Twice as Bright, Half as Long: October Races (10/22 - 10/30/16)

Hand-off between me and Erin: Cape Cod Relay

"The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long"*
~Lao Tzu


The two weeks after Bay State Marathon, I ran two races in two states.

Race #1:  Queen City Architecture Run
Location: Buffalo, NY
Distance: 3.5 Miles
Goal Time: 21:00
Actual Time: 22:14

We went to Buffalo for the wedding between Karen and TomBWarrior.  The morning of their wedding, Tim, Mark and I ran a race at the Big Ditch Brewing Company, around the corner from our hotel.

The first mile was reasonably fast and downhill to the lake. But, Tim and I took it too fast.  The first split was 5:40.  Both of us were in survival mode for pretty much the rest of the race.

But, when it was all said and done, I won my age group and Tim and Mark took 2nd and 3rd in theirs. **

Flight of beers from Big Ditch
The Hayburner IPA (and the Mac and Cheese) were well worth the trip.

Race #2: Cape Cod Marathon Relay

Location: Falmouth, MA

Distance: 26.2 Miles - team (6.13miles - me)

Goal Time: 39:00

Actual Time: 39:29

The next weekend a large group of us went down and ran the Cape Cod Marathon relay.  My SRR's Coed Open team.  My leg was the second one.  Still two weeks after my marathon, I was still burnt.  Then, as Melissa warned, my leg looked flat but was actually generally up hill for 6 miles.  I never found a groovy pace.  Fortunately, Kieran and Tim held off any challenges and we won our division! 

** - Also, we went to Niagara Falls!

Niagara Falls

From the Rainbow Bridge: Urvi, Roisin, Nat, Paola and me

Urvi and I waiting to get aboard the Hornblower

* - I think this might actually be affected by the inverse square law, so it'd be a fourth as long?

Go for the Great: Holiday Race Season (11/26-12/12/15)

Club XC Nationals - Golden Gate Park
photo by Erin Morin

"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."
- John D. Rockerfeller

Two months ago on a run the day after Seth and Shark Tank's wedding, Ben and I were talking about my plans for the season.  I had wanted to break 40 minutes at the 2015 Club Nationals.  We both figured I'd have to be able to run a 39 minute road 10K to do it.  I had spent three months prepping for a 39 minute road race.  I knew as I approached this year's race in Golden Gate Park, I'd be ready to go for it.

I spent September and October getting my Cross Country legs under me. And each race I improved - getting closer to my goal.  And by the middle of November I was ready for my three week/three race "Holiday Season:

Somerville Road Runners' Gobble, Gobble, Gobble
Date: Thanksgiving, November 26, 2015
Location: Davis Square, Somerville
Distance: 4 miles
Goal Time: 24:00
Actual Time: 24:07 (PR)

5 years of Somerville Road Runners' Gobble Gobble Gobble shirts
From Bottom to Top - 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2015 RD shirt (there were extra XL)

Any plans quickly went off the rails when I ran the first mile with Tim and Rory at a blazing pace. Mile one crosses at Packard so there is a brief recovery as you run into Powderhouse Cir.  But once that was done I had spent mile 2 fighting to keep up with Rory - losing him on the uphills; catching him on the downs. (Tim had blown away from us.)

So by the hills on the third mile, I was pretty wrecked and my stabilizer stiffness had me feeling like Frankenstein.

At the crest of the hill at St. Catherine's, I was prepared to bomb it down. I put in all the effort I could, bounding down hill. By the time I got to the flat part of Summer at the VFW, I was going full out and couldn't pick it up for the last bit, regardless of Victor's entreaties to catch up with Rory.

Took a full minute off last year and a new PR!

Mill Cities Relay
Date: December 6, 2015
Location: Nashua, NH to Lawrence, MA
Leg: Leg 5 - anchor
Distance: 4.75 miles
Goal Time: 29:45
Actual Time: 29:04

Tom Morrow Never Dies was the Coed Masters "Scoring Team" for SRR: Tom Bok, Nicole Tateosian, Florentien de Ruiter, Chris Smith and me.  I was team Captain, which largely involves getting the driving directions down.

I ran the last leg.  When Chris came in I took off like a bat outta hell; I almost got hit by a car... in the parking lot.  But once I got to the road, I both slowed down a bit and was safe from cars since there were cones and whatnot.

I was rattling off a good pace, up until Mt. Abrams.  That third mile I slipped 45 seconds.  And at the top of the hill, a Greater Lowell Runner tried to pass me.  I spent the next mile and a half trying to hold him off.

I rattled off a good mile and a half.  But in the home stretch it wasn't enough.  He and another guy passed me when I didn't have that last gear.

But, still Tom Morrow Never Dies, didn't die and took home the brick for first place Coed Masters!



