Last month, I turned 40. While I spent much of the previous year mentally preparing myself for such an event, it’s still a bit of a shock to think that I am one of the “old men” now, and therefore racing under the “Masters” moniker. This year’s Utica Boilermaker 15K was my first race as a Masters, and I wanted to show that I may be old, but I’m not washed up!
I’ve been surprisingly healthy as of late, which I am endlessly thankful for. The past five years or so have not been good on the training front, so my current fitness is nothing I take for granted. That being said, I’m officially an “old guy” now, and don’t have the huge aerobic base I possessed in my 20s, so my times are slower across the board. Gone are the days of training for a few months and running 55 minutes in this race. Realistically, I thought I should be in the 58s, and maybe even dip under if I had a really good race.
I spent the night at my parents’ house in Westmoreland, and was grateful for the extra few hours of sleep. Once at the start, I warmed up, saw a few old friends, and prepared to run tuff. I started a little farther back than I usually do, and spent most of the first half mile trying to find people going my pace. Despite a slow first few minutes, I hit the first mile right on target: 6:24.
Shortly after, I caught up to Ryan Sullivan, who was going for a similar time, and we spent the next few miles playing leapfrog. Ryan would pass me up the hills, and I would slowly reel him in on the downs and flats. I was delighted to see that I went under 6:00 for both miles five and six, which put me comfortably under one-hour pace. Mile seven, up the hill, was a 6:32, but I was still feeling mostly OK, and cruised down the eighth mile in 6:00 even. Part of me was hoping to go under 6-flat, but I knew that if I pushed too hard there, that last mile was going to be ugly.
Well, that last mile was ugly anyway. I tried to keep a low-six-minute pace, but every step saw my pace getting slower and slower. My GPS clocked mile nine at 6:21, but it felt like a 5:21 to me. I couldn’t even muster up a decent kick, but still crossed the finish line in 58:24.
This is my fastest Boilermaker since 2019, when I ran 58:14, and my 18th sub-60 clocking. Unfortunately, my 61-minute result in 2022 ruined my streak, but this was still my 24th consecutive Boilermaker. And I’m doubly glad that even as an “old guy,” I can still run pretty close to the times I ran ten years ago. In all, I’d say my first race as a Master was a success!
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