Looking back - March 2014

 10 years ago - March 2014 – I had an interesting month with five races including a transition from snowshoe to roads which is never easy. I also flirted with an injury that looked bad but turned out to be manageable. United States Snowshoe Association National Championships – This race had been on my radar since last year when teammate Tim Van Orden won the bid to host the championships. I ran a couple of versions of the course last year and was impressed with the great mix of terrain that Tim came up with. After I returned from injury last October my training has been focused towards this one race. My hope was that the training would pay off on the big day and I’d come home with a medal.

On race morning I got up at 6 again and did the 3 mile run up and down the road to the Bennington monument. My hope was to finish somewhere between 25^th and 50^th place (based on previous results in New England), but more important was my aim to do well in the 50+ age group. For USSSA your age on race day is whatever you will be at the END of the year, so in my case I’d “aged up” to the Senior age category. The course had most of the 900’ of climbing from 1.5 miles to the summit at 3.2 miles. I really wanted to run that part as hard as possible and put some distance on the “fast guys” who would bomb down the last 2 miles of groomed wide trail.

 

In the early going we circled back to the start and on the zigzag I counted about 35 guys in front of me. I could see a lot of my teammates; Jim and Kevin were up near the top ten and Ross Krause, Ben Nephew, Tim Mahoney, Todd Callaghan, Jim Pawlicki, and Richard Bolt were all close by.  We started the longest extended climb just after the mile (6:50). I saw a “Medved-Dion” singlet up ahead and was pretty sure it was Alan Evans who I figured was the top rival in the 50-54. I caught up to him on the single-track and as soon as we hit the wide trail I tried to go by with authority. I locked on to Tim Mahoney and we worked together. Pawlicki, Ethan Nedau, and Todd Callaghan were not that far ahead. We had moved into the top 25 but it was getting tough to catch anyone now, all of the fast starters had slowed on the hill. We were right behind Todd and Ethan at the 5km marker and 10 seconds behind Jim. Right after the 5km mark we topped out at the 2,800’ summit of Prospect Mountain. I threw in a big surge on the downhill and plummeted past Ethan, Todd, and Tim. After about 200 meters of wide trail we hit the signature section of the course, some great twisting single-track. I’d moved up to 22^nd place and closed the gap on Jim. We dropped 400’ in the last 2 km. I tried to keep Jim in sight and listened for the approaching clomp of footfalls behind me. I crossed the line in 48:19 and collapsed in a heap. It was over! Nearly 6 months of focusing on this race and it was finally done. It was a major relief. I was surprised to have finished so high up (21^st) and surprised and happy to have taken first in the 50-54 age group. CMS had a great day with Kevin, Jim and Ross finishing 12, 14, 16 to score second place team (behind a pick-up team). Our CMS masters team took home gold and we also picked up a bunch of individual medals. All in all a it was a good day for CMS and for New England entrants, and especially for Tim Van Orden who put on a great event.

 

1          41:51     6:44      David Le Porho    37                     Canada              Team Snowshoe 

2          42:06     6:47      Joel Bourgeois     43                     Canada              le coureur nordique           

3          42:20     6:49      Eric Hartmark      36         M3539   Duluth MN          Team Snowshoe 

8          44:40     7:12      Nacho Hernandez 20                     Spain                            

12         46:24     7:29      Kevin Tilton        32         M3034   N Conway NH      CMS

14         46:47     7:32      Jim Johnson        37         M3539   Madison NH        CMS

16         47:13     7:36      Ross Krause        35         M3539   Easthampton MA  CMS

20         47:57     7:43      James Pawlicki     40         M4044   Lynn MA             CMS

21         48:19     7:47      Dave Dunham     50         M5054   Bradford MA       CMS

24         48:32     7:49      Tim Mahoney      35         M3539   Holyoke MA        CMS

28         49:06     7:54      Ben Nephew       39         M3539   Mansfield MA      CMS

30         49:09     7:55      Todd Callaghan    45         M4549   Beverly MA         CMS

31         49:11     7:55      Richard Bolt        44         M4044   Mtn View CA       CMS

35         50:52     8:12      Kenneth Tripp     44         M4044   Amesbury MA      CMS

54         54:20     8:45      Paul Bazanchuk   60         M6064   Ctr Conway NH    CMS

63         55:16     8:54      Sam Wood         28         M2529   Laconia NH         CMS

126       1:03:40  10:15     David Lapierre     50         M5054   Chelmsford MA    CMS

 

I followed this up with a leg (2.5km) in the relay the following day. 

We ended up taking 6^th place overall and first in our category, and also first masters team. It was a bit of a surprise to see that 24 teams showed up for the relay. It was a record field! It was a weekend of records as the 10km field (237) was far and away a new record for participants at Nationals.

 

Time Team           Category        Cat Place

1  46:42 Bad News    Open-Mixed Age 1

2  47:08 South Hill DP Open-Men      1

3  48:35 CMS-Dion   Open-Men     2

4  51:03 ARE            Open-Men      3

5  52:43 Paul Smiths  Open-Mixed Age 2

6  53:20 CMS-Dion   Mast-Mixed Age1

7  57:05 Snow Warriors   Junior-Open      1

24 teams

 

Next up was the Granite State Snowshoe championships – I’ve enjoyed doing this race over the last few years, and especially like the new location at Bear Brook in Allenstown NH. I could not dog this race as I was in a virtual tie with Ryan Welts for second place overall in the GSS series. Double-J took the win running 48:28, taking Nacho by over 2 minutes then TiVO, me and Jim Pawlicki with race director Ryan Welts taking 6^th about a minute back. In all 80 runners took on this excellent course on an ideal day for racing. Jim Johnson won the overall series (he had already won prior to the race thanks to the best 4 finishes format); I took second place and top 40-49. Ryan took third.

