Nearly 25 years ago

I found a little more info on the starting line picture. 12-08-84. It was a quad meet with UMass, So. Conn, and Bentley. We finished second with 64 points, Umass won with 67, S Conn had 37 and Bentley had 7 points. Bob Derrah and Bridan Moody qualified for the Easterns in the 2 mile running 9:12 and 9:19. I won the 5,000 in 14:20, Dennis Simoniatis took second in 14:22 and Tom Chamberas was thrid in 14:28. We qualfied for D2 Nationals with those times. No mention of Dave Quintal in the Lowell Sun article.

My training log says I had a sore throat and a bad cold and that we did 3 warm-up and 3 warm down. Splits were:

71/66/69/70/69/68/72/71/71/72/70/66/25 and 436/440/439

I remember that we were trying to qualify and took turns taking the lead as none of the other teams runners were fast enough. I also remember that Dennis didn't take the lead at all and Chambo was not happy about that.

The picture above is from the race, but it is hard to make out any of the action.

George Davis to be inducted into UML hall of fame

Congratulations to coach Davis on being selected for the hall of fame this year!

The XC team 1986. Left to right: John McKenna, Mike Woodman, John Cotter, Rick Dawe, dd, Jason Cakorous, Bob Derrah, Coach Davis. Note: I'm wearing pink high tops.

Story on UML website: http://www.goriverhawks.com/genrel/022409aaa.html

Snowshoe rankings

Minimum of 4 results


Rank—rank lw—Name--------# Raced---Weekend Result
1tie----2----Jim Johnson-------9----1st @ Kingman
1tie----3----Ben Nephew--------6---1st @Hallockville
3------4----Matt Cartier--------7---2nd @ Hoxie & 3rd @ Bridges
4------7----Tim VanOrden------7---1st @ Hoxie & 2nd @ Hallockville
5------5----Dave Dunham-------9---Idle
6------6----Tim Mahoney-------6---Idle
7------8----Matt Westerlund—5---3rd @ Hoxie
8-----N R---Josh Merlis--------5---4th @ Kingman, 7th @ Hoxie, 3rd @ Hallockville
9------11---Steve Wolfe-------6----2nd @ Kingman
10-----9----Ken Clark-----------13--12th @ Hoxie, 11th @ Bridges, 4th @ Hallockville
11-----10---Paul Bazanchuk-----6---8th @ Hoxie & 5th @ Hallockville
12-----13---Abby Woods-------7---Idle
13----NR---Danny Ferreira----4---3rd @ Kingman
14-----15---Brian Northan-----5---Idle
15----NR---Jay Kolodzinski----9---11th @ Hoxie & 5th @ Covered Bridge

Top runners with less than 4 finishes who would be in the top:
Justin Fyffe
Josh Ferenc
Kevin Tilton
Corey Watts
Joseph Hayter
Jeremy Drowne
Leigh Schmitt
Andrew McCarthy
Robert Jackman
Andrew Rickert
Dave Quintal
Greg Hammet
Jim Pawlicki
Tim Cox
Ahmed Elasser
Chris Dunn
Brian Rusiecki
Ethan Nedeau

Week ending 02-22-09

Well, another week in the bag and another 70+ miles. I hit 75 for the week despite coming down with a lousy head-cold. At least this was nothing like the flu I had last month where I was laid up for a week. I just felt miserable this week and was hacking and coughing a lot. I think the best I felt was while out running when my head would clear.

My ankle, Achilles and hamstring on the left leg was bothering me all week and had me a little nervous heading into the 10 mile grand prix race. I seem to be no worse for the wear after the race, but I’ll take a couple of easy days this week.

The running was mostly good this week and we even had a rare run with Andy King at Dan’s work, which is always good to break up the monotony of running with Dan (just kidding, Dan is fun to run with). I did some harder running on the treadmill this week while doing my lunch runs at work. Instead of increasing the pace every two minutes I upped it every minute and on Thursday and Friday ran the last mile at (and slightly below) six minute pace. That gave me some hope heading into the ten mile.

The race itself went well, see the account below, with a sub 60 effort. That was with 20 seconds of what I ran last year in July at Newburyport. I’ll take a sub-60 this early in the year. If I can stay healthy maybe I’ll even get into the top 10 at a Grand Prix race (I think that my best shot will be the 12 Km in May).

Next up: This weekend will be the Hawley Kiln snowshoe race, my last tune-up before the snowshoe nationals in Oregon!
The starting line of the 5,000 at the old BU armory circa 1984. I'm third from the left with teammate Tom Chamberas behind me. Second from the right is Dennis Simoniatis (he is one of the top 45+ runners in the country).

Grand Prix 10 mile

Pic by Kristin

It had been a long time since I’d run the Jones 10 mile in Amherst. I was looking forward to going back and testing myself on the rolling terrain around Amherst and Shutesbury. Kevin Tilton came down the night before and we partook in a pizza-fest. On race morning we gathered up Dan V and headed to the River where we met up with the brothers Quintal (Dave & Mike) along with Double-J and the lovely Kristin. The ride out was much better than anticipated and even with a stop in Littleton to collect Dave La we made it out to registration by 9:30 am.

