St. Patrick's Day Recovery Run 5K

Kristen and I have been reading about this race in the Lynn Item newspaper. In addition, I felt it would be a good idea to support a local race as it seems that Lynn does not have too many road races. I missed out on the Great Stew Chase 15K last month. I was pleased to see friends Solomon Tsegai, Doug Chick, and Jason Euzikonis at registration. Jay, was representing Brooks and was showing off the 2012 running shoe lineup at a table. Doug and I went out for a 10 minute warm up before lining up for the National Anthem. Mark Mayall from New Balance Boston jumped right out  right out with Nick Sousa and a high school kid. I was all alone watching the three climb up Tower Hill which took some effort. Mark took a commanding lead that he would not give up. I managed to catch the high school kid shortly after the mile where I had a 5:25 mile split. Nick was so far ahead so I tried to keep the legs turning over and keep anyone from catching me over the rest of the course which was pretty flat. I rolled into the finish line in 3rd place, 1st Lynn resident, in 17:17. Mark took the win in 16:17 and Nick ran 16:38 which was his second race of the morning. He won the Olde Salem Greens cross country race earlier edging out Mike Quintal and Dave Dunham! I did a cool down with Solomon and came back to a very long line for the food inside the Hibernian Club. The whole place was buzzing with a good vibe of food, drink, raffles and awards.

St. Patrick's Day Recovery 5K Run results - Lynn, MA March 25, 2012
Race photos by KrissyK
Lynn shows its Irish Pride at Hibernians 5K

New Bedford Half Marathon

Finishing up at the New Bedford Half Marathon

With my entry into the Boston Marathon next month, I needed to get in a long run/race. After all, I have not raced since January 1 (5 miles in Salem). So I plunked down the fifty spot a few weeks after some healthy weeks of running. The game plan was to see how 6:00 pace felt early on and play out whatever the legs cared for. Once I got over the hills early on, I had the lead vehicle for the women right at my shoulder. I found this distracting so I picked up the pace for my quickest mile split of the day (5:48). The truck and ladies went by after mile seven and found myself heading straight into the wind and losing my pace and the string of runners ahead. I faded in this stretch and by the time I got wind at my back (8.75 miles), I was spent – looking for the finish line without too many embarrassing miles ahead. In the end, I ran my slowest ½ marathon time but am not too worried as it is progress for the big picture which is to survive the Boston Marathon on Patriots Day. Kristen took several photos at 800m, 5 miles, and just after 13 miles.  

New Bedford Half Marathon

New Bedford, MA, March 18, 2012

148  JAMES PAWLICKI   37 Lynn MA  1:20:54 1:20:56  6:11 Central Mass Striders