Yankee Homecoming 10 mile road race

It has been four years since I lined up for the Yankee Homecoming 10 mile in Newburyport. I ran a time of 56:45 (5:41 pace per mile),22nd overall. I was pretty stoked with the effort, likely my best for the year.

There is a lot that I appreciate about this Tuesday night race in late July or early August. I have my 10 mile road personal best here back in 1997, running 53:34. There is decent crowd in downtown Newburyport to cheer runners on. I signed up months ago and knew a few other CMS guys were going so I pushed for a more guys two weeks before the race so we could potentially score teams. We for sure had enough for a masters team, who would then also score down to an open team.

I warmed up with CMS t’mate Nick Taormina. We traded notes on approach to the race. I was cautious to tackle this with any aggression, having a 1500M and 5.5 mile road race under my belt over the weekend. We agreed low 6 minute miles would work early in the early going. I nailed the expectation , 6:10, a step behind Nick at mile 1. The downtown area got crowded as we ran through the 5K runners. Nothing too hard but you had to keep your head on a swivel and make sure you avoided slower traffic ahead. I caught up with Nick at the end of Merrimac St and mile 5 (31:27, 6:13 pace).

Dave caught me along Pine Hill Road (Maudslay State Park was to our right) at 6.5 miles. I engaged and locked in with him. We caught a few runners from there and along Rt 113. Dave dropped me at 9 miles and opened the gap to 7 seconds to the finish line. I was just about out of gas at the finish which finished in front of the school (climbing up the driveway and a little dip to the finish line) to the sound of Andy Schachat announcing the finishers as they rolled in. 

I placed 43^rd with a chip time of 1:03:05 (approximately 31:27 at the half way point). Nick finished less than a minute after I did. The masters team placed first and I was the 5^th guy. Chris Mahoney, Patrick Rich, and Kevin Hankens, all masters, scored down to help Dan Vassallo (2^nd overall, 52:33) and DJ Raboin (58:05) with the open team win.

59th YANKEE HOMECOMING 10 MILES (2018 results)

NEWBURYPORT, MA     TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2018

Place No.   Name                Guntime Chiptim Age Club

2  Dan Vassallo          52:34   52:33  5:16 33   CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS

10 Chris Mahoney     57:28   57:26  5:45 40   CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

14 Dj Raboin             58:06   58:05  5:49 26     CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

15 Patrick Rich          58:07   58:06  5:49 41    CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

21 Kevin Hankens     58:46   58:46  5:53 40    CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

40 Dave Dunham  1:03:00 1:02:58  6:18 54  CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

43 James Pawlicki 1:03:07 1:03:05  6:19 43  CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

49 Nick Taormina 1:04:06 1:04:01  6:25 45   CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

60 Pat Fullerton   1:05:23 1:05:18  6:32 29   CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

MALE MASTERS 40+ 

1. 5:00:21 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS       (1:00:05)

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  1    57:26   1379 Chris Mahoney       40 

  2    58:06   1876 Patrick Rich        41 

  3    58:46    929 Kevin Hankens       40 

  4  1:02:58    621 Dave Dunham         54 

  5  1:03:05   1740 James Pawlicki      43