The weather in Amherst was nowhere near the predicted, but it was still early. It was great to see so many old friends and rivals gathering in the school. I bumped into the Fallon’s (Jimmy and Mimi) and long-time Mountain series runner Emer O. I also saw the goon squad and got a warm hug from the mountain goat. Soon enough it was time for a warm-up. I felt pretty trashed. The head-cold this week had left me hacking and feeling crappy. I ate well all week and got plenty of sleep so I’d either have it or not. During the warm-up I felt like I did not have it. Usually that is either a good sign or a bad sign but I’m never sure which. This time I thought it a bad sign as I was also not feeling any of the “rush” of race day. I hung on the back of the CMS group for the first mile of the course then said “bye” as 2-miles would be enough for me. Dan agreed and jogged back to the car with me.

I ate a couple of gels (Chocolate Outrage) and changed into my Loco Bandito’s. Conditions continued to look pretty much ideal for the race. JJ and I jogged over to the line together and I still was feeling “up”. Jim seemed pretty keyed up and it was great to see the huge crowd gathered at the start. I seeded myself in the fourth row and waited for the countdown.

Off we went, and almost immediately I found a rhythm. There were people zipping by and zig-zagging for the entire first mile, which seemed like a lot of wasted energy to me. I found myself right behind top 50+ runners Dave Oliver and Reno Stirrat. I was also just a few steps behind the lead group of women that included Kasie Enman and Heidi Westerling. It is sort of interesting to detach and watch others in the throes of a battle. Reno and Dave threw surges at each other and Heidi and Kasie seemed to battle early on. Not to say I wasn’t racing, but it is a little different back where I’m running. Anyway, I hit the mile in 5:52 and then the downhill second mile in 5:42 which were good. I could see Mike and Dave Q in the distance slowly pulling away. From 2-3 I felt crappy and was wondering if I’d make it when Kim Duclos powered by and offered some encouragement.

I got going again on the next uphill and hit three miles in 17:48 (614). My sub-60 goal was still in sight. I moved back up to Dave and Reno as we hit the icy dirt road section. Miles of 6:14 and 6:02 brought me through five miles in 30:04. It was somewhere on that icy road that the group I was in was joined by Sara Donahue (who ended up 3rd) and we blew by Ben N’dya who was not having a good day.

I started to feel pretty decent when we got onto the pavement but Reno and Dave and Sara all pulled away as I ran a 5:58 and then a 5:45. I felt like I was running well but not gaining any ground. A 5:56 8th mile brought me through in 47:43. I started thinking about the final hill and a projection that Kevin Beck had made for a 60 flat time. I remembered that it showed a 6:20 last mile. I knew it was going to be close. A 6 flat 9th mile got me a little closer to the group in front of me that included Reno and teammate Jeremy “Huck” Huckins.

I worked the last hill as hard as I could and turned the corner into the parking lot. The only part of the course that I remembered from years past was the finish which include a 400m loop around the parking lot. It is tough because you enter the parking lot and the finish line is right in front of you, but you’ve got a minute plus of running to go. As I passed the chute on the way out I saw the clock roll to 59 minutes. I went into an ugly kick and glanced at my watch at the turn and knew I was going to be very close. It was all elbows and grimacing as I hit the finish in just under 60 (59:56) for 77th place and 16th in the 40+.

All in all it was a satisfying result. Last year my best Grand Prix performance was 12th in the 40+, so I’m still hoping for a top 10 finish this year but realistically anything in the top 15 would be a good run. The team did really well with the open guys taking 2nd and Justin Fyffe running an excellent 5th place in 51:47. The 40+ team finished third with Joe and Dan taking 2nd and 3rd in the category and Dave Q having a great run taking 9th.

We did a nice easy 10 minute warm-down before getting something to eat and beating a hasty retreat before the snow started.

100,000 mile blog

Here is a blog that I've added to my list of blogs. It was created by Amby Burfoot. He is working on gathering stats on all runners who've run 100,000 miles.

http://100klifetimemiles.blogspot.com/

Snowshoe rankings

There are as many ways to determine a series winner, as there are series and the same goes for ranking runners. The USATF NE road grand prix uses a simple 10-1 for 1st to 10th and total points accumulated over the 7 races wins. WMAC snowshoe uses points based on the number of finishers. It is a simple formula of 100 divided by the # of entrants (so if 50 run it would be 100/50= 2 points so 100, 98, 96, etc.). The acidotic series uses and even simpler method with first place getting the number of entrants then everyone else is -1 for each place back (example 150 entrants = 150, 149, 148, etc.). My favorite scoring method is the one used by the Grand tree trail series and the USATF mountain series, which gives your points as a percent of the winner’s time. Example: winner = 50 minutes, if you run 100 minutes = 50 % or 50 points. I prefer this method as it seems giving points based strictly on the number of entrants rewards runners for going to the bigger races which may not be the strongest fields (example: Frosty’s dash attracts a very high number of finishers, but a fair amount of them are walkers not actively competing). I feel that it is a fair method, as you are not penalized if a bunch of fast runners are between you and the winner as ultimately all that matters is your time in relation to the winner. The drawback is that everything is relative to the winner so of course it can vary from race to race how strong (or for that matter how hard he ran) the winner is.

