July
2016 (five years ago): I started the month with the USA
Mountain running championships. The National Mountain running
championships at Loon Mountain had been my goal race for 2016 since it
was announced 6 months before. I got out well and was somewhere around
100th place as we started climbing in the first ½ mile
Erik Vandendries and I would yo-yo much of the
race. I’d close on him on the downhill and he’d pull away on the
up. At 3.8 miles we hit the first real test of the day the really tough
grass climb of ½ mile. A lot of guys were walking this and I passed many
on this section. We had just under a mile to the gondola with over
700’ of climb. Erik was running the same pace as me and I was not closing
the gap. We reached the gondola with 10 seconds between us. I put 30+
seconds on Erik (although I didn’t know it at the time) and hit the final 1
kilometer of tough climb in the lead of the 50+ age group. I took a peek
at 250 to go and could see Erik but was pretty sure I could hold him off.
I ran as hard as I could crossing the line in 1:00:13 and collapsing to the
ground after. Erik came in a few seconds later and Jeff Hunt rounded out
the top three in the 50+. CMS sweep of the medals!!!
Teams
Open (6 teams, 5
score)
1
CMS
4:51:03
2
Acidotic
5:10:50
40+ (8 teams, 3
score)
1
CMS
2:56:10
2
Acidotic
3:14:12
50+ (7 teams, 3
score)
1
CMS
3:01:55
2
Acidotic
3:41:01
Top 15
50-54
1
1:00:13 Dave Dunham
MA CMS
2
1:00:37 Erik Vandendries MA
CMS
3
1:01:03 Jeff
Hunt
MA CMS
4
1:02:57 Jeff Walker
ME Dirigo
5
1:04:15 Tom Thurston
VT GMAA
6
1:04:48 Dan Verrington
MA CMS
7
1:05:15 Christopher Smith MA
SRR
8
1:05:32 Ed Sheldon
NH CMS
9
1:05:42 Brian Ruhm
NH
GCS
10
1:07:26 Rich Chalmers
ME Dirigo
11
1:08:54 EJ Hrynowski
MA GLRR
12
1:10:52 Scott Thomas
FL
13
1:10:56 Peter Keeney
ME
aR
14
1:11:12 Jeff Walker
RI
15
1:14:09 David Lapierre
MA CMS
Overall
1
0:49:11 Joseph Gray
CO Club NW
2
0:50:17 Brett Hales
UT
3
0:50:36 Matt Daniels
CO Hudson
Next up was the Cranmore Hill Climb – I definitely
felt a let-down after the Loon Mountain race. This was the 11th
time racing at Cranmore and every year has featured a different course.
It was foggy and only about 60 degrees when I arrived in North Conway. I
wasn’t sure who would be the competition in the 50+, but all of the familiar
characters were present. It would come down to who could descend well and
who had something left for the second loop.
Nearly 200 of us took off in the drizzle and fog of a not
typical July morning. I had teammates Erik Vandenries and Ed Sheldon in
my sight a few steps ahead. The course had twists and turns and all kinds
of terrain (grass, single track, cat-track, slick rock).
One section was only a quarter of a mile but it would
climb 400’! It took me 5:05 to do that climb. There was a tricky
wet rock part right at the top that I nearly wiped out on. Thanks to the
little loop at the bottom I could see that Josh Merlis (ARE), Boule, and
Brightman were right behind me (6, 14, and 19 seconds
respectively). The second time up the killer quarter mile (I did it
in 5-flat) I was working it a LOT harder than the first lap. Nothing much
changed on the second descent. I managed to stay on my feet and hold position
to take 6th place in 57:37 (5.85 miles with 2,400’ of
climb/descent). This was probably the best Cranmore course I’ve ever
run. By best I mean it had just about everything you could want in an
up/down Mountain race. Also, as I crossed the line they were playing
Social Distortion (99 to life) and the next song was the Cure (Fascination
street), no race is going to top that!
