With Thanksgiving Day, there was no shortage of races to choose from. I was tossed between the Wild Turkey 5 mile road race in Salem or the Maudslay State Park 5K cross country run in Newburyport. I picked Salem as I had more friends and family invested and the race is so close to home. Krissy and I got there with zero traffic at 6:50 AM getting primo parking at the Salem Commons. She headed out for a course walk with a friend at 7:05. I waited until 7:25 and headed out for a 2 mile warm up with Nakri Dao. Nakri would go on to run a few seconds quicker than last year with a 3rd place age group time of 31:52.
The weather was awesome, mid-30’s, bright sun and no wind. A long sleeve under the singlet, shorts and gloves fit the bill. I bought a pair, first for me, of carbon plated shoes made by Asics the day before at New England Running Company in Beverly. "Super shoes" they call them. Supposed to shave seconds off my pace per mile, keep me on my toes, magic! After all they are Magic Speed 2 Ekiden.
I lined up 3 rows from the front line for the 8AM start. It felt like I was in 100th place after 400m. I did my thing along Derby Street ensuring to not get too excited. I was expecting to run a sub 7 mile pace all the way today. Mile one passed by in 6:47 (per my GPS recording). I entered the loop into Winter Island for mile 2. Andrew Ernst running with the Notch Brewing kit already had a huge lead. More on that later. I gave a high five to Dan Donato on his exit from Winter Island. He would go on to run 27:15, 4th OA and first master.
My 2nd mile split was 6:53. CMS member, Brian Hutter from Lynnfield was pulling away from me. He would go on for a 33:10. A loop around Salem Neck revealed another 6:47 mile. Now running through Salem Willows to the walkway along the shoreline passing Deadhorse Beach, had a little back and forth with competitors.
I saw Krissy on the far right walking and cheering. Mile 4 came sooner than I remember from the past just beyond that last hill. That split was a 7:01. From there to the finish, flat as a pancake.
Maybe I can reel in a few scalps? I was talking myself into catching at last six of them back at mile 3. I think I got 3 of them over the last 2 miles (did not count the kid tossing his cookies on the side of road at 4.8 miles). I wheeled into the finish with plenty of body language to show that I was tired. 83rd place, 34:04. Almost broke 34 and that would have been sweet. Yet, I will take the 6:48.8 mile pace overall! Did the shoes help any? Hard to say. Maybe a few seconds per mile. The last mile was the quickest for me on the day at 6:42. Heart rate was over 170 for the last three miles.
I regrouped, sunk a bottle of water and headed out for another 1.5 cool down with Nakri who was almost thinking about a 10AM 5K race in Lynn. Now for those who have not peeked at the overall results or for those that have, may overlook the winning time via Andrew Ernst. He managed to break, no, crush the course/event record by 1.5 minutes. He ran 23:25! That is 4:41 pace per mile. The previous record was 24:55 by Russell Brown. I'll try and secure from top times over the past two decades from Doug Bollen and post them up here soon.
Wild Turkey 5 Mile Results, Salem, November 24, 2022
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