Looking back - July 2009 & 2014

July 2009 (10 years ago):  I was having a lot of trouble with my foot and only raced twice.  The day after the 2nd race I learned I had a stress fracture of the Tarsal/Metatarsal joint which sidelined me for six weeks.  First up (07/05) was the Loon mountain race which at the time was still just a nice friendly little race (204 finishers).  I had a decent run taking first in the masters and 5th overall and noted “Ran the entire way up the Upper Walking Boss”.  The following week (07/12) I ran the Ascutney Mountain race.  This was an unusual version of the race that went up the road for 2.3 miles then onto the trail.  It was not my kind of race with some technical climbing/descending.  I was 11 seconds back when we hit the trail then Double-J took charge and beat me by over a minute.  I took third in 38:44.                                                                                        

Loon Mountain

1  48:25 Jim Johnson       M32       Salem NH            CMS

2  48:49 Abdeltif Faker    M24       Malden MA       

3  48:57 Patrick Ard          M25       Raymond NH      Whirlaway

4  49:34 Andy McCarron M26       Keene NH            CMS

5  50:01 Dave Dunham    M45       Ward Hill MA     CMS

6  50:16 Ed Breen                              M27       Medford MA      GBTC

7  51:12 Tim VanOrden  M41       Bennington VT  CMS

8  51:21 Todd Callaghan M39       Somerville MA   GCS-triad

11 52:52               Jim Pawlicki        M34       Beverly MA         CMS

Ascutney 

    1   37:26  9:22 Jim Johnson          32 M   583 Salem NH      CMS         

    2   38:08  9:32 Andy McCarron      26 M   247 Keene NH      CMS         

    3   38:43  9:41 Dave Dunham        45 M   539 Bradford MA   CMS         

    4   39:03  9:46 Joe Shaw              28 M   373 Grantham NH            

    5   39:56  9:59 Todd Callaghan      39 M   455 Somerville MA  GCS        

    6   40:52 10:13 Tim Van Orden      41 M   246 Bennington VT CMS         

    8   41:25 10:22 Kasie Enman         29 F   342                         

    9   41:39 10:25 Tim Mahoney         29 M   450 Holyoke MA     CMS        

   11  43:56 10:59 James Pawlicki       34 M   562 Beverly MA     CMS   

                                                                                                                                               

July 2014 (5 years ago):  Another injury shortened month.  I was dealing with a bone bruise and was in a walking boot except when running (with a promise to take time off after Loon Mountain which was the USA mountain championships).  I finished in 46th place overall but more importantly (to me) I was tops in the 50+ age group running 1:02:55 for the 6.6 mile mostly uphill race.  Two weeks later (07/20) I WALKED the Cranmore Mountain race to get my final race I needed for “Goat Status”.  It was kind of fun to do the two laps with absolutely no running.