Pearl Harbor 2021

Waterford, CT

Sunday, December 5, 2021

This was the 40th running of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Race, and my second.  Unfortunately, I cannot find my debut results, as Active cruelly wiped out the massive Cool Running archive of thousands of races.  My debut Pearl Harbor race was more than ten years ago now and I really didn't remember a lot about the race, except that it featured quite a spread afterwards.

I didn't have this race on my radar at all, until I received an e-mail from the venerable Way Hedding asking if the club could promote the race.  Since I was feeling fully recovered from the Philadelphia Marathon (two weeks past), and had nothing on the weekend calendar, it sounded like a fun thing to do.

The race registration was really old school:  paper mail-in registrations (remember those?) or paper day of registrations only.  No website or course map, but since SNERRO was timing it as one of their few remaining races in their portfolio, this gave me confidence it would be well run.  In lieu of a course map, I studied recent years' results on SNERRO's website, and found and studied an online version of the course map with elevation:  a past race recorded on Strava.  I arrived about 10am, one hour before race start. 

Check-in was smooth inside the Waterford Veterans of Foreign Wars Post.  Paul Gray stopped me and asked me my age.  Knowing what he was getting at, and that there would be 5-year age groups today, I lied and told him "54" (his age group).  Besides the expletive that followed from him, you should've seen the look on his face!  Before moving on, I corrected the situation by telling him I'm 57 and he was all of a sudden smiling again.

Quickly got my bib, and in old-school fashion, got a cotton long sleeve shirt.  I actually liked this, as so many races give out long sleeved tech shirts that I have so many now, but not many long sleeve cotton shirts for everyday wear.  (Since I work at home everyday now, I just wear shorts or jeans and a running shirt everyday to "work").

Warm up:  Pinned on my bib, and went for an easy warm up run on the first mile (which coincidentally is also last mile) of the course.  This is on busy Route 1, with no coned off lane, so I'm just glad I will likely be somewhere towards the front of the pack and no issue to run on the shoulder.  There was a lot of chatter about the "big hill" and running down it and back up put me at ease that at least in my mind, the hype was a little overblown.  

Doffed my long sleeve tech shirt and headed to the start line in my singlet.  An older gentleman veteran sang the Star Spangled Banner and we then assembled on the side of Route 1 ready to start.  What ensued was the the first of only gaffes that I observed during the race, with both occurring right away.  Cars were whizzing by both directions on Route 1 while both SNERRO officials and the Race Director tried to figure out how to get the road cleared and traffic stopped.  A fire truck with flashing lights showed up and I thought this would be the solution until he turned around and went ahead to block the course at the next intersection.  After a while, they got traffic stopped, asked us runners to come onto the road and makeshift start line, but then cars starting coming towards and were blocking the way forward.  Eventually they got that cleared as well, as they asked each car driver individually to pull into an adjacent parking lot and we were ready to go.

And we're finally off, about 7 minutes late,
but that's fine.  You can see the wisp of smoke from
the starting gun on right shoulder of road.
(Pics by Jana unless otherwise noted)

Race start:  I sized up my competition on the starting line and figured today's race was between Steve de Castro (2:58 at Boston this fall), unknown but fit looking blue guy, and me.  Steve said he would vow to stick with me today, except that he had said the same thing at Pachaug Half last fall, and it didn't end up that way.  Tom Olendorf said he was going to go past me at the start (go for it!) and then stay ahead for 15'!  Paul also talked some smack.

Today's race would be a CCW lollipop.

First mile downhill, small hill in Mile 2,
uphill finish

I'm on far left in blue cap
with frenemy Steve deCastro (blue singlet) to my left,
and Eric Reubelt (3rd overall) in foreground in yellow shirt

Kerfuffle:  At least as I recall it, I immediately made my way to the start and heard a lot of feet immediately behind me.  Until just 1/10 mile in and I started to panic.  Not because of the other runners, but because of what was (or rather wasn't) unfolding right in front of me.  The fire truck with lights flashing that was blocking the road at a busy 4-way intersection was still blocking the road, and was sideways across both oncoming lanes, which were filled with stopped cars.  With no course markers or marshals and no runners ahead of me, and the pace car now also stuck behind this mess, I momentarily wondered if I was supposed to turn left away from the commotion, but no, having studied the course I was sure this was the way to go, so I awkwardly ran around the fire truck, weaved through the two lanes of oncoming cars and eventually the road or at least the shoulder was clear.  Whew!

