The Thaw 4.5 Race Photos
Courtesy of D C Young

Didn't get mile splits, or at least accurate ones, but things went about as planned, started easy and sped up. Couldn't ask for a much nicer day in Jan. It wasn't fast going, but I went as hard as I could push myself. It's a lot harder course than the Manchester 4.748-mile race I ran in Nov. so to be able to run the same pace by myself was a good sign.

Matt ran really good. Especially for only having one hard workout under him and a month off from being in India.

Two weeks and I've got a big track meet in Boston. If you can believe it I'm seeded at 14:20 and not assured a spot in the fast heat. 25 laps of mind numbing should fix what's wrong with me...

Ok, I've got to go for another run before it gets dark. Cheers.

warmed up 2 miles with Matt and JC. We knew it was going to be an interesting race when we hit a low point (an air vortex they say) along the road and the air turned at least 20 degrees colder...

My brother-in-law (Matthew Houghton, who finished 26th)was racing with us today as well.

I ran a pretty strong race. I was never passed, I was 8th at one point and moved up to 5th at the end. It was even warm and that was pouring buckets at one point, held off as the race was run. My most difficult point was Mile 2.5 to the finish when I found myself out there on my own... makes you feel like a training run if you know what I mean.

I kept the race in hand, knowing my only competition was behind me. I felt like I was racing backwards.

Strong effort paid off the right dividends at the end. Along with finishing 5th, dropping my 4.5 Mile PR by 2 minutes (2005 it was 30:50), I was first in the 36-45 age division.

Great way to start the year. The Central Maine Striders were very appreciative of us "Downeasters" who took the extra effort to make it over. Thanks Alyie for making the effort to come over after you swam in Waterville.

First, both JC and RK had great races, so kudos to them. Ryan dropping 2 minutes off of his last PR is something, considering that the race is just 4.5 miles, and it was raining and puddle-y the whole way.

Of course, it didn't feel like --just-- 4.5 miles to me. Things started out fine, and I breezed through the first two miles in about 11 minutes. Judson had vanished into the dense fog, but Jeff Sprague was right on my shoulder, and it was nice to have the company.

But as soon as we hit the 2 mile mark, my body remembered that it had taken all of December off, and it rebelled. Jeff started to inch away, and I just couldn't hang on. By the time I got to the 3-mile mark (17:00), I felt like I was running through water. I wanted to walk. I couldn't have been running much faster than 8:30 pace at this point.

Fortunately, there's a half mile downhill at the 3-mile mark, and I cruised down that and recovered. I pretty pleased with how I ran the last 1.5 miles of the race. I even started to gain on Jeff a little in the last 800 meters.

I'm not thrilled with the time (I ran a faster pace at NE Harbor in the summer), but it was a fun race and a good chance to gauge my condition. I've got three weeks to get some good training in before Cape Elizabeth...

The Central Maine Striders get credit for putting on a good race, and extra credit for handing out gloves instead of T-shirts. Thanks also to Aylie for coming out and cheering.

Ryan, I bet you take another 2-minutes off next year. Matt will too.

I know exactly how you feel when there is no one around to race. Get used to it because soon you'll be even faster and there are less and less people to race. It helps a lot to have people in front of you to chase. The amount of time gained running with others and having to chase others is huge. I think I could have run 25 second faster if I'd had someone pushing me from start to finish. I can push myself pretty good, but it's not the same as having someone else pushing you.

But I did have someone to chase for the first 400 meters. In fact he had about 10 meters on me until 400 into the race when I passed him. Who the hell was that, he took off like it was a mile race. A bit too fast for me, so I let him go. Hope he knew it was 4.5-miles...