Great Bay 5K Race for a Healthy Estuary

It was a perfect fall day in the upper 40’s for the race start in Stratham, NH with the fast point to point course finishing at the Great Bay Discovery Center in Greenland, NH. The race had well deserved moment of silence and notice of race dedication for Bob Kennedy who was the long-time race director who tragically passed away this past July. I did a 2 mile warm up and got on the starting line with Thom Lubas of Wicked and NE 65+, about a dozen rows back. My watch was not ready as the start went off so I was fiddling with that as I started the race. 

It did not bother my pace as I caught up to Karen about a half mile into the race. She, Don Withee and I were repping Notch. Karen and I ran together through 1.5 miles passing the mile around 7:25. I motored through for a 7:18 second mile. A few hills in the final mile had me slowing back down for a 7:29. I lost about a dozen places coming into the finish with a 23:15 net time, good for 5^th place in the 50-54 age group. It was my first race as a senior age group runner. Don set a lifetime PR (while in his mid 50’s) with a 19:11 and Karen ran 23:46. Krissy, Maryann and I hung out for a great post race at the Discovery Center. Where else can you get Pizza, Cookies, Brownies and Starbucks Coffee at 9:30AM following a fast 5K?

Place 135 (5^th 50-54)

Pace 7:29

Net time 23:15 (Gun Time 23:23)

http://www.iresultslive.com/?op=summary&eid=6196

BSC 5K – Marlborough, MA

Full Results: https://my.racewire.com/result/9556839

34^th place, 24:37 and 7/22 in the 40-49 age group. I went out on the downhill as easy as possible. Still ran 7:11 for the 1^st mile and 7:37 for the 2^nd mile. The gut check was the uphill last mile which hurt, checking in with a 9:04 for the last 1.1 miles. Overall the time was about 90 seconds slower than last year. The race does not get any easier. 

Boston Scientific was able to raise over $5K from the race entries and donate to Community Servings.