Posted At : February 25, 2008 11:12 AM | Posted By : Admin
Related Categories:
MVS,
Track
Untitled Document
Sunday saw probably my last indoor race of the 2007-2008 season, when I ran the 5000 Meters at the USATF-New England Indoor Track Championships (results) at Harvard. It was my 3rd 5k attempt this year and I kinda went out with a fizzle. I felt ok through the first mile (4:50), then fell asleep during mile 2, and tried to salvage during mile 3. I got the splits from Fernando, but they are too depressing to write about... 15:21.19 officially but that was also a mistake. It was closer to 15:30 flat. No clue where they got 15:21 from. What is interesting is that they got all the places correct, and the times do correspond to the runners directly in front and behind me, so there was a clock issue for sure.
Jon Healey decided to also join me in the fun and run the 5k. All photos as usual by the lovely, talented, and extraordinarily gorgeous Kristin. Appologies for not getting everyone's races on film, but we had to run after the Men's mile heats...
Other Striders braving the competition included:
Men:
5000 Meters: [photos from our heat]
James Johnson 15:21.19
Jon Healey 15:46.36
Mile: [photos from this heat]
Alex Gomes 4:41.39
John Lawrence 4:42.40
Chris Lawrence 4:49.69
Sean Ouelette 4:51.69
Janos Mako 5:12.66 [photos from Janos' heat]
800 Meters:
Jordan Hoofnagle 2:13.01
Women:
Mile:
Julie Hanover 5:42.23 [photos from Julie's heat]
Linda Jennings 6:51.18 ( First Senior) [photos from Linda's heat]
800 Meters:
Ann Kingsland 2:46.30
400 Meters:
Julie Hanover 1:10.11
Posted At : January 27, 2008 10:59 AM | Posted By : Admin
Related Categories:
MVS,
Track
Yesterday I ran the 5k at the Terrier Classic at Boston University. This was the first time I have run at this 'new' indoor track since it's inception in the 2002-2003 season. I was used to the dingy old BU Armory building and it's pretty fast track, complete with a whole slew 'dead spots'. This track and facility is absolutely head and shoulders above that place. The old track was pretty fast...but this one has got to be faster.
I was slotted as the 3rd seed in the 3rd heat with a conservative seed time. I was also in the same heat as 2 other MVS runners from Peabody High School. These guys are also being coached by Fernando Braz and were trying to qualify for High School Indoor Nationals (goal met!). I ended up running very even splits to the tune of 15:21, narrowly beating out an MIT runner who led almost the entire way. I nipped him on the last straightaway by 2 tenths of a second to take the heat (my second consecutive heat win!). John Lawrence of MVS and Peabody H.S. (Junior) ran an amazing 15:39 and Alex Gomes, also of MVS and Peabody H.S. ran 16:07. Both will be going to Indoor Nationals in the 5k.
This 15:21 is my new '2nd Generation / Old Man' PR. Because of how comfortable and fluid it felt, running fairly even splits and being very in control most of the way, I have no doubt I can nip another 11+ seconds off my time....possibly before spring. I will be focusing on the Valentine Invite in 2 weeks, again at BU.
I should have my splits added to this entry when I get them from coach...
Dan Vassallo (MVS / Colby College alumn) ran a very strong 5k to take the 2nd heat in a winning time of 14:56. Watching the clock during my warmup, I know that Dan went through the first mile in 4:45, the 3k in 9:00, and then muscled his way to a solid win that was just 10 seconds off his 5k PR of 14:46.
The always lovely, and insanely talented (and patient) Kristin took some solid shots of the 5k, and I took some of the fast 3k heat. Enjoy.
PHOTOS:
Men's 3k (1st Heat - Sean Quigley, Reid Coolsaet, Francis Kasagule, Kyle King, Mark Miller, Harry Norton)
Men's 5k (2nd Heat - Dan Vassallo)
Men's 5k (3rd Heat - Me, John Lawrence, Alex Gomes)
Posted At : January 21, 2008 12:04 PM | Posted By : Admin
Related Categories:
MVS,
Track
Sunday was the Greater Boston Track Club Invitational [results] at Harvard. I wasn't even going to do a post-race writeup for this stinkfest, but I have been receiving some pressure to at least come up with a publicly facing excuse as to why I ran like crap, so I will offer this explanation... This was my first mile since the Clinton administration (the first, and hopefully only one :) )... I had absolutely no clue how to run this thing. I couldn't even picture it leading up to the race (I usually like to at least try to visualize the race ahead of time and get all nervous and puke). I decided that since I have only been running base mileage with the occasional tempo run, and I hadn't run a quarter at my desired 'mile' pace since the 90s, that I would just sit back, not go crazy, and let some others dictate pace for a bit. Of course, I was put in a slow heat based on the conservative seed time I submitted, so I was already screwed before I even started to race. I was the 12th seed (last) in the 2nd heat, so I was put up on the shotgun on the outside. As soon as the gun went off, I knew the pace was going to be slow because I was holding back and was still way out in front. At the cut-in, I settled in in 2nd place behind a guy from Essex. I then rode 2nd for the first 800. A guy from GBTC made a move and I went with him. I maintained 2nd and felt real good, very relaxed and in control cardio-wise) but to my absolute horror, we went through in 2:20 (thats what I get for not being aggressive and running my pace from the beginning). I knew right away, I was 8 seconds back of what I wanted to run already at the half, and there was going to be no salvaging a good time at that point. I took the lead at 800 to go and ran a 2:13 last 800 split to win the heat in a mediocre high school time of 4:33. I was and still am horrified, and now I need to find another Mile to run somewhere this winter. I think it will be the Valentine Invitational at BU on Feb. 9th. Next up though, will be another run at a 5k at the Terrier Classic this Saturday.
