This is the first year this race has been part of our Seacoast Road Race Series (I help organize the Series, and my 5K in Oct. is also one of the participating races). We have a Series table (for new sign-ups and score checking) at each participating race, and I was working the table this morning with 2 other folks. I had decided that if the RD for this race didn't need any other help, I would enter the race. Robin seemed to have everything under reasonable control, so I plunked down my money. It had been raining on my way up to York (ME) at 6am, but it stopped before I got there, and it was clearing nicely by the 8:00am start. The temp was in the mid-upper 60s, the sun was out, and it was a slight bit muggy, but far from terrible. The start was fairly congested, and I was about 3/4 of the way back in the pack. The race had 230 racers last year, and the York HS driveway, with cars parked on the side, had been OK for the start with that size field. But now that the race was part of our Series, the field grew to about 900, and the driveway was packed tight and deep. The gun went off and it took me about 7 seconds to reach the start line, and folks were still at a slow jog at that point. It too about half a mile for things to open up enough to get up to full speed. My goals in this race were to have a good time, and to see what I could do to improve my race pace. The day before, I had gone for a short 'stay-loose' walk in the morning, spent most of the day mowing the lawn and doing other yard work, and then gone kayaking with DW in the late afternoon - not exactly a restful day before a race, but it was only a 5K, and not a target race, so I didn't go out of my way to get ready for it. My splits were 11:08, 10:47, and 10:51 for the last 1.1 mile. After the slow start, I was pretty pleased with my fairly even pacing. I worked at keeping my steps light and lively, my turnover rate up, and taking advantage of even the slightest downhills. Near the finish, I was coming back up on two runners who had passed me a little after 2 miles, but they also surged when I came even with them, and beat me at the line. So it goes - it was still a fun little race at the finish! My pace was 10:35, which is down nicely from the 10:51 in my first 5k of the season in June, and the 10:48 in a 4-miler earlier this month. So I'm going in the right direction, and am looking forward to seeing how well I can do in other upcoming races. FR: Blue shorts, yellow shirt, blue cap, and my Asics Hyperspeeds. Thanks for reading! Jay

Congratulations on a great run Jay, you are indeed headed in the right direction. I almost ran this race this year (I ran it last year) since it is run in the town I lived in for 25 + years and where I still work. As a matter of fact Robin is married to one of my co-workers. However, my good sense prevailed (for once) and I decided not to race this weekend as I look to having a decent race next Saturday at the Beach to Beacon 10K. Sorry I missed you, but hey at least you did well and boy there really was quite a crowd wasn't there...748 finishers this year compared to 166 last year!

Excellent job! And I love your reports.

Jay, you had a mighty good race. That sure sounds like a fast pace to me and I'm impressed you kept speeding up the whole race. Congratulations. TomS