Saturday, August 1, 2009
35:15 5:41/mi pace Overall
97th Overall - 11th 40+ Masters
7th Overall in the 40-44 Age Division
Splits 11:10, 16:47 (5:37), 22:35 (5:48), 28:15 (5:40), 34:11 (5:57) 35:15 (65)
Finally. Sun. Summer heat. Goodbye, rain. Yes. Summer has finally has arrived. And yet, with the Beach 2 Beacon 10k and the following weeks' Falmouth Road Race now here, summer's end seems all too close. I first learned about Beach 2 Beacon by happen-stance back in 2005 while on vacation in Old Orchard Beach with the family. The race is a big deal in Maine with some top notch international and regional talent. The Portland newspaper gives it much respect. Not one or two lame articles. Nope. Two days before there will be an entire pull-out section full of lead-in stories, runner profiles, and of course the usual human interest pieces. Plus several more stories on race day and finally post race recaps of the international, top local talent as well as middle and back of the packer's.The race located in oh so picturesque Cape Elizabeth, Maine was founded by local running great Joan Benoit Samuelson, winner of the first Women's Olympic Marathon. This year marked the 25th anniversary of her gold medal run. Thru the efforts of Joanie and her friends in the running community together with strong sponsorship backing this race attracts top talent from around the world and region.
It is also blessed with a great spot in the racing calendar; a couple weeks after Iowa's bix-7 miler and a week before Falmouth. Top Kenyans, Ethopians and Europeans race the circuit from Iowa, to Maine, and onto Falmouth each year. Host families often open their homes in the lovely Cape Elizabeth for their once a year guest.
While not as fortunate to recieve such royal treatment, making the trek up to Old Orchard Beach for family vacation, and a to Falmouth the following weekend has become an annual ritual I look foward to all summer.
This year's race was sold out within two hours when online registration opened in mid-March. I was one of the many shut-outs. Blessed with qausi-fast feet but lacking the fastest finger gene. Like many other in my predictiment, I was able to get in with an e-mail to the race committee. However my recent race times were good enough to garner a comp'd entry as a regional top master. My first ever comp entry into a bigtime race. That added extra motivation this year to perform well.
...more to come...
Weekly Back Cove 5k
Wed, Aug 5
Downtown Portland Maine
17:58 5th overall Splits ~ 5:50, 5:49 5:44
- A hot one- heat index 88 at 6pm.
The Maine Running Company does a great job putting on this weekly 5k each Wednesday from mid May thru mid September. The race follows a gravel cinder bike/walk path that circles around downtown Portland's back cove area with a brief section on the sidwalk of the I-295 overpass over the cove on the return trip back.
The race is free to all. That's right. No charge. There a website, http://backcove.runtowin.com/index.php , to pre register a number. Weekly results are posted. A cumulative weekly standings is kept with a runner-by-runner results listing. All for free.
A pretty cool tech jersey can be purchased for $20 with proceeds going to the Portland Trails fund.
IThe race usually gets about 50-100 runner per week but the weeks around Beach 2 Beacon race number nearly double. I treated today run like a hard tempo workout. I ran at about 90% of all out 5k race effort. It felt pretty smooth and relaxed despite the brutal heat and humidty. At times the ease of effort lead me to belive I was going faster that I actually was but overall the effort and results was right on with what I
predicted I would run.
Falmouth Road Race
Sunday, August 8, 2009
40:15 100th 10th Master
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