Top 5 50+
50+
Pl
Time
Name
Age
City State Team
1
6 57:37
Dave Dunham
52 Bradford,
MA CMS
2
12 1:00:37 Brian
Ruhm
51 Nashua,
NH GCS
3
14 1:00:52 Ed
Sheldon
51 Hooksett, NH
CMS
4
18 1:01:48 Erik Vandendries
51 Chestnut Hill, MA CMS
5
20 1:04:01 Rick Chalmers
54 S Portland,
ME Dirigo
Overall
Place
Time
Name
Age City,
State Team
1
53:06 Matthew
Veiga
29 Lynn, MA
CMS
2
53:55 Tim Van
Orden
48 Bennington, VT CMS
3
54:20 Andy
MacGibbon
20 Goffstown,
NH
4
56:02 Christopher Chromczak
31 Delmar,
NY
5
57:10 Patrick
Caron
19
MA
6
57:37 Dave
Dunham
52 Bradford, MA
CMS
7
58:39 Craig
Nale
32 S Portland,
ME
8
58:51 Steve
Brightman
47 Providence,
RI
9
59:23 Patrick
Conway
39 Anchorage, AK
10
59:43 Jim
Boule
49 Campton,
NH aR
My final race of the month was the Lynn Woods
Cross-Country Series: It has been four years since I last raced at
Lynn Woods. This was my 10th time doing either a weekly series
race or the relay at Lynn. They always do a nice job, but I have trouble
getting excited to do a race in the summer heat and especially struggle with
racing late at night (6:30 pm is basically bedtime for me). I really
needed to get some leg turnover as most of my racing over the last 2 months has
been Mountain running. The Mountain races can make you stronger but they
also tend to make you slower. With the USATF NE road 5 mile only a few
weeks away I really needed to get some of the rust off of me.
I showed up a bit early and got my number and hydrated a
bit (85 degrees in the shade seemed relatively cool). There were a lot of
familiar faces around but most everyone I knew would be doing the longer of the
two races (6 miles & 2.3 were the offerings). I did my warm-up
checking out the 2.3 course and was surprised at how tough it was. The
climbing was no surprise, but the rough footing on the ¾ mile of single-track
was something I wasn’t expecting. They call it a “Cross Country” race but
this version may have been better described as a trail race. The single
track would be tough with twists/turns and a lot of rocks/roots. My goal
was to survive that part then hopefully push the 195’ climb from Dungeon road
to the Stone Tower. After the tower the last ½ mile to the finish had
130’ of drop which would shake things out (but hopefully nothing would fall
off).
I switched into race flats then heard the announcement
that the short race would start 10 minutes after the long race (last time I did
the race they went together but they wanted to avoid congestion on the
single-track). That gave me a little more time so I headed out for
another 1.7 miles with a few strides thrown in. I felt lousy.
After some instructions we were sent on our way. I
took the lead right away and could hear footsteps right behind me as we covered
the first half mile (3:31). It was mostly uphill climbing 100’, the first
400 was on the woods road then we hit the single track. The guys behind
me stayed right on me during the single-track, I considered offering to move
over but they weren’t right on me so I held my lead. The second ½ mile
had 80’ of drop but you couldn’t take much advantage as the footing was pretty
lousy, we then had a 40’ climb before the final 20’ of drop at the mile mark
(3:44 = 7:15 mile).
We hit Dungeion road and two kids from Marblehead blew
by, along with fellow “senior” runner Jason Barnes. The lead guy (Oliver
Jacob = 4:38 mile & :55 quarter) looked good, his teammate (Ian Strothers =
10:35 2 mile) sounded a bit ragged and he fell off during the .3 that climbed
115’. I was a few seconds behind Barnes but close back on him as we
dropped 20’ by the 1.5 mile mark (3:26). The next .2 was pretty steep
(80’ = 7.5% grade) and I got back up to Barnes and was just a few seconds
behind Jacob.
After passing the Stone Tower and hitting the 130’ drop I
pulled ahead of Barnes but didn’t close on Jacob (3:15 for ½ mile). With
about 200 meters to go he really accelerated and actually took a couple of
steps beyond the final left hand turn. I yelled for him to “go left” and
he reversed direction and got back up to speed hitting the line 9 seconds ahead
of me.
I was happy with the effort although the pace was “slow”,
it was a shock to my system for sure! I’ll have to hit the trail or roads
at least one more time before the 5 mile.
Lynn Woods Summer Cross
Country Lynn,
MA July 27,2016 6:40 PM
2.3 Cornell to Stone Tower Trail Master: Jeff Laine &
Greg Esbitt 138 Finishers
Pl Name
S Ag
City, St
Time Pace
1 Oliver
Jacob M
17 Marblehead, MA 15:12 6:37
2 Dave
Dunham M 52 Bradford,
MA 15:21 6:41
3 Jason
Barnes M 53
Salem, MA
15:27 6:43
4 Ian Strothers
M 16 Marblehead,
MA 15:32 6:45
5 Tony Mwangi
M 17 Lynn,
MA
17:20
7:32
6 Brandon Mendez
M 17 Lynn,
MA
18:04 7:51
7 Brittani Atkinson
F 23 Peabody,
MA
19:09 8:20
8 Kyle Saulnier
M 15 Marblehead,
MA 19:13 8:22
9 Lai-Sahn Hackett
F 24 Peabody,
MA
19:15 8:22
10 Eric Bowden
M 47 Lynn,
MA
19:48 8:37
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