Each series may also have a different way of deciding the winner. The USATF GP and the acidotic series are decided by point total. The WMAC uses a “best of” format as does the USATF mountain series and the Grand Tree. In a slightly unusual twist the WMAC best of is not a hard and fast number set at the beginning (for the mountain series it is best 5 finishes). This makes sense as the snowshoe races are unique in that we never know how many races will be held, as they are totally dependent on winter weather conditions. For the most par the WMAC is a best 6 races finished format. All of the series recognize the top point getters. The mountain series runners who do all of the races are given the title “Mountain goat” and have been offered a lottery by-pass into the Mt Washington road race. The Grand Tree runners doing the most races are designated “Stone heads” and the snowshoe runners in the WMAC series are listed by total points accumulated.

So having said all that, there are many ways to rank the runners as well. I like how acidotic has thrown it out there and started ranking snowshoers. In my book, anything that stirs up talk about racing is a good thing. I don’t fully understand the formula used (some of it is a closely guarded secret), but hey! You’ve gotta start somewhere.

I’ve also started doing a ranking list, but I’m not using any formula. My method is to look at results and try to get a feel for who would beat who head to head. I fully admit that this is completely subjective and based entirely on how I interpret the results. The list I come up with is how I thin a race MIGHT finish if all of the runners were to show up at the same starting line. A major flaw in this type of thinking is that I’m using an average, not your best or worst day. I’m also not predicting how anyone would do on any particular course (it is more of an all-around ranking). For example if the course is a flat, well packed 5k I would expect Jim Johnson to do very well. If it were a tough slog with big climbs I wouldn’t expect him to do quite as well (he’d still do well, but everything is relative).

The more data points I have, the better the feel for how someone would do under varying conditions hence to make my list three finishes are needed. The ranking would not be based on just the best three finishes but all finishes. This would even out and good/bad races that you had and would also somewhat reward you for more finishes. I tend to look closely at % back to get an idea of the depth of field, which helps with ranking.

Anyway, none of this is an exact science it is just a fun way to spend more time looking at results and talking about snowshoeing. Hopefully I haven’t gotten anyone too mad with how they were ranked (or not ranked). Everyone is entitled to an opinion and here is mine….

Rank—Name—-----last rank—weekend result
1 Justin Fyffe-------2-----Idle
2 Jim Johnson-------3----1st @ Horse hill
3 Ben Nephew-------4----Idle
4 Matt Cartier-------5----Idle
5 Dave Dunham------8---Idle
6 Tim Mahoney------9---2nd @ Saratoga
7 Tim VanOrden----10---1st @ Saratoga
8 Matt Westerlund—12---4th @ Saratoga
9 Ken Clark---------14---6th @ Saratoga
10 Paul Bazanchuk--15---Idle
11 Steve Wolfe------16---2nd @ Horse hill
12 Ahmed Elasser---NR--5th @ Saratoga
13 Abby Woods-----NR--7th @ Saratoga
14 Chris Dunn------NR---3rd @ Horse Hill
15 Brian Northan---NR---Idle

Top 15 if they had enough races (and the no. they have race):
Josh Ferenc----2
Corey Watts---1
Kevin Tilton----1
Josh Merlis----2
Joseph Hayter--1
Jeremy Drowne-1
Leigh Schmitt--1
Andrew McCarthy--1
Robert Jackman--2
Andrew Rickert--1
Dave Quintal--1
Greg Hammet--2
Jim Pawlicki---2
Tim Cox------2

Week ending 02-15-09

Another week closer to the start of the USATF NE road running season. Another 70+ in the books. I hit 76 miles last week with one day short (6 miles). Dan's improptu suggestion that we do the 6k course as a warm-down helped bolster the mileage.

Nothing really interesting this week other than the race (Bradford Valentines) and the excellent hike (The Moats).

I posted over 100 pictures on photobucket: http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s209/davedunham/2009%20Moat%20traverse/

I'm looking forward to the DH Jones next week and hoping to go under 60 minutes.
Splits from my various times at DH Jones:
1992-503/457/539/504/515/454/445/454/503/504=50:36
1999-510/456/528/529/518/512/456/521/506/531=52:27 (the dirt road was very icy)
2001-531/502/544/549/538/531/511/527/531/540=:55:04 (snow,ice,rain, roads awful)

Picture from the past.....


U-Lowell XC team in 1986. Me, John McKenna, Jason Cakouros, Mike Woodman, Coach Davis. Back row: John Cotter, Rick Dawe, and (blocked) Bob Darrah.

Woody and Jason are still racing, the others are not (to my knowledge). Jason finished second last week in the masters mile at the Reebok Invite.

Traverse of the Moats

Long day today....up at 4:30 am and packed up my gear for running and hiking. I reached the Diana's baths trailhead in Conway at 7 am and soon after MT&Goat (Kevin Tilton) showed up. We started the day with a relaxing 80 minute run in Bartlett, Conway, and Hales Location. Although I'm not actively town bagging in NH, I'm always up for running in a new town (and I am lining them off my wall map).

