Wednesday, March 27, 2024

50's - Done!

 Yesterday I completed my final run as a 59 year old.  No one can tell what the future holds for me, but I guarantee it will bring slower times.  






Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Driving to Florida - Day 2

 Finishing the drive to Florida (well technically I was in Florida already).  I spent the night in Jacksonville and started the day with a visit to the "Cancer Survivors Park" which has replicas of the 7 "famous" bridges in JAX.




Then it was on the road to get in some running.  I stopped at the Jacksonville-Baldwin rail trail for an out/back 6 mile run as the sun came up.  The trail was very nice and even had a fair amount of shades.




Next up was a drive over to Gainesville for the Gainesville-Hawthorne rail trail.  This was also a very nice trail, I parked at the end which was 15.2 miles from Gainesville.  The trail was kind of quiet even though it was a beautiful weekend morning.





The final run of the day was on the Cross Florida Greenway.  I had run on part of this last year but missed my goal of crossing the Florida land bridge (due to a miscalculation of the distance).  This time I approached from the East and got in a pleasant 3 mile run.






Monday, March 25, 2024

Day 1 - New England to Florida

 Making my annual pilgrimage to Florida.  I came up with some interesting (to me) stops along the way to break up the ride and get in some running.

Rappahannock Canal Path - Fredericksburg VA:  Nice path along the canal, but 43 degrees and pouring rain tested my ability to get out of the car and get running.  It also proved difficult to get feeling back in my hands post-run.


Emporia City VA - County high point: This was a quick stop for the walk up to the highest point in the county.  The rain which dogged me from NJ onward had now lessened to a spotty shower.

Roanoke Canal Path - Weldon NC: Nice path along, over, and through the canal including a cool aqueduct.  A little muddy from all of the rain but temps in the 50s and a "refreshing" breeze.




Wilson NC fire tower:  I parked at the high school and did a short run over to the tower and then back to the track and finished with 2 miles on the new track that was in the process of being built.





Santee Wildlife Preserve - Summerton SC: Final run of the day, got stopped for an hour on the highway for a major accident...so later run than expected.  Nice location, I'd run on the other side of the lake in Santee a few years ago.








Sunday, March 24, 2024

Week ending - 03/24/24

 I closed out my final week as a 50s runner with another 80+ mile week.  I started my vacation a day early to avoid the snow and I'll pay for the lack of sleep for a few days.  Ankle has been feeling lousy lately, might be time to see my podiatrist again.

Week - 86

Month - 286

Year = 1,039

Life = 159,770


shirtless running in Florida


Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Looking back - March 2019

 5 years ago - March 2019 - Malden 5m The few Sunday races available were either canceled or rescheduled due to the predicted snowfall.  Malden looked interesting with an early morning start time that might get it done prior to the snow.  I met up with Jim Pawlicki at the Stop & Shop parking lot about ½ mile from the start/finish of the race.  The big question besides the weather was would we be weaving all over the course passing ½ marathoners who were doing five of the 2.5-mile loops?  The course had a lot of turns and potholes.  It was 32 degrees and breezing when we finished our 3-mile warm-up.

I got into the second row right behind Jim.  My goal was 32:30 or better (6:30 per mile pace) based on the 5k I did on the treadmill last week.  The final instruction before the gun went off was for us to be careful when we got onto the loop proper as we’d be running into ½ marathoners who were going a lot slower than we’d be going (good advice). Thirteen hundred took off on the first downhill into the 2.5-mile loop.  I took a count at the first turn and was around 12th place.  After that we started passing ½ marathoners.  I would end up passing 644 of the 859 finishers in the half marathon and another 250 of the 5-mile runners would be caught before they got onto their second lap.  That meant a lot of zigging and zagging.  A few guys went by me as I found the right pace for me, but by the mile I was around 15th place and locked into a good battle with a younger guy.  We would end up running the final 4 miles together.  I never caught anyone, and no one passed me after the mile.  I almost came to a dead-stop at one point when a lapped runner decided to move left instead of right and nearly took me down.  It fired me up a bit and got me up the final time on the little hill.  I just out leaned my competitor at the finish line. Initial results had a ton of mistakes as it appeared that some decided to just run one lap and then finish!  I believe I won the 50+ and Jim took the 40+.  The results below seem to be correct (I did some editing myself).

