10
years ago: December (2009) – I started the month
heading to the USATF National convention. Some of the other interesting stuff from the convention
included getting to meet Meb. The fact that he knew what MUT was and he knew
that Paul Kirsch and I had gotten an award just added to how cool that was.
I stepped down as the USA manager for the juniors and Paul will be taking over
as the Team Manager for the juniors. I’ve had a lot of fun going to the World
Mountain championships over the years but felt it was time to move on to other
things while the team was doing well, rather than ditch when times were rough.
Paul has done an amazing job over the years!
I only raced twice during this month, a rare CMS weekly
series race and a snowshoe race. On 12/12 I headed to Worcester for the
CMS 52-week series 5k. I
hadn't done a CMS series race in more than 10 years and hadn't raced the
Worcester course since 1993. In '93 I ran 26 CMS series races in order to
get a special t-shirt. It was a lot of fun but I guess it burned me out
on going to Worcester. I ran alone from the start on a sunny and windy day with
temperatures in the teens and wind chills in the single-digits. I ended
up with a WIN in 17:11. A rare treat, Petey joined me and he took 3rd
place in just under 19 minutes. This was my 29th CMS series
race with times ranging from 14:40 to a race-walk effort with Don Drewniak
(31:45).
The following week I was
already in Austin TX for work and Eric Morse and I worked out a plan to visit
some high state points, county high points, and fire towers. We settled in for
a drive to Mt Magazine, which is the highest point in AR. We picked up
three hikers on the outskirts of the park they had become totally lost while
hiking. They had a park map but had left it in their tent (d’oh!). After our
good deed for the day was done, we headed to the trailhead for the summit. It
was an easy 5 minute run up to the top. Next up we navigated over to
Petit Jean Mountain. It was a bit of a rough ride but nothing the Nissan rental
car couldn’t handle. We hiked the short distance to the summit about 30 minutes
after sunset with just enough light to see. We headed off to Waldron, AR for a
night in the Southern Hospitality Motel. This would cut our morning driving
time a bit. The only negative about Waldron was that Eric found out it was a
dry county, no beer for him.
The next day we were up
before sunrise and headed out to Rich Mountain. I had picked out a spot on Fire
Road 514 where we could do a run in both AR and OK. It was quite foggy when we
drove up to Rich Mountain (fire tower, benchmark, and county high point).
After Rich Mountain we drove a long way to get to the tri state marker near
Zylks, LA. We stopped just over the state line where Eric happily purchased a
six-pack. There was a pretty cool Texas state marker and the benchmark was
encased in concrete which had the three states (LA, TX, AR) chiseled on it. We
took turns standing in three states then headed for a LA county high point
(actually Parish high point).
The Lincoln Parish High
Point was located right next to Route 147 and was an easy walk. The path was
drive-able at one point but now it was pretty much overgrown. It only took us a
couple of minutes to run up and back to the car that we had parked precariously
on the side of the highway. It seemed like all the roads no matter how small
had a speed limit of 55 mph.
On to Driskill Mountain
which was only a few miles from the Lincoln Parish HP. It was an excellent day
and had now warmed up to the mid-50’s. Eric and I ran from the car to the
summit of Driskill, which at 535 feet is the highest point in Louisiana. The
run was only about 5 minutes and the other trails/dirt roads on the map were
either very rough or posted, so we headed back to the road for a 47:47 run.
There was very little traffic so for the most part it was a quiet relaxing run.
Next up was the Hot Springs
County High Point. We ran to the top in 15 minutes and checked out the fire
tower and benchmark on the top. Next up was Hot Springs National Park, we
decided to park partway up the hill and take the Sunset trail. It was surprising
how nice the trail was, very little rock or roots, just smooth running surface.
We ran up and over West Mountain on our way to Music Mountain. We
discussed the difference between “bushwhack” and “overgrown” on the final climb
to the top. On the summit we found two witness markers and the benchmark. We
also found a register in a rusted tin can and glass jar. The last person to
sign in was nearly three years ago. After a quick gallon jug shower and change
of clothes (we decided against heading in to town for a bath in many of the
bathhouses) we headed for the airport and trip back to the real world.
The final weekend of the month I went to Woodford VT for
the “I
love Woodford” 3.5 mile snowshoe race. I took
4th place as Jim Johnson, Tim Van Orden and Brian Rusiecki battled
it out in front. They all finished within 4 seconds (24:00 to 24:04) and
I came in 32 seconds later (24:36).
This year I had company on the loop which made breaking
trail easier. Double-j, Tim M, and I headed out about an hour before the start
with assurances from the RD that he would not start without us. It had been
raining most of the night, but Woodford got some snow prior to that and we
found ourselves working through some slop and a lot of heavy wet snow. I was
lucky to have company; we each took turns at the front which made it much
easier going. We had the course marked in just under 40 minutes, which gave us
time to change gear for the race. The race clock was ticking down and showed
less than 2 minutes until the start when I arrived at the line. Within
50m I found myself in 8th place, in a conga line with Josh Ferenc leading the
way. The footing was a bit better thanks to the seven guys in front of me
packing it down, it really is amazing how much faster the footing can get. Tim
also took a major spill and we nearly ran over him, he regrouped but soon after
I asked to go around and moved up to sixth place. A little after that I asked
Ben to make way (which he did) and I headed off after Brian. Along the way I
saw Josh picking himself up off the ground. Apparently he took a big spill and
crashed into a rock which knocked the wind out of him. We were about ½ way
through the loop and I could still see JJ with TiVo right on him, now in first
and second. They were about 30 seconds ahead and Brian was about half-way
between them and me. I wanted to close the gap, but was starting to feel that
maybe I’d been a bit too aggressive in passing Ben. The final 200m was a
wild sprint with Jim and TiVo less than a second apart and Brian right behind.
