Catching up: Part III - Super 5K, Clamdigger, Backroad Ramble

This will be my final installment in the "Catching Up" series - a string of posts recapping races from earlier this year that I was too busy/lazy to write about at the time. This time, we'll go way back to the spring.

Race #1: Super 5K, Narragansett, 2/1/2015
Results here.
I actually wrote this up back in February but never put the finishing touches on it, so you're getting the draft version here. Don't complain; it's better than nothing. Or is it?

At the start, I lined up in the second row, next to Tommy, just behind Bob Jackman. Bob asked what I was shooting for, and I told him I didn't know due to the horrible training I've put in over the past several weeks. I then tried to say something like, "I'll be thrilled if I can hang with you today." Instead, I said, "I'm might have a bad enough race that I run with you, you slow fool." Well, not exactly that, but it was nearly as insulting.

A colorful crew heading out from the start.

We took off, and I settled into eighth or ninth place. Matt Pelletier and D.J. Principe were far ahead in no time at all. The rest of us would be racing for third today. Ahead of me were a few unknowns, as well as Jonny and Bob. After passing Jonny and a kid who'd gone out too hard, I was a few seconds behind Bob and his pack of three. I didn't have much of a race plan other than wanting to be directly behind Bob going into the headwind up the hill on Earle's Court. (He's big-boned. That's a compliment.) I saw the turn up ahead and put in a little surge just in the nick of time. As we rounded the corner, I pulled squarely into Bob's wind shadow. Our little pack crossed the first mile in 5:19. The group slowed down quite a bit on the second half of the hill, and I was tempted to make a move, but energy conservation won out, and I bade my time a while longer.

As we crested the hill and turned left, we said goodbye to the wind, and I said goodbye to the pack. I urged Bob to come with me, hoping we could push each other as we often do, but today wasn't his day.

Rounding the turnaround cone, I had a chance to see how things were playing out behind me. Bob and another guy were still within striking distance, maybe five seconds back. Muddy, Jonny, and Tom were not far behind, with Jeff following shortly after. I did my best to give shout outs to all the WTAC members in the race (there were a ton), but I mostly just drooled and spat at them.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. D.J. was far ahead, and Matt Pelletier was totally out of sight. I looked back when I got to Ocean Rd and saw I'd opened up a gap on the chase pack. While it would have been nice to run with someone during the final mile, I actually didn't mind being in no-man's land. It allowed me to relax, which could only help me avoid completely destroying myself in this race after the miserable month of training I'd put in during January. (For perspective, my total mileage for the month was the same as Muddy's mileage in the previous week.)

The only interesting thing that happened the rest of the way was nearly getting run over by a 15-passenger van that turned left onto a road just as I was crossing. (This after being told by the volunteer directing traffic that he "had me covered.") I stopped short and skirted the back end of the van and continued on my way. When I rounded the final corner to head to the finish, I was surprised to see the clock already in the 16:30s. I crossed in 16:42, my slowest road 5K in two years, and only 10 seconds faster than the Resolution Beach 5K. I might have cruised it in, but I still ran hard, so the result was pretty disappointing.

I was thrilled to see Muddy finish close behind (just missing breaking 17 again...), then Jonny a few steps in back of Bob and Dave, followed closely by Tom, running his first race since August. Jeff was our 5th man, just over 18 minutes

Closing in the on the finish.

The most intriguing part of this race is the team competition. The scoring goes five deep, so it favors large teams with a solid front five. This would seem to benefit WTAC, but TNT brought a talented squad that was going to give us a run for our money. Last year, we'd dominated the team competition, but we'd be without out top two varsity finishers from a year ago, as Mike Galoob had"graduated" to bigger and better things, and Ryan Woolley is studying abroad, so to speak.

After the race, we tried to figure out if we'd pulled it off, but it was hard to know if we were counting all of the Turtles who'd been in the mix, since Jeff's implicit rule that team members must be wearing a team jersey was not being enforced on this day. There was a moment of drama as we awaited the announcement of the team winner, and we all erupted with joy when WTAC was proclaimed the victor.

