Marine Mammal Rescue Run Trail 5K - Saturday 4/25/15

Headed over to Rye, NH this morning with Alie to run the Marine Mammal Rescue Run 5K at Odiorne Point State Park. We got to Odiorne Point at about 8:15 and made our way to the Seacoast Science Center to pick up our bibs. It was chilly in the low 40s with a cold wind coming off the ocean, so we hung around inside the Science Center while we waited for my sister, Jen, who was also running the race. We ended up staying inside a bit longer than I intended though. I only had time for a mile warm up and very quick stretch before I had to make my way over to the start line. I bumped into a former Junior Olympics teammate, Mike Peabody, who works for Millennium Running, and we chatted briefly before he had to get ready to time the race.

The trail gets narrow quickly, so the race went off in waves despite only having 350 runners. The first quarter mile of the race was through the parking lot, and I was alone out front almost immediately which had me a bit nervous. I only had time to run the first half mile of the course, and the course map was far to difficult to memorize as the course is a zig-zagging trail through Odiorne Point. The first half mile felt smooth and relaxed at 5:20 pace which I had in the back of my mind as the goal pace. However, as I turned off the paved path and onto the trail, things devolved quickly. My left shoe came untied before the first mile mark and started to loosen up. I briefly entertained the idea of stopping to tie it but, ultimately decided to let it flap in the wind for the next two miles. At the first mile mark (5:30 split), I got a bit turned around and had to stop to ask a volunteer which way to go. There were a number of volunteers out on the course to direct traffic as the course had a number of sharp turns and looped back on itself a couple times. They did a great job, but it was still a bit difficult to tell which way to go at times. Around 1.5 miles, my watch went on the fritz (I still haven't gotten it fixed from when I fell), so I don't have accurate split info. The watch got stuck in a mode where it was still timing the race and calculating the distance but it would only display the time of day. I tried to fiddle with it which threw off my splits, but I wasn't able to fix it.

I slowed down quite a bit during the second half of the race even though we were no longer running into a headwind. The trail was amazingly dry with the exception of one muddy area which they had covered with a layer of mulch. However, there were a few other obstacles including about 100 meters of beach running and one short by steep hill. Overall, it wasn't a PR type of course, but it was definitely interesting. If I had to hazard a guess at my last two miles splits, I would say they were about 5:55 and 5:45 respectively. Not really what I was hoping for, but I didn't know anything about the course going into it. My final time was 17:10. I believe the course was a bit short as my watch, Alie's watch, and Leslie O'Dell's watch all showed that the course was about 2.95 miles. Leslie crushed the competition en route to her victory and 2nd place overall.

After I finished, I looped back and met up with Alie and Jen who both went off in the second wave. I ran with Alie for a bit who had a great race despite the course then cheered on Jen who also had a great run. This was her first race since having 2 kids, and she was somehow still in good spirits during the last mile.

Full Results can be found at Millennium Running