CVS 5k Race Recap

Time: 61:13
Distance: 8.46 miles
Race: 15:01, 21st place

W/u: 20:16 for 2.42 miles
C/d: 25:56 for 2.93 miles

The morning activities at Kim's house consisted of drinking coffee, eating toast and watching the horrible feed of the Philadelphia Half Marathon. It was a good attempt to view, but the coverage sucked for the most part. A former runner at Providence College, Richie Yeates, and his girlfriend, Corrinne, also stayed at Kim's last night. The four of us departed for the race about 90 minutes from gun time.

Meagan and I prior to racing in Providence. She didn't even mind that I had just warmed up and was sweaty.

I settled in at the elite athlete's tent and felt a little out of place. Other athletes there included Kyle Alcorn, Molly Huddle, Sara Hall and more. It was fun to catch up with some of the guys from the Ivy League who are looking to qualify for the Izumo Ekiden in the middle of October. About an hour out from the race, Richie and I started our warm up around downtown. We ran into Leo Kormanik who is married to one of Meagan's good friends from Atlanta. My legs were feeling pretty good, but still a little tired from all the travels.

Jeff talking to me about a race plan. Go out hard, eyes up, don't die.

About a half hour from the start, I ran into my coach Jeff Gaudette who was hanging out with Meagan. Before the race I also got to catch up with my old college coach John Gregorek. I did some light stretching, a few long strides and prepared myself for the hurt and burn of the race. The two other times racing here I was through the mile around 4:42-4:45 pace and just off the tail end of the lead packs. My goal today was to be positioned a little closer to the mix and hang on for dear life.

I started the race in the second row behind a couple munyans (a pair of Kenyans who had a particular ill odor). We sprinted down the opening hill and I tried to run as comfortably as possible, never settling for the first 1k. I kept inching my way closer to the main field and was in good contact through the mile in about 4:35. It was quite brisk but I was where I needed to be with people around to chase. I moved up a few slots the next couple of minutes and came up on Richie Yeates just as we turned onto South Main St. I gave him a little slap on the ass and some words of encouragement. The field was stringing out a bit and I tried to keep Andrew Fuller from Rome, GA in my sights.

Through two miles I was running on the right side of the road using the tangents to my advantage. I believe I hit the second mile mark in 9:30-9:35 which means I slowed significantly, but was still feeling decent. I rallied as best I could for the uphill finish and continued to catch runners with about 1k to go. At the bottom of the hill I was a few strides back from a group of three guys. My legs weren't responsive enough and they ran away from me a bit. Also, another Ivy Leaguer, Sam Luff, rolled by me at the three mile mark that we hit in about 14:25. I ran strong to the finish, but felt like I was walking up the hill and I just missed cracking 15:00 minutes by a second (last year I finished in about the same time).

Me trying to minimize the damage just after the 2 mile mark.

JSK, Johnny G and Jeff G catching up post race.

I am pleased with the race and how I handled the quick early pace. Given my travels and lack of any real workout in the last few weeks, this is exactly what I needed. It was fun having people around to chase and a group of runners to work with. I cooled down with a group of guys including Frank Tinney (14:22, 8th), Andy Biladeau (14:06, 5th), Mike Maag (14:42, 12th), Zac Hine (14:43, 13th), MacKlin Chaffee (14:48, 16th), Sam Luff (15:00, 20th) and Richie Yeates (15:34, 31st). We were all in pretty good spirits and had a chance to run through Brown's campus.

MRN and Jeff G posing on the Main Green at Brown.

JSK with Bruno or as the Finns would say Karhu.

Track groupie.

The rest of the morning was spent up on College Hill with Jeff and Meagan. We enjoyed a family breakfast at Louie's Diner, walked around Brown's campus, took in Thayer Street and checked out the bookstore. We eventually made our way back over to Kim's house where football was watched and some work was completed. It was great catching up with Jeff and seeing some of our old stomping grounds.

Later in the evening Molly Huddle, fresh off her 5k American record on the track and title on the roads, came over with two bottles of wine. We waited for Kim to arrive with Roisin McGettigan and Ryan Graddy. It was a great low key evening with three incredibly talented world class runners who make Meagan and I look like chumps. I hope some of their talent rubbed off on the two of us.

