Need a Bigger Boat: Martha's Vineyard 20 (2/18/12)

The gang on the ferry back to Cape Cod

Race: Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler
Location: Vineyard Haven, MA
Goal Time: 2:24:00
Actual Time: 2:20:35 (1st place, Clydesdales)

*****
"This race, swallow you whole"

20 Miles is a long race. While shorter than a marathon, it's still a beast of a race. I targeted Martha's Vineyard as a trial race for my marathon. I wanted to know if I could maintain my goal marathon pace and properly fuel myself. The course is pretty flat except for gentle hills between 13-19.

Of course what makes the race is the Vineyard itself - a gorgeous island of 15,000 year round residents. The island is filled with beautiful beaches, lovely little villages with Victorian era cottages painted like gingerbread houses, and in the middle is a large state forest.

Like Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard had been a whaling hub in the 19th Century. It has been able to remake itself as a vacation destination on the East Coast. It was even the site of Amity Island in Jaws.
*****
"Gonna need a bigger boat."

The race is brilliantly planned to start at the ferry port in Vineyard Haven. With the race due to start at 11, the ferry from Wood's Hole that pulled in right at 10:15 was packed with wicking shirts and talk of Boston Marathon goals.

At the start of the race I ran out a little fast. After a brief unplanned stop, I caught up with Elizabeth, Mariah and Megan around mile four in the old port area of Oak Bluffs and had settle into a nice stride.

Out of Oak Bluffs the course followed a duney stretch of the Nantucket Sound for 5 or so miles before heading inland at the 10 mile mark.

At 12 miles, the course turned into the state forest (and around the airport) and directly into the wind. Mariah and Megan who were near me were in the top 10 among women and we saw two more women who could probably be caught. While I was going to "line up to be a hot lunch," I knew I was in the lead of the Clydesdales. I suggested the two of them slip in behind me while I put 7 minute miles into the wind as long as I could and maybe we could catch the women up ahead. This worked for a few miles.

Around mile 16 there was a small hill. Mariah was ready to pick it up a bit and I was ready to take a little off the pace. She passed me and slowly over the next 4 miles disappeared from my view. I knew all I had to do was fight to the mile 18 marker and then I'd be fine - the last two will complete themselves.

By 18 and a half I was feeling good. I was coming in way under my goal time. I hadn't slowed too much - ran 7:20s for the last 3 miles. AND, it looked like I might actually beat Megan Hyland. At 19 and a half, those hopes were dashed as she dashed by me.

I pulled in at 2:20:35 seconds: 3.5 minutes ahead of my goal time, 2 minutes ahead of 2nd in the Clydesdales and 15 seconds behind Megan. (While she beat me by a good 2 and a half minutes at Derry, in the other three races this year Megan has beat me by a combined less than 30 seconds.)

Shoutouts go to Mariah and Elizabeth for Age Groups Second Places; and Deb and Megan for Age Group wins.

Also a shoutout to Barry for pulling off a 1 second PR in a 20 Mile race.

And an additional shoutout to Korynn for her 20 Mile PR (not that it's apparently "anything to be proud of" ~ Coach Tim)

"I used to hate the water."

Super Race, Super PR: Super 5K (2/5/12)

Tim Harden (263) and me (223) before he destroyed me.

Frank Georges (360) and St. Anthony of Jersey (82) also in the frame.

Race: Super 5K

Location: Lowell, MA

Goal Time: 19:17

Actual Time: 18:43

Place: 41st Overall, 2nd in the "Linebacker" division.

This morning there was much lamenting the Patriots defeat in my office. What had seemed so destined to be ring number 4 was taken by excellent front line play on both sides of the ball by the Giants (especially Jason Pierre Paul on the Defensive End and David Baas at the Center). I told one of the attorney's that I thought it was a great game despite poor play by the skill players. He commented that he wished he could have the same emotional detachment that I had.

Easy, I said, have your own athletics to get emotionally involved in.

