Weekend Race Report

So, there were two races scheduled for last weekend. It is part of a grand prix and somehow even though there are only 5 races in the whole series, two happened to be on the same weekend.

The running week had actually gone swimmingly: I had finally done a long run (>10 miles) at below 8:00 pace, got in a barefoot run and had 30 miles in the bank by Wednesday with an average pace for the whole below 8:00.

I was a couple of minutes slower in the 10 miler this year than last. I chalk it up to caution: Last year I went out fast and was at 7:15/mile at the 6 mile mark. I ended up averaging 7:30 and so really died in the last couple of miles. This year I took it easy for the first three and then picked it up from there and felt solid the whole way.

25 2/14 DAVID PECCHIA 52 M 89 CHELMSFORD MA 1:17:06 7:43

The next afternoon was a 5k and I was worried that I would not have any legs left for it. My legs were fine but I felt really limited by my breathing.

33 22:02 7:06 4 50-59 28 M 527 David Pecchia Chelmsford, MA

In both races, I was second in my age group. What was weird is that three guys in the Harvard race, older than 60 came in ahead of me, but in the larger Littleton race, none of them did. The 60 year old that came in just before me at Harvard was right behind me in Littleton.

Added:

Meghan Curran won the race on the women's side and I noted that she is from Chelmsford. Two of my daughters run on the Chelmsford HS Cross Country team, so I thought they might know her--she was in the 20-29 bracket, but I figured 20, right?

Nope: She is 28 and an Army Captain. She graduated 10 years before my older daughter, so they would not have met in High School.