Sunday, September 26, 2010

Lt. William C. West Jr. ALS Memorial 5 K

21 7/53 M-OPEN DAVID PECCHIA M 213 21:56 6:58

The results, here have the race called, Lt. William C. West Jr. ALS Memorial 5.15 Miler

I can see where their mistake comes from: The race is listed as a 5K, which is 3.1 Miles, but the actual course is 3.15 Miles. The race was kind of a small affair (155 finishers), no racing chips and they didn't break-down runners by the usual decade/groups. I am in the open division--18-49, so I had no prayer of winning. I may have been the top male in the 40's, but there is no way of knowing since the results don't give the runner's ages.

The start was the usual jostling and passing of slow runners and within a couple of hundred yards I saw that only maybe 5 runners were ahead of me. Then, a large group of boys passed me all together. I think they must have been a local High School CC team. I eventually caught and passed two of the adults but never was able to keep up with the CC team. Oddly, the only competition I had was with the woman who came in first among the ladies. She was 10 yards ahead of me for the first mile and then at about one and a half miles, I passed her. She re-passed me while climbing the one big hill and then I re-passed her on the down-slope. I picked-off one last runner on the flats over Nutting Lake and then made a move on the guy ahead of him. I was gaining on him but as we approached the finish he out-kicked me. He was built like a sprinter, so I didn't go all-out. He would have beat me either way and so why give him a hard time? I would have gone all-out if needed to protect my place against the people I had already passed though.

Added: My wife ran too (actually, she is the one who proposed this race) and she did well too.

Also, the winner was from our running club and was the only other runner, besides me, wearing our uniform. I saw a few familiar faces, but they were in mufti.

Here he is.

No comments: