Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Looking back - May 2018

5 years ago (May 2018): I raced four times this month, two mountain races, and two cross-country races.  First up was Pack Monadnock, the early season mountain series race was always a nice time to see so many familiar faces.

It was surprisingly humid and temps were just a bit over 60 degrees.  The 50+ age group looked deep although the overall field look to be a bit weak. My hope was to run between 1:10 and 1:12. Corey Dowe (Runners Alley) who finished 6th in the women’s field at the USA Mountain champs last year decided to take it out hard and gapped the field in the first ½ mile.  Todd Callaghan slowly pulled away from the chase group and caught Dowe a bit before the mile. I tried to latch onto Mark Reeder as I passed through 5 miles in 32:25. The last 2 miles would have nearly 1,000 feet of climb, which is almost half of the total climb in the race! At 9 miles There was no one in sight in front of me (or behind).  I hit the finish in a few ticks over 1:11 and after a minute on the ground climbed up the firetower and announced that I was the first to the “VERY TOP”. 

 

Pack Monadnock (178 finishers)

Pl         Time     Name                           Sx/Age City      St         Team    Cat

1          1:09:16 Todd Callaghan             M48      Beverly MA       CMS     M4049

2          1:09:30 Brandyn Naro                M31      Manchester NH GCS      M3039

3          1:09:57 Erik Vandendries           M53      Chestnut Hill     CMS     M5059

4          1:11:03 Dave Dunham               M54      Bradford MA      CMS     M5059

5          1:11:51 Joe Shaw                      M36      Belmont MA                  M3039

6          1:12:31 Mark Reeder                 M58      Brighton MA      GLRR    M5059

 

50-59 age group (36 finishers)

1          1:09:57 Erik Vandendries           53        Chestnut Hill     CMS

2          1:11:03 Dave Dunham               54        Bradford MA      CMS

3          1:12:31 Mark Reeder                 58        Brighton MA      GLRR

4          1:15:48 Brian Ruhm                  53        Nashua NH       GCS

5          1:16:34 Christopher Smith         52        Woburn MA       SRR

6          1:18:58 Ed Sheldon                   53        Hooksett NH     CMS

7          1:23:02 David Lapierre               54        Chelmsford MA  CMS

 

Next up was the Canterbury Shaker Village XC 5k which I’d only done once before (2008).  My goal this year was to run faster than my time in 2008.  This is a great location for a Cross-Country race.  .  This is a tough race with nearly 300' of climb and drop over 3 climbs.  I got a chuckle when the announcer mentioned the "mudhole on the backside".  I was in 5th place after the first couple of turns on the dirt road, then we hit the field and the deep grass.  By 1/2 mile I'd moved up to 2nd place a couple of steps behind Sean McCauley.  That was pretty much the action for the race.  I ended up in 2nd place 12 seconds back in 18:42.

Canterbury Shaker Village XC 5k    May 12, 2018             5 Kilometers                           Canterbury, NH

    1   1/3    MOPEN   18:32   18:30  5:58 Sean McCauley          26 M    58 Canterbury NH        70.18%

    2   2/3    MOPEN   18:43   18:42  6:02 Dave Dunham            54 M    17 Bradford MA           81.37%

    3   3/3    MOPEN   19:46   19:45  6:22 Mike Roy               21 M   215 Northfield NH             65.74%

    4   1/16   M3039   19:56   19:54  6:25 Sam Wood               31 M   261 Laconia NH              65.59%

    5   1/9    M2029   20:05   20:04  6:28 Timothy Lindberg       24 M   192 Ashland NH             64.70%

 

More cross-count with the Trav’s trail race which I’d done seven times prior to this weekend but I hadn’t raced it since 2009.  I was hoping to run under 18:00 for the 3(ish) mile distance. I met up with teammates Jim Pawlicki and Greg Putnam and we headed out to preview the course.  It was already nearly 80 degrees and very humid.  My goal was to keep Jim in sight and if possible keep Chris Kealey in sight.  After the mile I got around Jim and his footfalls faded (I didn’t look back).  Chris was slowly extending his lead on me, but I still had him in sight.  The climb to the finish was hot and I was beat, but I did manage to get around a guy and get myself across the line under 18 minutes.

 


18th Annual Trav’s Trail 3 mile XC race

    1 Dan Chebot           30 M                            15:48  5:16

    2 Nick Lemon           25 M                            16:09  5:23

    3 Gregory Putnam     48 M Stoneham            16:26  5:29 CMS

    4 Nick Roosa            32 M                            16:39  5:33

    5 Steve Dowsett       30 M Newburyport        16:50  5:37 WRT

    6 Paul Larosa          41 M Newburyport        16:53  5:38

    7 Michael Watson     31 M North Andover      16:56  5:39

    8 Matt Cartes            39 M                            17:10  5:44

    9 Chris Kealey         50 M Newburyport         17:38  5:53 Maudslay TC

   10 Dave Dunham                   54 M Bradford              17:52  5:58 CMS

   12 James Pawlicki      43 M Lynn                    18:18  6:06 CMS

   15 Kara Haas            47 F Chelmsford            18:57  6:19

   18 Douglas DeAngelis 51 M Newbury              19:24  6:28 TGloucester

   19 Mike Haas            45 M Chelmsford           19:30  6:30

 

My final race of the month was the Wachusett Mountain race.  I've run many versions of this race (this was my 22nd time) and enjoy this version.  It is a mostly uphill 2.9 mile race with a mile up "Mile Hill Road" before a short downhill into the park then the final tough 1.5 of steady climb to the summit. A near record number showed up for the race despite temps in the 80s and high humidity.  I found myself in 15th place 1/2 mile into the race as things started to settle down and reality hit.  The second 1/2 mile is one of the toughest and I caught a few (including early women's leader Corey Dowe).  I could see Tim Van Orden up ahead, and knew he had the 50+ title in hand.  In the next half I was able to close the gap on teammate Erik Vandendries.  I ended up catching him as we made the final turn for the summit and put a scant 4 seconds on him by the finish.

 

1          19:44.9 Scott Mindel                  M31      CMS

2          20:16.5 Jacob Wormald             M22      GCS

3          20:32.1 Ryan Carrara                 M41      Battle Rd

4          20:40.5 Scott Leslie                   M36      CMS

5          20:51.3 Brandyn Naro                M31      GCS

6          20:55.2 Cameron Cogburn         M32     

7          21:06.5 Todd Callaghan             M48      CMS

8          21:10.6 Tim Van Orden              M50      CMS

9          21:18.4 Liam Garvey                 M22     

10        21:22.6 Andrew Greene             M33     

11        21:41.1 Dave Dunham               M54      CMS

12        21:45.6 Erik Vandendries           M53      CMS

13        22:00.2 Dan Princic                   M38      WRT

14        22:17.6 Steve Brightman           M49      CMS

15        22:21.8 Jim Boule                      M51      aR

16        22:38.5 James Pawlicki              M43      CMS

 

M50-59

1          8          21:10.6 Tim Van Orden              M50

2          11        21:41.1 Dave Dunham               M54

3          12        21:45.6 Erik Vandendries           M53

4          15        22:21.8 Jim Boule                      M51

5          20        22:49.6 Ed Sheldon                   M53

6          24        23:03.9 Chris Smith                   M52

7          25        23:06.9 Brian Ruhm                  M53

8          40        25:10.1 Michael Dufour              M52

9          41        25:13.8 David Lapierre               M54

10        45        25:46.5 Jeff Gould                     M53

11        47        25:54.9 Bruce Christensen         M50

12        48        25:55.1 Paul Young                   M52



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