Old Goat TC XC classic

 I was on the fence about racing this week but the USATF New England cross-country grand prix kicked off at the Old Goat TC XC Classic.  It seems weird having XC start so early, especially for a series that only has five races.  I was happy to see that CMS would have a team and it looked like we’d have a decent 50+ squad which is always fun.  I did not bike that morning figuring I wanted “fresh” legs, but I did go out for an easy 3 miles to loosen up a bit.  A 6am trot in the Industrial Park should have little impact on an 11am race.  Ugh, I hate races that start that late.  It really ruins the entire day.  We lucked out that it wasn’t super-hot although it seemed fairly humid as I got in a 3 mile warm-up with teammate Dave Harper.  The scenery in Sutton MA was pretty impressive as the farm was located pretty high up in the hills.  The course itself was also very nice with 99% of it being deep grass.  This would be true XC racing, road racing flats would not be the best choice for this course!

 

I went with my Inov-8 trail shoes, mostly because my spikes would be a bad choice due to a poorly timed blister I had on my heel.  It was nice to see a bunch of familiar faces from GLRR, GSH, and HFC lining up at the start.  A solid field of 114 took off on the multiple loop course.  I was hoping that I’d be able to break 7:00 pace considering my training and the footing on the course.  I headed out at what felt right and found myself well in the back (maybe a dozen people behind me), but I was focused on watching my footing and staying on my feet.  Teammate Scott Grandfield wasn’t so lucky as he got knocked down a quarter mile into the race and had to abandon.  I settled in and found that I was passing a few people by the 1km mark.  John Barbour (who I’ve been racing for at least 30 years) went by around the 1km mark.  He’d be the only person to pass me.  I locked onto him and we passed some people here and there as we clicked off the next couple of kilometers.  I pulled even with him near the 3k mark and he said “go get ‘em” and I promptly fell BACK.  Go figure, he surged a bit and that’d be the last I ran with him.  I was able to keep him close until 4km but had no kick.  He’d beat me by 15 seconds.  Now I have someone to aim for at the next race in two weeks!  Our squad did great despite our limited numbers.  We took 7^th in the open and 3^rd in the 40+.  Steve Brightman was the top 50+ finisher and Warren Angell was first in the 60+.

 

Pl            Time       Name                    Team                     City        St            Age         Pace

1             16:05     Colin Cernik          Tracksmith           Brighton MA         29           5:11

2             16:31     Jackson Kelly        Tracksmith           Boston   MA         25           5:19

3             16:36     Youssef Zerbouaa Battle Road TC    Cambridge MA    23           5:21

 

45           18:42     Steve Brightman  CMS       Providence           RI            54           6:01

72           20:30     David Harper        CMS       Leominster           MA         56           6:36

77           20:50     Warren Angell      CMS       Wakefield             RI            60           6:43

82           21:33     Dave Dunham      CMS       Bradford               MA         59           6:57

88           22:53     Stanley Mungai   CMS       Worcester            MA         26           7:22

96           24:09     James Pawlicki     CMS       Lynn                      MA         48           7:47

Week Ending 08/27/23

I finished my third week of “dialing it back” and my knee has been pretty good.  My other knee and my torn hamstring both gave me some gruff this week, but my ankle rebounded quickly from the long bike ride.  Allergies have been kicking my ass lately.  Go figure.

I got in 21 hours of working out this week with 13:05 biking and 7:59 running while logging 59 miles.  I’d like to get 60+ next week but won’t push it.  Happy to get a race in and come out of it (so far) relatively unscathed.

 

Week – 59 miles

Month – 190

Year – 1,473

Life – 157,349

Longest rides - In, out, Go, bike

 

My longest rides (indoors, outdoors, and EliptiGo included):

 

Rank	Dist	Date	Time	MPH	Bike	Location
1	105.0	12/25/2021	4:14:53	24.72	Spin	Basement
2	104.0	12/19/2021	4:14:29	24.52	Spin	Basement
3	102.0	11/25/2021	4:12:55	24.20	Spin	Basement
4	101.4	8/19/2023	6:36:55	15.33	Giant touring	Blazing Saddles
5	101.3	4/23/2023	4:30:00	22.51	Spin & Go	Basement
6	101.0	2/14/2020	4:12:17	24.02	Spin	Basement
7	100.1	11/28/2019	4:04:18	24.58	Spin	Basement
8	100.0	8/20/2022	6:44:20	14.84	Giant touring	Blazing Saddles
9	100.0	8/16/2014	6:44:19	14.84	ElliptiGo	Blazing Saddles 100 mile
10	82.0	9/19/2020	6:49:25	12.02	Giant touring	Cross NH Adventure Trail
11	81.8	7/24/2022	3:37:00	22.62	Spin	Basement
12	81.6	9/23/2013	5:42:13	14.31	Bianchi Strada	Notch

