Some big news coming out of the local wire today regarding the race for the 2016 USATF-NE GPS men’s open team title. The Central Mass Striders added Pat Fullerton to their ranks just ahead of the season opening An Ras Mor 5k (3/6).
For those unfamiliar with Fulla, here’s a few of his PR’s:
Mile (road)… 3:58.8
Mile (track)… 4:04
3000m… 8:16
5k… 14:18 (road)
5 mile… 23:50
Fun fact…Pat also has a 2 mile split of 9:01 from a road 5k under his belt. Pat and fellow CMS newcomer Scott Mindel join returning members such as Nate Jenkins, Dan Vassallo and Scott Leslie to make the squad a legitimate contender.
Pat in action at the 2014 High Street Mile, courtesy of Tom Derderian.
Here are a few questions we sent to Pat after learning of the move:
When did you decide to join?
I decided to join really last week. I think all of the marathon excitement got me really asking myself about my own running and stuff and how much i look up to Dan Vassallo so i guess that’s when and why.
What prompted the move?
Basically I wanted to be teammates with DV, you and Chris Mahoney, and I wanted to help win a title for the team this year in the USATF-NE series.
Any change in what distances/races you’ll be focused on?
I’m still going to focus on the same distances. I’m going to do longer stuff for the team and give it a shot (no marathon lol) but focus is mile, 3k, 5k, 5 mile.
I addition, my career last year took a huge thud. I was sick, I was hurt, I could barely train, but still ran some decent times. So I stopped running for a month in August then got back into it, dropped new balance, and had a career reset. Ready to come out and roll a new humbled Fulla which yes it does mean no more fast food as it literally almost killed me
What’s your debut race in the uni going to be?
Debut with the singlet on im assuming will be an ras.
Who was your favorite CMS runner growing up?
DV. Dan has always been there and listened to me bitch about how slow I was etc and had faith I’d figure it out
Finally, I wanna give a big shout out to everyone who raced this weekend, crazy weather and I know everybody didn’t run as well as they hoped, but they will realize not only what an experience it is, but how it will effect ’em going forward with confidence for other races. 🙂
This certainly made the series team competition a little more interesting. Can’t wait to get it all started at An Ras Mor this March!