At a little after 9:00 am Al arrived, beating my estimate of him being at least 15 minutes late. A bunch of other hikers were gathering and many would be joining Al as he was hiking his final 3,000' peak in NH. We got our gear together and formed a carpool as the plan was to traverse the Moats. According to trails.com "The Moats make up a long ridge that runs along the west side of North Conway, paralleling the Saco River. There are three Moat peaks North, Middle, and South. North is the highest at 3201 feet. The ridge-walk from Moat to Moat is one of the .nest in New England. Much of it is bare due to a forest fire many years ago, and the views are marvelous". Our plan was to park on Dugway road and do the 10 mile traverse, with North Moat as the final peak on the hike.

We hit the trail at just before 10 am in perfect weather. The sky was bright blue and the temps were in the 30's with little or no wind. We slowly climbed up South Moat, taking our time and getting some great views.
Looking back at one of the Moats

James and his GF started about 30 minutes behind us and caught us on South Moat. The footing was mostly decent and Kevin used Kahtoola's most of the way. Most of the group used snowshoes and one or two bare-booted the hike.

Sherpa John resting on one of the summits

We hit the top of North Moat at 1:00 Pm and celebrated Al's accomplishment. The final 4+ miles was all downhill to Diana's baths and we were back in the parking lot just under 6 hours after we started.

I got myself a Dunkachino, which helped me get through the ride home. I was back at the computer by 6:30 pm.

Me on North Moat with Mt Washington in the background.

What a great day!

Bradford Valentines race

Bradford Valentines race course

Results

Another week, another race. This weekend I'm just racing once (and going on a hike Sunday). I met up with Dan and we hit the road for a three mile warm-up. The temperature was okay, just above freezing, but the wind was tough. We switched into racing flats and did some strides during the 1/4 mile run from Dan's house to the starting line. I was surprised to see Nate Jenkins jogging around and right after that bumped into Andy McCarron. Usually the race gets one or two fast guys then falls off a bit. This year looked to be a decent field. I had done research and figured that my hoped for time (5:40 pace = 28:20) would put me somewhere around 10th place. I also saw that usually that would put me pretty much alone on the course.

We headed off with a slight tail wind and it looked like Nate was in no rush as he was joined by 9 other runners by 1/2 mile into the race. As predicted I was already alone in 10th place. At 3/4 of a mile the 6 km winner headed right and I moved up into 9th place. Dave and Mike gave some encouragement after I passed the mile (5:29 -tail wind and downhill). I saw Mark K a little later and he warned me about some ice on the turn. I was at about 10 seconds behind 8th place and could see Dan 30-40 seconds ahead in a battle for 6th/7th place. I hit 2 miles in 11:12 (5:43) and was feeling good about my chances of running 5:40's.

Then the wind and the hills hit as we caught the 6 km runners and started weaving through the crowd. I hit 3 in 17:10 (5:58) which was pretty darned slow. Yikes! I was hoping to run faster than that pace for the 10 mile next week. Ugh. The climb and wind continued and I hit 4 miles in 23:09 (5:59). Well 5:40's were out of the question but I dug in and kicked as best I could. I crossed the line in 9th place in 28:49 (5:39).

Dan and I decided to forget about running back to the house for gear and just headed out on the 6 km course (backwards) for a warm-down. We were joined by Andy for the last mile or so and wrapped up a solid 12 mile day.


5Mile Overall Results
Place No. First Name Last Name Ag S Div/Tot Town Finish Pace
===================== ======= =====
1 286 NATE JENKINS 29 M 1/29 M2029 LOWELL MA 25:22 5:05
2 820 FRANK CORRIGAN 24 M 2/29 M2029 PEPPERELL MA 25:37 5:08
3 241 ANDY MCCARRON 26 M 3/29 M2029 KEENE NH 26:28 5:18-CMS
4 101 ANDREW WOMMACK 25 M 4/29 M2029 JAMAICA PLAIN MA 26:33 5:19
5 191 JOSHUA GORDON 34 M 1/23 M3039 BOSTON MA 26:57 5:24
6 244 KEVIN GRAY 30 M 2/23 M3039 NORWOOD MA 27:29 5:30
7 111 DAN VERRINGTON 46 M 1/36 M4049 BRADFORD MA 27:32 5:31-CMS
8 280 BRENDAN LYNCH 31 M 3/23 M3039 BOSTON MA 28:19 5:40
9 199 DAVE DUNHAM 44 M 2/36 M4049 BRADFORD MA 28:49 5:46-CMS
10 169 TODD LAGIMONIER 43 M 3/36 M4049 KINGSTON NH 28:57 5:48

Snowshoe rankings

I plan on writing something about my thoughts on the various scoring methods for the different series and rankings for next week. Here are my rankings for this week:

Rank--------------Last Week--Weekend Result
1 Josh Ferenc----------1-------Idle
2 Justin Fyffe----------2-------Idle
3 Jim Johnson---------3--------2nd @ Sidehill, 1st @ Frosty's
4 Ben Nephew--------4--------1st @ Moody
5 Matt Cartier---------5--------4th @ Moody
6 Greg Hammett------6--------Idle
7 Josh Merlis----------7--------Idle
8 Dave Dunham-------8-------3rd @ Sidehill, 2nd @ Moody
9 Tim Mahoney-------9--------3rd @ Moody
10 Tim VanOrden----10-------5th @ Sidehill
11 Jim Pawlicki-------NR------6th @ Sidehill
12 Matt Westerlund—11------Idle
13 Tim Cox-----------12--------Idle
14 Ken Clark---------13--------6th @ Moody
15 Paul Bazanchuk---14-------2nd @ Smugglers
16 Steve Wolfe--------NR------9th @ Sidehill, 3rd @ Frosty


