Tuesday, June 6, 2017

USA Mountain running championships – Cranmore Mountain (Conway, NH):  I’d be focused on this race since it was announce last December.  I’ve run the course before (this year was nearly identical to the 2016 course) a total of 11 previous times over various courses.  Since December I’ve also run it in my head hundreds of times.  I was pretty nervous leading up to the race as my glute had been bothering me.  I mildly strained it at Sleepy Hollow back in April and aggravated it each time I did any hard downhill running.  I really beat myself up racing down Wachusett last weekend and was regretting that as the days got fewer and the pain wasn’t really diminishing.  By race morning I felt a lot better although not 100%.  I haven’t been 100% for a race in MANY years so I wasn’t too worried.
I met up with Paul Baz and we headed out for a 2.5 mile warm-up on the flattest pavement we could find.  There would be plenty of time for climbing later in the morning.  Paul was aiming to top the 60+ field and I was hoping to do the same in the 50+.  We were both pretty sure of who our competition would be.  I figured that teammate Ed Sheldon (who was recovering from a massive bloody fall at Wachusett last week) and acidotic Racing’s Jim Boule would be the main competition.  Jim has been on my radar since last summer when he ran a very strong race at Cranmore (at the time he was 49 so not in my age group).  He’d also been running well in the first couple of Mountain series races this year.
 
I switched into CMS gear and my Inov-8 trail shoes and headed out for another kilometer of running to scout the start/finish and check out the first section of single-track.  I’d heard that we’d be running into a little single-track about 200 meters into the race.  I checked it out and although it was narrow it only lasted maybe 50 meters and then you’d be back in the open.  Anyone who panicked that early in the race was not going to do all that well in an event that really pays off for patience.  The course featured 2 loops of a little under 3 miles with each loop climbing 1,200’ in 1.6 miles (and dropping 1,200’ in 1.3 miles).
 
The men’s race hit the trail at 8:45am (with the women running at 10:30) which meant we had cooler temps and also the course wouldn’t be quite as chewed up.  Two hundred of us took off up the hill.  I was comfortable when we hit the single-track, no one was trying to storm by and I was able to run with no obstruction.  Once we hit the open slopes I could see the entire field in front of me.  I was somewhere around 50th place.  I wasn’t really worried about pace as a bunch of guys went by, heck we weren’t even ½ mile into the race.  I could see some of my CMS teammates up ahead but did not see Ed.  I also didn’t see Jim, who I’d later find was matching me step-for-step.  At 8/10th’s of a mile we hit the toughest stretch of the climb a brutal .2 that climbed at a grade hovering around 40%.  I went right into hands on knees powerwalking and blew by 10-15 people.  I love that section of the race, really takes something out of the fast guys (especially knowing you’d be doing it again).  I hit the top of the course in 18:54 which was a bit faster than last year and then the crazy downhill began.  My goal for the first lap was to just stay on my feet and get down without getting injured.  I made it down in 8:53 for a first lap of 27:47, this put me well ahead of last year. It did NOT put me well ahead of Jim.  Teammate Scott Leslie (2:27 marathon a week prior!) and I had been going back and forth over the first lap and when he went by as we started lap two he said something to the effect of “he is right behind you”.  I knew who he meant, since everyone was wearing age group numbers on their backs you could pick out anyone in your age group.  I appreciated Scott giving me the heads-up.  I was in 42nd place as we passed the timing mat and headed back uphill.
 
I tried to run my own race on lap 2, I kept thinking “he’ll go by” but Jim stuck right behind me.  I never looked (I didn’t want him to know I knew he was there) but I could hear him breathing.  I picked off a few guys as we got back into the climb and on the very steep part I passed another dozen guys.  My legs were wobbly when we hit the short downhill after the brutal climb.  I took a little peek when we zig-zagged in the upper part of the glade near the top of the climb and was not surprised to see Jim right there.  I reached the top in 47:30, 19:43 for the climb which was 49 seconds slower than lap 1.  Despite the slow-down I’d moved up to about 25th place.  I tried to push hard on the downhill, I wasn’t sure what Jim had in reserve but I didn’t have much.  A couple of speedy descenders went by but I was only thinking about my age group.  About half-way down I passed Scott and that got me thinking I had a shot at scoring for the CMS OPEN team.  I kept rolling along as fast as I was able and could no longer hear Jim (or Scott) behind me. 
 
I managed to hold on and take the top spot in the 50+, 18 seconds ahead of Jim.  I also held off Scott to secure the fifth spot on the CMS open team.  I could not have been happier!  I took home three Gold medals, my individual 50-54 age group win, CMS open team win, and CMS 50+ Gold.  CMS had a great day, scoring Gold in all of the age groups and individual medals in 40-44, 45-49 (Gold and Silver), 50-54, 60-64, and 65-69.  After going through the results I was also happily surprised to find that my final downhill split was 8:20 (33 seconds faster than loop 1) and my second loop (28:03) was only 14 seconds slower than my first loop.  No one in the top 100 finishers had a lower slow-down over the two loops, which makes me think I paced it about as well as I could.
 
Top 3 and CMS
Pl
GUNTIME
Name
AGE
SEX
CITY
STATE
Club
1
45:49
Joseph
Gray
33
M
Colorado Springs
CO
Club Northwest
2
46:12
Patrick
Smyth
30
M
Santa Fe
NM
3
46:57
Brett
Hales
30
M
Layton
UT
11
52:49
Jim
Johnson
40
M
Madison
NH
CMS
12
52:55
Tim
Van Orden
49
M
Bennington
VT
CMS
19
54:16
Matthew
Veiga
30
M
Lynn
MA
CMS
22
54:41
Todd
Callaghan
47
M
Beverly
MA
CMS
28
55:50
Dave
Dunham
53
M
Bradford
MA
CMS
29
56:00
Scott
Leslie
35
M
Rutland
MA
CMS
40
58:45
Kevin
Tilton
35
M
Conway
NH
CMS
50
1:00:37
Steve
Brightman
48
M
Providence
RI
CMS
55
1:02:44
Ed
Sheldon
52
M
Hooksett
NH
CMS
76
1:08:32
Paul
Bazanchuk
62
M
Center Conway
NH
CMS
78
1:08:50
Nick
Taormina
44
M
Gloucester
MA
CMS
105
1:16:38
Richard
Miller
66
M
Barnstead
NH
CMS
121
1:19:11
John
Martin
65
M
Hyannis
MA
CMS
151
1:27:44
Stephen
Laska
55
M
Holden
MA
CMS
181
1:40:43
David
Lapierre
53
M
Chelmsford
MA
CMS
 
Top 10 50+
50+
GUNTIME
Name
AGE
SEX
CITY
STATE
Club
1
55:50
Dave
Dunham
53
M
Bradford
MA
CMS
2
56:08
Jim
Boule
50
M
Campton
NH
acidotic RACING
3
58:47
Jeff
Walker
51
M
Falmouth
ME
Dirigo R.C.
4
1:02:44
Ed
Sheldon
52
M
Hooksett
NH
CMS
5
1:03:01
Brian
Ruhm
52
M
Nashua
NH
Gate City Striders
6
1:03:41
Stephen
Reed
59
M
Penacook
NH
7
1:05:34
Richard
Fargo
58
M
Chatham
NH
8
1:09:44
Rick
Chalmers
55
M
South Portland
ME
Dirigo R.C.
9
1:12:35
Joseph
Benoit
51
M
Worcester
MA
10
1:15:43
Todd
Brown
53
M
Rocky Hill
CT
North Medford Club

No comments: