of MTC runners with names/times)

There were quite a few photographers out on the course. As I find links to online photo collections, I will update this article and include them here.

Runner’s World has published an interview today with Dirigo runner Sheri Piers, who recently qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials with a time of 2:45:36. The interview touches on her running history, her long break from competitive running, and how she trains while working as a nurse practitioner and running a household with 5 children.

Do you now regret not pursuing running all those years?
SP: Absolutely. Every day. I think about what it could have been on a daily basis. And I talk to Wayne about that. I think about the opportunities I had when I was in high school. I had all these Division 1 schools sending me letters, and I didn’t even apply. I didn’t even respond to any of them. All these really good running schools, like Bucknell, Stanford. I didn’t even think twice about it. Back then in high school, I didn’t like that feeling I had, because of all the pressure I put on myself.

It’s a great interview and shows how an average person can rise above themselves to accomplish some great things.

You can read the full interview by going to: Runner’s World Daily News