I woke up early Saturday morning with no scheduled plan,
race, or destination. Not content with a boring solo run for the day, I found the
Great Bay 5K in Stratham NH that looked good for competition and age group
prizes. I looked up prior year results. My chances of an age group win looked
good but you never know who is going to show up. After an easy warm up on
nearby trails, I ran over to the start and saw Nate Jenkins in CMS colors. I
wore my tuxedo shirt to follow the Halloween theme.
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| Before the race with Derek Hamel and Krissy. Derek went on to race a 16:53 and get best costume. |
I got on the line next to
Steve Dowsett who has run low 16’s on this “known as a fast course” as it drops
into Greenland, NH. The race took off and I filtered into around 15th
place on Rt. 33. Derek Hamel (short time CMS’r), dressed up as a mime, zipped
past me 400m into the race. I held on through mile one which had a clock around
5:20 as the course started to drop down a bit on a curvy road. Mile 2 was
reached in 10:50 or so as I was battling a few youngsters with a few Seacoast
runners ahead as we climbed the only significant hill. The course dropped back
down for a quick finish.
A high school runner zipped past and encouraged me to
go with him just before 3 miles. I kept place, 12th, reaching the
line in 17:13 for my quickest 5K of the year. The course is certainly a fast
one. I grabbed a water and handed out fist pumps to the guys around me. I was
good with the effort. I headed back out onto the course to find Krissy and check
out the costumed runners. I found Krissy with less than a mile to go and ran
her in.
We collected our race bags for some dry clothes and filtered through a
nice post-race set up where I had some pumpkin bread and clam chowder. A quick
peek at the results found me placing 2nd in the age group with a
Maine runner about 20 seconds up. Full results. Next race up for me is the New England Cross
Country Championships at Franklin Park.
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| Great Bay 5K course and my splits slowing while dropping elevation |
18th Annual Great Bay 5K - Greenland, NH, October 29, 2016
12 2/49
M4049 17:13 5:33 James Pawlicki 42 M Lynn MA
CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
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| Tracks ahead crossed after the finish line |
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| Krissy captured what I found was fitting in the trails behind the Sandy Point Discovery Center |
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| More fun behind the Discovery Center |
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