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.
double d mountain runner
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
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
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