This was the 5th and final race of the 2021 USATF New England Cross Country Grand Prix series. This would be my 3rd XC Grand Prix event this fall after running the GBTC Invite in Carlisle and the New England Cross Country Championships at Franklin Park two weeks ago. Rachel's Run would be a 5K course run behind the Academy of Notre Dame combining everything cross country from rolling hills to mud. CMS would have exactly five runners. We had an incentive to finish a masters or senior team to compete for the last of the team cash prizes in the series. My goal was to hang with CMS teammate, Paul Bazanchuk as he finished about a minute faster than my effort at XC Nationals in October.
The opening of the race goes across a baseball and soccer field, up to the school driveway, then dips sharply to the pond (see video below about 600m into the race). Runners are met with a slight climb through orange and white painted roots approaching the hum of Rt 3. The trees get taller and the woods darker with a little mud before going up the steep climb through Abrams Hill. Runners crash down and it rolls gently before flattening out of the woods and back onto the baseball field to complete lap 1 or exactly 1.5 miles.
The plan to stick with Paul was working in the first half of the race as I trailed by 5 seconds. He gapped me up and down the rest of the hills in the second lap. I got past a few runners in the last mile to finish with a time of 22:26, 35th place, 5th CMS runner. Paul finished 21 seconds ahead. Our mix of age groups finished 5th in open and 1st 40+.
My splits for the 3.09 distance were: 7:25, 7:03, 7:26
CMS finishers: Tim Van Orden 18:29, Steve Brightman 18:48, David Harper 20:30, Paul Bazanchuk 22:05, James Pawlicki 22:26
Photos and Video credit to Kristen Pawlicki
Video taken by Kristen Pawlicki, 600m after the start
2021 Rachel's Run 5K men's results
2021 Rachel's Run 5K team results
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