Veterans Day - Race - Veterans Day 10K - Bedford, MA - 6.2

Day 315 - It's too bad my boss isn't a runner, otherwise he would have called in sick and ran the race with me today. On second thought, it's a good thing he's not a runner, otherwise he would have canned my ass for calling in sick to run a race today.

(Excuse me for one thought)

Veterans Day is a "holiday" that boggles my mind. Why do most people have Columbus Day off, and not a day where we actually honor something meaningful?! Veteran's Day should be a day that should be celebrated as much as the 4th of July! Without the unimaginable sacrifices of the men and women who serve, and have served, we would definitely not be as free as we are today.

Free to be able to do things as simple as calling in sick and having fun at a race!

We Thank You!

(Can't say Thank You enough)

Today's race took place down at the VA Medical Center in Bedford, MA. The original start time was supposed to be 9AM for the 10K, but that got pushed back to 9:30AM due to the overwhelming demand for race day registration. This was great since 100% of the proceeds would go to benefit deployed military members and their families. I typically get a little antsy when races get delayed, but I would have been OK if this race got delayed until tomorrow if that meant that people were still registering!

Every piece of running gear I had on today had compression written on it. It was cold and windy, but the sun was out so it wasn't all that bad. Less the wind, it was going to be a beautiful day for racing.

I came across a couple of familiar faces in the growing crowd including a few GLRR members and David Lapierre (CMS), who I last dueled with at Mt. Washington. Dave Breeden from NE Timing was timing the race, so I quickly went over and said hi.

Kara Haas was also here, running in the 5K, in memory of her cousin who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

It was an awesome sight to see all branches of the military represented here at this race. I guess this makes up for me missing out on MCM this year. Being here was just as moving.

This race was going to be my final tune-up before JFK (yeah, right). My main goal was to set a PR to see if my fitness level is still going strong this late in the season. My 10K PR was set back on the 4th of July (looks like we have a them) where I managed a 37:52 on a relatively easy course in Foxboro.

As far as the final standings went, this race was over 30 seconds into it. Mike Cooney from Team Whirlaway ran away with 1st place overall from the start. I managed to hang onto second from wire-to-wire. It was an uneventful run for the most part with the only noteworthy (or not) moment coming about 4 miles into the race when I missed a turn. This cost me about five seconds, but I was quickly directed back onto the course by an officer.

The course itself was surprisingly difficult with a lot of rolling hills, and a couple of steep ones thrown in for good measure. Rachel's family lives in Bedford, so I've put in plenty of training miles in the area. The race organizers, however, managed to introduce me to some hills that I've never had the non-pleasure of running into. There's a nice one at Mile 5 that kind of makes you go "ugh" as you approach it.

Even with the hills, I still managed a new 10K PR of 36:33 (5:55 pace) without any ill-effects. The other big takeaway from this race for me was the fact that I also managed to finally break 57 (at a race over 5K distance) on Runningahead's VO2 Max calculator. This had been a side goal (obsession) of mine for the past few months as I saw my VO2 inch closer and closer to this goal line.

(touchdown)

Based on today's results, I would say that things are looking good as I head into the final week of pre-JFK prep.

Official Results

Thanks again...

(...for everything)