If it,s the second weekend of October it,s Masters XC 5K C,ship.....road trip!Last year I finally made it up to Saratoga upstate New York to run my first Masters XC Nationals{in 06 I had ran my first ever XC Nationals in Van Cortlandt Park}but untill 2 weeks ago hadn,t planned to trek down to Greensboro N.Carolina for the 08 chapter,however in lite of my victory at 5th Avenue Mile and 20.12 xc 6k at Osprey I felt ditching Radnor Steplechase 5k xc in favour of the big dance was fitting,ergo meeting up w/ Chuck,Joan H,Bryant and Chantel at 39th and Spruce at 10.10am b4 meeting up w/ car#2 in Deleware where Bill,Bob,Andy and Joan A Joined us,next stop Greensboro!!,Chuck,s not much for stopping on route,we made excellent time just like we did in 06 on the way to Charlotte,one rest room stop 5 hours into the trip and a stop for gas....and a book....and a heating pad.....and Advil for Joan H and b4 6pm we were in Greensboro.
After check in and in my case a shower and shave it was off to dinner at a nearby Italian eatery,it,s a sad reflection on my life..........or lack there of that on this the 41st Saturday of the year this was only my 6th one out,three of which were running related,I,m not a role model,nor a social animal...anti social maybe!!!
Irrigardless of my lack of Saturday nites out it,s always fun to sit and break bread w/ my team mates,most of whom I don,t see too often,aside from Chuck whom I see on a near weekly basis the rest of the gang had been MIA for a while since I tend to swim in track and xc circles only these days.
Post meal it was back to the room to catch the Dawson Tarver fight on Showtime,the top of the 7th innings between the Devil Rays and my beloved Red Sox b4 lights out.
W/ my inner clock going off half an hour b4 the alarm at 7am I was up showered and dressed and over to the lobby for breakfast w/ Chuck,Bob and Bill,race time wasn,t for another 3 and a 1/2 hours yet so given last nites dinner had left me still hungry I made sure sure to tuck into a hearty breakfast,though I nearly came to regret a second sausage biscuit at mile 2 of the race....
Over to nearby Hagen Stone Park by 9.15am which allowed for ample time to get our race # and tshirts and jog the course,a 2 and a 1/2 mile romp through the woods at a predominatly down hill rate,I think the first uphill wasn,t till 1 and 3/4 miles,I was fairly sure this was going to be a fast course.
As we made our way to the start Chuck and I shook hands and wished each other luck,Chuck thanked me for coming down to race this,as I told him I wouldn,t have missed this for the world dispite a year long leaning towards the Radnor race I wanted to be here,w/ the 09 race further south in Petersburg Florida who knows maybe next year I,ll get to do the Radnor Steplechase XC 5K race afterall these years!!
My game plan was simple in order to go sub 17 min and hopefully crack the top 10 I,d have to go out fast w/ the lead pack from the gun,w/ hindsight maybe I went out too fast,these days I,m conditioned to an all out mile and that,s it,none of this 5k lark,heading into the woods I was third behind the eventual runner up Birger Ohlsson and 4th place finisher Francis Burdett,eventual winner John Hinton and third place finisher Armando Oliveira passed me not long after,knowing that three of those four were in the 40-44 age group I knew an overall age group award was shot but frankly looking at the entry list coming into this meet my honest beliefe was a top 10 finish would be to my credit.
5.08 at the mile,having not ran any road races as such in the past two years{I did a marathon relay last Sept and lead off the 10k portion b4 a 5k post Saratoga last Oct}I had to recondition myself to "let out the clutch" on the down hills,when I did I felt I ate up the ground.
After John and Armando had passed me I stopped counting where I was,a handful of runners passed me as I reached mile 2 in 10.51,a 5.43 mile,the brisk early pace had caught up w/ me but the strenght from my mile repeats and speed from my 600m and 1,000m was going to carry through the final 1.1 mile.
Thanks to some cat like reflexes just after 2 miles I managed to get myself upright after clipping a tree root,I managed to throw out my right had to spare me a face plant,I lost maybe 15 strides as I had to adjust to the stumble but knowing I was less than a mile from home found it easy to dig deep.
Making the turn along the road out of the woods I was reminded it was now 900m to the finish,just as Chuck came up along side me on the inside,given there were questions re the validity of the lenght of the course was I now about to lose my shot at the course record and another notch in the GPTC record book?....!@#* NO!!!,I charged up the second to last uphill putting not only daylite between Chuck and I but also passing another runner,along that straight away I wondered if I,d gone too early?,was my move made w/ enough conviction?did I have it in me to go again if Chuck came back at me?
Up the second to last hill,tight left hand turn,3/4s up the last incline,tight right hand turn,and the straight away to the finish.....here,s where it got interesting,Conor O Driscoll was making his move on Chuck,yelling to his team mate John Cummings ahead of me to go....Chuck then yelled at me to get going after John,in the final 50 meters I passed John,Conor passed Chuck as we formed a nice GPTC/Westchester Track Club sandwich!!!,me 13th in 16.49,John 14th in 16.50,Conor 15th in 16.54,Chuck 16th in 16.55,a track race broke out at he finish of a XC meet!!!
Yep 16.49.4,it,s at the very least a course record,it remains to be seen if it,ll count as a 5k pr/club record,I,m hoping so,I have other XC 5Ks on tap but not on a course as fast or as flat as this.
For GPTC we had to settle for 5th overall,I thought we had a shot a third at least but mad props to Westchester TC for winning the whole fecking thing,I say that w/ mad props and much respect as I know three of their five runners John Cummings,Pat McCarthy and Conor O Driscoll are Irish and frankly so might be their other two guys Rob Sweeney and Jay Duggan,I guess if you,re not Irish you must at least have an Irish name to run w/ these boyos...........I,d be in on both counts then wouldn,t I!!!!
I hung w/ the Westchester team post race,as we say back home "the craic was good"....Francis may not agree since he bore the brunt of most of our piss taking but he,s a big lad and he can take it,besides he had a 4th place overall finish and 3rd in the 40-44 age group to cheer about.
When I took my third run of the course this time as my cool down I was able to get my head around the fact I,d ran a 16.49,finished 13th overall and 9th in my the 40-44 age group,all 8 guys ahead of me were younger and my time would,ve gotten me 4th in the 45-49 group,I set out to run sub 17 and finish top 10,I,d almost pulled it off,not bad for a non 5k guy be it track or xc,I,d left some good 5k guys in my wake.
It was a long ride home but the mood was light hearted, we offered Birger a ride to Philly on his way to New York,we at GPTC have a great rapport w/ the guys at CPTC and I,d like to think if one of us needed a ride they,d hook us up.
After today I hope the bond between us and Westchester will be as good as the one we share w/ CPTC and Shore AC,I,ve known Conor for years and post race John Cummings told me he reads my blog.............fair play,he also said he was putting my photo on his dart board to remind him of the day I "ran be him like a feckin Gazelle" to the finish,good on ya my celtic brother,I look forward to hearing from you soon.
That,s it for the road trip,my final thought comes from Snorri Sturluson,s ''Prose Edda' it reads
"Those who do not belong to it,and whose native land it is not,cannot endure it.
The one who sits there at the Lands End to guard the gates is called Dark Surt.
He has a flaming sword,and at the end of the world he will come,he will harry,and he will vanquish all the Gods and burn the whole world w/ fire"
Yes he,s talking about 13th century Pagan Iceland,but frankly it could be Ireland as far as I,m concerned,if you,re not from it,and it,s not your native land you cannot endure it.......
Erin Go Bragh
Slainte
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