Super Bowl Sunday this year offered just that.

****

Jim Rhoades' annual Super 5K is held on Super Bowl Sunday every year. This year there were two "races-within-a-race" that interested me; and, for which I had far more emotional involvement.

1. The "Linebacker" Division. Cleverly named Clydesdales; while 225lb+ was the "lineman" division.

2. The SRR Grand Prix "Race for 15th Place"

****
At the starting I noticed Amy had not listened Dan & I's request to get Tim Harden really drunk on Saturday night. Ergo, Dan and I would have to actually try to beat him for the linebacker division the old fashioned way - with our feet.

My game plan was simple. Run with Tim Harden, hope he dies toward Mile 3 and I have enough to beat the others in the race for 15th.

We put in a 5:45 Mile 1. Now, I have learned that regardless of pace if you don't feel like you are running fast then you are on a good sustainable pace. That 5:45 felt fast.

Mile 2 we slowed all the way to 5:55. That 5:55 ALSO felt fast. But I had been keeping up with him and felt maybe in Mile 3 he would die and I could get by him.

Unfortunately, that's when Kate Hails passed us. Not only did Tim not fade as I moved to snatch the Linebacker title. He picked up the pace to keep up with Kate. I followed suit for three, maybe four, steps and realized the insanity of such a move.

I spent the last mile cheering on the SRRs who were now passing me as I slowed to a 6:25. (Part of my cheering apparently screwed up Tommy B who was trying to sneak up on Bradley. Bradley was alerted to the danger: "That little Brit is coming," he said to himself).

The last turn and the last quarter mile were rough, rough rough for me. With Victor's encouragement, I just desperately hung on while trying not to vomit.

I came across the line at what I thought was a Personal Record by a few seconds, only to realize I misread the clock and had a one minute PR!. BEAST MODE again.

****

As race three of Katie O's SRR Grand Prix, Somerville was out in force. 84 out of the 446 runners were from SRR.

Tim Harden, Korynn, Tommy B, Aharon, SoRad, Seth Maleri and Bradley all had massive PRs. (Tim also won the Linebacker category).

Kath Hardcastle took 2nd for women

SRR's fastest couple, Alex White and Kate Hails, had matching 3rd Places

Megan Hyland, Joe O'Leary, Mariah Tinger, Jennifer Rappaport, and Paul Hammond all went home with age group wins.

16 Miles to go Before I Sleep: Derry Sixteen (1/22/12)

Race: Boston Prep 16

Distance: 16 Miles

Location: Derry, NH

Goal Time: 1:57:14 (1 second faster than Matt Noyes’ 2010 PR at this race)

Actual Time: 1:52:54 (60^th Overall)

9 Miles to go before I sleep

What to do now I think I know

Help my teammate up to the show

She will hopefully see me here

And a place or two I will forego.

Three things in my athletic background put me in an odd situation:

1. I was a lineman in football;
2. My recent love of cycling;
3. My constant desire to win.

As a lineman, I was immediately able to both understand and respect the role of the domestique on a cycling team. Like a lineman, he does grunt work that allows the “skill players” to score points and win bike races.

Well, at around mile 7 I was running near my teammate Megan, who I had calculated in third place among women. Another woman came running up behind us and began to pass the two of us. Immediately, numbers 1, 2, 3 clicked me into cycling domestique mode.

Unfortunately, going into domestique mode in NO WAY means I knew what a running domestique would do at this second. I started by trying to stay with the woman who passed us. Then I slowed down a bit to put myself equidistant from Megan and the woman who had passed us. Maybe, Megan could use me a rabbit, catch up to me and then I could drag her to the other woman? Maybe…. Maybe I have no idea how the help her what-so-ever. So I just stayed around in between the two hoping if Megan wanted me to do something to help she would tell me what to do.

Within two miles this dilemma was over as we got the hills and Megan was on her own anyway as I was just a regular domestique – not a super-domestique.

