Looking back - July 2019

 Carson Memorial (Chelmsford 4th of July race):  Tom Hildreth gave me number 11 for my 11 previous finishes.  I had five wins over the years, now winning my age group would be a major challenge.  Nearly 2,000 lined up and Tom moved us up from one fake start line to the next.  RD Bob Sullivan showed up, gave the final instruction and we got ready to go.  The gun went off, I took off, and one step into the race I tangled up with one of the kids and went down in a heap.
 
I popped back up with an assist from Terry McNatt and was on my way.  I reached the mile in 5:43m much slower than I'd hoped for!  I got to the finish in 11:21.something.  Basically, what I'd thought I could run but not quite what I'd hoped for. 
    
This makes it look like it took me 10 seconds to run the last 3 steps.  It felt that long but is actually a quirk of the timing clock that rolls from 11:19 to 11:29 before the “9” rolls to “0”.
Carson Memorial 2 mile - MALE AGE GROUP:  50 to 59
 
Place O'All Time    Name                       Age Sex Race# City/state                
    1    21   10:53 Bob Tremblay            52 M     703 Chelmsford MA          
    2    27   11:22 Dave Dunham           55 M      11 Bradford MA            
    3    29   11:26 Scott Grandfield          54 M    1622 Rehoboth MA            
    4    33   11:29 Terry McNatt              54 M    1544 Needham MA             
    5    66   12:55 Bob Sullivan              55 M      33 Chelmsford MA     

     
 Loon Mountain race:  I like the Loon mountain race so much I (accidently) entered it twice!  They had a special $15 entry fee back in January, so I entered.  June rolled around, and I decided I wanted to do Loon and entered it again.  D’oh! Conditions were great, about 70 degrees but very dry and comfortable.  My goal for today was to see if I could top the Senior (50+) age group.  Steve Brightman would most likely be the guy to keep an eye on.  He has speed, strength, and can climb with the best.  I was in about 70th at the start of the XC portion of the race. 
My goal for the 2.5 miles of XC was to not get hurt.  I stayed on my feet and slowly moved by a few more guys.  The real climbing starts after the XC part.  I could see that Steve was about 30 seconds ahead and showing no signs of slowing.  I had looked at last year’s results and knew that I’d run over a minute faster than Steve at the Upper Walking Boss, so my goal was to have him within that range when I got there. 

 
Finally, the UWB timing mat loomed in sight and I checked my watch to see how far Steve was ahead (15 seconds), then SLAM the climb started.  I passed him about halfway up.  I got to the line then hit the ground for some recovery. 
 
M50+
30        1:03:43 1          M50-59 Dave Dunham   M         55        Bradford           MA            Central Mass Striders
32        1:04:15 2          M50-59 Jim Boule          M         52        Campton           NH            acidotic RACING
33        1:04:22 3          M50-59 Steve Brightman           M         50        Providence RI            Central Mass Striders
44        1:06:42 4          M50-59 Jeff Walker       M         53        Falmouth ME     Dirigo RC
45        1:06:54 5          M50-59 Erik Vandendries           M         54        Chestnut Hill MA            Central Mass Striders
63        1:10:51 9          M50-59 Ed Sheldon       M         54        Hooksett NH     Central Mass Striders
140       1:20:05 22        M50-59 David Lapierre   M         55        Chelmsford MA  Central Mass Striders
 

Boston Community Gardens: While working on visiting all of the Trustee’s of the Reservations properties I saw that they also managed 56 community gardens throughout Boston.  Although you couldn’t count them towards the “Hike 125” totals, I thought it’d be cool to try to visit them all in one fell swoop.  Two of the locations were in East Boston with no access by foot to Boston proper so I came up with a loop that would visit 54 locations in a little under 27 miles.  I tossed the idea out to some of my CMS teammates and David Lapierre signed on.  We met at the Andover park and ride at 4am, drove to the two East Boston locations by 4:30am and were ready to run at 5am.  With a start/finish at the Franklin Park Zoo we did a big counterclockwise loop of Boston that took a little less than 5 hours.  I handled most of the navigation with Dave handling most of the conversation.  It was a terrific morning that went off without a hitch and gave me a much better impression of city running.  We are claiming the speed record for visiting all of the Community Gardens but may also be the first people to visit them all.  Great fun!
  

