An Ras Mor 2015 Race Report

Similar to last year, I went for an easy 1 mile jog when I woke up to get the blood flowing and loosen up the legs.  After throwing a few other things in a post-race bag, I hit the road to jog the ~3 miles down to Central Square.

Last year this race was 40 degrees and rainy and this year it was ~25 degrees and windy...what can you do?  So I ditched the tights, but kept the shirt/hat/gloves.  I ended up timing my change somewhat poorly, so after I bumped into Elizabeth at the baggage check I had to rush to hand off my warm-up clothes so we could quickly make our way to the starting line.

I was glad to see Elizabeth out there today too, since it was so cold - she normally wouldn't run in the weather with her Reynauds - but I've been pushing her to run the Pub Series this year.  She ended up running 22:08, which is about a minute slower than last year. I chalk that up to the cold, wind, and limited winter training, and I would bet money that by the end of the pub series she's in the low 19s for 5k.

CSU in general had a great showing all around.  Amory won the women's overall, Terry won the 50+ age group, Kevin came in 2nd in his age group, and I'm really hoping Jon and Jonathan continue with the Pub Series - I think they could do some damage in the standings. We'll see!

I situated my self up front since no one else seemed to want to lead things off.  After looking through Thomas Cole's photos, I couldn't help but laugh. It looks like TJ Unger is giving me a look like, "Hey!...wtf are you doing ahead of me!?" That wouldn't last too long, but I was only 24 seconds behind him - I assume he's either coming back from injury, doesn't enjoy the cold, or was just taking it easier out there.

In any case, I was out of the gate pretty quickly and moving well.  I had run most of the course on my way down to central square, so I knew the first mile would be moderately uphill and likely a tad slow.

Just after passing the mile marker, I heard a familiar breathing. I took a quick look and didn't see anyone.  A minute later, someone came up on my shoulder and I looked, and just behind the guy on my shoulder was Kevin.  As soon as I saw him, Kevin quickly moved up onto my shoulder, then 5 seconds later put the hammer down.

I had been feeling pretty comfortable up to that point, but Kevin went all Johnny Ringo on me.  Well, this is the Pub Series after all, so I was thinking, "alright Delaney, I'm your huckleberry!" And so we battled back and forth for the next two miles, all the while reeling in runners ahead of us.

I was throwing in surges here and there, but Kevin was on my shoulder like glue.  Once we turned onto Brookline Street, I looked at the runners ahead and tried to real them in.  I was able to catch up to a small pack of two with about a quarter mile to go, and I tried to really lay the hammer down. I recognized one of the runners and thought it odd that I had caught up to him - but I was hoping it simply wasn't his day.  He ended up hanging onto me while the other guy faded a bit, and as we turned for the finish he out-kicked me by a slim margin.

Splits:
5:36.06
5:31.56
5:26.39
31.92

Results

Scott Mason's Photos