Run of the Savages 5K - Saturday 4/11/15

Today is my 27th birthday! For my birthday this year, I decided I wanted to run a road race. This is a bit out of the norm for me. I never like racing when I am out of shape, and during the last few years, I have only really done it when I needed to finish off the Seacoast Road Race Series. I'm changing things up though. I had a really good time racing in Texas despite having only just started to get back into training, and I hope to continue to race while I build up my fitness base.

The Run of the Savages seemed like a good race for me today mostly due to location. I was looking for something in between Boston and Rochester, so I could stop for the race on my way back to New Hampshire for the weekend. Alie and I left my apartment at 7:45 and walked over to North Station. From there, we took the Orange Line to the garage where Alie parks her car and made the drive up 93 to 495 and Plaistow, NH. We arrived at Pollard Elementary School with plenty of time to spare, and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that registration was only $17 rather than the $30 advertised. Score! ... it's the little victories. We put on our numbers, met up with my parents who came down to watch the race, stretched, and I did a 1.5 mile warm up at 6:40 pace.

There wasn't a whole lot of competition to scope out. The race was started to support the fight against cancer after a 4th grader lost a loved one to the illness. As a result, the field of 571 was largely made up of elementary and middle school students. However, when I got to the starting area, I saw Patrick Ard of Whirlaway, and I knew that I'd be running for second place at best. I did a few strides and found out exactly where the finish line was. After that, the race director gave a speech about the race, the school gym teacher led the kids in a warm up routine, and we were off.

100 meters into the race, I was tucked in behind Patrick and we were all alone. The pace felt a bit faster than I was prepared for, but I decided to stick around for a bit to see what happened.

Half a mile into the race, I could tell I wouldn't be able to hold the pace. I looked down at my watch, saw that we were rolling at about 5:15, and decided to back off. Patrick kept right on going as I settled into a comfortable pace. My watch clicked off the mile mark at 5:29 which felt nice and relaxed. The actual 1st mile mark was about a tenth long. I'm glad I was wearing a GPS watch, or I may have thought I was running 6 minute pace. After the first mile, Patrick had about 75 meters on me as we turned off Main Street and headed into a neighborhood. I was very happy that Patrick was out front at that point. We had a police escort for the first mile, but it pulled over to the side of the road as we headed into the neighborhood. I'm not sure how Patrick knew where he was going, but at a mile and a half, we came to a fork with no sign or person directing the way and he somehow knew which way to go. If he hadn't been there, I probably would have been standing at the intersection until someone else came along.

The second mile had a number of sharp turns as we winded through the neighborhood, but it was mostly flat. Patrick's lead was slowly getting larger and larger as the race went on, and I began to lose sight of him at times. My watch showed 5:34 through the second mile which I was satisfied with. I didn't really know what to expect coming into this race. After the results in Texas, I thought 17 flat would likely be about as good as I could hope for right now, and I was just about on pace for it. The third mile turned back on to Main Street with half a mile to go. The final half mile was slightly downhill with a minor tailwind, but it didn't offer all that much aid. The course finished up by turning back into the school parking lot and ending at the finish line situated behind the school. As I turned into the school, I realized the course was going to be quite a bit short. My watch hit the 3 mile mark in 5:35 just a few seconds before I crossed the finish line in 16:41.

I shook hands with Patrick as we congratulated each other and both remarked that we thought the course was a bit short. If I hadn't been wearing my watch, I would have been extremely confused because the first and second mile marks were quite a bit long while the race itself was a bit short.

After the race, I ran back over the last half mile and met up with Alie who was still finishing up. I ran along side her for a bit, and she was pleasantly surprised when I told her how close the finish line was. This is the first time she really raced a 5K, and she ran much faster than she was expecting! I think she is definitely hooked.

We finished up with a short cool down and headed up to Rochester. Overall, it was a nice little race that we both really enjoyed.

Full results here