 
Bill Luiti 5 mile (July 20):  It was a nasty hot and humid morning, so no one would be running personal bests.  My goal for the day was to survive and hopefully move one step closer to winning the Age Graded Masters in the series and help our team toward taking the team title.
 
My hope was to keep Scott Clark in sight for the first 1.5 and then see what I could do on the downhill.  Scott went out and Ernie Brake and I hooked up with him about 1/2 mile in.  We were all pretty much together for most of the uphill then Ernie turned on the jets and put 10+ seconds on us.  I was about 30th place at the bottom of the hill and moved up a couple of places on the climb.  Scott and I ran together until a little after 3 then I just could not stick with him. 
I held on for a disappointing 31:42 (compared to 29:38 last year) but managed a first place in the Age Graded Masters and the 55-59 age group.  Our team had a great day taking the top 3 age graded places and 4 of the top 6! 
                                 
Trying to catch fellow 50+ Sean Snow                                Didn’t get him
  
50+
   15   1/16   M5054   31:17    31:17  6:16 Scott Clark            53 M   194 Gilmanton NH              78.85%
   19   2/16   M5054   31:42    31:42  6:21 Sean Snow              52 M   371 Dunbarton NH              77.17%
   20   1/29   M5559   31:43    31:43  6:21 Dave Dunham            55 M    15 Bradford MA               79.10%
   22   2/29   M5559   32:19    32:18  6:28 Jim Angell             55 M   147 Hopkinton NH              77.67%
   23   3/16   M5054   32:24    32:23  6:29 Darin Brown            52 M    76 Madison NH                75.54%
   25   3/29   M5559   32:47    32:46  6:34 Ernest Brake           58 M   195 North Sutton NH           78.57%
 

CARS finale - Woodchuck 5k: It all came down to this final race in the 8 race CAR series.  The TBA team (me, JJ, Scott Clark, Ernie Brake, and Darin Brown) were leading but could still lose to Mugwumps.  I was also leading the age graded masters but Jim Angell was right behind me and Scott and Ernie also had a shot at moving ahead of me.
 
My goal for this race was to take it out hard and never "settle in".  Scott would need to run under 18 minutes on this quite hilly course to move ahead of me in AG standings but Jim Angell could run about 18:20 and (if ahead of me) beat me in the series.  I was about 20th as we passed the Canterbury Fair and the downhill lessened.  At about 1/2 mile I found a good rhythm and passed Ernie then drew even and passed Scott.  At the 180 turn (1.5 miles) I took a careful look and did not see Jim (although he wasn't that far back).  That gave me a boost to try to reel in Kevin Crowley (who is usually right around me).  As I closed the gap on Kevin, Ernie seemed to fall back.  At 2 miles I could hear him, but it sounded like he was falling back.  I moved ahead of Kevin before we turned onto the dirt road with the final long hill.  I thought about taking a look back but figured it would not help me go any faster and it just might give Ernie the idea that I was worried (I was). I felt pretty beat on the climb but closed on another guy before the 3 mile mark. 
 
Our team (TBA) took 9th, 13th, 14th, and 15th overall and 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th in the Age Graded masters.  That was good enough for us to lock up the series and me to lock up the series AG masters.
 
Canterbury Chipmunk 5k 07-27-19
    1   1/3    MOPEN   15:51  5:06 Matt Chorney          30 M   273 Jackson WY                82.16%
    2   2/3    MOPEN   16:48  5:25 Louis Saviano III     28 M   220 Sandown NH                77.31%
    3   3/3    MOPEN   16:52  5:26 Andrew Tuttle         24 M   197 Alton NH                  76.98%
    4   1/15   M3039   17:29  5:38 David Chorney        31 M   289 Concord NH                74.66%
    5   1/8    M1519   17:39  5:41 Colin Lessard          17 M   107 Bow NH                    74.14%
 
    9   1/29   M5059   18:27  5:57 Dave Dunham        55 M    15 Bradford MA               83.12%
   12   2/29   M5059   18:49  6:04 Jim Angell             55 M   147 Hopkinton NH              81.50%
   13   3/29   M5059   18:54  6:05 Scott Clark            53 M   194 Gilmanton NH              79.88%
   14   4/29   M5059   18:58  6:07 Ernest Brake         58 M   195 North Sutton NH           82.82%
   15   5/29   M5059   19:36  6:19 Darin Brown          52 M    76 Madison NH                76.43%