It has been four years since I last raced at Lynn Woods.
Last night 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 Dungeon 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
My history at Lynn Woods
Weekly Series
Date Dist Time Pl 40+ Pl
Finishers Notes
07/16/92 2.50 12:15 1
35 Short race, Cremin 12:20, Toomey 12:48, Doherty 12:50
07/26/06 2.50 14:54 2 1 35
Short race, 1 Bernier 14:40
06/11/08 5.50 34:24 2 2 58
Long race, 1 Quintal, 3 Pawlicki (we ran together)
07/16/08 2.50 14:12 1 1 50
Short Race, Steel Tower version
Relay 4x 2.5 miles
Date Time Leg Pl 40+ Pl Finishers
Notes
08/21/91 12:05 1 180 Team
record 50:10 and relay leg record. Doherty 12:32, White 13:01, Chamberas
12:33
08/24/05 14:13 24 3 280 2nd place
40+ team (10 seconds out) – Lynx team
08/20/08 14:03 14 3 287 40+ Team
record 55:12. Shairs 13:18, Quintal 14:04, Verrington 13:47
08/24/11 14:05 7 3 328
2nd 40+ Team 57:02 = Shairs 14:12, Quintal 14:15, Verrington
14:30
08/22/12 14:24 12 2 376
1st 40+ Team 57:42 = Putnam 13:41, Shairs 14:27, Verrington 15:10
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