In addition, there was a shoe malfunction: I was undecided on keeping the inserts in my racing shoes since they are a little tight. As I left home, I kept them out of my shoes but brought them with me and only single-tied my shoes so I could put them in easily if I decided to do it later. Once I got to the race, I forgot all of this, until the race started. Then I noticed that my feet were sliding around inside and were still single-tied and could come untied at any time.
As it was, I ran at a pace of 7:22. This turned out to be enough for third place in my age group and I would have had to be well-under 7:00 to have caught the 2nd place finisher. Also, last time I ran this--back in 2011, I took 1:37 longer. It was hotter on that day but comparing the times, it looks like the heat may have accounted for 10-15 seconds.
MALE AGE GROUP: 50 - 59
1 8 JON SCHOENBERG 51 HARVARD MA 31:04
2 14 DOMINIC GOLDING 54 PRINCETON MA 34:17
3 29 DAVID PECCHIA 51 CHELMSFORD MA 36:46
Added: In the middle of the race, at the end of the big hill, still climbing but not as steeply, I was chatting with another racer--Bob. We figured out that both of us were in the 50 year old group and he speculated that we were dueling for 5th and 6th place. I had checked the previous year's results and we were actually on track to be competing for 2nd and 3rd if all the same people were running. It turned out that reality split the difference: Last year, I would have taken 2nd but this year I got 3rd. Bob got 4th this year and would have placed the same last year with that time.
*My longest run in the modern era (when I took up running again at 40), in which I was sub-7 is 6k, which is a bit less than four miles.
Update 2: 2 races into the Nashoba Valley Grand Prix, I am in 5th place and there is nobody ahead of me who is older. Full results here:
Added: I am actually pretty tan from running outside most days but I have to admit that I look like Casper the exhausted ghost in these pictures. LOLOLOLOL
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