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| Early leaders including Springfield Harrier Francis Burdett (381) Photo Credit: Susan Pearsall |
This past Saturday, I traveled down to Charlotte, North Caralina with the Greater Springfield Harriers to bring the 2010 race season to a close.
Weekend temperatures in the 40's and 50's welcomed runners from all over the country. A most pleasant change from cold and windy temps in teens that New Englanders were being treated to even before we yet to reach the official start of winter.
Most of the Harriers women's and men's team, open, as well as master, team arriving on Thursday we had the opportunity to run a course preview on Friday. A mostly narrow, pancake flat almost entirely hard pack dirt with a firm grave mix here and there promised to yield some fast times come Saturday. One small climb no more than 600 meters that the men will ascend 3 times was the only thing to slow anyone down. The descent was more of a concern. A bit nasty but not impossible to navigate. Short with a couple steep drops around two bends. It will get it's due respect else you'll find yourself eating the bark of one the trees that closely lined the trail or maybe find yourself dropping off into the brush and marshes below. Ouch.
Overall my race went well. 36:20 83rd overall. I got beat by about 20 50+ year olds and one 60+ year old. Man is that humbling.
My race started with a smart 5:47 1st mile. I would have had to sprint the 1st 1/2 mile to get a much better position. It wasn't worth it. Think I was maybe 150th position at 1/2 mile ! On the plus side I steadily passed guys most of the way. More than a couple guys were taking it easy on the downhill. Many decided to go with road racing flats since the course was so flat and firm but I went with spikes and glad I did - the extra traction allowed me to bomb the downhill without (too much) fear. I ran a decent mile 2 and 3, passed another 20 or 30 runners, a good number on the uphill and downhill sections. On the 2nd loop I wasn't paying attention to time splits, and missed the mile 4 marker. When I finally reached mile 5 just over 29:30, my watched showed a 12:0x 2 mile split which I suspected was long. Still I over-estimated how much course was remaining. My legs still felt good and I finshed strnong but lacked the punch to really get the leg turning over in a higher gear to greatly improve my overall position. I think I did a good job being patient, not wasting energy fighting for position. But maybe if I was more aggressive in miles 3-4 when there was plenty of room to move up, perhaps I would have got pulled along with some faster guys till the end. Maybe a mid 35 was possible. Ran a solid last climb and flew down the final descent bringing it home in a respectable clip. Afterwards felt like I had more left in the tank but how often have I said that before. I was running the final stretch as fast as I could but could not sprint up to the next guy. Then again its rare that I outkick anyone.
My kicks are powered by a diesel engine, slow to develop speed, but once there, I can roll for a while - for whatever that's worth.My Splits: 5:47, 5;51, 5:49, 12:03, 6:53 for 1.2 ??? 36:20
USATF reported course was 6.29 miles... I suspect to work out the women 6k in two loops and the mens 10k 3 loop course while using a single finish time mat.
As a team a respectable 7th place for our masters team...
Afterwards we watched the men's open at the downhill. A couple guys almost bought it but everyone got thru without incident. One guy did make a really cool leap to go around the outside of a tree over the brush, safely landing a good 10 feet forward onto the trail again. Pretty cool. If that was me, they still be picking up the pieces. Some guy caught it on video.
video courtesy of David McCulloch
more photo's, coutersy Mike Scott http://miscottrunningphoto.shutterfly.com/
and Susan Persall Susan Pearsall at SmugMug
Official Results, Photos, and Inteviews at the USATF site http://www.usatf.org/events/2010/USATFClubXCChampionships/photos/index.asp
that's all for now...
Team Scores 40+
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Rank Team Total 1 2 3 4 5 *6 *7 *8 *9
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1 Compex Racing 40+ 50 1 2 5 19 23 26 62 69
Total Time: 2:46:40.50
Average: 33:20.10
2 Atlanta TC 40+ 57 4 11 12 14 16 18
Total Time: 2:47:49.10
Average: 33:33.82
3 Dirigo R.C. 40+ 147 10 15 35 40 47 73
Total Time: 2:51:26.70
Average: 34:17.34
4 Second Sole Rocky Riv 40+ 162 17 28 30 42 45 104 116
Total Time: 2:52:23.40
Average: 34:28.68
5 Club Northwest 40+ 170 9 24 33 48 56 68 75 110
Total Time: 2:52:11.10
Average: 34:26.22
6 Dave's RT 40+ 252 13 25 43 72 99 107 115 121
Total Time: 2:55:42.01
Average: 35:08.40
7 Greater Springfield 40+ 258 6 8 76 83 85 136 152
Total Time: 2:55:28.80
Average: 35:05.76
Men 40-44 10 km
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Name Age Team Finals Points
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Results - Men 40-44
1 Cushing-Murray, Christia 43 Compex Racing 40+ 32:47.8
2 Burke, Edmund 41 Pacers/Brook 33:03.8
3 Newton, Chad 41 Atlanta TC 40+ 33:07.8 1
4 Mavhera, Gray 41 Compex Racing 40+ 33:12.0
5 Falcone, Richard 40 Charlotte RC 40+ 33:17.5
6 Lemme, Kent 44 Greater Spri 33:19.0
7 Whiteside, Everett 40 Florida Trac 33:25.6
8 Alvarez, Valentin 41 Atlanta TC 40+ 33:35.2 2
9 Stabb, Eric 42 Atlanta TC 40+ 33:36.0 3
10 Altwies, Ed 43 Dave's Racin 33:38.4 4
58 Landry, Robert 42 Greater Spri 36:20.9
59 Parrot, Edward 40 Greater Spri 36:25.2
Men 45-49 10 km
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Name Age Team Finals Points
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Results - Men 45-49
1 Magill, Peter 49 Compex Racing 40+ 32:36.0 1
2 Livingston, Mike 45 Asics Aggie RC 40+ 32:52.2
3 Burdett, Francis 45 Greater Spri 33:16.5
4 Young, Tony 48 Club Northwest 40+ 33:19.7 2
5 Payson, Michael 47 Dirigo R.C. 40+ 33:32.0
6 Ambos, Jeff 49 Compex Racing 40+ 33:56.0 3
7 Derick, James 45 Genesee Valley 40+ 34:01.6 4
8 Kartalia, Steve 45 Balt/Wash AC 40+ 34:04.0
9 Ernst, Ken 49 Compex Racing 40+ 34:08.7 5
30 Lombardi, Ron 46 Greater Spri 36:07.2
67 Coon, Brent 45 Greater Spri 41:23.9
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