CVS 5k Course Preview

Time: 33:49
Distance: 4.18 miles
Pace: 8:05
Map

After being home for less than 12 hours it was time to get back to the airport for a quick flight up to Providence, Rhode Island. Originally this trip was scheduled for Meagan to race some top competition at the post-collegiate level, but her foot is still banged up. My plan was to go and race as well, but not on an extremely competitive level. I have run this race twice before in the past and this year it wasn't all that interesting to me. I had to change that focus a bit when Meagan was out and the emphasis shifted to my race.

Meagan and I were on the same flight from Charlotte to Providence as a number of other guys racing tomorrow. We were all bussed to the race hotel and given some brief instructions. I ended up going down to the lobby to find a group of high school runners excited to see someone dressed for a run. They thought I needed a course preview and had planned on running with them. Since I was the only guy to show for this "official" preview I didn't want to let them down. We jogged from the hotel over to the start line and continued on the course. They knew the course for the most part. I had to tell them some of the turns just after the mile marker which I was sure to give them a hard time about.

I finished the run at the packet pickup tent and got all my goodies. I even ran into the old Brown Track & Field coach, Bob Rothenburg who is hands down the most well connected person in the Rhode Island running scene. We had a great time catching up and he told me about a high school cross country meet that he is directing with over 4500 kids attending. After our chat I did a few strides and jogged back over to the hotel with Pezz.

After showering and cleaning up, Meagan and I headed down to the Providence Place Mall for a bit. We walked around, tried to shop, ate a snack and then left for the hotel again. We took a taxi to Kim Smith's house where we were staying for the weekend. My hope that some of the Kim Smith and Keith Kelly (roommate) magic would rub off on Meagan and I. The rest of the evening was pretty tame.

Check out this little video of Keith who had a great love for the sport and can convince anyone that Providence is the training/running mecca of the world.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

CVS Downtown 5k

Time: 94:09
Distance: 12.51 miles

Shakeout: 13:51 for 1.65 miles
W/u: 22:00 for 2.75 miles
Race: 15:00 (<-- results)
C/d: 27:59 for 3.27 and 15:19 for 1.74

Race day morning started up on College Hill with a short run to shake out the legs. I proceeded to shower up and walk down the hill several hours before the race. A quick stop was made to Starbucks for some coffee and then I walked over to the Capitol. I'm glad that I got to the race early because it gave me a chance to see former Brown coach Bob Rothenberg and his wife Anne. They were volunteering at the race because they are quite possibly the most well connected couple in the RI running community.

There was still much time to spare but luckily I saw Stephanie Pezzullo (Pezz) beforehand and we hung out in the grass field. Tanya showed up a bit later with Sara Hall (Bei), Jenn Rhines (three time Olympian), and a few other elite women (those with actual shoe company contracts). It was cool seeing the elite men hang around the start of the race gearing up for what is more or less a low key race.

I had two goals on the day which were to run in the 14:30s and qualify for the Ivy League Ekiden trip to Japan. Prior to the race the team coach, Jack Fultz, pre-selected five athletes (Steve Sundell [Columbia], Michael Maag [Princeton], Ben True [Dartmouth], David Nightingale [Princeton], Thomas Morgan [University of Kentucky]). You might be thinking Kentucky, that's not an Ivy League school. Well, it's known as the Ivy League of the south, or so I'm told.

Anyway, those five runners were already on the team and four of us were racing (Lucas Meyer [Yale], Zac Hine [Cornell], Murat Kayali [Yale], myself) in Providence. The hitch in this whole thing is that only eight guys make the team. Six athletes run in the ekiden (Japanese relay race) and two are alternates who run a 5k on the track. Thus, I had to beat one runner on the day.

The race started and I was hoping to go through the mile in 4:35-4:40, but I came through a little slow in 4:42. It was cool hearing the three clap cheer of my former Brown teammates. Watch the video below and you can see what I'm talking about.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

I was just off the pace of a big group I should have been up with. The leaders only ran 4:30 for the first mile which meant my positioning was fine, just a little slow as a result. I hoped to remain focused over the next mile and catch some of the guys who went out to fast. I was running behind Christian Hesch and an older dude in a green jersey (there is some debate as to whether the runner was Sean Wade. He doesn't show up in the results, but I'm almost positive that it was Wade). Going through the second mile mark I think it read 8:24 which was clearly wrong. Hopefully it was 9:24 and just a minute off but who knows at this point.

