USATF New England Outdoor 5000m championships

Start of the 5000m with me staring right into Krissy's lense

Dan, myself, and Todd between 1 and 2 miles

Some CMS teammates that were talking about racing the 5,000m at the New England Outdoor Championships at Regis College in Weston. The 5K was the first event in the morning which is easier to plan for and around on a Sunday so I signed up an hour before the race. I put down a seed time of 16:54 based on my An Ras Mor result back in March (the New England 5K Road Race Championship). This put me into the 16^th seed in heat one. My start position was to the far outside lane which suited me well to slide in carefully after the starting gun went off. I settled into the back of the race of over 20 athletes. After a few careful laps, I put in a surge to get behind Todd Callaghan. Dan Verrington was right behind me and his goal was to run 16:52 which was fine with me. Mile one passed around 5:22. The track was warm. A water table was out there but I did not see anyone take any water (had to reach out into lane 3). I kept behind Todd as his pace was good. We slowly caught a few runners. I missed the 2^nd mile split but had started to focus on the count down of laps. I figured to give a good effort with two laps to go but my body had other thoughts in the heat. I was wiped out but told Todd that we could catch Rod Hemingway who was just ahead and coming back to us. We both did and went around him. Todd picked up his pace with a lap to go and I was fading fast. I knew Rod would come back and make a race of it. Come back he did! He passed me and charged after Todd with 150m to go. I yelled to Todd “man on” and he picked it up to finish just ahead of Rod. I finished 11^th in 16:53. Not too bad and close to the seed time and my expectations. I collected myself and chatted up the event with others. I ran a few miles with Todd following the race and then another set of miles with Jason Coukouras and Francis Burdett. Next races on the calendar is the John Carson 2 mile and then Loon Mountain – US Mountain Running Championships. Krissy took a lot of photos of the 5,000m events that broke down into a women’s race and two heats of the men’s race. Full results.

Rod and I with 250m to go behind Todd

5000 Meter Run Men

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    Name                     Age Team                    Finals

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  1   236 SEAN DUNCAN         24 Western Mass          15:06.71 

  2    36 Eric Couture        26 02-Unattache          15:17.79 

  3    75 Alex Hall           27 Boston Athle          15:58.95 

  4   128 Greg Putnam         44 Central Mass          16:01.48 

  5   130 Jeffrey Ragazzini   24 Greater Bost          16:12.60 

  6   106 Mark Mayall         42 New Balance           16:32.43 

  7   213 NATHANIEL WEBBER    22 02-Unattache          16:34.14 

  8    18 Francis Burdett     49 Greater Spri          16:35.94 

  9    23 Todd Callaghan      44 Central Mass          16:49.27 

 10    80 Rodney Hemingway    38 Greater Bost          16:50.04 

 11   412 James Pawlicki      39 Central Mass          16:53.17 

 12   359 Titus Mutinda       49 Team RUN              17:07.35 

 13   115 Eric Narcisi        34 Whirlaway Ra          17:10.44 

 14    48 Dave Dunham         50 Central Mass          17:21.74 

 15   154 Daniel Verrington   52 Central Mass          17:22.99 

 16   925 Joe O'Leary         43 Somerville R          17:27.44 

 17    71 Thomas Grenier Jr   43 02-Unattache          17:31.20 

 18    37 Anthony Crudale     37 Greater Bost          17:39.62 

 19   163 Ian Wright          27 SISU Project          18:04.34
 20    33 Shawn Conway        43 Greater Lowe          18:12.86  

USATF New England Track & Field Championships 10K

Ben pulling Joe and I early in the race

Today was a rare outdoor track event for me in the USATF New England Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Regis College in Weston, MA. I have not run too many 10,000 meter races on the track. I can recall, maybe, three in college and one post college where I set a personal record at the Northeastern Husky Twilight Track & Field # 2 meet in Dedham on May 26, 2001 with a 33:32.5. That was the last time I raced the event on the track. Ten years later and an opportunity came up last month when Dave Dunham was interested in a 10K on the track. The event was not on the schedule for this meet. Dave contacted Steve Viatones from the USATF New England office and he agreed to add the event to the meet schedule. Meanwhile, CMS recruited eight runners for the event that took to the starting line this morning: Chris Mahoney, Ben Strain, Kevin Tilton, Dave Dunham, Dave Quintal, Joe Shairs, Greg Putnam, and I. I figured I could run with Ben, Joe, and Dave Dunham with a goal of a sub 34 minute race. I got out and settled in behind Ben and Joe. The first lap was just under 80 seconds (5:20 mile pace). We were going out a bit faster than I wanted but I also wanted company in the 25 lap event. We went through the first mile in 5:21 with Ben towing Joe and I. This continued aside from the pace slowing down a bit per mile (see my splits below). The stretch between 3 and 4 miles brought about a 5:37 mile and it felt like it. I had just enough energy to yell to Ben and Joe to let them know that we were on the wrong side of 5:30 pace. Joe picked it up and pushed. I hung on for another four laps and started to drag, fade, and lose them. I went through five miles in 27:29 (5:30 mile pace) but knew I was in trouble. Mile 5 through 6 was miserable in 5:38. I had no energy to close the gap between myself and Ben who was closing in on Joe with 300m to go. Ben caught Joe in the final 100m. I followed about 10 seconds behind Joe with an unofficial time of 34:27 at the finish line. I missed my goal with a tired second half and never had the energy to contribute or push the pace. I felt my form disintegrate in the last two miles. Ben and Joe ran solid races. I know they too were looking for a sub 34.

Ben still taking charge

I want to thank Lou Ristaino who called out splits and kept track of laps while our group got lapped late in the race. Meanwhile, thanks are appropriate to Joe Fischetti who had words of encouragement for each of my 25 laps. The team went out for a long cool down around Weston. My right hamstring was completely messed up but got better after two miles. I was beat when we returned to the Regis campus 37 minutes later. Krissy and I hung out at the meet for another hour and watched several events in the meet. The afternoon  was capped off with lunch at Sorrento's in Concord. Krissy took several photos showing the 10K event. She was all over the place and certainly captured the physical demands of the 10,000 meter event in June.



Late in the race breaking down......



10,000 meter splits

5:21

5:28  10:49

5:30  16:20

5:37  21:58

5:31  27:29

5:38  33:08

1:19  34:27