Less than three finishes, but would rank in the top 20
KevinTilton------1st @ Sidehill
Aaron Robertson 1st @ Smugglers
Leigh Schmitt----Idle
Robert Jackman--4th @ Sidehiller
Rob Smith--------Idle
Dave Quintal-----2nd @ Frosty
CoreyWatts-------Idle

Weekending 02-08-09

Total for the week = 76 miles & 2 races

This was a decent week, I got my mileage back up to "normal". This is lower than I'd like to do, but I'm hoping that by keeping my mileage low I can avoid any injuries this year.

Double-J and I did a nice run on the Derry/Windham railtrail on Tuesday, it was a rare non-race day snowshoe for me. We then had both Double-J and Ken Tripp show up and join us (on different days) at Dan's work. It is always fun to have some new blood mixing it up with us at 3:26 at the Cemetery.

The weekend races went well. I took 3rd on Saturday at Sidehiller and 2nd at Hallockville on Sunday. I've now gotten 11 races in the first 39 days of the month. Things will slow down now as I no longer have any snowshoe doubles planned. I booked my flight to Oregon for snowshoe nationals, which should be fun. Half (3/4?) of the fun will be hanging out with Rich Bolt for a weekend.

Looking ahead:
Next up will be the Bradford Valentines day 5 mile. I haven't done this race since 1997 when Craig Fram and I did it as a work-out. We tied, running 25:54, then continued on and did the loop again in 26:00. I'm hoping to break 29 minutes this year!

Start of the Bradford Valentines 5m in 1997. I'm furthest on the left in shades and Craig Fram is in the matching CMS singlet.

Doulbe snowshoe weekend

Another weekend and another two races completed.

I Started out on Saturday with a 6:30 AM departure from Ward Hill. Jim Pawlicki joined me as we headed over to Salem to carpool with Double-J and the lovely Kristin (who took the photos below).

Driving through Center Harbor the temperature display showed 1 degree. There was a huge contingent of ice fishermen out on Lake W. despite the temperatures. We arrived a bit early in Sandwich as I’d promised Paul Kirsch that I’d mark the first ¾ mile loop around the fairground. Jim Johnson, Jim Pawlicki and I made quick work of the loop although there were a few spots where I wasn’t 100% sure of where we’d gone in the past. We put out about 200 flags in the firmly packed and groomed snow. We actually were able to do the loop without snowshoes and did very little post-holing.

View of Red Hill firetower from course

At 9:10 we were off again, this time it was for real. We were joined by Kevin Tilton for a nice 3 mile out & back run on one of the side roads in town. Sandwich is quite scenic, including a yard with a gigantic table and chair set on it. One of the guys wondered aloud how big the beer would be that would be served on that table. Scott Mason and fellow TNT runner (Tuesday Night Turtles) Robert Jackman joined us for part of the warm-up. Then it was back to the car to get into race gear. The temperature was probably in the upper 20’s by now but was nowhere near the predicted 40 degree high for the day. I got on my snowshoes and headed out for another mile and some strides before the start. I felt pretty lousy and my stomach didn’t feel right.

Paul gave us some final instructions and off we went. I had hoped that the start would be a little more relaxed than usual as we had groomed road wide trail to run on for nearly a mile. It did not play out that way! Double-J took it out hard, really hard. That was probably a wise move as he is the first to admit that he has not fared well on hills this year. Kevin Tilton, who’d one the race (at least) the last two years, moved into second but Double-J had a huge lead right away. I was running faster than I wanted too early on, but wanted to be competitive. I got around Al Bernier just before the steep little downhill on the field and could see that Double-J was already about 20 seconds ahead and Kevin was about 10 seconds up.

We hit the road crossing in that order. The local police and DPW were at the road crossing and it had been covered with snow for us, which was pretty cool. The course would now be single-track until we hit the fairgrounds again with ¼ mile to go. I snuck a look back on the 200’ climb up the only real hill in the course. I was surprised that I’d dropped Al and I wasn’t sure who was behind me but they had already fallen back a good 20 seconds. I tried to concentrate on reeling in Kevin as he worked his way toward Jim. As we hit the first field I timed Kevin as 38 seconds ahead and couldn’t see Jim at all.

The footing was a bit tough in the field. It seemed like it was packed well right up until you post-holed up to mid-calf. That would bring me to a stop then I’d pull my shoe out and start up again. Each time I did this I could picture the chasers catching me. I kept pushing hard even though I could no longer see Kevin and knew that barring a missed turn I’d end up third. I didn’t want anyone catching me so I kept the pace as fast as I could muster. It is definitely easier when you know the course and have a good idea of exactly how much running you have left.