I passed Hesch in the next section and reeled in a couple of more guys. With about half a mile to go old guy green took off and I thought I was going to lose to him. Meagan's good friend, Gabe Rodriguez, said I better not lose to Sean Wade because he's 41 years young, and at this point I was certain this was Wade. Gabe would have given me endless shit if I lost to a masters athlete. Luckily, I saved enough for the final hill which is about 300 meters from the finish. Half way up the hill Wade was gassed and I rolled past him, but was getting rolled on by two other guys making moves. Part way up the hill is the 3 mile mark (I think 14:25) and then it flattens out to the finish. I didn't think I was slowing that much, roughly to a 5 min pace, because I was still catching people. I crossed the line right at 15 minutes.

At no point during the race did I feel overly strained or lock up. I'm not sure why I ran 30 seconds slower than what I had hoped. My legs felt good and the lungs handled the effort fine. Maybe it's because I haven't gone to the well during a race effort in quite some time and I've forgotten to accept a high level of pain. Two years ago when I ran 14:44, I had run a 5k in 14:54 a couple of weeks prior. I would like to think that I'm in the same if not better shape than two years ago. Regardless, I achieved my second goal of qualifying for the trip to Japan. So I've got that going for me...which is nice.

Lucas and Zac ran great times today which you can find in the results up top. Tanya didn't have the best race, but Pezz almost broke 17 minutes.

You Will Always Be Surrounded by True Friends

Time: 51:33
Distance: 6.87 miles
Pace: 7:30
Map

I didn't have much time between runs (3 hours) because Ozzie, Craigga, J-Nettles and Clark showed up from NYC. Well, Clark wasn't really there because he's a punk and had law school reading to do. Regardless, the guys were back in town and we put the boots on for a run. It was pretty much a Boring Stories of Glory Days experience but better.

We laughed about how Craigga spends $70 a month for a gym membership he uses twice on average. That's a $35 visit but what is even better is the fact that his workout takes 10 minutes to complete. Essentially, Craigga is paying $210 per hour to work out, but I guess J.P. Morgan hasn't been affected by this whole "recession" thing.

There were some Glory Stories about workouts we had done and races we had run/won. This was definitely one of the best runs I've had in ages. Craigga was hurting by 4 miles and called it a day while the rest of us put in a few more minutes down on the Blackstone Blvd.

It's now a touch after 10 pm and I'm getting ready for bed. CVS is tomorrow morning at 11:15 EST and I hope to run in the 14:30s. I hopefully didn't sabotage my race by playing two light games of Beirut as the class of '06 and eating dinner at Shanghai with the boys. Craigga was true to form and treated the table to several scorpion bowls (of which I didn't partake) and dinner. A large group is currently at Spat's and while I would love to be there, I have business to take care of in the morning.

CVS Downtown 5k

Time: 53:33
Distance: ~9 miles

Walked down from College Hill a couple hours before race time. I was able to get my race packet and t-shirt with plenty of time to spare. Chatted with Berg just briefly after picking everything up. Spoke to Tom and the D'mouth crew. Met up with Tarpy out by the Capitol and hung out near the elite athlete tent. He and I warmed up on the course for 19:08. Saw a bunch of guys getting prepared (Jonathon Riley, Bolota Asmeron, Nick Willis, Boaz, Aaron Aguayo, Josh Moen, Max King, etc.). Got back to the tent and slipped my Team OK Runner jersey on. I couldn't find my chip for a few minutes but luckily I spotted it in the grass.

Lined up with some of the other Ivy League guys. I didn't want to go out too hard the first 400m down the hill. I got off the line well and wasn't flying down the hill out of control. I think I may have been behind some of the women through 300m. I quickly passed them and made my way up alongside and past Ian Marcus, John Traugott, Alisdair Foreman and finally Andy Pitts. Through the mile I was 4:40 and feeling good. I kept working my way up to the next group as smoothly as possible. I worked on catching a group of 4-5 guys from 1.25 miles to 2 miles and once I did, I was past them in a few strides. I wished there was someone I could have latched on to but I think I went out too slow. I was through 2 miles in 9:22 and still feeling relaxed. I was a little out in the open and trying to focus on the back of the guy(s) in front of me. I finished decently strong up the hill and was close to 14:08 at 3 miles and finished in 14:44. Results here. As you can see, Tarpy ran out of his mind. Much respect to my former teammate from Brown University.

Cooled down up to the field hockey game with Neil Hamel and Tarpy. Had to get back down to the meeting for the Ivy Leaguers and then walk back up the hill with Mike Piche for the end of the game. Total 19:41