“I think this is where you lose me.”

“No, you’re still running strong.”

Yeah, within a quarter mile I couldn’t even see her anymore as she charged up the hill and my Clydesdale’s belly pulled me in the reverse slowing me down.

*****

The Boston Prep 16 (or in the parlance of area runners “Derry”) is a 16 mile race through a nice neighborhood in Derry, NH – home of America’s second greatest and second best poet, Robert Frost. (Whitman is “greater”; Sandburg is “better”). Derry is also hilly. So the logo of the race is based on its profile. And, its motto: “Moderately Challenging” is supposed to be humor through understatement. Yet, I found that it was not really as bad as most people claimed. It was not near as bad as the Great Bay Half and my training runs on Eastern Ave in Arlington trained me for the hill at the end of the race.

*****

16 Miles to go before I Sleep

Down the road to the start posthaste

At 5k speed away I raced

From the school and to “O, Canada”

As often happens – I was late

I dashed away from the school toward the starting line – which was not nearly as close to the school as you might think. I ran to the street and then a left onto the starting line street. As I made my way to the start they were fortunately still playing the Canadien national anthem. (I guess since New Hampshire touches Canada they have to pretend it’s a hockey game.)

I made it to the start and tried to fight my way to where Matt Noyes was starting – so that we wouldn’t have an unfortunate repeat of losing to him but beating him on chip time like the 10k. I didn’t quite get there, but I got close. When the start went off I tried to calm my legs (that had just virtually sprinted to the start) and ran past Megan and Matt (who apparently didn’t see me) to catch up with Erin Wyner Morin. As usual I was running faster than I “should” have been. When I caught up with Erin, I felt I could go faster and she told me to catch up with her husband – Coach Tim.

About half way through the second mile, Megan caught up with me. She said some encouraging words as she ran by. I then came up with the 90% brilliant / 10% idiotic plan of keeping up with Megan (maybe it was actually 90% idiotic / 10% brilliant). At first it was hard to keep up with her, but soon it was like my legs “learned” her pace and I was comfortable running sub 7 minute miles with her.

So comfortable, in fact, that going up one of the hills, I ended up passing Megan. While my legs were comfortable, my mind was extremely uncomfortable with this turn of events. I kept checking out of my peripheral vision that I was not running too fast.

*****

5 and a half miles to go before I sleep

Ah alas here comes that hill

That everyone says my death it will

Bring and leave me dead on the road

Forsaking my body with a buzzard’s shrill.

The hill at nine and a half, where I lost Megan, is NOT the BIG hill. The BIG hill starts around ten and a half. It is steep and long. Many people told me it was harder than Eastern Ave. I think they are wrong. (of course, I rarely run Eastern Ave 10 miles into my run – so that probably makes them think this hill is harder.)

I slowed from my blistering sub-7s to take this hill. Yet, this did not deter me from destroying the paces I had been doing on Eastern Ave (largely, because this hill is EASIER that Eastern Ave). I managed to not race the people who were passing me. To paraphrase the basketball cliché: I didn’t fall into the trap of playing their race, instead I ran my race.

By mile 13 the bad hills were over, I had grabbed my last water and attempted to eat a Mandarin Orange GU (disgusting!). The last in race split was at Half Marathon. I ran through that split at 1:32:48 which was the fastest Half Marathon I’ve ever run.

At 14 Erin had come back and ran by me. I jokingly tried to box out the women on her tail – but they cleverly got by that.

*****

Half a mile to go before I sleep

Only a sprint left before I slow

A quick right away from the road

Onward by the announcer I am goad

As I finish, yell out: “BEAST MODE!!”

I sprinted into the finish to the cheers from Megan and Erin at 1:52:54, got my finisher coffee mug and looked for water.

Thank you so much Erin for getting water since that was a half mile almost from the finish line and I could barely breathe.

