Pack Monadnock Mountain race

Pack Monadnock – Where has my motivation gone?  I felt really flat on race morning, no excitement, no nervousness, just aching ankles and a desire to get through this.  Funny, as I got closer to the mountain and caught sight of Pack in the distance my pulse quickened and I started getting into “race mode”.  I met up with Dave La at Temple mountain and we carpooled back to Wilton.  It was nice to see so many familiar faces picking up numbers at the school.  We joined up with Ed Sheldon and did an easy 2 mile warm-up, it didn’t feel that easy.  It was surprisingly humid and temps were just a bit over 60 degrees.  It was incredibly buggy if you stood still, so I tried to do as little of that as possible.  After a quick change into race flats I headed out for another mile including a little with Todd Callaghan.  We chatted bit and Todd wondered aloud where the “fast” runners were.  I saw teammate Erik Vandendries and other fast 50’s guys like Brian Ruhm (GCS) and Mark Reeder (GLRR).  There might not be a lot of competition up front but there would be plenty of action in the Senior age group.

My hope was to run between 1:10 and 1:12 which seemed reasonable based on my 15km time from March.  I did not check splits other than the 5 mile mark which I’d need to pass in under 33 minutes.  I hoped to stick with Erik V for as long as possible and see what happened.  Todd, Erik, and Brandyn Naro (GCS) went out and I tucked in behind them.  Corey Dowe (Runners Alley) who finished 6^th in the women’s field at the USA Mountain champs last year decided to take it out hard and gapped the field in the first ½ mile.  Todd slowly pulled away from the chase group and caught Dowe a bit before the mile.  I stayed within a couple of steps of Erik and Brandyn as we hit the long downhill to the reservoir.  By 1.5 miles they had gapped me and Todd continued to pull away.  By 3 miles I was 20 seconds behind Todd and 15 behind the chase group.  I couldn’t hear anyone behind me (and I wasn’t going to look).  I tried my best to “relax” as the race really doesn’t start until after 5 miles.  At 4 miles I thought I heard footsteps but convinced myself that it was just people in the sunshine start that I’d passed.  By 4.5 I realized that someone was coming up fast.  I couldn’t remember if the race still had a 2x5 mile relay and tried to calm myself with that thought.  Then zoom!  Mark Reeder flew by.  I’d forgotten he was back there.  Mark had done Pack before and usually he goes out hard and I catch him when the climbing starts, this year he had hung back.  I tried to latch onto him as I passed through 5 miles in 32:25.  That was a relief as I was right where I should be (I thought maybe I’d gone out too slow).

From 5 miles to 8 miles there are some tough little climbs but they are followed by some flats and downs.  I’d lose ground on Mark on the flats and downs and then gain some back during the climbs.  Mark turned the corner onto route 101 (8 mile mark) 15 seconds up on me.  The last 2 miles would have nearly 1,000 feet of climb, which is almost half of the total climb in the race!  By the crest in the road (8.5 miles) I’d made up the 15 seconds on Mark.  The course flattens out and he took off gaining 5 seconds on me as we turned into Miller State park for the final 1.3 miles of the race.  I closed again and went by before the 9 mile mark.  Soon after there is a nice long switchback and I got a good look back and could see that I was pulling away.  There was no one in sight in front of me. Now it was just a matter of finishing this up.  I had some trouble with a shin muscle going into spasm, which is a new one to me.  It didn’t slow me (I think) but it was weird.

I hit the finish in a few ticks over 1:11 and after a minute on the ground climbed up the firetower…announcing that I was the first to the “VERY TOP”.  I finished the day with a somewhat painful 2 mile run down the mountain and up a bit of Temple Mountain (nice trails!).  Todd finished his day with a run back down to the start!

Pack Monadnock (178 finishers)

Pl          Time     Name                            Sx/Age  City       St         Team    Cat

1          1:09:16 Todd Callaghan              M48      Beverly MA        CMS      M4049

2          1:09:30 Brandyn Naro                M31      Manchester NH  GCS      M3039

3          1:09:57 Erik Vandendries            M53      Chestnut Hill      CMS      M5059

4          1:11:03 Dave Dunham                M54      Bradford MA      CMS      M5059

5          1:11:51 Joe Shaw                      M36      Belmont MA                  M3039

6          1:12:31 Mark Reeder                  M58      Brighton MA      GLRR    M5059

7          1:12:52 Immanuel Wineman       M39      Northampton                 M3039

8          1:13:05 Eric Shannon                 M34      Peterborough NH           M3039

9          1:14:13 Kasey Marin                  F28       Merrimack NH   aR        F2029

10         1:14:45 Michael Narcisi              M34      Acton MA          Sisu      M3039

50-59 age group (36 finishers)

1          1:09:57 Erik Vandendries            53         Chestnut Hill      CMS

2          1:11:03 Dave Dunham                54         Bradford MA      CMS

3          1:12:31 Mark Reeder                  58         Brighton MA      GLRR

4          1:15:48 Brian Ruhm                   53         Nashua NH        GCS

5          1:16:34 Christopher Smith          52         Woburn MA        SRR

6          1:18:58 Ed Sheldon                    53         Hooksett NH      CMS

7          1:23:02 David Lapierre               54         Chelmsford MA  CMS

8          1:23:29 Bruce Christensen          50         Bolton CT         

9          1:24:01 Jeff Gould                      53         Gardner MA       NMC

10         1:29:54 Jay Martin                     51         Epping NH