John Carson July 4th 2 mile

One of my favorite road races here which is a 2 mile point to point course with 3/4 of it along a parade route full of spectators in Chelmsford. CMS is usually well represented here with an open runner in the top five and masters or seniors ranking up there as well. Good to see Dave Lapierre, Joe Shairs and Dave Dunham here. Also saw CMS folks like Andy Sieracki and Lisa Sternstrom who grew up in Chelmsford, going to school with John Carson before his tragic accident.

I got into the start about 15 rows deep, unable to avoid the surround of anxious teenagers who bolt out way too fast or clog the way to the finish. I spent the opening half mile like an NFL running back juking, swerving - trying to find space. Finally, once on the parade route, space granted and the pass frequency per meter slowed to 1.2 runners. Mile 1 approached sooner than expected, hearing a split of 6:47, about my goal. A generous downhill stretch followed and could see Eric Beachesne ahead so I tried to close in but ran out of space. 

I reached the line in 13:17, 66th place. 6:38 pace. Dunham and Shairs placed 1 and 2 within their age group. They waited for me long enough to grab Watermelon and water before a 3 mile cooldown with a few minutes on the Bruce Freeman trail before getting out to 1.5 miles on the course and running through the parade! Results