Mt Greylock

The break in the mountain series seemed pretty long but it was only 2 months ago that I was racing up Loon Mountain.  I was not especially looking forward to Mt Greylock but needed one more finish for the "best 6 of 8" series.  The race is well managed and it does go to the highest point in MA, but it just isn't my type of mountain racing.  The course has a fair amount of flat and downhill along with 2 fairly tough miles from 2-4.  The amount of "gear changing" just isn't my thing.  I'm much better at getting into low gear and just grinding up a mountain.  On Greylock you need to adjust as the terrain changes and you need to have some leg speed.

I headed out on Saturday afternoon carpooling with teammate Jim Pawlicki who was doing his first Mt Greylock race.  We met up with Tim Van Orden at the Field Farm (Trustees of Reservations) and did a nice 4 mile run to loosen up a bit.

After our run Jim and I checked into the HoJo's then caught dinner at Olympic Pizza (yummy!).  After a decent night sleep we got a wake up cup at Dunkin's and headed to the race.  We met up with Dave La and did an easy 2 mile warm-up.  It was warm and quite humid.  I felt crappy.

A record field of over 250 lined up and shot out for the 8 mile climb of nearly 2,500'.  I found myself just outside of the top ten in the early going but not that far behind Erik V and Tivo (the top 50+ guys).  I was matching strides with the top 2 women (Kassandra Marin & Kim Nedeau) and kept telling myself "it's early, relax".  Once we got to the state park the climbing got a bit tougher.  Around two miles Brandyn Naro (GCS) went by and I tried to latch on.  That got me clear of the ladies and into the top 10 but I wouldn't gain any more spots.  I kept Brandyn in sight and would sometimes get fairly close but I never caught him.  In the latter stages he really motored and I just didn't have it.  I did give a kick at the end to get under 60 but came up about 1:20 short of my time from last year (some times seemed fairly slow this year).

The team had a good day with 5 of us in the top 9 and 7 in the top 20.  We also put 4 fifty-plus in the top 20 and 6 forty-plus as well.  Pretty sure we swept the team categories.

Results
1 TURNER ZAMORE            53:11.62 6:39 9.0mph M 34     
2 CAMERON COGBURN     56:21.80 7:03 8.5mph M 32
3 COLIN CARROLL              56:23.94 7:03 8.5mph M 33          CMS
4 MARK RABASCO              57:51.51 7:14 8.3mph M 24
5 TODD CALLAGHAN         58:08.91 7:16 8.3mph M 48         CMS
6 ERIK VANDENDRIES        58:11.02 7:16 8.2mph M 53         CMS
7 TIM VAN ORDEN               58:54.51 7:22 8.1mph M 50         CMS
8 BRANDYN NARO              59:11.95 7:24 8.1mph M 31
9 DAVE DUNHAM                59:56.53 7:29 8.0mph M 54          CMS
10 MEGHAN DAVIS            1:00:40.27 7:35 7.9mph F 16
11 HEATH BREWER            1:00:52.08 7:36 7.9mph M 34
12 KASSANDRA MARIN    1:01:29.05 7:41 7.8mph F 28
13 MICHAEL NARCISI       1:01:57.11 7:45 7.7mph M 34
14 KIM NEDEAU                 1:02:32.25 7:49 7.7mph F 39
15 CHRISTOPHER SMITH  1:02:40.20 7:50 7.7mph M 52
16 BRIAN RUHM                 1:03:03.32 7:53 7.6mph M 52
17 JAMES PAWLICKI          1:03:08.07 7:53 7.6mph M 43       CMS
18 PAULO AMARAL            1:04:00.11 8:00 7.5mph M 37
19 DAVID CORBETT            1:05:06.91 8:08 7.4mph M 34
20 DAVID LAPIERRE           1:05:34.51 8:12 7.3mph M 54      CMS