I didn’t look back until I crossed the road, which was also the first time since the first mile that I’d seen Jim. He was pretty far ahead and I couldn’t see Kevin who had taken the final turn. I rolled in past some kind folk on skis who cheered me on and hit the finish over 2 minutes behind Kevin and 1:59 after Double-J. I was a bit disappointed to be so far back but after look where I was relative to the chase pack I was pleased with the performance. Heck, you’ve gotta be pleased if you give your all. You can’t control what the competition does (or if they even show), you just have to give your best.

Final 1/2 mile

We did the same out & back as a warm-down, with a big group that included pretty much the entire top 10 finishers plus others. It is always nice to chat and enjoy a nice run with the pressure of the race over with. We hit the post-race soup store for a bit (not long enough for Double-J who would spend the entire day), but had to split as I was headed for my in-laws 50th anniversary and Jim P was headed to watch the Reebok games.

The next morning I was out the door at 6 AM headed for Hawley. I had no intention of any mountain bagging as I figured I’d be tired from racing and wanted something in the tank for the longest snowshoe race (5.6 miles) of the season so far. I got to the Americorp site early enough to re-organize my gear. I brought a few changes of clothes and racing gear for a myriad of conditions. Temps were expected to top around 50 degrees in some parts of Massachusetts. It turned out to be raining, sleeting, snowing, lightly at Hawley.

I headed out for my normal 3 mile road run to warm-up. Matt Cartier rolled up just as I was finishing my run and he suggested that I should save some energy before the race. I was a bit surprised at how late he was arriving (25 minutes before the start). Heck, it takes me that long to get my race gear on! I changed into my snowshoes and headed up the hill for another mile on snowshoes. I also did a couple of strides but was feeling a little tired so I kept them short.

Ed gave us some instructions and directions and I wish I’d visualized the course a bit better. I was glad to hear that we would have ½ mile markers along the course. I love getting some feedback and a feeling that I’m getting somewhere. I also really enjoy out & back courses, something about heading back in over familiar territory seems easier.

We took off in a blur of snow and I found myself behind Ben on the first tough little climb. I surprised myself taking the lead about 200m into the race. Tim Mahoney then went by me about 400m in. He was motoring along and I tried to keep contact. I could hear Ben a few strides behind me as we boogied through the ½ in 3:34. Ed had predicted a fast course and I figured about 7 minute pace on the flatter stuff, so we were pretty close to that prediction.

Tim continued to lead by a few seconds as we passed the mile in 7:13 (3:39) and the 1.5 in 11:16 (4:03). We took the turn and seemed to fly down the hill. Tim was looking very strong as we hit 2 miles in 14:19 (3:03). I enjoyed the downhill into 2 miles, thinking that would be where I would want to push on the return trip. The next half mile was a grind and Tim seemed to come back a little (I never quite caught him, but he never got more than about 5 seconds up). We hit 2.5 miles in 18:57, which was our slowest ½ mile so far at 4:38. I knew we’d be on the way back soon and kept my eyes open for the turn.

We hit some well signed single track and at the bottom there was a “Y”. It looked like the right hit a stream and the left avoided the stream. As Tim went right I yelled “Left” and Tim yelled back “Left?”. I went the same way he did, plunging one foot into the muck and nearly losing a shoe. That was where I made the big mistake of the day. I stopped quickly to fix my shoe and never looked for trail markings on the snowmobile trail. Tim had shot left, Ben was passing me as I adjusted my shoe and I was in the heat of the race. I took off after Tim. Maybe 200m later Ben said “I think this is wrong”. I looked around, didn’t see any markers and stopped. We both yelled at Tim who was a good 5 seconds ahead and beat feet back to the single-track. We caught Matt soon after and he turned with us. By the time we were back at the single-track Chris Taft and Ken Clark were just about to turn (correctly) right onto the snowmobile trail. Ken told me afterward he was surprised to see us at that point. Our half-mile split including going the wrong way was 5:47. I estimate we lost 1:30-2:00, which seems reasonable as we put a bit over 2 minutes on Chris and Ken on the way back. I felt bad for Tim as he was leading and lost more than Ben and I had.

The race was on and I still thought I might have a shot at winning. Ben gapped me by a few steps as we ran the next half mile in 3:08. We hit the climb and I just couldn’t seem to reel him in, despite the encouragement from the people heading out. We hit 4 miles in 31:57 (4:04) and turned for home. The rolling final 1.5 were tough, especially with Ben just a few seconds in front. We did the next ½ mile in 4:09 and then hit 5 miles in 39:36 (3:30). Ben seemed to have pulled even further ahead and I was hurting. I still had visions of catching Ben but he was definitely looking strong over the second half of the course. For most of the last 1.5 he would check to see where I was every couple of minutes. He finished strong to take his second win of the season in 43:06 and I pulled in 7 seconds later. Tim barreled down the final hill 43 seconds later and Matt came in 38 seconds later to close the book on the (slightly) lost gang.

I was sore and tired so I hit the road for an easy 1.5 miles then headed home. This will be my last double of the snowshoe season as I’m now hitting the roads for a few weekends and working VITA (volunteer income tax preparation) until April. It looks like Laurel Shortell and I were the only ones who did the WMAC double, although there were a few who did the Sidehiller/Frosty’s dash double as both were in the New Hampshire snowshoe series.

