Friday Night Lights 10,000m

I jumped into a 10,000 meter track race on Friday night. It was hosted by the Western Mass Distance Project and Greater Boston Track Club. This is the 2nd year of the race, however, the field was expanded out for extra heats to allow for athletes to participate in the USATF New England Championship (for the outdoor track meet to be held on July 29 & 30). It was also available for All Terrain Runner points which was my objective. I was not going to participate in a 10K on a track but this opportunity came up and this was the last chance.

My heat, #2, was scheduled to start at 7:40PM at Danehy Park in Cambridge (800 meters from Fresh Pond and the Alwife T-stop). It was a hot night with some lightning that followed after my race. That lightning delayed the elite women's race by a half hour. I passed a few runners during the 25 lap race, as well as, got passed by the top four runners in the race which was won by TJ Unger who ran just under 34 minutes. My quickest lap was my last one, 84 seconds. My slowest lap was the 14th in 91 seconds. It looks like I had five laps at 90 seconds, all of which came after that 91 in the second half of the race.

The top master of the race, Chad Carr passed me during the race. I managed to keep him close in the last 8 laps of my race. His presence helped me stay somewhat focused in the long and hot race. I finished in 12th place, 36:42.9, in the heat (not bad considering I was seed # 31) and 2nd master runner. I was pretty exhausted as I could see that in everyone out there competing. Thank you Stephen Peckiconis for tracking my lap splits and more importantly, keeping count of my laps. He was also keeping track of Patrick Bugbee's laps too. Also, I need to thank Dave Dunham and Krissy for the vocal support during the race.