 

1        27:28  5:30    Curtis Trueb             M28    Melrose MA     M2129 1/145

2        27:34  5:31    Patrick Driscoll           M30    Weymouth MA M3039 1/194

3        27:51  5:35    Jon Cusick                M28    Somerville MA M2129 2/145

4        27:54  5:35    Zach O'Brown           M32    Boston MA      M3039 2/194

5        28:02  5:37    Brian Cohen              M28    Mansfield MA  M2129 3/145

6        28:05  5:37    Christopher Knighton  M30    Allston MA      M3039 3/194

7        28:24  5:41    Joe Shaw                  M37    Belmont MA    M3039 4/194

8        29:13  5:51    Chris Furnari             M32    Brighton MA    M3039 5/194

9        29:29  5:54    Francois Paupier        M23    Brains OH       M2129 4/145

10       29:30  5:54    Brendon Campbell      M34    Medford MA    M3039 6/194

11       29:32  5:55    David Terwilliger        M30    Newton MA     M3039 7/194

12       29:45  5:57    Brian Axelrod            M29    Boston MA      M2129 5/145

13       29:48  5:58    Doug Ianuario           M33    Malden MA     M3039 8/194

14       29:50  5:58    Jim Pawlicki              M44    Lynn MA        M4049 1/77

15       30:27  6:06    Mark Hagopian          M36    Newton MA     M3039 9/194

16       31:06  6:14    Brian Wilson              M30    Boston MA      M3039 10/194

17       31:14  6:15    Dave Dunham           M54    Bradford MA   M5059 1/45


Gilmanton 5k: I was a bit nervous heading into the first race of the CARS series.  I had to skip racing at New Bedford last weekend with a strained quad muscle.  It was feeling better this week but I was worried about the first 1.5 miles that drops about 300'. The big climb from 3k-4k was muddy and icy but not terrible.  The wind was something else, but luckily for us it was a headwind on the downhill and a tailwind on the up.  A field of over 200 sprinted out for the first 100m to the sharp turn.  I counted about 20 in front of me as I took the turn (wide).  I battled Scott Clark right to the finish with a 2 second win in the 50+ age group.

 

                      21st Annual Gilmanton Road Race

March 23, 2019        5 Kilometers (USATF Certified #NH09003RF)       Gilmanton, NH

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

    1   1/3    MOPEN   17:09   5:31 Aidan Cox              13 M   252 Northwood NH              81.74%

    2   2/3    MOPEN   17:44   5:43 Andrew Tuttle          23 M   203 Alton NH                  73.21%

    3   3/3    MOPEN   17:46   5:44 Lyke Tkaczyk           15 M   218 Northwood NH              75.63%

    4   1/17   M4049   17:53   5:46 Jim Johnson            41 M   200 Madison NH                77.20%

    5   1/8    M2029   18:19   5:54 Timothy Lindberg       25 M   181 Ashland NH                70.88%

    6   1/12   M1519   18:28   5:57 Kirpal Demian          17 M   155 Bow NH                    70.86%

    7   2/8    M2029   18:33   5:58 David Martino          26 M   192 Laconia NH                69.99%

    8   2/12   M1519   18:37   6:00 Lars Hogne             15 M   216 Strafford NH              72.18%

    9   3/12   M1519   18:51   6:04 Benjamin Neff          16 M   140 Bow NH                    70.27%

   10   1/25   M5059   19:20   6:14 Dave Dunham            54 M    15 Bradford MA               78.70%

