By Mike Giberti
This past Sunday, the New Hampshire Grand Prix took a trip to the southern part of the state for the Convenient MD 10k in Windham, NH. The race was an out and back on the Windham Depot Paved Rail Trail that runs from Derry all the way down to Salem. It’s a beautiful and popular location for activities like running, so why not have a road race there?
As far as the competition goes, Alex Hall (BAA/Upper Valley Running Club) and Amy Bernard (Whirlaway/Greater Derry TC) continued their record-breaking ways. Alex’s solo 32’53” performance lowered the previous course record of 36’40” by almost four minutes while Amy’s 38’10” was good enough to stomp the former women’s record 43’48” performance by five and a half minutes. 2nd place finisher Rob Edson (UVRC) was also under the previous course record on the men’s side while UVRC teammate Nancy Dunbar, GDTCs Becca Noe and Lauren Tilton, Danielle Ross, and Gate City’s Shannen Arseneault all dipped under the previous women’s course mark.
The former course record holder on the men’s side, Wolfgang Ketterle (SRR), was in the field and placed 4th overall with a time of 36’55”. Running under 37 minutes at 10k is quite impressive for a 56 year old, but this guy has done even more spectacular things outside of running. Turns out Wolfgang is a Physics Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and back in 2001, received a Nobel Prize in Physics for a couple of significant scientific discoveries. Now that’s a bittersweet combination of brilliance and dedication right there!
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Just a small correction - A Nobel Peace Prize and a Nobel Prize in Physics are different things. There’s no “Nobel Peace Prize in Physics”