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