Notes
This race is always a pain in the butt logistically. Corrals open at 6:45 for a 7:15 start (7:20 this year as Boston hosted the world championships). If you do not get in the corral early, you do not get to frontload and you do not have any chance to race. So throw away any warmup.
Two years ago we finished second as a team, about 18 seconds out of first place or so. This year, we just didn't have the numbers. We had Joe S. and Curtis T., who probably have the ability to run 18:XX but this year both were 20:XX. We couldn't get a 4th runner to race. I saw a bunch of usual suspects at the starting line (Carl Hartford, Jordan Donnelly, Ryan Carrara, David Metzger, Andrew Holmes, etc).
When the gun finally did go off, a group of 6 of us charged to the front led by Carl and Jordan. We held together as a group through mile 1 clicking off just over a 5:00 mile. Not a super fast time for the lead guys but right where I wanted to be. Mile 2 gets a bit tricky, with the underpass for Mass Ave creating a small hill followed by the 180 degree turnaround. I gave back a few seconds but was still happy with the 5:11 spit. By now, the pack was gone. Carl and Jordan were pretty far ahead followed by a smaller pack of me and Bryan Gallagher (bandit!) chasing Michael Carlone and Raymond Meijor.
As we made our way down towards the public garden, Bryan and I had reeled in Meijor and I briefly passed him before just losing focus and effort. I couldn't hold the other two in front and then lost Meijor. Mile 3 hit a disappointing 5:22. Mile 3 is pretty flat other than that Mass Ave underpass but tends to have a minor (very minor) headwind. Combined with exhaustion, I just didn't gut it out.
I was happy to just close out the race to maintain my spot and not bust out a kick. Once Bryan was removed from the results (ran with female teammate's bib), I snuck into the top 5 only 5 seconds out of 3rd overall. I had completely lost track of my place and should have fought harder for that top 3 spot. With Bryan in the mix, didn't even occur to me that I was in the top 5 nevermind so close to top 3. The lesson is never give up and keep racing to the finish. Would have been fun to battle it out for top 3 although i'm sure the other two would have kicked pretty hard.
Overall still happy with the result, especially after the last few 5Ks I couldn't come close to hitting 5:04/5:11 to open up the race. Mile 3 still left something to be desired but I think I let the distance get in my head and I could have closed a bit harder had I known I would stop at 3.1 rather than needing another half mile to close things out. Not a good way to think and it cost me a chance to finish hard.
Rank
GPlc
Name
Bib
Time
Gender
Company
1
1
Jordan Donnelly
976
17:40
M
PUMA
2
2
Carl Hartford
1013
17:55
M
RAYTHEON
3
3
Raymond Meijer
782
18:13
M
INVESTOR GROUP SERVICES
4
4
Michael Carlone
1228
18:14
M
WAYFAIR
5
5
Christopher Klucznik
579
18:18
M
DELOITTE
6
6
Robert Desisto
1072
18:22
M
SALESFORCE
7
7
Andrew Pitts
1016
18:23
M
RAYTHEON
8
8
Chris Gabrielson
1011
18:28
M
RAYTHEON
9
9
Ryan Carrara
1008
18:33
M
RAYTHEON
10
10
Brendan Mccarthy
663
18:40
M
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