Sometimes it's all about showing up!

Last night I decided that I needed one more tune up run before Saturday's run up the rock pile. I decide to run race #1 in the Westford Summer Series. This race is a series of 10 races over the summer (dah) with each person scoring points in their age category. So the race is not about wining the entire race but beating the people in your age category and showing up to as many races as possible. The race distance is weird at 3.6 miles. The race gets anywhere from 40 to 200 people on a weekly basis.

So last night my plan was to go and run 30 seconds per mile slower then I usually run a 5K race, that way I'd get a decent workout without killing my legs for Saturday. A small crowd showed up because of the rain. I took a look at the field and saw Allen Hall who has kicked my back side many times over the years. I figured he'd be the one to beat. Also there was some teenagers, and 2, 30'something guys who looked like they could motor.

The "GO" command was issued and I was running stride for stride with Allen. Behind us was some of the teenagers and both of the 30 year old's. Allen and I were joking around a bit because neither of us really wanted to race. After about 1/2 a mile I started jawing at one of the teenagers to get up front and take the lead. He responded that he was fine tucked in behind me to my left. OK then, I saw a large puddle just up a head, so I yelled back to the kid, "if you're not going to take the lead then you're going to get good and WET". So instead of giving way to the puddle, I slowed a little bit so the kid was trapped and would have to run straight through it. He managed to avoid it by making a sharp turn to go around it onto the grass but ended up falling on the wet grass. He popped up quickly and yelled "what did you do that for"? One of the 30 year old's yelled back, "you just got played by an old guy"!! I also chimed in with "us old guys have quiet a few tricks up our sleeves". Soon the kid was shat out the back side of the pack.

There were four of us together when we hit the mile in 6:13. Which was still 17 seconds faster then I wanted to be so I slowed it down a bit. No sense in blowing my Mt Washington race for this one. One of the 30 year old's came around me and took the lead. Allen and the other 30 year old started to drop back. I just let this guy get a 20 yard lead and stalked him for the next 2.4 miles. I hung right behind him and never took the lead UNTIL, I could tell that he was tiring. His breathing was labored and his form was starting to break down. With 2/10's of a mile left to go I went around him and quickly put 30 yards on him. He was broke, I took a quick look over my shoulder and his head was looking down and his form was now ugly. I cruised onto the track and took the W, in just under 6:30 per mile. Right where I wanted to be.

For my efforts I received a pat on the back from the race director and a "that a boy" from some of the people milling around.

This series is a lot of fun. You just never know who's going to show up. But you do know that there will always be someone there to race against.

The race series benefits the Westford Academy Cross Country team which my daughter belongs to. The race Director is Paul Poisson who is the coach and a great guy.

Come on down some Thursday night for moderately challenging run and meet a few new people and catch up with some old friends.