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.

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Darin