Tonight was the 16^th Back Cove Weekly 5k. The number of people who ran dropped off a bit from recent weeks, despite excellent running weather, but 58 people got to enjoy the race.

There are only 2 races left in the series, and I recommend getting out there for at least one of them. They will both be on Wednesday night at 6:00 pm over the next two weeks.

It came a bit late, but I finally implemented a feature that will allow you to look up a runner’s race history throughout the series. Just click on their name in the weekly results. I still need to update the series standings to also link to the history pages.

The standings for the race shoes is anything but decided on the men’s side, although Carol Fanning has a full 1 minute lead over Emily Hickey.

For the men, Blaine Moore (your ever-so-modest author!) is currently in the lead and has been for a few weeks now. For the past two weeks I have been running in the high 16-minute range, bringing my cumulative time down by over 3 minutes in the past 4 weeks. Unfortunately, with a 50k in a week and a half, my time is not likely to improve too much.

Scott Gorneau has moved into 2^nd place with his first week on the leader board, and he has a few slow races to drop off from early in the season now that he has the required 6 races under his belt. He is currently only a minute and a half back from taking first place.

Scott will have his work cut out for him, though, because Chris Gatchell is poised right now to win the entire thing despite not appearing on the leader board. He is required to run the last two races in order to be eligible for the year’s supply of shoes from Mizuno, but his average race time is only 1 second behind mine.

Eric Neutz is currently in 3^rd place. He led the leader board for most of the Summer, but he will have his work cut out for him to run fast races over the next two weeks now that his cross country season has started again. In fact, I think that it would be silly of him to try.

So, I hope to see any local readers next week or the week after for a last jaunt around the Boulevard in downtown Portland, Maine. Don’t forget that the Portland Trails “Trail to Ale” 10k is the weekend following the last race, and runs part of the race along the Back Cove 5k course.