Yankee Homecoming 10 mile road race

It has been four years since I lined up for the Yankee Homecoming 10 mile in Newburyport. I ran a time of 56:45 (5:41 pace per mile),22nd overall. I was pretty stoked with the effort, likely my best for the year.

There is a lot that I appreciate about this Tuesday night race in late July or early August. I have my 10 mile road personal best here back in 1997, running 53:34. There is decent crowd in downtown Newburyport to cheer runners on. I signed up months ago and knew a few other CMS guys were going so I pushed for a more guys two weeks before the race so we could potentially score teams. We for sure had enough for a masters team, who would then also score down to an open team.

I warmed up with CMS t’mate Nick Taormina. We traded notes on approach to the race. I was cautious to tackle this with any aggression, having a 1500M and 5.5 mile road race under my belt over the weekend. We agreed low 6 minute miles would work early in the early going. I nailed the expectation , 6:10, a step behind Nick at mile 1. The downtown area got crowded as we ran through the 5K runners. Nothing too hard but you had to keep your head on a swivel and make sure you avoided slower traffic ahead. I caught up with Nick at the end of Merrimac St and mile 5 (31:27, 6:13 pace).

Dave caught me along Pine Hill Road (Maudslay State Park was to our right) at 6.5 miles. I engaged and locked in with him. We caught a few runners from there and along Rt 113. Dave dropped me at 9 miles and opened the gap to 7 seconds to the finish line. I was just about out of gas at the finish which finished in front of the school (climbing up the driveway and a little dip to the finish line) to the sound of Andy Schachat announcing the finishers as they rolled in. 

I placed 43^rd with a chip time of 1:03:05 (approximately 31:27 at the half way point). Nick finished less than a minute after I did. The masters team placed first and I was the 5^th guy. Chris Mahoney, Patrick Rich, and Kevin Hankens, all masters, scored down to help Dan Vassallo (2^nd overall, 52:33) and DJ Raboin (58:05) with the open team win.

59th YANKEE HOMECOMING 10 MILES (2018 results)

NEWBURYPORT, MA     TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2018

Place No.   Name                Guntime Chiptim Age Club

2  Dan Vassallo          52:34   52:33  5:16 33   CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS

10 Chris Mahoney     57:28   57:26  5:45 40   CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

14 Dj Raboin             58:06   58:05  5:49 26     CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

15 Patrick Rich          58:07   58:06  5:49 41    CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

21 Kevin Hankens     58:46   58:46  5:53 40    CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

40 Dave Dunham  1:03:00 1:02:58  6:18 54  CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

43 James Pawlicki 1:03:07 1:03:05  6:19 43  CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

49 Nick Taormina 1:04:06 1:04:01  6:25 45   CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

60 Pat Fullerton   1:05:23 1:05:18  6:32 29   CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                   

MALE MASTERS 40+ 

1. 5:00:21 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS       (1:00:05)

==================================================

  1    57:26   1379 Chris Mahoney       40 

  2    58:06   1876 Patrick Rich        41 

  3    58:46    929 Kevin Hankens       40 

  4  1:02:58    621 Dave Dunham         54 

  5  1:03:05   1740 James Pawlicki      43 

Fred Warren recap

Second race in two days. I got in about a three mile warm up and lined up for the start of the Fred Warren 5.5 mile (my GPS measured out 5.3) in Holden. This is a fun, low key, but in your face rolling course on a Sunday evening. It is a CMS run event all the way to the timing and volunteers. I like it for several reasons. The post race gathering to all runners and volunteers at Stephen Laska’s house .4 miles away is the big draw. The other is an evening race on a Sunday. Rare, yes. But it enabled me to tackle some stuff on a Sunday morning instead of running (I changed out the fuel pump on my Volkswagen Rabbit GTI).

CMS studs Scott Leslie, Dave Brooks, and Tom Steele were in the house. I ran with Tom in the early miles as we were 3^rd and 4^th respectively. He pulled away into mile 2 but I almost got back on his heels at the top of the hill into mile 4. Then we had the fast skates on the downhill into 5 miles. I lost some time to him there but it was still my fastest mile of the day and only one under six minutes. We both got passed by a WPI runner before we got on Main Street as we finished 4^th and 5^th respectively.

The rest of the night included a cool down with the CMS guys, reconnecting with Krissy, and attending the post race party which Stephen Laska and Kim Gordon rolled out to us.

Fred Warren 5.5 mile road race

Holden, MA, July 29, 2018

Overall Results

Courtesy of Central Mass Striders

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/18/ma/Jul29_FredWa_set1.shtml

Place

Time

First

Last

Place

AG

Town

Club

1

28:38:00

Scott

Leslie

1M

M30-39

Rutland

CMS

2

29:31:00

Dave

Brooks

2M

M20-39

Holden

CMS

4

32:24:00

Tom

Steele

1/12

M40-49

Rutland

CMS

5

32:46:00

James

Pawlicki

2/12

M40-49

Lynn

CMS

 

Photos by Kim Gordon and Mike Keating

USATF New England Open Championship Meet

I ran a 1500M track race at Holy Cross in Worcester within the USATF New England Open Track and Field Championship meet on Saturday. Track racing is my least participated running discipline. However, the All Terrain Runner Series including a 1500M race. It could only be contested at the New England Masters or New England Open Meet. I was out of town for the masters meet so this was my only opportunity.

I entered this race with a 4:47 seed time, the mile equivalent conversion to 5:10. I have not run a 1500 since the early 2000’s (4:19 or so at New Englands in Dedham). My last mile race was indoors in 2017 running a 5:11 or so for then, again, an ATR series event. A recent 400m interval workout on Tuesday told me exactly where I was. I thought I would be able to hit 78’s at the end of the workout. Nope. Never broke 80. I ran eight 400’s with a lap of easy running for rest in between them. Most of them were around 82 seconds. The clock does not lie.

 

I got my bib # at the meet from pal Jeff Rockwood. I checked in for the event, ran a little over a mile for a warm up and put a pair of Inov-8 flats on. I jogged around and watched the women’s 1500M finding comfort cheering for Leslie O’Dell, Barbara McManus, Kim Gordon and Emer O'Donoghue.

 

The men’s race was called to the line. I had hip #5. I studied the pre-entry list a few days earlier and knew my place and the competition. I got out into the middle of the race after it started, staying in control and making sure I did not go out too fast. Four guys got away from us and they had their own race. I was behind Timothy Hoff (MVTC) and Mark Capparella (Tri-Valley). I got around them before one lap. They went by me before 700M. Into the final lap, I thought I may be able to push by with a calculated effort but we all seemed to “go” at the same time rounding the last turn. Timothy finished in 5^th with a 4:53.37, Mark 6^th – 4:55.31, and I 7^thwith a time of 4:55.76. It was a pretty good race and felt fortunate to run with them and have the company and competition. Meet results.

Photos above from Stephen Laska. Photos below from Mark.