Saunders at Rye Harbor

Nick and I drove to Rye to race a 10k in the 5th Seacoast race.  There were 1000 registered runners with no race day registration.  They did a good job giving everyone their beer, and the police were on hand to help with traffic.

I got a new GPS watch, and although I watched the videos on how to use it, the enigma of finding the actual stopwatch presented as I was warming up.  Fortunately, a woman wearing three watches came by, and correctly judging her to be an expert, I solicited her help.  Apparently you have to press and hold... ok, problem solved!  Nick and I did a mile warmup dodging traffic on the busy roadway as hundreds of people continued to pour in to tight quarters.  A few missed the start, as they were coming up to the start line while we took off the other way.

Nick had his PR, running 45:10.  He started in 6:22, which he commented on by saying "oops" in the middle of the race.  His closest competitor asked -- Did you just say "oops"?  Still, it was a great effort for him as his last 10k was over 50 minutes.  His age group (0-39) was a bit wide, I thought, but he still pulled off a T-shirt!

I started too quickly as well, hitting the first mile at 5:43.  Fortunately, I did not check the split.  I came through the second at 5:59, but then lost Mike G and started looking at my feet for the next two miles, running 6:13/6:14 before getting caught from behind.  I woke up and hit 6:02/6:07 for the next two and kicked it in strong (5:04 pace for the last quarter mile) ending up 19th with 37:36.  This turns out to be only 5 seconds from my master's PR, done earlier this year at the other Seacoast 10k, Market Square.  Considering that I did not feel well for this one, and I was tight as a drum before and after the race, I was happy with my time.  Thanks to Donna C for the massage after the race!!

My age division has really beefed up this year, with the masters runners coming on strong.  Whereas the last few years I have been often in the top 3 for my age division, this year I was forced out to 8th (12 of the top 25 runners were over age 40!).  The good news is that I am still getting faster year over year (last year 38:40 at Saunders) and with all the other older runners out there leading the way, that gives me confidence that it will be at least a few more years before age slows me down.

===
Darin