27th Annual Plaistow Old Home Day 5K

Today, I ran in the 27th Annual Plaistow Old Home Day 5K in Plaistow, NH. It was my first race back after having some calf problems over the past couple of weeks. I felt ok for the most part, but not getting in a good workout over the past couple of weeks, and running relatively low milage really affected the end of my race. My 2 mile split was ok (around 10:30) for the course, but my last mile was atrocious again. I've got to work on sharpening up and hanging on to pace.

MVS was out in full force today, and was well represented in all age groups. We won the team competition in the Men's Open category and received some nice hardware for our efforts. It was a perfect day for racing and a very nice overall package put together by MVS' own Jim Vitale.

The lovely and energetic Kristin put her skills to work today and captured a boatload of MVS people in action.. Check them out here ...

30th Annual Market Square Day 10K - Portsmouth, NH

Today, I ran in the 30th Annual Market Square Day 10k in Portsmouth, NH. It was the second race in the Seacost Road Racing Series. Despite the dreary overcast weather today, the rain held off and we were able to run a completely dry race.

Like Bedford (only far worse) I went out way to fast, and past the first mile mark as the time was just ticking over to 5 minutes. Keeping with the continuous theme of mile marker 1 conspiracy theories, it is likely that this one was again, short. All that aside, I feel somewhat satisfied with the effort.

10K (6.2 Miles) Splits: 5:00 (5:00) 10:32 (5:32) 16:06 (5:34) 21:46 (5:40) 27:15 (5:29) 33:03 (5:48) 34:07 (overall pace: 5:30).

MVS as a team (men/women combined) finished 4th overall: JIM JOHNSON, LARS BJUNE, PAUL CYR, DEBBIE WILLIAMS, MARILENE ROHRER, AMANDA WILDES, CASSANDRA WILHITE

I would like to take this opportunity to point out that I actually received an award for this effort....a nice green and white medal that says "2nd Place - Male" and "30-39". I was actually 3rd (technically) in my age group...but top 3 overall don't count in the age group standings...so I got 2nd. Top 3 in each age group get this nice 'high quality' medal (sarcastically speaking)... But honestly though...it is technically my first individual award for racing since 1998, so it's pretty sweet.

Other notables of the day was top MVS runner Caroline Bjune running to an impressive 36:27 (5:52 pace) for 1st place overall for women (which involves receiving a fairly fat check in the mail from what I hear).... Now had she actually declared "MVS" as her team, we may have picked up some more valuable points in the completely irrelevant team standings :)

Kristin, myself, and Nuggets then enjoyed the rest of day, walking around the local shops and tents...taking in the sights and sounds of a very cool Market Square Day in beautiful downtown Portsmouth. We had a nice lunch at the Portsmouth Brewery and the rain held off just enough not to disrupt the days festivities for thousands of people who piled into the square for food, music, and shopping. Oh yeah...and Nuggz picked up his winning Powerball ticket today too...remember who your real friends are buddy :)

The lovely and talented Kristin again braved the weather and took a fine batch of pictures... Check them out here...