I came in another 36 seconds
later.
I headed out with Ben and JJ and we were able to clear the
course of flags in about 30 minutes. The course was so well packed by the 76
runners that we only ran a little slower than we’d raced it! By the time we
finished the sun was breaking out. It turned out to be a great day to kick off
the snowshoe racing season, and a great way to close the books on the 2009
racing season.
5
years ago: December (2014) – I was able to do a
little bit of everything this month with races on the road, cross-country, and
snowshoe. I started the month running my tenth Mill City Relay.
This year as last I was racing for the Gate City Striders, but for the first
time I’d be on a senior (age 50+) team. We had a very solid team with all
of the guys projecting to run under 6:30 pace. I eventually found my
teammates at the race start along with a vast number of people I knew from
various clubs. It was chilly and there was a pretty strong cross-wind as
we headed north on the course and caught sight of some of the early starters
finishing the short leg. It looked like this was going to be a long day. I
slapped the baton on my wrist and off I went. Almost immediately I heard
footsteps and was caught by Aharon Wright from the Somerville Road Runners
(SRR). He was moving pretty fast but this might be my only chance to run
with anyone. We hit the mile in 5:52 which was way under my 6:10 projected
pace. Wright kept checking his watch (like every 15 seconds) and was
throwing in a lot of surges, so I’d fall back and then catch up. We
got onto the bike path along the River around 2 miles into the leg and I was
getting warm so I took off my gloves. D’oh! I dropped the
baton!!! That meant a quick stop, turn, and recover. That put me
about 10 seconds behind Wright with a long way to go. The wind seemed to
have picked up and I was starting to struggle (the last 3 miles were my slowest
three of the day). I couldn’t muster a kick and with ½ mile to go I lost
ground again but reached the hand-off well ahead of schedule with a 55:40 (5:52
pace).
We ended up taking 16th overall and 2nd in the 50+.
Whirlaway nuked us by over 5 minutes, but even being that close to WRT is an
accomplishment. Heck, only three masters teams beat us! GCS ended
up taking the overall Mill City Relay title, along with the award for the most
teams entered.
The following weekend was a trip to Bethlehem PA for the US
team XC championships. It was especially appealing to me because of the team
aspect. Back in the day the Central Mass Striders won the open
championships a number of times. I’d also raced for CMS on the master’s
team a few years back in North Carolina. This would be my first time on a
senior XC team at the championships. We had the same group (Dave La, Dan
V, Martin T, John G, Paul Baz, and me) that had won the New England
championships a month ago. My hope was to finish in the top 25 in the
50-54 and a team finish in the top ten.
Dan and I met up with D-la and Greg P for the 5+ hour drive
down to PA. We met up with the rest of the CMS crew at the hotel and went
to a good local Italian place for dinner. Much merriment ensued. I
debated doing a short run in the morning. I normally would with a late
(11:30am) start but the head-cold had me feeling lousy so I opted to just
relax. We drove over to the race site well in advance of the race and
counted down the time to a warm-up.
Nearly 600 runners from age 40 to over 85 took off in a
sprint. The start was wide and really the entire course was wide so there
was no panic about not being able to move. Martin shot out as expected
and I found Dan right beside me in the early going. I could see Jim and
Joe a little ahead so it looked like I was where I should be. There
certainly were a lot of people to work with. I had a very steady race,
slowly gaining on guys in front of me and only getting passed by a few (notably
a slow starting Mark Reeder of GLRR who ran an excellent race). After the
mile (5:44) I only gave ground to two or three guys and they were guys I passed
on an uphill who then went by on the down. My kick wasn’t what I would
have hoped for and the group of four guys I was with 1km to go all beat me to
the line. I was happy with my time (36:36.9) and place (127 out of 588)
and especially happy with cracking the top 25. I finished 22nd in the 50-54.
Our team had a great run taking 8th in a field of 24. The masters also
did well finishing 7th in a field of 34 teams. Paul Baz had the best
individual finish of the day taking 4th in the 60-64.
50+
Pl
Names
Age Team Time
30 Devlin,
Jeff
50 Downingtown R
Club 33:57.2
48 Barbee,
Kenneth 50 Greater Philadelphia
TC 34:24.7
53 Magill,
Peter
53 Cal Coast Track
Club 34:33.3
127 Dunham,
Dave 50
Central Mass Striders 36:36.9
148 Verrington, Daniel
52 Central Mass
Striders 37:03.2
176 Tighe,
Martin
56 Central Mass Striders
37:37.3
250 Gillis,
John
50 Central Mass
Striders 39:13.7
289 Bazanchuk,
Paul 60 Central Mass
Striders 40:22.7
409 Lapierre,
David 50 Central
Mass Striders 44:18.1
My final two races of the month were at the BU mini
meet. Doug DeAngelis and I worked together in the 3,000 meters
alternating the “lead” (we were well back and alone) with Doug kicking my ass
over the final 400 meters. No complaints as I finished under 10 minutes
(9:55.3) which was a pleasant surprise. I finished the day running a very
painful 400 meters. I seeded myself at 75 and managed a 70.7 but
struggled after going out in 34.5. Both times were senior personal bests.
I spent the end of the month “town bagging” as I was
working on running in every city and town in NH (I’d already completed Mass).
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