*****

SRR Shoutouts –

Tim Morin took 9^th overall and 2^nd in his age group

Diona Fulton took 1^st overall for women

Megan Hyland won her age group

Erin Morin took 2^nd in her age group

Anthony White ran a 1:55:31 in his first Derry

Matt Noyes broke 2 hours for 96^th place

Korynn Stoyanoff continued racing in Beast Mode with a 13 minute PR!!

The Run, The Plunge and the Glasses: Hangover Classic 10K and Ocean Plunge (1/1/12)

Robert, me and St. Anthony plunging into the Atlantic

Race: Hangover Classic 10K
Location: Salisbury, MA
Goal Time: 40:00
Real Time : 39:29 (6th in my age group)

Many years ago I had a conversation with a dude. He told me that he had seen God while he was throwing up peyote and off on some drug induced vision quest. Normally I take random people talking about random drugs at random parties with a little more than a grain of salt. This guy I treated with the same grain of salt.

That was until mile 5 and a quarter of New Year's Day's Hangover Classic in Salisbury. As I turned the hairpin at 5.25 I heard SRRers who had run the 5k cheering me on. Unfortunately, I also felt like I needed to vomit! I was forced to come to a complete stop and dry heave - TWICE. While I did not see God directly, St Anthony of Padua (or maybe Jersey) interceded for him and like Gabriel to Muhammad said: "our Lord knows you best; He will have mercy on you if He pleases."

Well he didn't really say that. What St. Anthony of Jersey said was: "Take this water; you need it more than I do."

I took the bottle of water, took a big swig and was ready to continue the race.

*****

The Winners' Circle Running Club's Hangover Classic was the second leg of the SRR Winter Grand Prix. Because of this yellow and black bees appeared to be buzzing about the starting line jumping from delicious nectar filled flower to delicious nectar filled flower.

Two weeks ago, the plan had been for Jim, Jason and I to go for 40 minutes together. Two weeks can be a long time.

At the gun I spent my time fighting to catch Officer McGinty. The usual people jogging 9 minute miles but lining up at the start forced me to bound around and through people. I finally caught Dan, ran his pace for a minute or two and then pushed on.

My next jump was to Jim and then forward to Jason. Neither of them felt as good as they had earlier in the month.

By the 1.5 mark and the 5k/10k break I was by myself. I did get to yell to St. Anthony of Jersey as he continued to his steaming toward adult PR in the 5k.

I had latched on to Stephen around mile 3 on the back portion of this generally out and back course. I knew I was doing surprisingly well when every person I knew that we passed coming the other way said something along the lines of: "Holy crap! Go Jesse." This started to scare me. Are the wheels going to come off this run?

The wheels came off three quarters of the way through the 5th mile. I told Stephen I was done (at least for now) and that he should go kick ass. From 4.75 until 5.2, it was a real fight for me. Fortunately two things happened that probably would not have if I was NOT in a running club.

1. At the hairpin right on the beach is when the dry heave / St. Anthony intercession happened.
2. Three people passed me in the last mile. The first two were somewhat disappointing. The third however was Matt Noyes.

The water intercession saved me until the passing happened. When Matt passed me, however, I was rejuvenated. At least I could hang onto somebody for a minute. Not only did I hang onto him, with a quarter mile left I was able to shift into fifth gear and pass him. Of course, with a tenth of a mile left Matt shifted into a sixth gear I didn't have and blew me away.

I finished at 39:29 and sixth in my age group - 34th male (which earned me a pint glass for being in the top 40 men!)

And, unfairly if you ask me, my chip time was faster than Matt's so I officially beat him. Anyone who actually saw the last 1/10th of a mile would realize that if we started even he would have merely sprinted in 6th gear earlier. If this keeps Matt from winning something in the SRR Grand Prix - I will file an official protest with the powers that be.
*****

I finished and Robert was all about doing the plunge. I gave my watch to Chris and we went to the beach. To Robert's chagrin, I spent time taking off my socks and shoes. But this allowed Anthony (St. Anthony of Jersey, that is) and SoRad to catch up with us. With Bradley the four of us just ran in.

