It has been four years since I lined up for the Yankee
Homecoming 10 mile in Newburyport. I ran a time of 56:45 (5:41 pace per mile),22nd overall. I was pretty stoked with the effort, likely my best
for the year.
There is a lot that I appreciate about this Tuesday night
race in late July or early August. I have my 10 mile road personal best here
back in 1997, running 53:34. There is decent crowd in downtown Newburyport to
cheer runners on. I signed up months ago and knew a few other CMS guys were
going so I pushed for a more guys two weeks before the race so we could potentially
score teams. We for sure had enough for a masters team, who would then also
score down to an open team.
I warmed up with CMS t’mate Nick Taormina. We traded notes
on approach to the race. I was cautious to tackle this with any aggression,
having a 1500M and 5.5 mile road race under my belt over the weekend. We agreed
low 6 minute miles would work early in the early going. I nailed the
expectation , 6:10, a step behind Nick at mile 1. The downtown area got crowded
as we ran through the 5K runners. Nothing too hard but you had to keep your
head on a swivel and make sure you avoided slower traffic ahead. I caught up
with Nick at the end of Merrimac St and mile 5 (31:27, 6:13 pace).
Dave caught me along Pine Hill Road (Maudslay State Park was
to our right) at 6.5 miles. I engaged and locked in with him. We caught a few runners
from there and along Rt 113. Dave dropped me at 9 miles and opened the gap to 7
seconds to the finish line. I was just about out of gas at the finish which
finished in front of the school (climbing up the driveway and a little dip to
the finish line) to the sound of Andy Schachat announcing the finishers as they
rolled in.
I placed 43rd with a chip time of 1:03:05 (approximately
31:27 at the half way point). Nick finished less than a minute after I did. The
masters team placed first and I was the 5th guy. Chris Mahoney,
Patrick Rich, and Kevin Hankens, all masters, scored down to help Dan Vassallo
(2nd overall, 52:33) and DJ Raboin (58:05) with the open team win.
59th YANKEE HOMECOMING 10 MILES (2018 results)
NEWBURYPORT, MA
TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2018
Place No. Name Guntime Chiptim Age Club
2 Dan Vassallo 52:34 52:33
5:16 33 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
10 Chris Mahoney 57:28
57:26 5:45 40 CENTRAL
MASS STRIDERS
14 Dj Raboin
58:06 58:05 5:49 26
CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
15 Patrick Rich
58:07 58:06 5:49 41
CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
21 Kevin Hankens 58:46 58:46
5:53 40 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
40 Dave Dunham 1:03:00 1:02:58 6:18 54
CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
43 James Pawlicki 1:03:07 1:03:05 6:19 43
CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
49 Nick Taormina 1:04:06 1:04:01 6:25 45
CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
60 Pat Fullerton 1:05:23
1:05:18 6:32 29 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS
MALE MASTERS 40+
1. 5:00:21 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS (1:00:05)
==================================================
1 57:26 1379 Chris Mahoney 40
2 58:06 1876 Patrick Rich 41
3 58:46 929 Kevin Hankens 40
4 1:02:58 621 Dave Dunham 54
5 1:03:05 1740 James Pawlicki 43
