An Ras Mor 5K

The An Ras Mor 5K is organized by the Somerville Road Runners and hosted at the Asgard Irish Pub and Restaurant in Cambridge. The race was the first of the New England Runner magazine Pub Series. Brett Rickenbach drove Allison Rourke, Scott Carrier, and I down from the North Shore into Cambridge. It was a familar drive as I used to work near Kendall Square and was a regular at MIT for hundreds of track workouts in the late 90's. We registered inside the Asgard and I ran into teammate Mike Quintal who's been on a recent tear - winning two races in recent weeks. Scott, Brett, and I warmed up for a few miles while Allison went out for a run along the Charles River.

I settled into the second row at the start next to Mark Reeder. The gun went off and I got position just outside of the top ten after a few left hand turns. Mike Quintal had the lead as the race was heading toward Harvard Square. I rolled past the mile in 5:11 with the lead pack pulling away. They must have been just under 5:00. I kept my position through mile two (10:42, 5:30 split) as we were now running away from Harvard Square and back to the Asgard. A BAA singlet zipped (Aaron Price) by me with about 600m to go. I had no response and was looking for the home stretch. I turned right off Mass Ave into the home stretch. Mark Reeder pulled aside and it got my attention. I looked ahead and could make out the finish line clock with a 16:07 and counting with 150m to go. My poor excuse for a sprint gave me some room but I got caught at the finish by Timmy Wood. The chip timing gave me a 16:34, 5:20 mile pace, good for 7th place overall.

Mike finished in the money, 3rd overall, with a 15:47. Brett and Scott ran 17:50 and 18:25 respectively for their first races of 2011.

I ran a long cool down out across the Charles River, past the Museum of Science, through the Cambridge Side Galleria Mall and back to the Asgard via Kendall Square. A lot of buildings that did not exist ten years ago now tower and employ thousands of folks including Scott. Any open space back then was prime real estate. I chilled out at the beer tent for about fifteen minutes with Brett, Scott, Mike, and Chris Simpson before departing for an Irish Breakfast at Tommy Doyles Irish Pub and Restaurant in Kendall Square. Next race on the agenda is the New Bedford Half Marathon. Photos by Scott Carrier.

An Ras Mor 5K results Sunday March 13, 2011