Out of work nice and early to get up to Newburyport before the serious traffic rolled in. Grabbed my number and suddenly realized how big this race actually is. It was my first time running the Yankee Homecoming 10 and I was pumped to see a lot of familiar faces. It felt like Carver part II. The team made this race a bit of a focus this year since there is so much money in the form of team prizes. Given the lackluster year for the open team, my primary goal was to help score the team some dough. I figured about 57 minutes would be a solid effort and get the job done. The quads were a tad tired during warmup, but I also felt good and was excited that the weather was pretty darn nice for a mid-summer race.
Out quick with a big group including the lead female runner. Paul Hammond and I worked together through about 5 miles where I opened up a small gap and began battling with some guy named Nick. He and I exchanged lead at least 30 times over the next 4 miles or so. Then he dropped me really hard and ended up kicking to catch a few guys out ahead of us. I saw Matt Germain up ahead and tried to reign him in around mile 7. Soon after I realized my form had gotten really bad and I really started suffering. Ended up slowing up a bit until about the last mile where I was just straining to see the finish line.
Right around 1200m to go, Al Bernier came flying by me on my right. I tried to tuck in on him but he was moving really well and I just gradually lost ground to him. Al catches a group of guys just ahead of us and suddenly the pack in front of me veers right and into the school. The whole time I had been straining to see the finish clock down the road it was actually much closer than I thought. I started kicking hard and finished a few seconds back of the group.
This was definitely a solid effort and has me looking forward to the next long effort as I build up to the Cape. The team did well as a whole, taking first in a number of categories. The men's Open team is currently listed as third place, but it remains to be seen how the score plays out since the officials missed teammate Steve Dowsett.
1: 5:25
2: 5:33
3: 5:47
4: 5:40
5: 5:35
6: 5:56 hill
7: 5:47
8: 5:55 cramp
9: 5:47
10: 5:30
57:00
Looking forward to a good week of base miles!
Scott! Awesome run right after Carver like that! Sorry my legs couldnt get back and recover in time to get over there and help out. Keep up the good work... I hope we can find another race between now and the 5k that we can get some Whirl representation.
ReplyDelete-Pat
Scott, good job man. Yankee is a fun race to do. Always has that GP atmosphere. Every year. I think w/ Steve, you guys still finish 3rd. I just did some quick math. It makes it closer, but I think it doesn't change the scoring. You pick up a couple minutes but that's it. There is always a mess up w/ the team scoring at this race every year. Next time, make sure everyone puts the same name down and the club number. That's the most important. Whirlaway is club # 192.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pat! I'm pretty tired even a full 36 hours after the race. Agreed that we should get the team out for another race here pretty soon. Maybe get a solid showing for Cigna? Brandon and I also talked about Nahant but I'm not sure how many are up for an 18 mile race just yet!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip Jimmy. The story is Steve apparently has the worst handwriting in the world. He's also a bike mech so maybe the organizers got an entry form dowsed in grease. But yeah, looks like you guys still took 2nd by a good margin. Nice race!