Whistleblowers 4k

On July 3rd Heather and I decided to head over to Gloucester for the Whistleblowers 4k. We were looking for a race that fit into our planned activities for the weekend and this was the one that fit best. This race is in the Lainsville village section of Gloucester, on the northern shore. I did the course as a warm up to get a good look at what I would be racing. The course is not flat as stated on the website, there are flat sections, but there are also many short steep ups and downs along the middle coastal portion of the course. The starting section is very fast with mostly downhill, and the last section is back uphill to the start finish area.

After a quick change into my racing gear I was off to the start. A few strides, a national anthem that was actually very very well done, a few instructions, and we were off and running. Right off the start another younger faster looking guy and myself went right to the front. I later found out this other runner was Tom Davis a former Division 1 runner from Richmond University. He went out hard and fast through the downhill sections of the first kilometer. I was actually running as fast as I could on some of the downhill sections just to keep up. During this section we put a pretty good gap on the rest of the field. We hit the 1 kilometer mark in 3:19 (5:20 pace) which did not seem right at all, I knew we were well under 5:00 minute pace for the first kilometer. Once I heard this split I figured the splits would probably all be off. Just after the 1 kilometer mark there was a sharp turn and a slight up hill to a long flat section. Here the pace settled down a bit and I felt a little more comfortable as I followed Tom down the road. We hit the 2k mark in 6:19 and 3:00 (4:50 pace) flat for the 2nd kilometer. Probably a short kilometer due to the long first kilometer. The total 2k distance was probably close to accurate. At this point the course goes right, leaving the main road, and Tom swung wide to the left and I ended up in the lead. I think Tom thought the course went left, but lost only a step or two and tucked in behind me. Just after this right hand corner the course goes down a steep hill right down to the water and a hard left hand turn. After a short run along the water it goes right back up a steep hill and back onto the main road. At this point I was still in the lead with Tom right on me. Soon the course makes another right turn back towards the water and some winding rolling side roads. As we made our way back up a hill we hit the 3k mark in 9:42 and 3:22 (5:25 pace) for the 3rd kilometer. The rest of this course makes a steady slight climb back up to the finish. At this point Tom put in a move and went past me and I could not hang on. He wasn't moving away fast, I just could not match the pace and he slowly put some distance on me. I kept pushing the whole way back to the finish and got to the line in 12:40 and 2:58 (4:46 pace) for the last kilometer. This was well below the course record of 13:28 (Jason Cakouros) but still 8 seconds short of Tom winning time of 12:32.

Overall I was pretty happy with the result considering the heat and the rolling course. I just felt like my legs had no speed in them in the end, which is to be expected since I have not done much speed work at all. Heather also ran to a second place finish in 15:29, 12 seconds short of first place. After the race Heather and I took our first loser status over to the Cape Ann Brewing Company for some fresh beer!

Results