MANCHESTER — Craig McMahon's plan at the N.H. 10 Miler on Saturday was to go out fast for the first six miles and then see how things would play out after that.

By mile seven, he had no competition.

McMahon distanced himself from the field at about mile four and covered the course around Lake Massabesic at a blistering pace, winning the race in a record 54 minutes, 56 seconds.

“I was running like it was a six-mile race and hoping,” said McMahon, 23.

The Derry native won with ease. Second place went to John Rogers, 33, of Dover with a time of 57:02 and finishing third was Rich Smith of Enfield, 42, at 59:10.

The women's race was much closer. Maribel Souther of Hanover passed Tammie Robie of Milford in the last mile to win with a time of 1:04:48. Robie, 37, was second at 1:05:15 and Trish Bourne, 48, of Tewksbury, Mass., took third at 1:11:11.

Rogers had kept pace with McMahon for about three miles, then McMahon made his move and never looked back. The lead was more than 100 yards at the midway point and got bigger in the second half of the race.

“I wanted to push it there and get a big gap,” McMahon said about his move between miles three and four.

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Rogers knew right there that he was battling for second place.

“He said something to me and I told him I'm not in that type of shape,” Rogers said. “I said 'It's been nice meeting you, you go ahead.'”

McMahon, who recently changed his name from Craig MacPherson, beat the mark of 56:46 set last year by Nick Desouza.

It was a familiar course for McMahon, who grew up in Derry and used to train by running around the lake when he was at Pinkerton Academy. He now lives in Boston and jumped at the opportunity to come back home and put on a show.

“That was a nostalgic thing,” McMahon said. “I wanted to come back and run it.”

It was a more interesting finish on the women's side.

Souther, who was an All-America runner at Dartmouth when she went by the name Maribel Sanchez, said she noticed Robie slowing down at mile seven and then made her move on the final hill of the course, right at about mile nine.

“She was struggling,” said Souther, 37. “I saw her walking at mile seven and I said 'Someone who walks cannot beat me.'”

Robie said there was a part of the course that really drained her and admitted to walking at one point.

“It was pretty much a crawl,” said Robie, also 37.

Souther passed Robie on the uphill portion of the last mile then gave it all she could on the downhill part to keep the lead as Robie made one final run at it.

“I had to go pretty hard to keep it,” Souther said.

The N.H. 10 Miler was the fifth race in the 2012 MVP Health Care Millennium Running Series. The two races left are the Fisher Cats Thanksgiving 5K on Nov. 22 and the Santa Claus Shuffle on Dec. 1.