This is one of those: "Don't think, just GO" times. The more one thinks about diving into the Northern Atlantic Ocean on January 1st, the dumber it sounds. In fact even as I write it sounds ludicrous!

Fortunately (I guess?), I had no such time to think how unreasonable of an idea this was. When the ocean got about knee high, i determined I had reached event horizon. I was now - in for a penny, in for a pound. (of course penny/pound logic often makes you lose a lot of money at the poker table.) Robert, St Anthony, Bradley and SoRad all dove into the ocean with me.

In case you thought since it has been unseasonably warm out thus the ocean might be warm, let me dispel any such hypotheses immediately.

But I did it and got another glass - making it a DOUBLE GLASSWARE RACE!

*****

Flying Otters update:
Joe O'Leary - 7th overall in 10k
Anthony White - 16th overall in 5k
Jennifer Rapaport - 93rd overall in 10k

*****

Other SRRers:

PRs were numerous and I apologize if I forgot. Aaron Beer had a BEAST MODE 3 minute PR. Erin Morin had a PR but doesn't want to recognize it due to possible short course (by 0.1 miles or so). Bradley, Korynn, Kimi and SoRad all had great PRs.

I don't know if it was a PR for Bill Hees but he definitely dominated with a 21:19 on the 5k.

Running Down the Dream: Winter Classic 5K (12/11/11)

Kimi, Marc, Anthony, Me, Mauricio and Sara after the race

Race: Winter Classic 5K

Location: Cambridge, MA

Goal Time: 20:00

Actual Time: 19:46

After Mill Cities last week, the running world really opened up. Maybe it’s the loss of weight; maybe it’s the 15 months since I quit smoking; maybe it’s the training; maybe it’s a bit of all three.

I set my goal for the 5k to be nothing less that break 20. While Tim doesn’t think 20 is any more important a number than 19, I’ll have to differ. By the accident of the Sumerian Duodecimal system that split the day and night each into 12 hours, the Babylonian base 60 numerical system that split the hour into 60 parts, Mechain and Delambre measurements of the arc that created the meter and the Hindu base 10 numeric system – 20 minutes for 5 kilometers is a HUGE.

At the start there was a huge mass of Black and Gold from SRR. Not only is this a race run by a friend of SRR, but it had special meaning this year. This was the first race of the new (brainchild of Kate O’Malley) SRR Winter Grand Prix. For the next 5 months, there will be one race a month where members of SRR can run against each other for prizes, etc. On top of that, there is a fantasy league (brainchild of Marc MacDonald) where we have picked members of SRR as our “teams” to race against each other.

Anthony had set his goal at 20 minutes also; but, I didn’t like his plan. I decided to do 6:30 miles for the first two and then see how I felt for mile 3. At the gun I saw Anthony and Dan run out with Jason and others laying down a fast first mile. I had decided not to go with him.

The first mile is very flat. From the Ashgard it wraps around University Park and then up Mass Ave into central.

As Mass Ave starts to climb from Central up to the People’s Republic, I saw I was slowly pulling both Anthony and Dan back. Once we started to run through Harvard Square, the two of them were almost within my grasp. At the turn around onto Mt. Auburn right before the two mile mark, Anthony was shocked to hear me so close as I thanked the cops who were directing traffic.

At the mile 2 mark I was under 13 minutes! (I’m pretty certain that’s the first time I broke 13 since I was in the Army). As we continued up the little hill back toward Central Square, another of the over 100 SRR runners passed me to take a point away – damn it! Back at the People’s Republic where Mass Ave dips back into Central, I set myself up for a charge.

By the time I had made it to around a quarter mile left I could literally reach out and touch Anthony and Dan. Anthony yelled: “Go for it Dan!”; Dan responded my nonchalantly blowing the two of us away by 7 seconds in the last quarter.