January

Pic: Best race of the month, 4th place at Northfield


The numbers:
288 miles with 1 day off
8 races totaling 29.4 miles
2 road races and 6 snowshoe races
Places- 2nd –two times, 3rd – two times, 4th – two times, 5th – two times
Highest week – 74
Lowest week – 44


Eight races ties Feb. 2007 with the 8th most in a month (the most I’ve ever done was 11 in May of 1982). The most I’ve ever done in January was 9 in 1982, but those were all indoor track races and the number gets pumped up by the five times I ran anchor leg in the 4x400.

Goals for Feb.:
Keep mileage at 70
Run three snowshoe races and two road races
Hike!

Schedule:
02-07 Sidehiller 4 mile snowshoe race
02-08 Moody springs 5 mile snowshoe race
02-14 Bradford Valentines day 5 mile road race
02-15 Hike North Moat
02-22 DH Jones 10 mile – USATF NE championship
02-28 Hawley Kiln snowshoe race

New England Snowshoe rankings

The acidotic racing team's website includes rankings of the top snowshoe racers in New England. They have a secret formula to determine the top runners. I have no formula, just my best guess on who would beat who if we all met in one race. I use all New England results and Eastern NY results as the E-NY races are part of the WMAC/Dion series and there is a fair amount of cross-over.

Acidotic rankings 02-01-09
1 Matthew Cartier
2 Dave Dunham
3 Ben Nephew
4 Jim Johnson
5 Tim Mahoney
6 Justin Fyffe
7 Tim Van Orden
8 Jay Kolodzinski
9 Paul Bazanchuk
10 Ken Clark

My rankings (minimum of 2 finishes):
Rank------Name------Prior Rank---This Weekends Result
1 Josh Ferenc---------NR-----------1st @ NF
2 Justin Fyffe---------1------------2nd @ NF
3 Jim Johnson---------3------------1st @ CM
4 Ben Nephew---------2------------5th @ NF
5 Matt Cartier--------4------------Idle
6 Greg Hammett------NR----------6th @ NF
7 Josh Merlis---------NR----------1st @ Fest
8 Dave Dunham--------5-----------4th @ NF
9 Tim Mahoney--------6-----------7th @ NF
10 Tim VanOrden------7-----------8th @ NF
11 Matt Westerlund---NR---------2nd @ Fest
12 Tim Cox-------------NR---------2nd @ CM
13 Ken Clark-----------8------------13th @ NF & 3rd @ Fest
14 Paul Bazanchuk-----9------------9th @ NF
15 Rob Smith----------NR----------14th @ NF

(CMS runners highlighted in blue)

King(s) of the hill(s):
Corey Watts (Turner trail)
Dave Dunham (Curly’s)
Justin Fyffe (Greylock Glen)
Josh Ferenc (Northfield)
Jim Johnson (Pooh hill & Cobble Mtn)

Week ending 02-01-09 & Stew Chase 15 km

This week was a heck of a lot better than the “flu” week. On Monday I got my re-tooled orthotics and a cortisone shot in my posterior tibial tendon. The injection site was brutally sore for a couple of days and I didn’t make things much better when I smacked it with a shovel while clearing the driveway.

It was still sore when the weekend rolled around and I headed out to Northfield (the story about the NF race is posted below).

I decided after Northfield that my ankle was not up to another snowshoe race. I knew that some of the CMS guys were doing the Stew Chase 15 km in Lynn and I hadn’t done that race since 2001. It seemed like a good idea to get in a longer run. I’ve been doing 70 mpw, but mostly doing doubles so it has been a rare day when I go longer than 10 miles. My plan was to run hard but I had no idea how fit I was. This would be my ninth race in the first 32 days of the year and I’d only done a couple of 5 km’s so I wasn’t sure where my fitness level was. I guessed sub 6:30 pace and hoped for sub 6:15’s.

Dan V, Joe S, Jim P, Ben S, and Mike Q and I went out for (what felt to me) a quick 20-minute warm-up. After quickly changing into race flats it was another ½ mile to the line. I was very surprised to bump in Dave Q at the line. He had decided at the very last second to give it a go. After some brief instructions the 35th running of the Stew Chase was under way.

Dan went out at his usual slow pace at the start and he was only a couple of steps in front of me for the first ½ mile. That was surprising as he ended up running the first mile about 20 seconds faster than me. I hit the mile in 6:02 and felt pretty good. I caught Mike at 2 miles (6:04 split) and pulled ahead of him in the downhill third mile (5:44). I passed four miles, after barely missing getting hit by a bus, in 6:05 and started thinking about my place and how many people I might be able to catch. On the out/back uphill to 5 miles (6:19) Mike went blowing by me like I was standing still. I regrouped on the downhill and passed him and a couple of other guys to move up to 16th place. I passed six miles in 36:07 (5:52 split) and began thinking that I might be able to crack this thing in sub-6’s. Mike went by me again on the way to 7 miles (6:05) and I started to feel tired. I was struggling and cutting tangents like mad and passed Mike for about the 10th time. We really never ran together, he was passing me or I was passing him. I hit 8 in 48:23 (6:11) and started to think that I wished the race were a 12 km instead of 15 km. I was out of gas and although I only slowed a little (6:09) six guys passed me in the last 1.3 miles. I guess they all had kicks and I had nothing. Mike was the last one to go by, just after 9 miles. I was still pleased, crossing the line in 56:34 for 22nd place (4th – 40+). The CMS boys ran quite well taking places 4, 6, 8, 12, and 13. Dave had a strong effort, especially considering he didn’t do much of a warm-up. I checked after and was a little bummed that I missed my 40+ pr from 04-2004 56:19 at Bow Lake.
Running out of gas at the end

I took home an umbrella for my efforts. The Stew Chase is an old school type race, moderately tough course, not a lot of frills and a great bargain at $12. With the 1m warm-down I ended up with 71 miles for the week.