   11   2/25   M5059   19:22   6:14 Scott Clark            53 M   194 Gilmanton NH              77.95%

   12   4/12   M1519   19:36   6:19 Sam Berube             18 M    46 Bow NH                    66.27%

   13   3/25   M5059   19:59   6:26 Ernest Brake           57 M   201 North Sutton NH           77.98%

   14   1/11   M0114   20:15   6:31 Tyler Tkaczyk          13 M   219 Northwood NH              69.22%

   15   1/16   M3039   20:17   6:32 Phil Brogan            33 M   142 Concord NH                64.77%

   16   5/12   M1519   20:19   6:33 Colin Lessard          16 M   107 Bow NH                    65.20%

   17   1/3    FOPEN   20:43   6:40 Addison Cox            16 F   251 Northwood NH              73.64%

   18   6/12   M1519   20:50   6:43 Nathan Demers          18 M   158 Bow NH                    62.34%

   19   4/25   M5059   21:05   6:47 Darin Brown            52 M    76 Madison NH                71.05%

   20   7/12   M1519   21:33   6:56 Silas Frary            19 M   148 Concord NH                60.25%         

 

Upton 15k (USATF NE championship): I was hoping to finally be ready to race as we entered the second (of 7) USATF NE road races.  This would be my first race in the 55-59 age group.  Based on my 5m and the hilly Gilmanton 5k I thought I could run under 6:20's and was hoping as fast as 6:15's.  With 600 runners it was a little crowded the first 1/2 mile but nothing terrible.  The course rolls pretty much constantly so splits would be all over the place.  Dave Lapierre and I stayed pretty much side-by-side through 4.  A quick mile at 6 had me pull ahead of Dave.  By 8 miles I was feeling pretty tired, I took a peek on the turn at 8.5 and Dave was close. I was running out of gas but managed to hang on taking 3rd in the 55-59 with Dave just 6 seconds back.  Our team had a great day, taking 1st in the 50+ (and the 40+ as well). 

 

50+ Results:

1 51:49.8 Andy Gardiner 5:34 BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION M 53 

2 52:04.5 Nat Larson 5:35 GREATER SPRINGFIELD HARRIERS, INC M 56 1

3 53:07.6 Tim Van Orden 5:42 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS M 50 

4 54:21.7 David Principe 5:50 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS M 52 

5 54:34.4 Robert Ashby 5:52 DIRIGO RUNNING CLUB M 50 

6 54:40.2 Joe Shairs 5:52 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS M 50 

7 55:03.0 Jason Cakouros 5:54 HFC STRIDERS M 53 

8 56:43.5 Binney Mitchell 6:05 GREEN MOUNTAIN ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION M 50 

9 56:57.4 Kent Lemme 6:06 GREATER SPRINGFIELD HARRIERS, INC M 52 

10 56:59.9 Scott Anderson 6:07 WHIRLAWAY RACING TEAM M 54 

11 57:29.4 Nicholas Cotton 6:10  M 51 

12 57:32.4 Charlie Bemis 6:10 WHIRLAWAY RACING TEAM M 56 2

13 57:44.7 Kevin Delaney 6:12 CAMBRIDGE SPORTS UNION M 50 

14 58:03.8 Alejandro Heuck 6:14 GREATER SPRINGFIELD HARRIERS, INC M 54 

15 58:40.2 Wayne Levy 6:18 BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION M 53 

16 58:58.0 Dave Dunham 6:20 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS M 55 3

17 59:02.9 David Lapierre 6:20 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS M 55 4

20 59:24.1 Brian Ruhm 6:22  M 53 

21 59:35.6 Terry McNatt 6:24 CAMBRIDGE SPORTS UNION M 54 

22 59:47.4 Peter Fratini 6:25 GREATER SPRINGFIELD HARRIERS, INC M 54 

24 1:00:19.3 Christopher Smith 6:28 SOMERVILLE ROAD RUNNERS M 53 

25 1:00:36.7 Ej Hrynowski 6:30 GREATER LOWELL ROAD RUNNERS M 56 5

 

