Amherst 10 mile

The Amherst 10 mile road race kicked off the 2017 USATF New England Road Race Grand Prix on Sunday. I ran my first Amherst 10 mile road race 20 years ago in 1997 (9^th place for 56:35). It was not a championship race that year (it was a year later). My coach, Tom Derderian, who designed the course back in 1975, was getting me ready for a slew of races in ’97 which included the Grand Prix Road Race Series. 

Nakri Dao, Joe Armstrong, Greg Putnam and I arrived in Amherst in just under 2 hours. The weather was fair for February – clear pavement, mostly cloudy, average temperature of 38 degrees and a steady WNW wind of over 15mph. I ran two light warm up sessions before the start after settling into my racing flats and lined up about six rows back from the front of the start.

My goal was to break 60 minutes. However, each mile that I passed race showed that an average of 6 minute miles were out of the question. The early hills put me behind the 8-ball and a disappointing 5 mile split of just under 32 minutes. The good news is that some downhill stretches were to follow. The legs responded a bit with low 6 minute miles until the last two miles where I was in the hurt locker physically and mentally. Friend, Mike Paulin tried encourage me to go with him in the last mile (up the hill and into the wind) but I was cooked. I finished in just under 63 minutes. Glad my team did not need that effort to score. Fortunately, CMS had plenty of depth to take the masters team win (open placed 2^nd and 50+ won).

Place 137

Gun Time 1:02:56.9

Net Elapsed 1:02:55.0

6:17 pace per mile

23^rd - 40-49 age category

So that is where I am for a 10 mile effort, about 2 minutes slower than the NH 10 mile race last summer (just under 61 minutes) and over 3 minutes slower than the Amherst 10 mile two years ago. I will keep the mileage up around 60 mile per week with a day per week of interval based training.

Can you tell where the hills were?