My Stew Chase results:
2009 56:34 – 22nd place
2001 48:09 – 2nd place (outkicked by Bryan Dunn by one second). The next day I won the Mid-winter Classic 10 mile in Cape Elizabeth in 53:51.
1992 46:58 – 1st place
1991 48:31 – 1st place tie with Lou Ristaino

July 4, 1986 - 1st place at the Andover 10 Km 30:50. Note the uniform....

2009 Northfield Mountain Snowshoe race

7th annual Northfield Mountain snowshoe race

Over 70 runners took advantage of beautiful weather (20's and sunny) and excellent snow conditions in the 7th tour of the scenic trails around and over Northfield Mountain. Most of the race took place on the "snowshoe only" trails which also happen to be some of the more scenic trails on the Mountain.

I set out nearly 300 surveyor flags on Friday afternoon and found the conditions to be very slow going. There was between 6-24" of snow on the ground and there was a thick icy crust on top of that. I was the first snowshoer, since the 6" of snow that fell earlier in the week, to make my way over the loop. The going was quite snow and I took about a dozen headers on the 800' of descent.

Thanks to the crack DRC timing and scoring crew I was able to head out for a "normal" warm-up prior to the race. After some brief instruction, including a reminder that everyone needed to really pay attention to the flagging in order to stay on course, we were off in a flurry of snow.

Ben Nephew (CMS) took it out hard and lead the way as we hit the single-track snowshoe trail after the initial groomed 200 meters where the pack could sort out positions. Josh Ferenc (BAA) and Justin Fyffe (CMS) had both won WMAC races earlier this year and by 400m into the race they both went around Nephew. Ferenc then accelerated and strung out the chase pack behind him. The trail was much firmer than Friday and the going seemed quite fast (under 10 minutes for Ferenc for the first mile which climbed about 400').

I made a move and went around Greg Hammett (CMS) just before the mile mark (10:02) then went past Ben soon after. I found a good rhythm on the climb and closed on the tall guy who I didn’t recognize who was in third place. On the long climb up the outflow pipe trail I could see Josh way out in front and Justin about halfway between. It was around this time that I thought “This guy looks like Leigh Schmmitt” but I dismissed that as Leigh hadn’t run a WMAC race in a few years. He does a bunch of Ultra races now including taking 2nd place (to Paul Low) at last year’s Snowshoe marathon in Pittsfield VT.

I tried to accelerate on the groomed road section near the top of the climb but couldn’t seem to cut into the “tall guys” lead. I was hoping that we were pulling away from Ben, Greg, and Tim Mahoney (CMS) who were not far behind. The out and back section to the viewing platform gave everyone an opportunity to scope out the competition. It was there that I realized it actually was Leigh Schmmitt. Dang! We first raced each other 10 years ago in my first snowshoe race back at the Hawley Kiln. The years have been much kinder to Leigh than to me.

I could see that Ben, Tim, and Greg were in a tight bunch and not too far behind us at the turn. We started the descent and immediately Leigh was gone. Now I started listening for Ben to catch up. I hit the 2m mark in 20:45 (for a split of 10:43) and tried to concentrate on staying on my feet. The snow was great for running and I figured I was rolling along pretty well. I also figured Ben was chewing away at my lead in leaps and bounds. I hit three miles in 29:13 (8:27 split). The final .8 would be almost all on groomed trail and at the turn off the single-track I looked back. Ben was close behind. I pushed as hard as I dared and must have looked back a dozen times in that last section. I ended up holding off Ben by 10 seconds to take fourth place overall. The last .8 was covered in 4:24 for a total time of 33:36.

Josh extended his lead to about 30 seconds by the viewing platform near the summit. He extended his lead over Justin to over a minute with a very strong descent, despite taking a couple of spills. Ferenc's time was a new course record by over three minutes. The top seven all finished under the record from 2008. Justin had a solid run, and Leigh showed his descending speed really cutting into Justin’s lead.

Abby Woods (CMS) continued her dominance of the WMAC/Dion snowshoe series with her 10th win in her last 10 races from this season and last season. She has yet to lose a snowshoe race and today won by nearly 5 minutes breaking the course record by over 5 minutes and finishing 15th overall in a very competitive field. Full results are on coolrunnning. Over 300 pictures on photobucket.

The entire top 10, plus a couple of others (including Abby) went out for a warm-down doing the loop again. It was great to have a huge group going out to pick up the flagging. That is the most difficult post-race task for the RD. We had a lot of fun and the snow was great! The warm-down loop only took us 45 minutes!

All in all it was a great day at Northfield. I’m looking forward to going back in March for the Mass. State Championships.