It turned out to be nearly as close a race as we'd imagined, with WTAC winning by a little over a minute. Interestingly, the team winners were determined based on overall time, and not on place, as the website stated (and had been done in years past). My assumption about the scoring played a big part in my effort over the final mile. If I'd known that we'd be judged by our time, I would have kept grinding it out rather than cruising in. Next time, I'll remember to check on this in advance.

Celebrating the team titles!

For reference, here's how the team competition would have looked if it had been scored based on overall places or on the places including only runners on teams. No matter how you slice it, we would've won.

Overall places:
WTAC - 3, 4, 9, 10, 17 = 43
TNT - 2, 7, 8, 13, 22 = 52

Men's Team places:
WTAC - 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 = 28
TNT - 1, 4, 5, 9, 11 = 30

However, we were not nearly as speedy as the year before. For comparison, here are the times of the top-5 WTAC finishers from the two years.

Overall time: 86:55
Chris 16:42
Muddy 17:03
Jonny 17:25
Tom 17:30
Jeff 18:15

2014 team: 82:16
Galoob 15:29
Woolley 16:16
Chris 16:33
Tom 16:45
Muddy 17:13

Race #2: Clamdigger 5M, Westerly, April 12, 2015
Results here.
Almost nothing worthy of a recap happened in this race, but that hasn't stopped me before. I ran fairly well at this race in 2014, nearly breaking 27:00, and I thought if I played my cards right, I might have a chance of sneaking under this time. No need for suspense in this post -- I didn't even come close. I went out a little behind the speedy Nick Migani, last year's runner-up, and watched him slowly, and then not so slowly, pull away. I ran by myself the entire way and was the only runner to finish in a span of two minutes between the 1st and 3rd place finishers. My final time was 27:46, with splits of 5:21, 5:28, 5:36, 5:33, 5:36. It was a disappointing race. The best part of the day by far was watching Seb run in the kids' race on the beach. He face-planted right before the finish but eventually got up and made it across, with only miles of sand behind him. And that's all I have to say about that day.

Taking off next to Tommy. (Photo by Jana)

Outkicking 5K runners. It was nice to finally have some company out there. (Photo by Jana)

Race #3: Backroad Ramble 5K, Charlestown, June 7, 2015
Results here.
This was another race I'd wanted to check off my list, especially with all of the effort Jeff had put into revamping the course in recent years. I was not disappointed - it was a fun course with superb post-race activities and food.

The first hundred meters of this race are unique in that we have to charge up the wooden steps of an outdoor amphitheater to reach the trail. I was cautious, both to conserve energy and to avoid stumbling, and found myself in 5th place or so at the top. I started to ease my way toward the front and took the lead by the time we reached the dirt road at the other end of the parking lot. I glanced at my watch and noticed that the pace was far too slow for a 5K, so I started to push until the effort was right for the distance. By the time I reached the mile (5:35), I was alone, but I knew Matthew Walker and others were still lurking behind, so I kept on pushing.

I felt excellent on the trails in the campground. It's really quite enjoyable trying to run 5K pace on single track; the pace seems so much faster than it truly is. I glanced back at some point in this 2nd mile and didn't see anyone; this gave me a jolt of adrenaline, and I kept on pounding. Mile 2 split was 5:41.

I continued running hard on the return of the lollipop loop (the stem?) and made one final surge up the last hill and then down the steep road to the finish. Final mile split was 5:34, for a finish time of 17:28. Matthew, Jeff, and Jonny followed shortly after - a nice showing by WTAC up front.

While I didn't get to play on the water trampoline afterward, I did enjoy running with Seb in yet another kids' race (he was last again but his Batman shirt drew rave reviews) and then kayaking out to the trampoline to watch Jeff and Jonny jump around like the children they are.

Up the final hill. (Photo by Jana)

Pacing Seb through the kids' race. Look at that form!