At the turn back onto Sydney for the home stretch, Anthony egged me on to gun it. Of course this through me into a quandary. Beating Anthony would help my personal SRR Grand Prix points; but it would harm my Flying Otters fantasy team. What do I do? Well, the competitive nature of real sport won out over my desire to win fantasy sport. I sprinted to the finish: 19:46!!! First time under 20 and a PR by 1:33 and 91^st out of 1115!! (When the final times came out, it turned out Anthony beat me in chip time anyway!)

In other personal achievements, it was the first time I ever beat Scott Abrams and only the second time I beat Bill Hees in real races.

The Flying Otters saw: Joe O’Leary, 7^th overall (probably 2^nd SRR); Anthony White, 90^th Overall; and Jennifer Rapaport 153^rd Overall.

Special congrats to Tom Breider who went out to break 20 (and did so by 56 seconds); and the trio of Korynn, Sara SoRad and Paul V who went out to break 7 minute miles and all three achieved. (And I forgot about Ann's PR on a white wine hangover!)

Flying Otters: SRR Grand Prix

My SRR Grand Prix Fantasy team:

Joe O'Leary

Jennifer Rapaport

Anthony White

Gabby Walton

Go Flying Otters!

BEAST MODE!: Mill Cities Relay (12/4/11)

Kings of Beer (Aaron Beer, Dan McGinty, Jesse Morrow, Marc MacDonald, Seth Maleri)

Event: Mill Cities Relay
Distance: 5 legs, 27 miles (5.4, 4.75, 2.5, 9.5, 4.75)
Expected Time: 3:20:30
Actual Time: 3:10:26

Aaron and I met Dan and Marc at the School in Nashua. We prepared our uniforms, bits of Clydesdale red mixed in with SRR Black & Gold. Marc had purchased bandanas for us.

As I began to figure out the red bandana, Brendan (of iPhone meteorology fame) came up to me: “Are you all wearing red for Budweiser Clydesdale?”

“Yep,” I said. He got a kick out of it.

With Seth (hopefully) at transition 1 already, I made my way to the start line with Aaron and Marc giving me a bit of encouragement. At 8:00 am they “dropped the brick” to start the race. (As Marc commented, a far cry from the cannon start at MDI).

Leg 1: 5.4 Miles – Jesse (expected time: 38:00 – 7:02/mi)

Our main goal was to beat Pauls and the Lovely Ladies (there were beers riding on it). As I was matched up with Korynn, goal one was obviously beat her by as much as I could. Considering she has been running her best ever with recent PRs at Casey’s, and MDI along with a trail race at the Wolf Sox 10K – I was not taking it lightly.

It was still my first race since my season defining MiamiMan Duathlon. I had spent the last three weeks taking it easy from training. This week and next week’s Winter Classic were to be my intermezzo between 2011 and training for Blackwater 2012. That said, I was going to try to beat my 5-mile PR pace set in the heat of July in Southie. Little did I know I would bust into Beast Mode!

The first mile was cold and I wished I had worn gloves. I was briefly distracted when we crossed the Merrimack as the sun was refracted by a misty fog that played weird tricks with the view of the Victorian era looking pylons from a long gone rail bridge that might remind one of a Wordsworth poem. (But, I digress).

At the end of the first mile, I had run a 6:42. This was scarily ahead of my pace. Yet, I did not feel like I was running fast. Normally, when I am running too fast, it feels like I’m running fast. I did not feel like I was running fast – hmmm. Now I’m sure in Zen and the Art of Running (a book, I’m sure must exist) it discusses the wu wei of running. The least effort per step leads to faster times. I really felt I was closer to successful wu wei running than I ever have been. I continued running what felt like not running.

Miles 2 – 4 whizzed by at comfortable sub 7 speeds that I would never have thought of running two months ago. When I watched my Garmin to get to mile 4.5 (an attachment that despite Coach Tim’s urging, I have yet to break the bonds of). Here I moved from wu wei into BEAST MODE. The last mile from 4.4-5.4 I did in under 6:30 and the last 800, I broke 3:00.

