Having taken a week off for vacation, I was not expecting too much when I got back. The Great Bay 5k is a nice course, though, and I achieved my Master's PR on that course two years ago.
When I got there, I found they had moved the parking and changed the starting line; it was a bit confusing. I ended up late to the line and didn't get enough stretching. Once I got going, though, I was fine, and I ran well: 5:35, 5:45, 5:47 for 17:41. My best is 17:26. Congrats to Chris Ritchie, who blew away his PR by over 30 seconds for 16:30! I ran the entire race with Heather Searles, the women's winner, who also had a great race. Her boyfriend (or is it roommate?) Chris Mahoney, and Teammate Jim Johnson took 2-3 overall, running right at 5:00 pace. Jasmin Lapir came back from injury and claimed his age division award with 17:34.
After the race, I rushed over to Londonderry for Nick's NH State XC meet. Like the athletes, I waited around for 4 hours for his race, and like the athletes, I was exhausted before the race even started. Nick did not run well, but ended up 17th overall, and his team, which had been undefeated, took 4th. It was quite the experience, in that he had never had to wait so long to compete before. He didn't bring lunch and was forced to eat "what they had" which was pizza. Of course he cramped up during the race after eating that. Still, he gets to run the race next year and will hopefully do much better; there were two others ahead of him that were not in 8th grade, so he definitely has his work cut out for next year.
We are racing the half marathon on Sunday, and then Nick moves on to Junior Olympics, and I start training for Indoor Track (with Alex, who will be running for the HS team).
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Darin
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Helping Nick to PR at the Gary Millen 5k
Over the weekend, Nick and I raced at the Gary Millen memorial 5k. Gary Millen was a teacher and football coach at Kennett High School. I played basketball with him every Sunday morning for more than five years. He was the kind of person that everyone liked. A consummate competitor, friendly and compassionate, and capable of pushing himself and those around him to a higher level. The Millen foundation, benefactors of the race, have raised around $1M for athletics at the high school.
For the race, I decided to try to help Nick go under 20. He has never been able to break 20:00, so we took off at 6:14 (trying to go 6:15 for the first mile) and then, down the hill, we managed to slow down such that the split for the mile ended up at 6:47. I think the strong headwind had a role. At 1.55 (halfway) we were 10:20, so we had to run a negative split back up the hill to break 20. As we came to the 2 mile mark, it seemed we had really picked up the pace after the turnaround (I am guessing the wind really was a factor). For mile 3 we ran 6:07, finishing in 19:49 for a new PR for Nick, and 3rd/4th place overall behind Eric (a newcomer to the Kennett HS teaching staff, and former UNH X-C standout) and Kevin, with whom we did our warmdown.
It was very exciting! Not only did Nick break a key time milestone, but he finally hit consecutive weekly PR's, suggesting that the strong training is paying off. He has a Jr. High XC race on Monday (Kennett Invitational) and he is now adequately pumped up to try to have a good one there too. I have no qualms about living vicariously through him this week.
Alex tied his PR mark at 21:56 racing for the high school X-C team on Saturday as well. He is one second off the Varsity squad, and continues to run at or near a PR every time he competes, so he is also very encouraged.
Nick and I are both signed up for the White Mt. Milers Half Marathon, so I am going to try to get a few longer runs in to prep for that. The only 5k left that I am planning is the Great Bay 5k. I am not 100% for that because of work issues, but if I do compete there, the training will be based on higher mileage and core work, without much in the way of speed training. That will be interesting, one way or another.
==
Darin
For the race, I decided to try to help Nick go under 20. He has never been able to break 20:00, so we took off at 6:14 (trying to go 6:15 for the first mile) and then, down the hill, we managed to slow down such that the split for the mile ended up at 6:47. I think the strong headwind had a role. At 1.55 (halfway) we were 10:20, so we had to run a negative split back up the hill to break 20. As we came to the 2 mile mark, it seemed we had really picked up the pace after the turnaround (I am guessing the wind really was a factor). For mile 3 we ran 6:07, finishing in 19:49 for a new PR for Nick, and 3rd/4th place overall behind Eric (a newcomer to the Kennett HS teaching staff, and former UNH X-C standout) and Kevin, with whom we did our warmdown.
It was very exciting! Not only did Nick break a key time milestone, but he finally hit consecutive weekly PR's, suggesting that the strong training is paying off. He has a Jr. High XC race on Monday (Kennett Invitational) and he is now adequately pumped up to try to have a good one there too. I have no qualms about living vicariously through him this week.
Alex tied his PR mark at 21:56 racing for the high school X-C team on Saturday as well. He is one second off the Varsity squad, and continues to run at or near a PR every time he competes, so he is also very encouraged.
Nick and I are both signed up for the White Mt. Milers Half Marathon, so I am going to try to get a few longer runs in to prep for that. The only 5k left that I am planning is the Great Bay 5k. I am not 100% for that because of work issues, but if I do compete there, the training will be based on higher mileage and core work, without much in the way of speed training. That will be interesting, one way or another.
==
Darin
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