The always intimidating WTAC squad. (Photo by Jana)

Posing with Batman after the race. (Photo by Katie)

Catching up, Part II: Blessing of the Fleet

This is Part II in the "Catching Up" series, a belated set of posts about races that took place earlier in 2015. Keeping with the old adage, "Thou must etch in the scrolls a race write-up before thou doth loses the toenail killed in the race," I will eke out this post just in time. Four months after destroying it during the Blessing of the Fleet, the toenail on the second toe of my left foot now has mere days left. So, let's roll up the scrolls and get on to the post...

July 24 - Blessing of the Fleet 10M

I loved the Blessing in 2014 and was looking forward to the 2015 version. I had really hoped to crank out a great time this time, but, as usual, an injury kept me from doing the kind of training I needed to. (This time it was hip bursitis.) I really hope to one day write about a race without including the second part of that sentence, as this seems to happen far too often. Still, I had lofty goals, and I wanted to break 57, which would be roughly a minute faster than I ran last year.

I met up with Jonny and Woolley before the race and then bumped into the Walkers, Mike B, young Eckel, and Jackman, and we took a casual group warm up, during which I grabbed a GU off the tire of Katie's car, where she'd lovingly stashed it for me. On my way back to my car, I ran past a face I hadn't seen in many years, that of a guy who used to dominate high school track in New York State's Section 9 in the late '90s. I think we recognized each other, but neither of us wanted to be the one to make the first move, so we just passed each other by. It was the first of many times I'd be passed on the day.

Cruising in the first mile. U-S-A!!

Back at the start, I lined up next to Jonny and Woolley, amidst a throng of high schoolers and a bunch of speedy grown-ups. I took off conservatively, but not as cautiously as I usually would. I wanted to maintain 5:40 effort as long as I could, and I was OK with the first mile being a little faster, since it was net downhill. As we headed toward the bottom of the opening hill, I noticed how far ahead the lead pack was. I was 30 seconds behind and essentially leading the chasers. (We weren't actually chasing the front pack, of course, but what else could I call us?)

On Ocean Road, I was caught by a pack of high schoolers and wanted to hang with them for as long as I could. They were a focused group with one notable exception. That one guy was writing the book on youthful arrogance, and I found myself wishing he'd trip and fall on his smug little face. Did I mention I've become a crotchety old man?

A man among children. Literally.

I was even more annoyed when those kids dropped me at the start of the fourth mile. I was still running my intended splits and felt great, but I couldn't match their pace. Up the hill at mile 5, I watched that pack pull farther ahead and realized they weren't coming back. Each time I got caught by another runner, I hung with them for as long as I could before letting go. I was like an eel someone was trying to hold with soapy gloves; I kept getting dropped. (In other news, I just got nominated for worst metaphor of 2015.)

Going up the long hill on 108, I saw the most threatening sky I'd ever seen in a race. Dark clouds were heading our way. I was a little worried but figured the chances that lightning would strike me instead of the thousands of other people hanging around the race course was pretty slim. The skies opened, and the deluge began. I was drenched within a few minutes, which was probably more of a benefit than a hindrance, as I needed to cool off. 

On the bright side, I didn't have to shower that night.

Probably a good thing I didn't go with the white shorts...

By this point, I was doing everything I could to keep the pace in the high 5:40s, but it was a struggle. Heading into the final mile, my toenail was killing me, and the dreaded calf cramps began. It was so frustrating not to be able to respond as I got passed by two guys in the last 800 meters. Katie was standing right around this spot, and after the race all she could say was, "Oof, honey." So much for thinking I at least looked good.

I can't be sure, but I think that lady just passed me.

Delirium has set in.

I finished in 57:24, still a PR, but I was terribly disappointed in the race. I know I was in better shape than that, based on my previous races. Things just didn't come together in this one. Maybe it was racing Beavers the week before, or maybe it was that I went out too fast. Either way, I was feeling unfulfilled by the experience. That is until Jonny, Woolley, and I got to have a drink with a former Super Bowl champ in his house. All thoughts of the race vanished after this brush with greatness. The night ended with a group dinner at Phil's in Wakefield. It was a great end to a mediocre day.

This says it all. A fast start and a not-so-fast finish. I had good intentions.