slow runners

WE stink!!

That is what I was thinking.

Who ran anyhow?

no results anywhere

it was pretty hot for Massachusetts standards -- 65 degrees or so and blowing wind on the open sections. I personally didn't run, but everyone from the top down seemed to intimate it was a mediocre day. No won in masters even broke 26 for the 5m I think. It hadn't been raining but there are a zillion races on that course (including 6 the day before) that make the footing worse every time as the season goes by).

Some of the usual clubs were not present as well. There were no teams from New Hampshire or Maine, and even some mainstay local Mass teams, CMS and Merrimack Valley, did not field teams. That honestly might be of more concern. Overall, I'd say the New England club system, usually solid as a rock compared to other regions, is a little down these days . .

Matt Downin came in first. He took the lead with 3k to go and got away form a small group of four or five guys. Mark Coogan was in second just behind Downin.

It was nice to see a couple of New England kids in the champs.

full results, as usual, at the USATF-NE page

USATF New England Headline News

CHISHUM, DOWNIN TAKE NE CROSS CROWNS

November 10-- Franklin Park, Boston MA

New Balance runners Kristin Chisum (Wayland MA) and Matt Downin (Hampstead NH) ran off from their competition in the final mile of their races to win the USATF-NE Cross Country championships on Sunday.

Chisum completed a sweep of the region's top harrier runs, having won the Mayor's Cup two weeks earlier. Stepping up to 6K at the New Englands, Chisum ran together with teammate Blake Russell until just before three miles where she upped the pace to win in 20:02

Downin, winner of the 2000 Fall Nationals over the same course, was accompanied by a pack of 6 that dwindled over the first four miles. He edged ahead over the final lap and a half and sported a 19 second win over Mark Coogan at the tape, with a winning time of 30:19.

The B.A.A. won both men's and women's team titles, going 20-53 over Greater Lowell on the women's side, and 35-65 over Reebok Boston on the men's side.

Bob Winn led a 1-2-3 sweep by Greater Lowell Roadrunners in the masters men's 8K as Lowell scored a team low 18. Karen Smyers won the masters women's gold by over a minute, with Cambridge Sports Union earning the team trophy.

All results can be found on the cross country page.

You can find results on coolrunning.com:

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/02/ma/Nov10_USATFN_set1.shtml

I didn't run (nagging injuries), but everyone on my club was slower than last year, so I don't think the times were slow because of a lack of competition. There was also a great pack up front with Coogan, downin, Simonich from Utah St. via Atlanta, Hinga, and a few others through 7K.

It didn't seem very windy and the footing wasn't as bad as at Mayor's Cup, so I would say the temp and maybe the air being a bit on the humid side. It was a fantastic day for spectators, so obviously it was too warm to be ideal for running.

Simonich went to the University of Utah, Salt Lake City

The fact that only 70+ women competed in the New England championship is pretty sad. It is not marketed at all among the club scene.

Does any one know why Keith Kelly did not run. I thought that he was planning on racing.

I think that the mayor's cup a week before it may be the problem.

Rumor has it that he has some shin pain and does not want to aggravate it.

mplatt wrote:

I think that the mayor's cup a week before it may be the problem.

Mayor's Cup was 2 weeks earlier--plenty of time to recover.

Participation was way down at both mayor's cup and NE champs this year. That's weird because last year's mayor's cup was the biggest they had ever had.

BostonGuy -- I originally thought so as well, but a quick check reveals

(women/men)

2002 71/107

2001 106/136

2000 87/101

1999 88/101

1998 94/106

1997 92/135

so the women were way down, but the men were the same as 98-00. Still doesn't explain why turnout was down though -- probably a host of factors I guess.

I ran at New Englands this weekend, and my time was definitely slower than I was hoping for -- so I'm glad to hear that other people found it slow. Unfortunately, the footing was great, the weather was beautiful (not too hot, not too cold), I rarely noticed the wind...so I can't really think of any other alibis.

As someone mentioned, Downin didn't hit the front until a couple of miles to go, and then he put a pretty big gap on the rest of the pack -- he probably could have gone a lot faster, so maybe it wasn't such a slow day.

I looked at Senior Bowl esults in Mobile and saw one person who was under 30 minutes there and he only ran 31:50 at NE Champs so I am guessing 90 seconds to 1:45 LONGER THEN A NORMAL 10K ON ROADS UNLESS MOBILE IS SHORT.

I think that is about right. 90 seconds between Mobile and Franklin Park.

that may be the case (slower) because Franklin Park is curvy and trail for 99% of the way -- but its actually short at 9855 meters.

uh, no offence meant to the runner in question, but how can you base an assessment of a course's speed or a race's depth of field on the time differential of one "b" level runner's performance between NEs and Mobile?! For all you know the runner in question was racing new englands as a fun run, caught a stitch, just plain sucks at cross country, got lost on the course, or whatevah. Why choose a random guy who once in a while cracks top ten at local competitive races as proof to your hypothesis? Unless you are that guy, in which case your post in the third person is kind of creepy and pathetic. It's silly to even think about times in cross country, since placement against competition holds far more weight, and the course conditions change on a daily basis. Franklin Park is fast for a cross course, the 10k distance is short, but that doesn't always translate into fast times (as we saw this weekend.)