Miles Over the Moon 4 mile

This is a Friday night, 8pm race hosted in Salem by the Wicked Running Club. Last time I raced it (10 years ago?), the start and finish were at the Salem Common. Since then, the Bentley School is the new digs as it has some parking. I ran close to a 2 mile warm up with Eric Bowden, Jeff Cook and John Ayers (a few others whose names I did not catch). It was a warm night with intimidating rain clouds moving in. A lot of local clubs on tap included: Notch, North Shore Striders, Wicked Running Club, Winner's Circle, Mystic Running Club, Goat Hill, Greater Lowell and more. I wore the heavy Notch (Adidas) singlet that I had since 2018. I wore the New Balance SuperComp Fuel Cell Trainer which has a Carbon Plate. They are very cushy and rarely wear it but for a race/workout, they are flawless. 

I started the race far enough away from the first row, took about 9 seconds to reach the line after the starting gun. A guy on a bike with a boom box playing some toons was ahead for my first half mile. I found my leg cadence matching the beat. Rather helpful I suppose on the way toward Dead Horse beach and Salem Willows. Mile one was around 6:54. Mile two heading to the Salem Common was similar. The run around the Common is where I was tiring out and found my sight at the darkness to be tricky. A few runners would pass on by through Collins Cove. I hung onto Jeff Cook and he would hold the 2 second advantage over the last 3/4 of a mile to the finish. It would start to rain at that point and lightening scattered the sky over the next few hours. Gun time of 28:49 placed me 79th, chip time was 28:39 (7:09/mile). GPS measured out 4:08. Age group-wise, 17 out of 49 in the 40-49 category. 

2023 Miles Over the Moon 4 mile road race results

Tortoise and the Hare 3 Mile - Nahant

Happy 4th of July! I usually head to Chelmsford for the John Carson 2 mile but opted to stay local. Nahant's, Tortoise and the Hare 3 mile and 1 mile appear to have last been held in 2019. Some from the Lynn Woods running crew like Sal and Eric planned on going. Sign up was easy, A list per 10 year age groups were used and made age group results and soring easy for the top three following the race. Eric, Sal and I did a 1 mile warm up. 

The light rain/drizzle seemed to lay off. About 50+ got started in front of the Flash Road Firehouse. Mile 1 was flat, coming in at 7:19. Eric was already 25 seconds ahead battling for his senior age group. The second mile brought up "the hill." I gained a few spots on the top side and held the spot until the 2nd place female, in a one-piece tennis outfit came beside me with 800M to go. I managed to hold her off in the end and finished with a time of 21:16 for 2.9 miles. 

If I find the results, I will share here but guess the place was 15th or so, but was 2nd in the age group. Eric, Sal and I went off for cooldown out to the ocean where Sal showed us where he does some barnacle studies on the rocky shore. 

Wachusett Mountain Road Race - 3 miles

 Ah, the Saturday before Memorial Day. Sunny and moist in Princeton, MA. Good temps, enough to sweat on a short warm up. I had the CMS singlet on for this being a CMS hosted race. Today's challenge was to get to the top, about 2,000 feet on the elevation scale. I was one of about a quarter of the race who chose to race up only, not up and then down. These leg's are not was they used to be. The field was one of the biggest per Kim Gordon, race director. Steve Laska got the race and heart rates going at 9:30. I found "sustain" gear right away. No choice really. 9:14 passed at the 1 mile. Krissy got video beyond that mile on a rare flat spot. I come into view around 3:18. 

Mile two slowed down to a 9:34. At this point some were doing the run, walk and recovery method. I kept my head down and kept moving forward. I tried to push in the last mile to close a gap between teammate, Paul Bazanchuk and I but he held me off. Another teammate pulled beside me, David Lapierre with 200M to go! I was wasted but held Dave off, barely at our finish. 28:15 was the time. Place is unknown but was 69th to go through that check point (all runners got clocked at the top). I collected Dave and Paul to jog down. Dave wanted to take another route than the course and Paul got back into the race and sprinted after an age-grouper. I managed to hold 8 minute miles down. Overall, good day, over 7 miles covered. 3 Mile Results 10K results