Turning into the Sears, I realized they probably weren’t ready for me. So, I started yelling over the crowd of supporters: “Seth! I’m Coming!” I reached the hand off to find no Seth. I continued yelling: “Seth! SETH!” Then out of the Corner of my eye, I caught so a red flash attempting to jump up and grab the slap-bracelet (replacement for baton). Seth was not prepared for me to run so fast and had to fight his way through the crowd to get to me. I handed him the red bracelet and walked through the crowd to high fives from Marc, Aaron and Dan who were congratulating me on my beast mode time.

Normal Jesse: 5 miles – Jimmy Kane 5 miler – 37:25 (7:28/mi)
Beast Mode Jesse – 5.4 Miles – 36:17 (6:43/mi)

(For the Record: Korynn did have her own beast mode at 39 minutes and would have put normal Jesse and the Kings of Beer into a bit of a bind.)

Leg 2: 4.75 Miles – Seth (expected time: 36:48 – 7:45/miles)

Seth finished his best 5k two months ago at 7:30 speed. He followed that up with PR at MDI. Running at his best from those two, Macmillan calculated around 7:45s so that was my estimation. Macmillan and I were wrong:

Normal Seth: 5K – Homeless Coalition 5K – 23:20 (7:30/mi)
Beast Mode Seth: 4.75 miles – 34:50 (7:20/mi)

Leg 3: 2.5 Miles – Aaron (expected time: 18:45 – 7:30/mi)

This was Aaron’s second race since his injured New York Marathon. Putting in 7:30s is what I would expect with his “season” over and this as a wrap up. Once again I was wrong.

Normal Aaron: 5K – An Ras Mor – 23:02 (7:24/mi)
Beast Mode Aaron: 2.5 miles – 18:00 (7:12/mi)

Leg 4: 9.5 Miles – Dan (expected time: 1:11:15 – 7:30/mi)

Dan has had a great past few months. Yet he expected to run 7:45s (since he finished with the Police Academy and no longer has to endure Bobcat Goldthwait but also isn’t forced to run every day); I gave him a conservative estimate of 7:30s – knowing he might actually run 7:15s. Dan and I were quite wrong.

Normal Dan: 15K – Bow Lake Dam 15K – 1:09:38 (7:29/mi)
Beast Mode Dan: 9.5 Miles – 1:06:19 (6:58/mi)

Leg 5: 4.75 Miles – Marc (expected time: 35:37 – 7:30/mi)

While Dan’s improvement has been the most drastic, Marc has probably had the most linear and consistent improvements of any members of the Kings of Beer over the last two years.

Based on his killer Casey’s Halloween run, I expected Marc, a month and a half out from his marathon, to throw down something like 7:30 miles. Once again, MacMillan and I were wrong.

Normal Marc: 4.06 miles – Casey’s Thursday Night Halloween Run – 29:57 (7:22/mi)
Beast Mode Marc: 4.75 miles – 34:00 (7:09/mi)

Kings of Beer finished at 3:10:26 (7:03/mi), which would mean we would still lose a marathon race to Coach Tim and many others; but we would but combined Boston Qualifier. It also won us each a free beer from The Pauls and the Lovely Ladies whom we beat by 8 minutes. We fiished 77th out of 207 and 22nd out of 30 in the Men’s Open.

SRR Shoutouts

Bed Bugs Can’t Stop Us – 2nd in the Men’s Open
Masters of their Own Domain – 1st Men’s Masters
Get Off My Lawn – 2nd Men’s Seniors
En Fuego – 2nd Women’s Open
Geezergirls – 2nd Women’s Veterans
Nuke to a Knife Fight – 1st Coed Open
Can’t Stop Them… - 3rd Coed Masters

Somerville was also the second place club – 12 points behind Gate City.