10 years ago (Oct. 2010): I struggled during this month with a sinus infection. t's been a few years since I've raced in New Castle and I was glad it fit the schedule this year. My plan was to go out in 5:20 or so and hopefully hold on to Dan Verrington and Dave Quintal. At the gun Dave was out fast and almost led to the first turn, Dan was close behind him and I was already struggling to hang on. We exchanged places back and forth for the first two miles. I hit the mile in 5:20. Dave led me and another guy through 2 miles in 11:02 (5:42) and threw a bunch of surges, each time pulling away and we'd reel him back in. went through 3m in 16:36 (5:34) and kicked as hard as I could.
17th Annual Great Island 5K
1 M3039 Bob Wiles 15:06.95 4:53 15:08.08
2 M2029 Robert Gomez 15:09.75 4:54 15:10.92
3 M2029 Wesley Dinnan 15:29.60 5:00 15:30.63
4 M2029 Erik Travis 16:35.03 5:21 16:36.53
5 M4049 Daniel Verrington16:44.77 5:25 16:46.34
8 M4049 Dave Quintal 17:04.86 5:31 17:05.97
10 M4049 Dave Dunham 17:08.13 5:32 17:09.52
After the race I headed to Billerica to see John and Jim Dangora get inducted into the Billerica Athletic Hall of Fame (also fellow HOF Kevin Curtin).
Next up was the Baystate Marathon (10-17). My goal was to run just under 3:00 with very even splits. My hope was that my foot (plantar fascia) would hold up well and I'd be okay to do the Lithia Loop US trail marathon championships. It took the first three miles for me to dial in on 6:52 pace, but from that point on I was very close to hitting my pace. Unlike last year I didn't have a lot of company. Just a couple of guys ran with me for most of the first 13 miles. From 17 on I ran alone, but I'd upped the pace and was starting to pass a LOT of people. My three fastest miles of the day were 23, 19, and 24. Our open team took home top honors with an impressive 6, 7, 9 finish by the three scoring team members. The master’s time was the 9th best ever run by a 40+ team and 3rd fastest by a CMS 40+ squad.
And crossing the bridge near the finish
Baystate marked my fourth decade (80’s, 90’s, 00’s, and 10’s) with a sub-3 hour marathon. I’m hoping to add to that soon!
Here are my stats by decade:
80’s – 1 marathon – Best time = 2:22:03 – 0 wins – 17th = best place – 17th = worst place
90’s – 21 marathons–Best time = 2:19:29 – 3 wins – 1st = best place – 56th = worst place
00’s – 10 marathons-Best time = 2:29:10 – 3 wins – 1st = best place – 75th = worst place
10’s – 7 marathons – Best time = 2:57:10 – 0 wins – 11th = best place – 3651st = worst place
After Baystate I had my sights set on some Vermont county high points including off trail ascents of Butterfield and Signal Mountains. My running pal and state high pointer Eric Morse joined in the fun. The relative shortness of the two bushwhacks (about 2 miles round trip for each) and the fact that the woods were very open and the sun was shining brightly in the east gave me the self-assurance that we would be safe to hike. We hit the top of Butterfield in 29:47 and quickly signed in. After a wobbly bridge crossing of the stream we were back on the road 32:53 after starting our descent. The woods were a little thicker than on Butterfield but still very enjoyable for bushwhacking. After 34:42 of reasonably easy ascent we were standing at the summit jar for Signal. We popped out on the road about 100m from where we’d entered 38:55 after starting our descent. In all our two-peak bushwhack (a little over 4 miles) and our run (a little over 5 miles) took us a grand total of 3:14:54.
Eric came up with an interesting plan for getting Mt Abraham and Mt Ellen. All of the accounts we’d read mentioned traversing the range, but none seemed to consider using the ski areas as access points. We figured that by starting at Sugarbush and running the ridge to Mt Ellen and descending on the ski trails would be a lot more run-able, and in our minds more fun. We dropped my car at Mt Ellen just before sunrise then headed over to Sugarbush. We reached the viewing platform on top of Lincoln Peak in 48:21 and spent 4 minutes on the summit snapping a couple of quick pictures and taking in the limited (clouds) view.
We shuffled over to Abraham (.8 mile) in 14:10 and found that the weather was closing in. Big dark clouds had eliminated pretty much any view and there was snow falling in the gap. An easy 15:10 later we tagged the top of Lincoln for the second time and headed off for Mt Ellen. We spent the next 57:28 covering the 2.9 miles across the ridge and over the bumps of Nancy Hanks, Castle Rock, and Cutt’s Peak. We took a 3 minute break and took a few more pictures before the zip zag descent via the ski trails to the base of the mountain. I hit my watch at the bottom 2:59:55 after we started.
I found a somewhat local trail race for the final weekend of the month. The course was interesting, it had varying terrain and you really needed to focus on where you were stepping, there were a lot of leaves on the ground covering roots and rocks. My plan was to be cautious the first lap and see who would go with me. Right from the start I was shadowed by two guys, Pat Connelley and Mike Fraysse. Pat had run a couple of races at Wason Pond previously. He made a move on one of the short uphills and I settled in about 10m back. We were dead-even as we came back by the start/finish. I kept the tempo up and ran that loop about 30 seconds faster than I did at the beginning of the raceI was happy with the effort and pleased to get a win, they are harder to come by in recent years J
Wason Pond Fall Trail Race - 10k
Chester, NH, October 30, 2010
1 37:19 Dave Dunham,46,M CMS 40+
2 38:16 Pat Connelley,46,M
3 40:39 Mike Fraysse,38,M
4 44:35 Brennan Holmes,33,M
5 46:26 TJ Stevens,34,M
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