Tuesday, July 5, 2011

A closer look at a backyard 4th of July race

My wife ran the Walter Hunt 3k in 9:52 for the 4th fastest time and to be the third fastest female to run the course. The two women with performances in front of her are Wendy Delan, 9:28 course record holder 1987, and Cassie Hintz, 9:42 2005 and 9:43 2004. They ran those times as young women with Cassie still in High School. The race also has a large portion downhill. At first glance my wife’s race doesn’t look that great, but with a better perspective things change.

Besides sporadic "speed bumps" the race has two spots of long moderate inclines, a few 90degree turns, you can never run the perfect tangent as on a track, the pavement doesn’t “bounce” back as on a track and you don’t have on spikes as you would on a track. Talking to local living legend Riley Masters, I asked him what he thought the advantage of this overall race was and he said, almost verbatim, “yeah it’s a tough race, maybe 5-7 seconds quicker than a track.” I agree with the man. Plus there is another factor of downhill races, the downhill and crowd can take you out too quick, it leaves you very rubbery the second half of the race, with most contestants running within a handful of seconds of their first mile time in the last 1400meters.

So, even though the race is called the fastest race in Maine, in truth looking at the great competitors like Adam Goode and Riley Masters contrast it against their track times and you find closeness. With Adam, he is at a slightly better advantage because he is a true veteran of the race, and is in tip top racing shape coming off an impressive Tour de Luc 10miler. With Riley, Walter Hunt is slightly slower because this is just a 4th of July community run, not the NCAA championships. A lot of people don’t realize that to run as fast as Riley does, means portions of the year he isn’t that quick. Believe me, he is still quicker than most and is in tip top shape, but his primary concern is laying base for cross country, then indoor and outdoor track after coming off a red shirt season. He knows where he is in his season and year plan, and if he doesn’t then his excellent coach, Mark Lech, definitely does.

Jen’s time of 9:52, is not a legitimate 3k time, but isn’t that far off. I think she might have broken 10 on the track, same day, same people, same crowd effect. But what about the two girls who ran faster times, a high schooler and a college freshman being ten seconds and 24 seconds ahead of Jen in performance? Well, Cassie holds the outdoor state record in the 10k set in 2004 with a 34:36. In 2005 she ran 16:45 5k for the indoor state record and also did a 10:37 two mile. According to Gilbert & Daniels VDOT performance chart a 10:37 two mile (not 3200) is the equivalent talent performance as a 9:50 3k, right on with the 5-7 second correction. Wendy had a very successful running career but most notably holds the 800meter indoor state record set in 1987 with a 2:13.6. The year before that she set the indoor mile record (not 1600) in 5:00.6. These are the performances of national caliber athletes, regardless of their young age, and it is an honor for Jen to be a stones throw from them.

At the end of the day, the time isn’t so important. It is a backyard race on the 4th of July. My favorite part was taking place in the community of it. The atmosphere of activity and like mindedness with the volunteerism of so many people; to be part of the race is just invigorating. Jen worked for her time, not just in the nine minutes and fifty-two seconds of running it but in the months, and arguably years, leading up to it. Just like the race, it didn’t just happen while it was being run.

Most remarkably, just comment worthy not that it was shocking, the Capehart's took on race director roles and put together an excellent run that went off on time. Reliable start times is one of my all time favorite aspects of a race. Also at a closer look this downhill 3k isn’t such an easy race, you see on the Men’s and Women’s side top competitors, with the top four men all 8:35 or better (good enough to win it many other years) and the Women's side having two under 10min and the third with a 10:18 (also good enough to win it many other years). These are the times of people who could walk onto any Division one team in the nation if they had eligibility, and most schools would even find money for these kind of performances. While I am not surprised that the race was done so well, it is kind of cool that a small city in the middle of nowhere Maine can put together a field of competitors like that.

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