Run for the Hills 10K - Hamilton

The Run for the Hills race is aptly named behind Pingree High School. There are several short momentum breakers on the course. I had to sign up so I got to the race early to fill out an application. I was still laughing about a closed online registration portal on a Tuesday afternoon. I introduced Greg Putnam to Colin Carroll before showing Greg the course. It was muddy in the swampy sections. The course is one loop for the 5K and two loop (repeat the 5K loop) for the 10K. It was awesome to have the CMS teammates on the line. Colin was undefeated in the North Shore Trail Series in 2015. Greg has been racing well and looking to take no prisoners. Therefore, there was no surprise when they passed me a few minutes into the race - making me look like I was in the JV race. I somehow kept Colin in sight - only if there was a straight away on the first lap. He was not his usual self. The gap was getting smaller as we started the 2nd round of hills in the second lap. I told Greg earlier that the second lap was going to hurt. It did. I caught Colin in the middle of that second lap. We were both hurting, he admitted later that the lack of training caught up. I managed to get a little room and hold onto 2nd in the end. Greg smoked the course in what has to be a course record (edit - Joe Shairs ran quicker in 2008, 36:57). Colin was on my heels - 11 seconds behind. I drank a ton of Gatorade and ran a cooldown with Jason Matuelwicz over the loop for 4th time for the day. My reward beside muddy legs was a half dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies made by RD Cathy Lanois.

2015 Run for the Hills Race Results