Longest BIKE rides outside

 

Six of my 10 longest bike rides (outside) have been this year…

 

Rank	Dist	Date	Time	MPH	Bike	Location	With who?
1	101.4	8/19/2023	6:36:55	15.3	Giant touring	Blazing Saddles	Christin Doneski
2	100.0	8/20/2022	6:44:20	14.8	Giant touring	Blazing Saddles	Christin Doneski
3	82.0	9/19/2020	6:49:25	12.0	Giant touring	Cross NH Adventure Trail	Paul Baz, Kevin Tilton, (some with) Jeff Litchfield, Jim Graham
4	81.6	9/23/2013	5:42:13	14.3	Bianchi Strada	Notch	Greg Ward, Ken Tripp, Paul Baz
5	73.4	6/10/2023	5:17:58	13.9	Giant touring	Across Mass	Scott Spence
6	71.3	6/2/2023	4:44:00	15.1	Giant touring	New Haven to Springfield	Alone
7	71.0	6/19/2023	4:28:39	15.9	Giant touring	Cape Cod Rail trail	Alone
8	64.4	6/12/2023	4:35:10	14.0	Giant touring	Across RI	Alone
9	62.2	5/27/2023	4:26:24	14.0	Giant touring	Rockingham rail trail	Alone
10	58.1	7/3/2020	4:08:17	14.0	Giant touring	Northern Rail Trail	Kevin Tilton

 

 

Blazing Saddles

Since I’ve been logging a bunch of hours on the bike, I figured I’d give the Blazing Saddles ride a go again this year. I put the call out to all the runners I know (who are also bikers) in my quest to get someone to join me.  Christin Doneski answered the call and convinced me to do the 100 mile as we’d done last year.  I kind of swore off 100s after last year when my arthritic ankle was not happy with me after the ride.  I think 100 kilometers is probably the longest I should ride.  We got just about a perfect day for the ride with temps in the 70s and lower humidity.  This was a huge improvement over the 90 degrees last year.  At exactly 7am we headed off, after I knocked my Garmin computer off the bike as I pushed the start button.  An ominous start.  That was by far the worst thing that happened on the ride.

We headed west out of Byfield into Groveland, then north through West Newbury and crossed the Merrimack River on Rocks Bridge.  That brought us into Haverhill and the first point where other course distance branched off.  We’d only seen a few groups thus far as we were among the first to start.  Our route continued south into Haverhill before taking a nearly 180 degree turn and heading over the border into NH.  A few more fast riders went by as we passed through the nicer outskirts of Plaistow and then turned northeast into Newton NH.  We reached our first support stop at 27 miles and were efficient grabbing a snack (Clif bar for me) and topping off bottles and getting back on the bikes within 6 minutes.  Only a quarter of the ride done, but it was going by easily. 

The mostly downhill riding from Newton to Merrimac (MA) and then onto Pleasant Valley Road in Amesbury featured some nice riding along the Merrimack River.  There was a solid breeze which had people at the aid station wondering how it would be when we got along the ocean.  I guessed it’d be a cross wind, but we had a lot of miles to get through before that.  For now, we were getting re-passed by people who had passed us early but took longer breaks.  This would happen several times during the ride (some would pass us four times!).  Most were nice, calling out “on your left” but a few came by at very high speed and never said a word passing way too close for comfort.  Not sure what that was about.  Perhaps we were viewed as outsiders since I was the only one out of the 300+ people riding to be on a touring bike and Christin was the only one on a cyclo-cross bike.  I was also the only one with a kickstand, which I still don’t get why people don’t have them.  It only adds a little weight and is so useful!  We continued heading east through Amesbury then crossed the Merrimack heading south over the chain bridge into Newburyport.  We passed a guy on the climb up Ferry road, and he complimented us on our “fast ride” as we went by.  I offered him encouragement and wished him a pleasant ride.  The parking lot at Maudsley was hopping!  This was a “bonus” aid station, mostly for the shorter rides.  Since we had a stop coming up at 50 miles it wasn’t worth it to stop at 41 so we rolled onward.