 

1        48:28  Jim Johnson              M36    CMS    100.00

2        50:51  Nacho Hernando        M20    Pies     95.31

3        52:58  Tim Van Orden          M45    CMS    91.50

4        53:17  Dave Dunham           M49    CMS    90.96

5        53:29  James Pawlicki           M39    CMS    90.62

6        54:13  Ryan Welts               M33    aR       89.39

7        56:48  Danny Ferreira                    M31    GCS     85.33

8        57:41  Phil Erwin                 M46    aR       84.02

 

 

New Bedford ½ marathon - I made the transition from snowshoe racing to road racing...but it wasn’t pretty. I headed down to New Bedford for the 10^th time. My goal was to help out the team and I guessed that I would be able to run around 1:18. I hoped to run a little under 6:00 mile pace for my final race in the masters category. I joined 2500 close friends at the starting line and clicked on my iPod shuffle as we hit the road. I rolled to the finish in 1:18:52 (6:01 pace) for my slowest New Bedford and my worst place ever in a race (152).

The masters team did well, placing 3^rd behind BAA and Whirlaway..

 

45-49 top 10:

41     1:11:40          Gregory Picklesimer    47       SRR

70     1:13:53          Kent Lemme             47       GSH

72     1:13:57          Peter Hammer           47       BAA

75     1:14:14          Eric Williams              49       WRT

101   1:15:50          Wayne Levy              48       BAA

117   1:16:44          Joe Shairs                 45       CMS

128   1:17:43          Brian Ruhm               48       GCS

152   1:18:52          Dave Dunham            49       CMS

156   1:19:01          Scott Anderson          49       WRT

158   1:19:03          Terry McNatt             49       CSU

 

USATF NE 5km championship - I got my MRI results back on Monday morning and was able to get out of the boot. The TA ligament was intact, however the Deltoid ligament was strained and I had some tenosynovitis in a few ligaments in the ankle. I got a new ankle brace and started taking some stronger anti-inflammatory drugs along with icing and ultrasound. By Saturday I was feeling good enough to truly test my ankle and felt that I might be able to manage a sub 18 5k. I was feeling pretty good after the warm-up, may ankle didn’t hurt all that much and I switched into racing flats (which were a bit tight with the ankle brace.  I had a decent run with a chip time of 17:20.8.  The CMS 50+ team scored its first points since 2010 taking fifth place.

 

50+ finishers

1          Mark Reeder       16:34     5:20      16:32     54         BRIGHTON         MA        GLRR

2          Robert Cipriano   16:36     5:21      16:34     54         BELMONT           MA        SRR

3          Dave Dunham     17:23     5:36      17:20     50         BRADFORD         MA        CMS

4          Mike Cooney       17:33     5:39      17:31     52         CHELMSFORD     MA        WRT

5          Martin Tighe        17:44     5:43      17:42     55         PROVIDENCE      RI         CMS

6          Paul Doe            17:48     5:44      17:43     54         DERRY   NH        WRT

7          Charlie Bemis      17:50     5:45      17:49     51         DERRY   NH        GCS

8          Dan Verrington    17:52     5:45      17:48     51         BRADFORD         MA        CMS

9          E J Hrynowski     18:03     5:49      17:58     51         ARLINGTON        MA        GLRR

10         Wolfgang Ketterle 18:09     5:51      18:05     56         BELMONT           MA        SRR

36         David Lapierre     21:15     6:51      21:11     50         CHELMSFORD     MA        CMS

48         Stephen Laska    23:16     7:30      23:08     52         HOLDEN MA        CMS

52         Frank Ruggierio   24:21     7:50      24:09     55         LUNENBURG       MA        CMS

 

CMS finishers

7          Nate Jenkins       15:17     33         M3039   NORTH ANDOVER MA

22         Morgan Kennedy  15:43     26         M2029   GRAFTON           MA

31         Scott Leslie         15:58     32         M3039   RUTLAND           MA

39         Greg Putnam       16:11     44         M4049   STONEHAM         MA

46         Colby Chrusciel    16:21     21         M2029   TEMPLETON       MA

50         Alan Bernier        16:25     39         M3039   BRAINTREE         MA

66         Joe Shairs           16:52     45         M4049   PEABODY           MA

69         Tim Mahoney      16:52     34         M3039   HOLYOKE           MA

71         Jason Porter        16:48     44         M4049   BEDFORD           NH

72         James Pawlicki     16:56     39         M3039   LYNN     MA

83         Arthur Besse       17:15     41         M4049   TEMPLETON       MA

86         Dave Dunham     17:20     50         M5059   BRADFORD         MA

91         Derek Dorval       17:28     40         M4049   KENSINGTON      NH

98         Tim Van Orden    17:35     45         M4049   BENNINGTON     VT

103       Martin Tighe        17:42     55         M5059   PROVIDENCE      RI

106       Aaron Baldwin     17:44     24         M2029   S HAMILTON      MA

111       Dan Verrington    17:48     51         M5059   BRADFORD         MA

170       Dave Mingori       19:11     46         M4049   CHELMSFORD     MA

275       David Lapierre     21:11     50         M5059   CHELMSFORD     MA

374       Stephen Laska    23:08     52         M5059   HOLDEN MA

409       Frank Ruggierio   24:09     55         M5059   LUNENBURG       MA