2010 Feaster 5 Miler - Andover, MA

Official Results: 32nd OA, 13th AG M20-29, Time: 30:34 (6:06/mile)

This is such a great race that is so close to home that it's hard for me to turn this one down. It's amazing that year after year they still get over 8,000 runners between the 5 Miler and the 5k. Even though I had sprained my ankle over a month ago I decided to sign up for it about a week before the race. After I spoke with my physical therapist she said that it would okay if I ran it. The good thing was that she taped it up for me 2 days prior and said go test it out with a walk/job/walk/jog and see how it feels and then ice it down after. After I did that the day before the race, it felt great and I didn't have any pain so I went back to the PT's office and had them re-tape it so that it would be nice and tight on Turkey Day.

This year I went to this race solo since we were driving down to CT for Thanksgiving this year, but also so Jess could go for a walk since trying to go for a walk in a sea of 8,000 + people is next to impossibly if you really want to get a good walk in. I don't blame her for that! I got to the race about an hour before hand so that I could go through the normal stretching and warm up routine. I also ran into some of my ex co-workers Tracy and Jason and it was great to see them for a short while.

Race morning was pretty chilly with the temperature around 28, but with the wind it felt like 20! I was cold most of the morning trying to warm up before the race and right up until 5 minutes before the start I was still contemplating whether to run with my jacket or without. I ended up running without it and I was perfect temperature wise once the race started considering I had my under armour top on and a long sleeve shirt on top of that. The goal of this race was to finish and not to hurt my ankle considering if I did roll it I could possibly break it and/or tear all the ligaments in it. I started towards the front to avoid any chances of tripping over people. Overall the race went okay considering my ankle issue and the fact that I just ran out of gas at about mile 3 and I think that's because I haven't been running or working out as much do to my ankle.

Here are my mile splits below from my Garmin Forerunnere 405CX:
Mile 1 - 5:52
Mile 2 - 6:13
Mile 3 - 6:21
Mile 4 - 5:55
Mile 5 - 6:18

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Shawn M. Nassaney 5K - Bryant University, Smithfield, RI

Official Results: 5th OA, Time: 18:25 (5:57/mile)

It's been awhile since I've done a blog post about this race considering it was over a month ago! The good thing about this race is that it doesn't start until 12:45pm so it isn't an early morning for Jess and I to get down there. We got there about an hour before the race started so that I could meet up with my parents, grandparents and get my race number. Once we meet up with them I started to get warmed up and stretched out.

The gun was off and the race was off. Like usual a bunch of college kids sprinted across the field like idiots and then backed off. I was in 3rd or 4th place once we got around the fields and into the woods. It was then about a mile in I rolled my ankle as I lost my footing. I heard it pop as I rolled it and I quickly backed off my run to a jog to shake it out to make sure nothing was seriously wrong with it. It took some time, but I finally started running again and took the rest of the trail run very easy as I didn't want to roll the ankle again. (As a side note I had a premonition that I was going to roll my ankle during this race this year, it was so weird considering I've never ever sprained my ankle over all my years of running and doing cross country.) Once I finished up the race I grabbed some ice and iced it down while I grabbed some lunch. The ankle was definitely swollen and it looked like I had a baseball in my ankle.

After the race I took the following week off from working out all together and picked up an ankle brace from CVS. After I took the week off my ankle was still swollen, but I wasn't able to get it looked at it for another week or so. The diagnosis was that I had a Grade 2 strain, which is pretty good. I'm in my second week of PT and I've already noticed a difference with only 3 visits, which is great and as of this post I ran the Feaster Five on Thanksgiving. Stay tuned on my results from that race.