 We continued south into West Newbury and then headed east into Newbury for our second stop of the day.  We were efficient again, I got a strawberry fig bar and topped off my bottle and saddled up again in 5 minutes.  No messing around.  There were a lot of people at this aid station and spirits were high as we headed onto the second half of this adventure.  More nice scenery as we headed south in Rowley.  Then a somewhat busy stretch on route 133 heading into Ipswich.  For the most part drivers were very nice we got a lot of waves from people, and we were also generous with our “thank you” when people let by.  Next up was a nice stretch out and back to Little Neck with a loop around the very scenic (and kind of hilly) peninsula that had great views of Plum Island and Plum Island sound.  The wind was not bad, as it seemed to be mostly a cross wind.  We saw a lot of the groups ahead of us as they came back into Ipswich and surprisingly saw quite a few behind us as we headed back inland. 

 This was the point last year where I wished we were doing 100km, but as we hit 65 miles, I was still feeling okay.  We were riding steadily, and it had clouded up now which kept it even cooler.  We headed south into Hamilton and some quiet roads through Appleton Farms.  There were only a few groups passing by and I was focused on getting to the 78 mile aid station at Bradley Palmer and was even starting to think about what I’d have to eat at the finish.  There was a good crowd at the aid station, but we were in and out of there in six minutes, I got some Gatorade and another Clif bar and was still eating as we headed out. We headed southwest into Topsfield and one of the few times during the day we were stopped at a light.  We just missed crossing route 1 and then the light did NOT cycle back to us!  It was funny as at that moment Bob Strout (long-time Winners Circle runner) came biking by heading up route 1.  We didn’t wait for the light to get back to us and got a good gap in traffic and headed off.  There was a tough little hill at 81 miles, it was only 100’ but I felt it.  

A little later a group went by us, and the last rider commented “I can’t believe you are riding with those pedals”.  I had no response to that; I was also the only person out there who had the old school toe clips with straps. Hey, whatever works!    We turned north into Boxford and Georgetown.  The last tough little bump was at 97 miles.  A rider on the side of the road with a cramp asked how far to go and I was happy to say only 4 miles.  I saw him after the ride, and he told me he hadn’t done any riding this YEAR and that maybe 100 miles was a bad idea.  Yikes!  It was all gravy after the final hill, and we reached the finish in less than 7 hours (6:54:07).  Our moving time was 6:41:42 or about 15.2 miles per hour.  We reached the 100 mile point in 6:36:55 which was 10 minutes faster than last year, I put most of that down to better conditions this year.  I wasn’t really all that hungry after but enjoyed some brownies and a couple of cookies.  It was a fun day, but like I said last year I’ll probably stick to shorter rides.  My ankle was sore post ride and I hobbled around the rest of the weekend.

Week Ending 08-20-23

This was my second week of “backing off” and I kept at the 6 mile a day running thing mostly.  I reached my goal of over 20 hours combined time on the bike, run, and in the water with 24:12.  I had probably my last couple of hours in the water with Danny V as he retired and will most likely be in Vermont a lot of the time.  I got a little over 6 hours running and just over 16 hours on the bike.  A big chunk of that was the Blazing Saddles 100 mile on Saturday.

 

Week

Run 45 (6:05)

Bike 287.2 (16:07)

Water 2:00

Week ending 08/13/23

I kept my average of 20 hour (plus) per week mixed between running, biking, and water running.  I also stuck with the plan of running about 6 miles per day.  Originally I’d hoped to do 3 in the morn and 3 at lunch, but the flooding on Tuesday caused over a million dollars damage at work and closed the fitness center for at least a couple of weeks.

 

Week – 41 miles

Month – 86

Year – 1369

 

Looking back - August 2018

 August 2018 (5 years ago):  I started this one by NOT racing.  I flew out to Washington on August 5th for a run around Mount Rainier.  The 90+ mile loop on the Wonderland trail would take four days.  Doug D and two of his nephews (Tyler and Luka) were the only others in the group of 10 that I knew.              

   

The first day was 35 miles and 12,000’ of climb and it was a record hot day. I leapfrogged Tyler and Luka throughout the day as I climbed a bit faster and they descended faster.  We reached Mowich Lake in a little over 9 hours.  This was our longest day so it was nice to get through it, but the next day at 25 miles had me pretty nervous. 

