Madd Dash 5 Miler

Another out of order race blog.

It's hard to pass up a Sunday morning race that is contested on some of the same roads you run on during the week. Working at UNH, I frequently (almost every run) at least touch the course and on the days when I run through the park I do a decent portion of the race, although fortunately the race does not pass through where I was arrested while running (the longest 90 minute workout I'll ever have !)

The race is a good one. It seems like the course should be fast, but it always seems to be one of the first colder days and the wind can be a bear, which it was.

I always know the crowd that shows up is going to include some fast runners like Bryce Lindamood (good luck with your first child !) and some high school kids (I got beat by five teenagers this year). Add Marty paying a woman from NYC to come up on the train and run 28:16 and I expected after a two-week layoff to get buried. But it's a good course, I have friends that run it ever year like Charlie Hornak and I hadn't raced in three weeks, so I thought it was a good opportunity to get in a warm-up for the 8k (see previous post).

I wasn't expecting to break thirty minutes and I had decided to go out slow and build into it. That strategy has been working for me lately so I stuck with it and ran the first mile over 5:40. Pretty soon Barks went by me, then the woman, then Frank Tiroletto, who usually gets the best of me. There were also a lot of teens in front of me, so after a mile I started to work a little harder. Frank was clearly having trouble breathing and I didn't let that stop me from passing him again. He mentioned how the woman- Lisa Stublic had blown by him like he was standing still. She'd done the same to me.

I ran hard until mile 4 and passed a few people that started to fade. Then I passed the guy in 11th and started back around into the park, thinking I was set. Although I had a good race, he ran me down again and just nicked me at the finish line by about a second. I'd have been pissed, but I thought I was going to throw up so I knew I'd given it everything. I handed over my number and went to look for Margit and Ian, but I'd broken thirty and suddenly I felt ready to race again after two weeks off...