Racing roundup

Two races to report on.

Last Sunday was the CVS/Caremark Downtown 5K in Providence. This was my first real race after high school that I ever ran so it has become a tradition to run it.  It is also a big event close to home that for some reason tends to have great weather and it is always nice to see the elites who show up for the 5K championship.

It was another great day weather-wise and since I had run Norwood the day before I was planning on setting a comfortably fast pace and enjoying.  After the initial jockeying for position down the first hill I was able to hit my stride, mostly, and cruise through the first two miles.  I hit the second mile marker around 11:25 on South Main St. and...wait a minute.  Quickly doing the math in my head and utilizing fingers on both hands I deduced that I would have had to run my second mile in 5 minutes according to their clock.  Either I had just channeled the ghost of Jesse Owens or this was another race that had managed to screw up its mileage markers.  A glance at the GPS confirmed that I would not be heading to the Olympics anytime soon.

As I crested the evil hill at the end of the race I could see the clock approaching the 20 minute mark so I gave it a little kick and managed to cross the line with a guntime of exactly 20:00.  Nettime was 19:51 which was good enough for 260th place.

Medfield Day 5K
It was a crisp Saturday morning when we showed up at the start line for the 2009 Medfield Day 5K.  Zac was there so right away I knew that I wouldn't be top in my age group, again.  But that's ok. The race begins and just like every other 5K I have been in a large contingent of young kids sprint out ahead and set a blistering pace, like around 5 minute miles.  I'd be seeing most of them later on.  Sure enough, by the first mile I began to pass several of them.   By the turnaround most of the rabbits had started to fade back.

As I approached the turnaround I got to see who was ahead of me.  Looks like I was currently in ninth place at that point which was excellent.  I kept my pace and within the next mile I had passed another kid to put me into eighth.  The rest of the pack was too far ahead so that is where I finished up.  Ended up getting eighth overall and first in my age group.  I was a bit disappointed with my 19:37 time only because I thought I was going faster than that but it is what it is.

Notable mentions: Zac ended up second overall; Mel C was first female, Maureen was second; and Michael and Jeff P both finished in the top twenty.

Final note: several people and my own GPS confirmed that the race was long; it ended up being 3.17 miles.  I don't know what is going on this year but that is like the fourth or fifth race in a row that either had incorrect mileage or had the mile markers in the wrong place.