       

Day 2 kicked off at 7am.  We took the Spray Park trail which is the original version of the Wonderland.  It was nice and once again I ran the first couple of hours with the DeAngelis boys.  Some of the group started out earlier and I started catching people. I briefly stopped at the top of Skyscraper pass to chat with 3 rangers who were enjoying lunch in the very scenic location.  After that it was mostly downhill!  Ugh, I hate downhill.  I got into White River camp in a little over 7 hours for the 25 miles with 7,800’ of climb.  

 

The third day had us doing 18 miles with 4,800’ of climb.  With staggered starts we’d all meet up along the trail.  Tyler and I were the last to go, and after the high river crossing (1/2 mile into the run) I was on my own as Tyler was moving well.  A bunch of us reached the top at the same time which was fun.  I reached the end of the days run in a little over 4.5 hours and was happy to see the van and some ice cold beverages. 

 

The final day would also be our shortest.  I started out slowly, as I had on most mornings.  As the climb started (2,200’ over the next 4 miles) I caught the group and went by.  I reached the sign (which we had started at on Tuesday) in 2:17 for the final 13 miles with 2,600’.  My total time for the 92 miles was 23:20:41 (that includes all stops during each run, I only stopped my watch at the end of each day).  By comparison the Fastest Known Time for the trail is 18:54!

       

    

I got my first race of the month in at the Londonderry Old Home day race. I hadn't run the Londonderry race since 1991 (when I set the still standing course record).  The first mile heads down the Millennium Mile course so you can count on a quick start.  Unfortunately, you come back up it at the end!  About 150 runners headed off down the road and after about 100 meters 5 of the Londonderry XC kids went flying by.  Right before the mile, 3 of them just stopped!  Maybe they were doing a workout?  Anyway, that moved me up to 3rd place. I struggled on the climb to the finish but stayed in third.

                           

    Pl  Name                                 Age City, St                  Time

    1 Eric Nowakc                       M17  Londonderry, NH           17:38.9       

    2 Matthew Griffin                M15  Londonderry, NH                       17:50.1      

    3 Dave Dunham                   M54  Bradford, MA                             18:23.5      

    4 Matt Carbonet                  M35  Melrose, MA                               19:15.3      

    5 Noah Schrank                    M20  Londonderry, NH                       20:12.5      

 

Next up was the Lynn Woods relay.  Back in 1991 I set the still standing CR of 12:05 while running for the Sullivan Farms Ice Cream racing team.  We set the open record that also still stands.  Fifteen years ago I teamed up with Joe Shairs (13:18), Dave Quintal (14:04) and Dan Verrington (13:47) and we set the still standing 40+ team record (I ran 14:03 that night). This year the same four of us joined forces again with the goal of breaking the 50+ team record (63:47 from the previous year - Martin Tighe-16:23, Chris Smith-16:09, Paul Young-16:31, and me 14:44).

 

Ninety teams lined up and with a “on your marks” and the ringing of the cow bell we were off. I was happy to be running the first leg instead of the anchor, which meant I would have guys to race head-to-head against.  I was not in the top 10 over the first mile but moved into 8th place at the start of the Goat Path (single-track tough uphill section).  I caught one more guy with about 50 meters to go but he was able to out-lean me at the line.  I can’t say I was happy with the time (15:10) as I’d run 14:44 last year.  I guess it was a decent time given the night since it was the 15th fastest leg time and 2nd fastest for a 50+.  Our squad had a good night taking 5th place overall and topped the 50+ category but came up short of the CR.

 

Overall Teams

1 . FILTHY JAMES                     59:31

2 . CORONAS ON US                59:36

3 . WICKED MENS OPEN         59:50

4 . CMS 40+                         1:01:41

  PATRICK RICH               13:57     13:57

  JIM PAWLICKI                29:54     15:57

  NAKRI DAO                    46:01     16:07

  NICK TAORMINA            1:01:41     15:40     

5 . CMS 50+                         1:06:05

  DAVE DUNHAM                15:10     15:10

  DAN VERRINGTON           31:25     16:10

  DAVID QUINTAL              50:13     18:48

  JOE SHAIRS                  1:06:05     15:52

 

8 . WCRC 50+                      1:07:24

  CHRIS KEALEY               14:57     14:57

  RICH WALSH                 33:07     18:10

  MIKE LEONARD              50:22     17:15

  JOE GURCZAR             1:07:24     17:02

 

Top 30 times (360 finishers)

Rank    Time    Name                          Team

1          13:14   JOE JOURDAIN            CORONAS ON US

2          13:15   JOHN PRIZZI                FILTHY JAMES

3          13:54   JACOB JOHNS              CIRLE GETS THE SQUARE

4          13:57   PATRICK RICH             CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 40+

