Yankee Homecoming 10 miler (July 27th)

On the evening of Tuesday July 27th Heather and I went up to Newburyport, MA for the Yankee Homecoming races. Heather was running the 5k and I was running the 10 miler. I wasn't going to run this race, but once I heard the Whirlaway guys were getting together a team I decided to give it a go. Due to my recent issues with not running much because of my foot and my stomach I tried to keep my goals reasonable. First goal was to finish without making a bathroom stop, the second goal was to relax and put in a solid effort, the third and hardest goal was to try to maintain 5:30 pace and finish under 55 minutes. The last goal was one I was not sure I could obtain. After a short 1.5 mile warm up (because of traffic we were late) I was as ready as I was going to be. The weather was very hot so I opted for the shirtless Whirlaway uniform.

The gun went off and the race was on! I tried to keep things easy in the first mile, but I ended up going out a bit quicker than I wanted to. I deleted my splits by accident so my splits are from memory or estimates. I was hanging with Whirlaway teammates Brandon Newbould, Mark Hudson, and Jose Ortiz. We were all pretty close together for the first couple miles, the first going by in about 5:15 and the second mile in about 5:18. Going through downtown Newburyport I started to lose some ground on Brandon and Jose, I was also trying to keep up with Mark, but by about 3 miles I was starting to lose ground to all of them. My next couple miles were a struggle. My stomach was not to happy, and I was getting an awful acidic and heartburn feeling off and on. At this point Jim Johnson went by me and I couldn't react at all, soon after 5 miles (which I passed in about 27:20, 5:28 pace) Mike Quintal and Ryan Aschbrenner went by me. I continued to suffer till about the 6 mile mark with stomach and heartburn like issues......then they went away. Soon I was catching back up to those guys in front on me. I caught up to Ryan Aschbrenner, Mike Quintal and I think it was Joseph Ekuom. By about 8 miles I had passed all three and was pretty pumped that I was feeling good running hard. I could see my teammate Jose a ways up ahead and I was doing my best to keep focused on him and try to push up to him. Then I heard someone behind me, it was Mike Quintal who had made back up the ground I had put on him. I decided that at 9 miles I would try to get away and make a long surge towards the finish. At 9 miles I picked it up and Mike went with me for a little bit.....then I felt some space open up. So I pushed a little harder to make sure I put him away. Soon I was making my way onto the school grounds and onto the field for the finish. I held onto my position and finished in 55:13, good for 13th place overall (results). The Whirlaway team finished 2nd to CMS

I was disappointed that I am still having some issues with my health, but I was really happy that I rebounded late in the race, ran strong, and made up ground and even passed a few people. In the end I put 13 seconds on Mike in the last mile, which I was excited about because Mike is running really strong this year. Heather also ran a solid race finishing 3rd overall female in the 5k in 18:50 (results).

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