Looking
back 10 years ago (July 2010): I ran three races and
messed up my arch by the end of the month. I started the month heading up on
Saturday for the 5th consecutive year of marking the course and setting up
registration at Loon Mountain. Sunday morning (07/04/10) I had my
ankles taped up tightly and wore my Inov-8's for traction on this tough course
over all kinds of terrain. The leaders went very easy for the first flat
section and I found myself right behind Tim Mahoney in 12th place. I felt
pretty good and was hoping to stay with Tim for as long as possible. We
had a bit of back and forth, but the steady dirt road climb up to the 4 mile
mark gave me an opportunity to get some distance on him. I took a quick
glance back as I turned onto Upper Walking Boss and couldn't anyone.
Ahead of me I could see everyone except for Eric Blake strung out in the .6
mile section of course that has an average of over 30% grade. Mike
Quintal was alternating walking, running, and crawling on all
fours. I passed Mike a little after 4 minutes into the climb. I
kept pushing to the top and wobbled over the summit of North Peak. The
run down North to the finish line is some of the craziest descent I've ever
done. It was certainly a surprise to get 6th place. The time (51:56) was
definitely at the fast end of what I thought I could run and the guys in front
of me seemed to have run slow times, perhaps due to the heat?
1
46:32 Eric Blake 31 BAA
2
49:01 Kevin Tilton 28 CMS
3
49:37 Brandon Newbould 28 Whirlaway
4
50:07 Todd Callaghan 40 GCS
5
50:14 Jim Johnson 33 CMS
6
51:56 Dave Dunham 46 CMS
7
52:26 Mike Quintal 32 CMS
8
53:39 Tim Mahoney 30 CMS
9
54:52 Peter Hult 29
10
55:50 Matthew Zanchi 26
The
final race of the USATF NE mountain series wrapped up in Windsor VT at Mount
Asscutney on 07/11/10. It was cloudy and very humid on race morning. There
was a little bit of jockeying for position as we took the sharp left hand turn
and headed up the road. Eric Blake shot to the front with Jim Johnson and Kevin
Tilton behind him. I settled in around 15th place, it felt FAST. I eased up to
the top ten and already felt like it would be a tough day…I was thirsty
already. By the mile I’d moved into 8th or 9th and began to find a good
rhythm. I heard a loud yell after I passed the water-stop. Apparently TiVO
mistakenly poured a cup full of Heed on his head instead of water. Sticky
mistake.
From
two miles on I tried to reel in the guy in front of me with little luck. I gave
it my all as I could still hear the guys close on my heels. Blake destroyed
Eric Morse’s course record with an excellent 28:16. I ended up running a fairly
decent time for me, 32:05. Todd and TiVO were close behind taking 2nd and 3rd
in the 40+ and 8th and 9th place overall. CMS had a very productive day; we
placed seven in the top 15.
1
28:16 Eric
Blake
31 New Britain C
2
30:05 Karl Remsen
29 Leadville CO
3
30:37 Jim Johnson
33 Salem NH
4
31:36 Kevin
Tilton
28 North Conway
5
31:54 Mike Barton
37 VT
6
32:05 Dave Dunham
46 Ward Hill MA
7
32:13 John Spinney
34 Waterbury VT
8
32:29 Todd Callaghan
40 Somerville MA
9
32:48 Tim Van Orden
42 Bennington VT
10
33:51 Ryan Kerrigan
25 Moretown VT
This
week (07/13/10) a little track meet fit (The River Rivals) perfectly in
the schedule. I wasn’t sore from Ascutney due to the uphill nature of the race
and a Tuesday effort should give me ample time to recover before
the weekend. My
goal was to break 11 minutes but I had a stretch goal of running 80’s (10:40).
In the early going I alternated the lead with another guy but pulled away after
the mile and came in close to my stretch goal with a 10:42.5. The 800
was almost immediately after that. Ken Tripp and a recent 2:01 High School grad
pulling away immediately. The kid took off and won in 2:18. Ken held strong
taking second in 2:21 and I kicked like mad down the straight as the clock
clicked toward 2:30. I just slipped under with them giving me 2:29.9.
The Stowe
8 mile (07/18/10) marked my return to the road Grand Prix series. I
figured based on other races that I should be able to run under 6's. We
all lined up in box #1 for an XC style start, which was pretty cool. I tried to
relax as just about the entire field went by me. Dan Verrington, who
always starts slowly, drew up at about 3/4 of a mile and I focused on letting
him pull me along. I started getting into a good groove after the mile
and was not passed by anyone (exception below) for the remainder of the
race. Dan got up to 7 seconds ahead at 2 miles but I still felt he was
pulling me along as we started picking off other 40+ runners (and one or two
50+). By four miles I'd cut Dan's lead down to 3 seconds but just
couldn't quite get with him. I caught Jim Pawlicki at 7 miles and worked hard
to ditch him over the last mile. He would not give an inch. I made
an attempt with about 400m to go but went too early as Jim rebounded and blew
by me with less than 200 to go. I crossed the finish in 46:30 which was a
45 second masters PR for me and met my stretch goal, despite somewhat windy and
warm conditions. Our 40+ team ended up taking a solid third place behind
Whirlaway and the very strong GMAA. A good day for the team and I was quite
pleased with my run.
I
finished the month with the 24th annual Sapienza race.
This year it was a new 4 mile course. It was appropriately hilly and
hot. I previewed the course the day before and was pretty beat from just
doing that. Nate Jenkins and Jim Johnson were out of sight in the early
going. I was in 6th place with a few guys in the first mile. I
passed Dan Verrington at the mile and put a few seconds on him through 2
miles. I got into fourth but never got close to anyone after that.
1.Nate
Jenkins 19:56 2.Jim Johnson 21:18 3.Brian Debronsky 22:14 4.Dave Dunham 23:04
5.Dan Verrington 23:34
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