5          13:57   JOHN CORONA                       CORONAS ON US

6          14:26   DAN CHRUNIAK                      WICKED MENS OPEN 1

7          14:37   JASON GUARANTE      CORONAS ON US

8          14:41   ZACH CHABET             FILTHY JAMES

9          14:47   JOE SHAW                   GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS

10        14:57   JAMES ANDERSON      FILTHY JAMES

11        14:57   CHRIS KEALEY             WCRC BORROWED TIME 50+

12        14:59   MIKE PAULIN              WICKED MENS OPEN 1

13        14:59   JONAH HULBERT                     WICKED MENS OPEN 1

14        15:10   CORMAC MACPHAIL   TEAM WINTHROP MASCAC

15        15:10   DAVE DUNHAM                      CMS 50+

16        15:18   NATHANIEL OLSON     MYSTIC POODLES

17        15:22   CHRIS BUSTARD                      MYSTIC POODLES

18        15:26   ERICH O'NEIL               WICKED MENS OPEN 1

19        15:26   MIKE WARREN                        JABWOW

20        15:31   LIMILSON TAVARES    CHELSESA HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUN

21        15:40   NICK TAORMINA                     CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 40+

22        15:49   JASON BARNES                       WICKED MENS SENIORS #1

23        15:52   JOE SHAIRS                 CMS 50+

24        15:57   JIM PAWLICKI              CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 40+

25        16:01   REGINA RANDAZZA     WE FOUND DONNA Top Woman

26        16:02   DENNIS DONAHUE     BLOOD SWEAT AND BEERS

27        16:07   NAKRI DAO                  CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 40+

28        16:07   ROBERT HAIG             SHAM/WOW

29        16:10   DAN VERRINGTON      CMS 50+

30        16:10   CAROLINE WEEKS       WEEKSIE TEAM           2nd Woman

 

My other race this month was the USATF NE 10 mile (Auburn NH). The course would be shaded so it looked like a decent day for fast times.  I focused on staying relaxed, that was my mantra for the first 5 miles - Stay relaxed.  I hit  the 5 mile mark (30:38).  The final kick-in-the-nuts uphill was tough and I kept thinking Charlie Bemis would go flying by (like he did 2 years ago).  That last mile seemed to take forever.  I couldn't quite bring it in under 1:01 but did get a chip time of 1:01:01. I could not have been more pleased with the time and taking 3rd in the 50-54.  My CMS 50+ teammates also had a great day as we put 5 in the top 11!

 

50+ PL Chip time        Name              Age      Team

1          56:58.5                        Nat Larson      M56     BAA

2          57:20.1                        Andy Gardiner M53     BAA

3          1:00:14.7         Tim Van Orden           M50     CMS

4          1:01:01.6         Dave Dunham M54     CMS

5          1:01:16.8         David Principe M51     CMS

6          1:01:31.4         Charlie Bemis  M55     WRT

7          1:02:42.7         John Sullivan  M58     HFC

8          1:03:07.6         Jim Miller        M59     GMAA

9          1:03:13.8         Joe Shairs        M50     CMS

10        1:03:42.8         Paul Davies     M51     BAA

11        1:04:25.6         David Lapierre M54     CMS

 

USATF Division: Men 50+ - 7 Teams

  1. 5:10:12.5 Central Mass Striders               (1:02:02.5)

====================================

  1  1:00:14.7   1350 Tim Van Orden  M  50

  2  1:01:01.6     37 Dave Dunham     M  54

  3  1:01:16.8    280 David Principe    M  51

  4  1:03:13.8   1341 Joe Shairs         M  50

  5  1:04:25.6      6 David Lapierre     M  54

 

  2. 5:31:27.1 Greater Springfield Harriers      (1:06:17.5)

  3. 5:39:18.0 Greater Lowell Road Runners   (1:07:51.6)

 

The final race of the month was the Millen Mile. This is a really cool event put on by Bernie Livingston with the race held during the half-time of the home opener Football game in North Conway.  The only drawback would be the long drive in Friday afternoon LONG WEEKEND traffic.  I was hoping to run 80's and maybe pick it up and sneak in under 5:20.  It was a bit weird running on the track at night under the lights but also cool getting the crowd support on the home-stretch. I ran most of the race alone in 6th with one high school runner up ahead.  With a kick of 78.9 I managed a 5:21.9.  That was good enough for 6th place in the field of 11 finishers.