James Joyce Ramble 10K, Dedham

I had to research the 'net to figure out when I ran this race in the past so I could plan out my race. My GBTC coach Tom Derderian captured the details here which brought back memories that I had forgotten. The year was 2002 and I was coming off of a fractured patella (kneecap) suffered in January. I went on to run 34:27 and was likely my first race from that injury. Meanwhile, teammate, Dennis Floyd set a PR that day with a 32:25. He went on the run several PR's over a few months while he was in the best shape of his life. I am glad Tom documented this for the newsletter back then as my running logs are buried with those lost memories.

I was concerned about the race today in that I have uncharacteristically not raced in a while, since the New Bedford Half Marathon. In addition, I have not done any interval work in three weeks. I got to the starting line in my fresh new Asics threads behind CMS teammates about five rows back from the starting line. The weather was great but a wind was going to fight us along the looped course. I eased into the race with a 5:24 mile next to Jeff Goupil, Ben Jenkins, and George Adams. Mile two was passed in 10:55 so I was closing in on my 5:30 pace goal for the day. I saw Krissy camped out on a narrow road taking photos. She actually got stuck there with the massive crowd of racers. She had to wait for most of the race to go by before she could sprint on the bike back to the finish.

There were hills in the Noble and Greenough campus as I caught up with Tom Brown. Dave Dunham, Dan Verrington, and Todd Callaghan were not too far ahead. I caught up with Dave on our way back to downtown Dedham wheeling past 5 miles in 27:37. We caught Todd with about 1000m to go and I  kept pressing forward through mile six. The clock there confused me with a time in the low 32's which was off by over a minute (just like mile 1). I caught Dan before the line and stopped the timing on my watch with a 34:16. Official results had me 50th overall and a time of 34:17, 10 seconds quicker than in 2002.

Splits
524
531 1055
529 1625
535 2200
537 2737
531 3310
106 3416

The team beat Whirlaway by a mere four seconds, again proving that every second counts. Meanwhile, I ran a cool down with the team and crashed on the Endicott Estate lawn for food, beverage, music and conversation. Krissy was catching up with folks and my dad was chillin' out. It was nice to catch up with everyone. We'll be back at it for the 6K next weekend in Nashua which should be fun. Before closing, I have to give Kevin Gorman credit for supporting the team all over the course. His words of encouragement were awesome. Get well man!

Photos by KrissyK