50+ teams

  1. 4:39:50.0 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                            (0:55:58.0)

  2. 4:45:29.2 GREATER SPRINGFIELD HARRIERS, INC         (0:57:05.9)

  3. 4:55:00.7 GREEN MOUNTAIN ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION   (0:59:00.2)

  4. 5:02:30.1 WHIRLAWAY RACING TEAM                           (1:00:30.1)

  5. 5:07:15.5 GREATER LOWELL ROAD RUNNERS                (1:01:27.1)

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Looking back - March 2014

 10 years ago - March 2014 – I had an interesting month with five races including a transition from snowshoe to roads which is never easy. I also flirted with an injury that looked bad but turned out to be manageable. United States Snowshoe Association National Championships – This race had been on my radar since last year when teammate Tim Van Orden won the bid to host the championships. I ran a couple of versions of the course last year and was impressed with the great mix of terrain that Tim came up with. After I returned from injury last October my training has been focused towards this one race. My hope was that the training would pay off on the big day and I’d come home with a medal.


On race morning I got up at 6 again and did the 3 mile run up and down the road to the Bennington monument. My hope was to finish somewhere between 25th and 50th place (based on previous results in New England), but more important was my aim to do well in the 50+ age group. For USSSA your age on race day is whatever you will be at the END of the year, so in my case I’d “aged up” to the Senior age category. The course had most of the 900’ of climbing from 1.5 miles to the summit at 3.2 miles. I really wanted to run that part as hard as possible and put some distance on the “fast guys” who would bomb down the last 2 miles of groomed wide trail.

 

In the early going we circled back to the start and on the zigzag I counted about 35 guys in front of me. I could see a lot of my teammates; Jim and Kevin were up near the top ten and Ross Krause, Ben Nephew, Tim Mahoney, Todd Callaghan, Jim Pawlicki, and Richard Bolt were all close by.  We started the longest extended climb just after the mile (6:50). I saw a “Medved-Dion” singlet up ahead and was pretty sure it was Alan Evans who I figured was the top rival in the 50-54. I caught up to him on the single-track and as soon as we hit the wide trail I tried to go by with authority. I locked on to Tim Mahoney and we worked together. Pawlicki, Ethan Nedau, and Todd Callaghan were not that far ahead. We had moved into the top 25 but it was getting tough to catch anyone now, all of the fast starters had slowed on the hill. We were right behind Todd and Ethan at the 5km marker and 10 seconds behind Jim. Right after the 5km mark we topped out at the 2,800’ summit of Prospect Mountain. I threw in a big surge on the downhill and plummeted past Ethan, Todd, and Tim. After about 200 meters of wide trail we hit the signature section of the course, some great twisting single-track. I’d moved up to 22nd place and closed the gap on Jim. We dropped 400’ in the last 2 km. I tried to keep Jim in sight and listened for the approaching clomp of footfalls behind me. I crossed the line in 48:19 and collapsed in a heap. It was over! Nearly 6 months of focusing on this race and it was finally done. It was a major relief. I was surprised to have finished so high up (21st) and surprised and happy to have taken first in the 50-54 age group. CMS had a great day with Kevin, Jim and Ross finishing 12, 14, 16 to score second place team (behind a pick-up team). Our CMS masters team took home gold and we also picked up a bunch of individual medals. All in all a it was a good day for CMS and for New England entrants, and especially for Tim Van Orden who put on a great event.

