I decided at the last minute to jump into the Lone Gull 10K in Gloucester, MA on Sunday morning. I haven't raced in a couple of weeks, and so wanted a status check for an upcoming 5K (in 2 more weeks), and a half at the end of October.

The Lone Gull is a USATF team championship race, so there were a lot of running clubs represented, and all brought their fastest runners. There is no walking division in this race, so I knew I'd be out there racewalking on my own, and that was OK. Before the race, I saw one runner that I know, a few runners with '65+ Running Club' singlets on, and our regional USATF chair, who was there to oversee the championship scoring.

The race is in the coastal town of Gloucester, MA. The course is beautiful, going along the coast for the first and last miles, with lots of other water views and pretty residential neighborhoods in between. There are no steep hills on the course, but rather an almost constant series of long and short rollers. The day was warm (mid-upper 70s), with bright sun, no clouds, and too little shade. But there was a very slight, cooling breeze off the water now and again, and that made a huge difference for this heat-hater. I wore my 65+ singlet, black shorts, orange cap, and Topo ST-2 shoes.

Because of the temps, and because this wasn't a target race, I started out relatively easy, and just tried to keep a fairly even pace. Once all the faster runners passed me, I did my usual, and found other runners ahead of me to try to chase and pass. I dueled with a few of them for a while, but usually won out, especially as they slowed on even the small uphills. By mile 5, when we were back in full sun for the rest of the race, I was starting to really feel the sun and heat. Once or twice I thought about seriously slowing down, but I was too close to the finish and didn't want to bonk if I could avoid it. I finished with a chip time of 1:09:49 for an 11:15 avg. pace, which was very unimpressive. I was 783/878 overall, and our team (65+) finished 6/8 in the Masters (60+) div. I hate to say it, but the team might have finished 5th without my time figured in, since everybody else was running (of course), and considerably faster.

The only problem with the race was getting out of the parking lot afterwards. It is a beach lot, with only one way in and out, and there seemed to be as many people coming in to enjoy the beach as there were racers trying to leave. It took me about 20 minutes just to get out of the lot. Otherwise, it was a great race, and I'll probably do it again (but will not register as part of the team so I don't slow them down).

Thanks,

Jay