Backshore 5 mile road race

May 9 - Full Results

I took advantage of the opportunity of having a day off from work so it was easy to not fight traffic on this Friday night race that starts and finishes at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. Krissy and I met up with Dan and Kat Vassallo in Peabody for a quick 20 minute ride up to Cape Ann. CMS had four guys in attendance with Patrick Rich, Nick Taormina, and Dan Vassallo. It was nice to be lining up for a race again. I was concerned how the race would shake out so I had low expectations – figuring a sub 29 would be ahead. I ran a workout two nights earlier, ad hoc, with Junyong Pak at the 5K that he broke down into 400m repeats with 200m rest. That, right there, was the only “fast stuff” these legs have witnessed since April 21. Dan and Patrick took right off and I settled into the pack for the opening mile that included Mark Mayall, Alex Vlahos, Ryan Hayes, David Long, and Larissa Park. The opening mile was 5:26 and I knew that pace was not going to last but it was fun racing and mixing it up. Mark, Alex, and Ryan pulled ahead on some hills. My battle would be with David. I found that fitting as our encounters last year went back and forth all of last year. The next two mile splits were 5:34 and 5:45 as we got back out to the ocean. Ryan and Mark were about 10 seconds ahead and I had a step on David. I started to gain on Ryan very slowly on our way back to the finish and David faded a touch. This was good. Mile four passed by in 5:35. I could see the last hill ahead with the finish line 200m mentally in my head. I had to press the last 800m to catch Ryan and did at the base of the hill. Krissy was there yelling and taking photos (hope to get them downloaded soon). I passed him only to be passed back on the other side, sprinting down and into the finish. In the process, we gained on Mark who seemed to me letting up as he had 4^th place wrapped up. Thus, a 6^th place finish and a pretty satisfying time of 27:44 for me. My last mile was 5:27. It was at least a minute quicker than I expected. We went to the “after party and awards” that included some BBQ a few miles away at Mile Marker 1.