 

1          41:51     6:44      David Le Porho    37                     Canada              Team Snowshoe 

2          42:06     6:47      Joel Bourgeois     43                     Canada              le coureur nordique           

3          42:20     6:49      Eric Hartmark      36         M3539   Duluth MN          Team Snowshoe 

8          44:40     7:12      Nacho Hernandez 20                     Spain                            

12         46:24     7:29      Kevin Tilton        32         M3034   N Conway NH      CMS

14         46:47     7:32      Jim Johnson        37         M3539   Madison NH        CMS

16         47:13     7:36      Ross Krause        35         M3539   Easthampton MA  CMS

20         47:57     7:43      James Pawlicki     40         M4044   Lynn MA             CMS

21         48:19     7:47      Dave Dunham     50         M5054   Bradford MA       CMS

24         48:32     7:49      Tim Mahoney      35         M3539   Holyoke MA        CMS

28         49:06     7:54      Ben Nephew       39         M3539   Mansfield MA      CMS

30         49:09     7:55      Todd Callaghan    45         M4549   Beverly MA         CMS

31         49:11     7:55      Richard Bolt        44         M4044   Mtn View CA       CMS

35         50:52     8:12      Kenneth Tripp     44         M4044   Amesbury MA      CMS

54         54:20     8:45      Paul Bazanchuk   60         M6064   Ctr Conway NH    CMS

63         55:16     8:54      Sam Wood         28         M2529   Laconia NH         CMS

126       1:03:40  10:15     David Lapierre     50         M5054   Chelmsford MA    CMS

 

I followed this up with a leg (2.5km) in the relay the following day. 


We ended up taking 6th place overall and first in our category, and also first masters team. It was a bit of a surprise to see that 24 teams showed up for the relay. It was a record field! It was a weekend of records as the 10km field (237) was far and away a new record for participants at Nationals.

 

Time Team           Category        Cat Place

1  46:42 Bad News    Open-Mixed Age 1

2  47:08 South Hill DP Open-Men      1

3  48:35 CMS-Dion   Open-Men     2

4  51:03 ARE            Open-Men      3

5  52:43 Paul Smiths  Open-Mixed Age 2

6  53:20 CMS-Dion   Mast-Mixed Age1

7  57:05 Snow Warriors   Junior-Open      1

24 teams

 

Next up was the Granite State Snowshoe championships – I’ve enjoyed doing this race over the last few years, and especially like the new location at Bear Brook in Allenstown NH. I could not dog this race as I was in a virtual tie with Ryan Welts for second place overall in the GSS series. Double-J took the win running 48:28, taking Nacho by over 2 minutes then TiVO, me and Jim Pawlicki with race director Ryan Welts taking 6th about a minute back. In all 80 runners took on this excellent course on an ideal day for racing. Jim Johnson won the overall series (he had already won prior to the race thanks to the best 4 finishes format); I took second place and top 40-49. Ryan took third.

 

1        48:28  Jim Johnson              M36    CMS    100.00

2        50:51  Nacho Hernando        M20    Pies     95.31

3        52:58  Tim Van Orden          M45    CMS    91.50

4        53:17  Dave Dunham           M49    CMS    90.96

5        53:29  James Pawlicki           M39    CMS    90.62

6        54:13  Ryan Welts               M33    aR       89.39

7        56:48  Danny Ferreira                    M31    GCS     85.33

8        57:41  Phil Erwin                 M46    aR       84.02

 

 

New Bedford ½ marathon - I made the transition from snowshoe racing to road racing...but it wasn’t pretty. I headed down to New Bedford for the 10th time. My goal was to help out the team and I guessed that I would be able to run around 1:18. I hoped to run a little under 6:00 mile pace for my final race in the masters category. I joined 2500 close friends at the starting line and clicked on my iPod shuffle as we hit the road. I rolled to the finish in 1:18:52 (6:01 pace) for my slowest New Bedford and my worst place ever in a race (152).

The masters team did well, placing 3rd behind BAA and Whirlaway..