Now I saw the pace car frantically catch up to me and pass me.  This was a town-marked SUV with flashing lights.  Good, I'm on the right course.  We were on our descent of the mighty 90' hill now.  I heard footsteps behind me still, but not as many as before.  After a half mile, the course leveled out.  I reminded myself the easy work (downhill) was now behind me and I need to push ahead lest I be caught.  My strategy is to get some separation early.  Mile 1 split 5:31.

Mile 2:  Over the next 1/2 mile, we had a gradual climb up a 60' hill.  While the shoulder was sufficiently wide for even someone of my girth, there was occasional sand and loose stone in the shoulder, so I found myself running in the road until the next car came along.  At the top of the hill, I checked my watch and my pace showed 6:14.  That's not going to cut it.  Oh, yeah, right, I just climbed a hill.  Push on, but it's OK.  Just before two miles, I was very happy to turn left off Route 1 onto quiet streets.  A first responder stopped traffic to let the pace car cross, and pointed me down the next street.  I was tempted to ask him how far back the next runner was, but he was clearly focused on handling traffic (as he should be).  Mile 2 split 6:04.

Mile 3:  Mostly flat mile on a quiet residential street, Oswegatchie Road.  No idea how to pronounce that one; heard a couple variations.  There is no fan support on this race, but you wouldn't really expect it for a small race of 90 runners either.  At one point on the narrow road, the pace car held up to let an oncoming car pass first, and I went ahead of the pace car for a very short time.  Otherwise, nothing remarkable in this mile.  Mile split 5:47 - pretty happy to see that!

Mile 4:  Very flat mile.  At the end of this road, you can either turn left or right.  I remembered vaguely that at this mileage, this should be a left turn, and fortunately I also had the lead pace car to follow, but there were no course markers here or elsewhere, so if I didn't have either the lead pace car (or other runners) visibly ahead of me, this could've been confusing.  Slowed slightly in this mile for a 5:59 average pace.

Mile 5:  At the start of the final mile, I encountered a man out walking his dog.  He was quite animated, and told me "Don't slow down!".  He proceeded to tell me my next competitor was a ways back, but he was in sight.  Thank you for that!  That was exactly what I needed to hear, as it would be so easy to zone out and become complacent in this final mile, complete with a 100' climb.

Pushed the hill very hard.  This was the final mile, and I really wanted the win!  I noticed ahead of me there was a girl running the sidewalk adjacent to the road pretty fast.  Was she off course?  No, not sure why she was running so fast, and it was weird that she periodically turned her head back and glanced where I was, but she was likely not in the race at all.  I passed her just before cresting the hill.  Mile split 6:01, much faster than I anticipated!

Finish:  Short and fast push past the VFW and a very slight decline as I sprinted past Jana and on to the finish line and the timing mats.

Heading towards the finish.

Finishing strides.

Final result:  29:57!  1st place overall out of 90 runners.  Full results here.

Super happy with the result!  Especially later when Nick Bottone reached out to me, and said no one ever as old as me had won the race!  I searched all of SNERRO's results on this race, which albeit only go back to 2013, and this was the first race in that time frame that was won in sub-30.  Had this been a 5-miler, this would have been a PR for me given same pace.

The awards ceremony took a while due to so many awards, but it was all good.  The Race Director and pace car driver apologized for the botched start, and said that a Waterford Police officer with cruiser was supposed to be at the start to stop and direct traffic, but got send off on a police call just before the start.  OK, things happen and good that he apologized and would work on it for next year.

In line with Jana for post-race spread!
(Pic from Chris Colangelo's Strava post)

It turns out Steve finished a minute behind me,
but I wasn't taking any chances with the Win,
and raced like he was on my heels.

For a race with 90 runners,
seems a little much to have 5-year age groups AND 3-deep;
that's quite generous.

That trophy is huge!  As Way is handing me the huge trophy
(what am I going to do with that?!) for overall winner,
the RD / Waterford town official behind me (with mic) is explaining
that "Jeff is so fast that he passed my pace vehicle"!  
Technically true and funny.

Team WTAC cleaned up with a lot of hardware today!