Fast vs Slow Alton Bay Old Home Days 5K

There are some things that are fast.

And there are some things that are slow!!

On Saturday I headed over to Alton Bay, NH to run the Alton Bay Old Home Days 5K. I arrived early and was able to secure a parking spot right next to the sign up area which was in the boat launch parking lot. I quickly signed up and did a quick review of the course map. We were to start across from the public rest rooms and run towards the high school right over the starting line of the Big Lake Half Marathon. Then we would climb a small steep hill at the half way point. Lastly we would be heading down hill and over a couple little rollers to finish back in the parking lot.

I noticed that Jim Johnson's car in the lot so I went over and we decided to do a warm up on the course. Jim had just set the course record on the Loudon DARE 5K course on Wednesday and set the course record at the Laconia 5K XC race on Saturday. In other words this boy was on fire. We talked about his chances of breaking 16 minutes and decided that the course might not be conducive to this type of time. Time will tell.

Soon the commands to start the race would be given and we were off. Jim of course took off like a shot. Close on his heels was a 14 year Tuttle who is going into 8th grade. This young Tuttle would soon loose his steam and drop back. Jim was running like a mad man. After about a half mile he had a 200 yard lead. This was a race for 2nd place. I was running in 13th place and felt pretty good. The roads were fairly well shaded so I decided to just run comfortably and save something for the short steep hill. I hit the hill and tried to keep my form but ultimately started to drop my head and struggle up the hill. At the 2 mile mark I was at 12:48, slower the usual.

All of a sudden I herd foot steeps behind me. It was the first woman and she went past me like I was standing still. I tucked in behind her and hoped that if I conserved some energy I'd be able to get back the place in the final stretch. I was wrong, but did pass one person and ended up 13th over all with a 19:53, SLOW!! I think I'm running to many races at this point.

JJ on the other hand not only won the race but set another course record with a 15:46. WOW!! Boy oh boy is JJ on fire.

JJ and I did a cool down with two of the local HS studs and got another 22 minutes of running in. So I figure I got almost 9 miles in for the day.

One thing that I though was very interesting was the quality of the 50 - 59 year old runners in the race. The top 5 50 - 59 year old runners were in the top 14 runners. I did a fun exercise and scored the race based on XC rules and guess what? The 50 - 59 year old runners would have beaten all the other age categories.

So what did I learn on Saturday, JJ is FAST, I'm slow, but the 50 - 59 year old runners are faster then any others as a group. I'll declare that 50 is the new 20.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!