Photos came out better this time around after applying some advice given to me on taking indoor action shots...I actually had to use some of these things called 'settings' on my camera....they actually DO do something (if you can believe that)....
Photos:
Men's Open Mile:
- Heat 1 (Kevin Alliette, Matt Ely)
- Heat 2 (my heat, Terry McNatt, Junyong Pak)
- Heat 3 (Pat Ard, Chris Kealey)
Men's Invite Mile (Mark Miller, Joey Dewitt, Sintayehu Taye, Jeff Caron, Erik Nedeau, Rex Radloff, Andie Colon, etc.)
Other MVS competitors (Julie Hanover in Women's Open Mile, Janus Maku in Men's Masters Mile, Ann Kingsland in Women's 200, Becky Connolly in Masters 200, Bruce Rose in the Men's Open Mile).
Posted At : January 13, 2008 7:47 PM | Posted By : Admin
Related Categories:
MVS,
Track
This weekend's crimescene was the Dartmouth Relays up at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. My first indoor track race in almost a decade. I decided to run the 5000 Meters while only having done base mileage over the course of the past 2 months. I snuck in the occasional tempo run and one hill workout last week, but other than that, I have done no speed work whatsoever. I really didn't know what to expect and figured it could go either way. A big part of me was hoping for a breakthrough, and yet an even bigger part of me was planning for the worst. I ended up going with the advice of a former college teammate who told me to take it one lap at a time and one quarter at a time...figure out my pace, pay attention to the splits, and try to maintain the pace I'm shooting for. This worked pretty well and took me to a 15:39.44 [results] and my 2nd generation PR in the 5k. I ran very even splits and maintained a nice rhythm until a slight mishap over the last half mile. The effort was good enough for 2nd place overall and 8 points. That 8 points was good enough to place MVS as a team, in 15th out of 34 (gotta love track!). The race itself was a mixed bag. I rode 4th place for the first 2 laps (400 meters) then moved up to the front and took charge of the pace after we came through the first quarter in 1:20 (far slower than I wanted to run for pace). Even though I didn't want to do it this way, I led for about 17 laps, doing most of the work for myself and for the Williams runner who sat on my shoulder the entire time. With 6 laps to go, he moved around and passed me. With 5 laps to go, my mind wandered just a tad and I stepped on the inner rail on the far side of the track and rolled my ankle rather badly. Being already committed to the race (with only a half mile to go), I kept banging away and finished only 2 seconds back of the winner.
After cooling down with the fellas from CMS, my ankle got progressively worse. At the time of penning this entry, I am icing it and can barely walk.
Overall, the weekend was rather long but fun. Kristin and I drove up to Dartmouth on Saturday morning to see Mike Masse run the mile in the High School section of the relays. We stayed overnight and then sat around for most of the day on Sunday, in the field house, allowing me to spend an awful lot of nervous energy worrying about the race while I watched some former teammates run their races. Kevin Alliette (Whirlaway) ran a pretty solid mile earlier in the day and UML had a decent effort overall as a team.
The always lovely and talented Kristin took pictures ....however this was our first time using the camera indoors and the results were not as we expected. Every setting produced blurry images. We're not sure why, as we haven't played around with it enough to figure out the optimal settings for indoor use. Deal with it!
5k Splits per quarter:
400 - (1:20) 1:20
800 - (1:12) 2:33
1200 - (1:13) 3:46
1600 - (1:13) 5:00
2000 - (1:14) 6:14
2400 - (1:15) 7:30
2800 - (1:15) 8:45
3200 - (1:16) 10:02
3600 - (1:16) 11:19
4000 - (1:16) 12:36
4400 - (1:15) 13:51
4800 - (1:13) 15:04
5000 - (:35) 15:39
