Looking back = 2013

5 Years ago: December 2013

I was very excited when GCS sent out the call for runners for the 30th Mill City relays.  Well, sort of… I got back late Saturday night from a Texas high point trip. Pictured below.

My goal was to run the 2nd leg (4.75 miles) in 6:30-6:45 pace.  I based this on my 6:43 pace at the Chelmsford Alumni XC race a week ago.  Race morning was cold and cloudy when I arrived in Nashua to pick up the relay number and meet my teammates.  It looked to be a good leg with mostly straight clear roads and a few little up/downs for a change of pace.

I passed the mile in 6:17 feeling pretty good then upped the tempo a bit on a small hill.  It was fun catching people and trying to keep the effort constant.  Two miles was passed in 12:19 (6:02) and 3 miles in 18:17 (5:58).  It was getting harder to catch people as my pace was now more closely matching those in front of me.  The fourth mile had to be misplaced as my split was 6:45 and 3:54 for the final ¾ mile.  Added together the total is right (6:00 pace) so I think it was just a matter of the marker being in the wrong spot.

I was very happy with my time (28:58) which worked out to 6:06 pace.  Well under what I’d hope for.  The warm-down run back up the course was a bit of a slog until I was caught by a couple of guys.  That made the last 3 miles not as bad at all. 

I decided that since we got a couple of substantial snow storms (over 18” total) that the timing was right for a return to Winnekenni for a snowshoe race.  The last time I tried that was five years ago (on Christmas day).  I checked out the course on Saturday and it was a bit sloppy and wet, but the ground was covered.  

I headed out at 7am with Greg Putnam in tow and we put out about 300 flags to mark the 4 mile loop.  The conditions were wetter and slower than Saturday and there were a couple of bare spots.  Five hard-core snowshoe racers showed up along with Greg Carson who volunteered to do the timing.  We took off in fog and drizzle with the temperature at 36 degrees.  I shot out to the lead with Greg and Jim Pawlicki close behind.  Around ½ mile (after stopping to adjust a shoe) Greg moved into the lead and just after the mile (9:41) Jim went by me and started closing the gap on Greg.  They had 40 seconds on me by two miles (10:12 – 19:53) and about 1 minute at 3 miles (11:01 – 30:54).  The deep snow and tough climb to Winnekenni Castle made mile three especially difficult.  I couldn’t see the guys for most of the last mile, but Jim and Greg ran together until nearly the finish when Jim put on a sprint and won by 5 seconds.  I rolled in 1:35 later.

Jim and Brett Rickenbach joined me for another loop of picking up the flagging.  I was pretty beat after we finished about 2.5 hours of snowshoe running.  Let the season begin!

Place Time Name  Gend Age City State Team

1 38:29 James Pawlicki M 39 Lynn MA CMS

2 38:34 Gregory Putnam M 44 Stoneham MA CMS

3 40:04 Dave Dunham M 49 Bradford MA CMS

4 44:13 Brett  Rickenbach M 38 Danvers MA WCRC

5 46:53 Melissa Donais F 29 N Andover MA