Run to Win

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

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 Maine Marathoner was last weekend and was won by Dan Vassallo as he powered through to a 2:26:54 in his first marathon. He beat Byrne Decker’s course record from last year by 3 minutes; Byrne finished in 3^rd this year, 9 minutes from the front. The winning relay team was the Dirigo Masters team, who finished just ahead of 2^nd place in 2:32:39. Stephanie Crawford had a 9 minute lead on second place, winning the women’s race in 3:01:16.
(Click here to continue reading…)

The Pat’s Pizza 5 Mile Classic at the Yarmouth Clam Festival was this morning. Pat Tarpy came back to Maine to attempt to set the course record. Two years ago, he ran a course record 24:29 but was soundly beaten by Matt Lane, who ran an impressive 23:48. This year, having already run the fastest mile on Maine soil, he set his sights on breaking Matt’s record. He went out strong and on pace, but fell back a little in the last mile to finish 8 seconds shy in 23:56. He has, however, now broken the course record from before the course was certified. Jeff Caron took second place but was over a minute back in 24:58.

The women’s race was much closer, with Kristin Barry and Sheri Piers repeating last year’s 1-2 finish. They were only 7 seconds apart, running 28:56 and 29:03, respectively. I didn’t see Joan Samuelson at all today, but she came through a hair under 30 minutes, just as she has for the past few years.

Despite the coolest weather since I began running this race, I did not do quite as well as I had hoped to. My goals were about a half minute to 45 seconds faster than I ran, which shows that I should have followed last year’s strategy of running negative splits. My last two miles were a solid and even effort, but they were both about 9 seconds per mile slower than they were in 2006. I came through in 28:02, which will hopefully serve as a good wake up call for my legs so that I can perform well in two weeks at the Beach to Beacon.

There were also 290 children who completed the kid’s 1 mile fun run, and 917 finishers in the 5 mile race.

(Full Results - Clam Festival - Fun Run Results - Photos)

Update: All of the results for races I knew about are now accounted for, as well as the results for a race I hadn’t previously been aware of. There were at least 4561 people who finished a road race on Wednesday.

It is the Fourth of July today, one of the more popular days for a road race in the country. Here is a short recap of the Bridgton Four on the Fourth, the L.L. Bean 10k in Freeport, the York Four on the Fourth, the Winthrop Friends on the Fourth 5k, the Walter Hunt Memorial 3k in Brewer-Bangor, the Kennebunkport Goose Rock Beach 5k, and the Around Mount Desert Island Relay. Updates will appear as I find the results for each race, and I may add more races that I was not aware of, such as the Thomaston 5k.

The first race is the Bridgton Four on the Fourth. This is the one that I decided to run, and the weather was absolutely perfect for a fast, short race on a course with plenty of shade. Erik Stanley broke 20 minutes for the first time in quite a few years, winning the race in 19:57. Carry Buterbaugh ran just over 6 minute pace to win the women’s race in 24:08 on her first attempt at the course. There were 1411 finishers, about 30 shy of last year’s numbers. (Full Results - Photos)

The York Four on the Fourth was won by the local Anthony Balkier in a time of 20:52. The women were led in by Kelsey Smith in 26:50. There were 780 finishers, a healthy growth over last year. (Full Results)

The L.L. Bean 10k in Freeport was won by Ethan Hemphill in 32:33, half of a minute faster than his winning time from last year. Emily Levan had a strong showing to win the women’s race in 36:15, almost a minute faster than second-place Sheri Piers. Joan Samuelson fell back about a minute from last year’s winning time and was the fifth woman to finish. The race grew quite a bit this year, with nearly 200 extra finishers from last year to bring the total to 711. (Full Results - Race Video)

The Kennebunkport Goose Rock Beach 5k was won by again by Mike Griffin, running 6 seconds faster than last year with a winning time of 15:51. He was 50 seconds ahead of second place; a slightly smaller lead than he had last year but still a commanding one. Christine Reaser also repeated last year’s performance, finishing in 18:26. There were 644 finishers, about 30 less than last year. (Full Results)

The Walter Hunt Memorial 4th of July 3K in Brewer/Bangor was won by Steven DeWitt in 8:37. Hilary Maxim led the women in 10:54. Both runners won by less than 10 seconds. There were 490 finishers this year. (Full Results)

The Winthrop Friends on the 4th 5k was won by Gabe Rivard in a speedy 15:07. The women were led by Donna Harriman in 18:31. The race increased by over a third this year, with 407 finishers! That is some huge growth. (Full Results)

The Thomaston 5k was won by Mike Hersom in 19:07. In fourth place over all, Caity Tully won the women’s race in 20:41. There was also a 1 mile kid’s race which was won by Abby Hersom and Keenan Hendricks in 6:33. There were 89 finishers in the 5k, and 58 children in the 1 mile race. (Full Results [5k only] - News Story - Video [start line] - Winner Photo)

The Around Mount Desert Island Relay consisted of 9 teams, 8 of whom finished. The race is comprised of teams of 8 people each, although 11 people ran at least 2 legs of the race; 3 of those 11 ran 3 legs. Team Mules, from Maine, set a course record of 6 hours, 16 minutes and 29 seconds. Crow Athletics was a little over a half hour behind them in 6:52:23. Each team was given a Barbie or Ken doll with a matching bib to use as a baton. There were 68 legs of the race completed by 54 people. (Full Results [pdf])

There were at least 4561 people who finished a road race in Maine today.

The Maine Grand Prix continues a week from Sunday with the New England Mile. Please remember that you must have a valid USATF membership before the start of the race in order to keep your scores from earlier races or for the mile. Otherwise, you will only be eligible to score in races after you have renewed or begun your membership.

Scoring after two events is now available. The first two races in the Grand Prix were the Mid-Winter Classic 10 Miler and the Mother’s Day 5k. Ethan Hemphill and Sheri McCarthy-Piers both lead the open divisions with 19 points and have a 3 point lead over second place. Dirigo R.C. is leading both open team competitions.

The next race is the New England Mile on June 17^th in downtown Portland. There is a father/son and father/daughter competition this year, and as always there is free ice cream at the finish line.

(Full Results - Grand Prix Races)

Every year, the Portland Sea Dogs put on a 5k race on Mother’s Day. The team mascot, Slugger, drives in the pace car with his mother around the course, which is one loop. It is a fun race that usually has less than ideal conditions. Not today, though. The weather was beautiful, with a slight brreeze, no clouds, and temperatures in the mid to high 50s.

The good weather contributed to a record turn out, sealing this race as the largest 5k in Maine. There were 1439 finishers of almost 1800 registered for the race. There were around 1300 runner pre-registered. All of the runners that have made this event as well attended as it has been allowed for there to be professional photographers on the course, and for bagpipers to be hired. They did the awards ceremony outside of the stadium this year, though, which was a little odd. There is a 1:00 game against Binghamton, which must be the reasoning behind that.

Louie Luchini decimated the field in 14:30, averaging 4:41 per mile and beating the course record by 42 seconds. Ethan Hemphill came in about a minute later in 15:27. Kristin Barry and Sheri McCarthy-Piers repeated last year’s top two for the women’s race, finishing in 17:35 and 17:49 respectively.

I had a better race than I could have expected. I was there a few hours early to register and to run the course backwards at a very slow 9:00 to 9:15 pace. There were no dead animals on the course this year. After standing around for a while I got a few more miles of slightly quicker warm-up in, and then got ready to race. I managed to come through in 16:43, which is a slightly quicker start than I normally have at this time of the year. Less than a month out from my marathon, I will take this as a sign that this year I will go below the 16 minute barrier. My best remains either 16:07 or 16:09 from an indoor track race in college. I managed to place third in the 25-29 category, and the trophies remain the only ones that I have that have a baseball in them.

(Full Results - Photos (1) - Photos (2))

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)