I met Dennis Floyd in Lynnfield to hit the road for the Westfield
Fast 5K, a point to point course with a little drop in the last mile after the
initial first two flat miles. Prior results confirmed that it was a quick
course, maybe as much as 30 seconds for the top guys. We left the North Shore
around 9:35 and rolled onto the Westfield State University Campus around 11:45
for the 1pm start. We hit three tough stretches of traffic on the Mass Pike
that slowed us down.
I bumped into Barbara McManus who was not going to use her
bib number. The transfer process was quite the ordeal as the folks at
registration had no process for it. I took charge and said I would handle the
administrative leg work. After some running around I got it done. I wrote
transfer to # 285, Barbara McManus, all over my race application. I was nice to
see my name in the results hours later. One less thing to worry about after the
race.
After warming up for less than a mile with Dennis, I put
myself about 20 rows back. Gun went off and I got my legs moving up and out of
the WSU South Parking lot driveway for the only uphill. I stayed to the far
left on the main road which was a flat straight away past Stanley Park where I
have run many cross country races with Salem State.
My first mile was around 6:34, the first time seeing a six
something mile in almost two and a half months. The next mile was a few seconds
slower, 6:38 but I was feeling all right. The last mile dropped down a bit in terms
of elevation into down town and I tried to open up the stride a bit but was not
too sure if I could. I ran 6:20 and pretty much kept that pace to the finish
line with a 20:11.1 chip time or 20:20 clock time.
I converged with some teammates to see how they did.
Everyone ran really fast. Plenty of smiles all around. CMS had 24 guys. The
open team was 3rd, masters 1st, seniors 1st,
and vets were 3rd. I ran back to the start line with some CMS teammates.
This was my first race in a while and was curious about how
my knee and lungs were going to react to the race after a lay off and minimal
training. I received MRI results on Friday, the day before race. The knee pain
that I have been dealing with is the result of a torn meniscus. I will be
looking to an arthroscopic procedure soon which sounds like I will be back to
running after 5 to 6 weeks.
