5/1/10 Footbridge 5k

On Saturday May 1st Heather and I went up to Dover, NH for the Footbridge 5k (results). This race benefits the Children's Museum of NH and is then first race of the Seacoast Series. I was really looking forward to this race since I also did it last year and I wanted to see how my time this year would compare to last years. This would help me get an idea what kind of shape I am in compared to last year. Last year I eeked out a 5 second win over John Mentzer (2008 Olympic Trials qualifier and 2009 Marine Corps Marathon Champion) with a 15:57. Jim Johnson was third last year in 16:13.

After getting parked we headed over to the registration area to get our numbers and timing chips for the race. After collecting our stuff and dropping off our bags near the start finish area it was time for a warm up. Heather and I met up with the CMS crew of Bob Wiles, Jim Johnson, Dan Verrington, and Dave Quintal and ran the course for a warm up. The course has its hills, but its a fair course, but not a course I would call fast. During the warm up I learned that John Mentzer and Mark Gosztyla were also there for the race. With this crew of guys I knew it was going to be a very fast race. Besides John, Bob is coming off an indoor season with a sub 15 minute 5k, Jim just ran 2:30:00 at Boston, and Mark has multiple road race wins to his credit. For myself I knew this was going to be a tough race, I have not had very consistent training, and a top 3 finish was probably out of the question. But I still wanted to stick my nose in there and find out what kind of shape I am in.

The gun went off and once we got about a half mile into he race all those that I expected to be at the front were. John and Bob were leading things along followed by Jim and myself. In the first mile it felt like we were moving pretty fast and the effort felt hard, I expected to see something right around 5 min or a touch under, but we went through in 5:10. I guess the hills in the first mile really slowed us a bit. Not to long after the mile I knew that I needed to back off a bit, and that I could not hold that pace for much longer. So as we made our way into a neighborhood section I backed off a bit and the other three guys put a bit of distance on me. Not too long after that we started heading up hill again and I could see Jim starting to fall off the pace as it appeared that John and Bob were picking up the pace. After exiting the neighborhood we hit a big down hill and passed the 2 mile mark, which went by in about 10:27 for me (a 5:17 mile). At this point I almost thought Jim was coming back to me. Then I knew he was hurting because he must have looked over his shoulder 5 or 6 times in a matter of a few minutes. I tried to press a bit, but I was hurting too, I could not make up any ground on him. After another (and final) uphill, I was making the turn onto the footbridge and it was at this point I knew I was not catching Jim. I could not hear anyone behind me and I figured I was good for fourth place. I passed 3 miles in 15:40 (a 5:13 mile) and made the last push for the finish and finished in 16:13 for fourth place and an age group win worth 2 lobster dinners. Bob ended up winning by 1 second over John 15:37 to 15:38 with Jim in third in 15:53. Nice win Bob!!

My time this year was about 16 seconds slower than last year. So I am not to far off where I was at this point last year. I do need to get more consistent with the training and workouts, then the racing will improve. Heather ended up running 19:27 good for 2nd place and 8 lobster dinners! Nice race Heather! In other news my daughter Caitlyn also made her 2010 racing debut in the 4 year old kids dash. She placed very well beating all but 2 kids and getting a nice ribbon for her efforts. Nice job Caitlyn!

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