 

45-49 top 10:

41     1:11:40          Gregory Picklesimer    47       SRR

70     1:13:53          Kent Lemme             47       GSH

72     1:13:57          Peter Hammer           47       BAA

75     1:14:14          Eric Williams              49       WRT

101   1:15:50          Wayne Levy              48       BAA

117   1:16:44          Joe Shairs                 45       CMS

128   1:17:43          Brian Ruhm               48       GCS

152   1:18:52          Dave Dunham            49       CMS

156   1:19:01          Scott Anderson          49       WRT

158   1:19:03          Terry McNatt             49       CSU

 

USATF NE 5km championship - I got my MRI results back on Monday morning and was able to get out of the boot. The TA ligament was intact, however the Deltoid ligament was strained and I had some tenosynovitis in a few ligaments in the ankle. I got a new ankle brace and started taking some stronger anti-inflammatory drugs along with icing and ultrasound. By Saturday I was feeling good enough to truly test my ankle and felt that I might be able to manage a sub 18 5k. I was feeling pretty good after the warm-up, may ankle didn’t hurt all that much and I switched into racing flats (which were a bit tight with the ankle brace.  I had a decent run with a chip time of 17:20.8.  The CMS 50+ team scored its first points since 2010 taking fifth place.

 

50+ finishers

1          Mark Reeder       16:34     5:20      16:32     54         BRIGHTON         MA        GLRR

2          Robert Cipriano   16:36     5:21      16:34     54         BELMONT           MA        SRR

3          Dave Dunham     17:23     5:36      17:20     50         BRADFORD         MA        CMS

4          Mike Cooney       17:33     5:39      17:31     52         CHELMSFORD     MA        WRT

5          Martin Tighe        17:44     5:43      17:42     55         PROVIDENCE      RI         CMS

6          Paul Doe            17:48     5:44      17:43     54         DERRY   NH        WRT

7          Charlie Bemis      17:50     5:45      17:49     51         DERRY   NH        GCS

8          Dan Verrington    17:52     5:45      17:48     51         BRADFORD         MA        CMS

9          E J Hrynowski     18:03     5:49      17:58     51         ARLINGTON        MA        GLRR

10         Wolfgang Ketterle 18:09     5:51      18:05     56         BELMONT           MA        SRR

36         David Lapierre     21:15     6:51      21:11     50         CHELMSFORD     MA        CMS

48         Stephen Laska    23:16     7:30      23:08     52         HOLDEN MA        CMS

52         Frank Ruggierio   24:21     7:50      24:09     55         LUNENBURG       MA        CMS

 

CMS finishers

7          Nate Jenkins       15:17     33         M3039   NORTH ANDOVER MA

22         Morgan Kennedy  15:43     26         M2029   GRAFTON           MA

31         Scott Leslie         15:58     32         M3039   RUTLAND           MA

39         Greg Putnam       16:11     44         M4049   STONEHAM         MA

46         Colby Chrusciel    16:21     21         M2029   TEMPLETON       MA

50         Alan Bernier        16:25     39         M3039   BRAINTREE         MA

66         Joe Shairs           16:52     45         M4049   PEABODY           MA

69         Tim Mahoney      16:52     34         M3039   HOLYOKE           MA

71         Jason Porter        16:48     44         M4049   BEDFORD           NH

72         James Pawlicki     16:56     39         M3039   LYNN     MA

83         Arthur Besse       17:15     41         M4049   TEMPLETON       MA

86         Dave Dunham     17:20     50         M5059   BRADFORD         MA

91         Derek Dorval       17:28     40         M4049   KENSINGTON      NH

98         Tim Van Orden    17:35     45         M4049   BENNINGTON     VT

103       Martin Tighe        17:42     55         M5059   PROVIDENCE      RI

106       Aaron Baldwin     17:44     24         M2029   S HAMILTON      MA

111       Dan Verrington    17:48     51         M5059   BRADFORD         MA

170       Dave Mingori       19:11     46         M4049   CHELMSFORD     MA

275       David Lapierre     21:11     50         M5059   CHELMSFORD     MA

374       Stephen Laska    23:08     52         M5059   HOLDEN MA

409       Frank Ruggierio   24:09     55         M5059   LUNENBURG       MA