On July 3, I participated in two awesome races in Manchester. The start line for both was at Derryfield Park, with a 5K race set for 9:15 am, followed at 10:15 am by the one-mile run. My good friend, Olympian John Mortimer, who founded the Millennium Mile in Londonderry in 1999, created this inaugural “Manchester Mile,” a one-mile downhill course with a 180 foot drop in elevation starting at the highest point on Bridge Street at Derryfield Park and ending at Pulaski Park. Boy, can you get some good speed on this run – I posted a 5:46 mile, placing 4th in my division and 67th overall out of 259 runners. Just for comparison, the best time was 3 minutes 43.99 seconds set by 23 year old Brian Gagnon of Hanover, NH. The two races combined drew a field of 532 athletes which included a number of elite runners, and I had the special honor to meet and chat with running great, Bill Rodgers, as you see in the photo. It was a great family event with proceeds going to the YMCA of Greater Manchester’s Reach Out for Youth program.
