Goffstown Gallop

I had no real expectations going into this race. After the marathon I'd been running mostly 5 mile runs with no real speed work. I tried to do a couple of tempo runs, but it was either too hot or too humid and because I wasn't training for anything it was too easy to just go back to a slower pace.

There was a light rain and Donna told me to run faster because she didn't want to stand out in the rain too long waiting for me to finish. I told her that wasn't how it worked. I jogged a little to warm up and lined up in about the middle of the pack. I ran the first mile at a comfortable pace and was a little surprised when I hit the mile marker at 7:08. I picked up the pace a little bit and ran the second mile in 6:40. Someone said something to me as I passed him going up the hill, but it took me a little while to figure out that he said 'nice Locos'. Even with the hill, mile 3 was 7:07. Mile 4 was uneventful and took 6:50. I still felt good and was running consistently and slowly gaining on the people ahead of me. I picked up the pace a little when we turned into the parking lot and the race director said 'catch him' so I sprinted to the finish line. I caught the person in front of me, but someone else caught me from behind. The last 1.2 miles was 7:54 (6:35 pace).

My final time was 35:39 (a PR of a little more than a minute) and I came in 25th overall. This was the third time in the last 4 years that I finished 25th (last year with my knee problem I came in 39th). This race has separate awards for residents and non-residents and I was pleasantly surprised to hear my name called for 2nd in my age group for residents. This was the first time I've gotten an award.