USATF XC Club Nationals
Date: December 12, 2015
Location: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Distance: 10K
Goal Time: 40:00
Actual Time: 39:26 (XC PR, 2 seconds off my road PR)

At the Start
photo by Erin Morin

Going to Frisco made this trip worth it regardless of the race.  Also got to catch up with Jon and Kerry May as the enjoy the Left Coast.

In 2014, 5 of us had gone to Pennsylvania for the Club Nationals.  As the 5th person on a 5 man team, I had wanted to do the best I could without endangering a blow-up that would have dropped me (and the team); I had to run "good."  Yet, in California, I was the only one.  So when I got to the line I decided to follow what I thought had been the dictum of Pre (but turned out to be Rockefeller): "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

Originally my plan was to run 6:15/ miles. But as I was the only person in this race, I decided to go for it: 6 minute miles.  The worst thing that could happen is I blow up and finish with a bad time.

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRun

The first mile was a swing on the horse track around the polo grounds. There were big puddles along it. Everyone was going sideways to avoid the puddles. I just went through them. However, that meant I passed EJ. Crap, I thought.

But I just kept up the pace as we finished up the Polo Grounds and headed back into the meadow. The second mile was around 6 also. Then you run into the squishy backside meadow and up the one bit of cut back narrow trail hill.

I was not able to continue 6 minute miles. The first half was 19:11. I slowed and battled the second half. It was a blow up but just slower.  But even that would have been my fastest Cross Country 5k last year. Finished strong-ish, not as great as I imagined at the start, but still a minute and a half faster than at Lehigh last year!

SRR Womens Team
Sara Saba, Erin Morin, Urvi Mujumdar

26 x 1: A Race in Four Acts (6/27/15)

Annika/Erik handoff
all photos by Tom Cole

Race: 26x1 Marathon Relay
Distance: 1600m
Goal Time: 5:30 (officially I put 5:40, but that was just in case I felt awful)
Actual Time: 5:31 (tied my adult PR)

I think it was George Bernard Shaw who described the three acts of a play once as:

Act 1 - get your hero up a tree
Act 2 - throw rocks at him
Act 3 - get him down the tree

It turns out the track mile (or 1600m) is very similar but it comes in four acts:

Lap 1 - get yourself up a tree (or, the "Way Too Fast Lap")
Lap 2 - find your comfort level (or, the "Goldilocks Lap")
Lap 3 - throw rocks at yourself (or, the "Graveyard Lap")
Lap 4 - Get yourself down (or, the "Home Stretch Lap")

Matt handing off to me

Lap 1 - The "Way Too Fast Lap"
If you don't do the mile consistently, you are never ready for it.  This year Mark Duggan thought he was ready for the mile.  He tried to tell himself: "Just don't do the first 200 in 37 seconds or anything dumb."  As he crossed the 200 mark he looked at his watch - 0:37.  Dammit!

After my race, Cipriano asked me if I "slowed down eventually."

When Furhrmeister gave me the baton I took off like it was the 4x100. Except, I had to run 16 times as long as that. So by 25 yards I realized I was running way to fast and did almost slow to the correct speed. Instead of 41 seconds at the 200 I was at 39. While this is too fast it's less too fast than I would normally run too fast. I then ran the second 200 too slow hitting the lap at 1:24+

Lap 2 - The "Goldilocks Lap"
This lap would usually be left out if you wrote a play about your mile run.   The second lap of the mile is like the middle hour and a half of Once Upon A Time in America: a bit long and kinda dull but you have to get through it to get to the interesting parts and you spend most of it asking questions while meaningless dialog goes on around you.  (So wait, this woman is grown up Jennifer Connelly? Oh, am I supposed to believe that Treat Williams is 35 years older now?)  But on the good side, you find your correct pace. And, since you didn't tire yourself out too much in the first lap, your goal speed isn't too hard. So, runningwise, it's just right.

By now the equilibrium was there. I banged out a 1:22+ for 2:47 at the half despite my mind wondering to questions like: Who sells a cemetery and makes everyone move the bodies?  Is that really the premise of this part of the movie?

On my 1600

Lap 3 - The "Graveyard Lap"
Joe describes this as the graveyard lap.  Especially for non-milers, you've put yourself on the line and it isn't really that close to being done.  It feels like you are not going to be able to finish.  Definitely in previous years this has been the bane of my mile.

This year, it wasn't.  I felt really good.  I even briefly - very briefly - thought about actually speeding up.  I rejected that thought worried about going out too early.  I ran another 1:22 to hit 4:10 at the 1200.

Handing of to Jim

Lap 4 - The "Home Stretch Lap"
The last lap is a toss up.  Either you have put yourself in a position to run a good last lap, or you haven't.

I still felt okay.  However, I didn't have any speed in me.  My training for Tour de Cure and for Mt Washington had just left me without any pep at the end.  I still had my fastest lap - 1:21.  But it wasn't there for a great finish to a good race.  I matched my time from Lou's Relay in December

The Murder of Gonzago
But my mile was only a play-within-a-play, a dweam-within-a-dweam.

November Project coming in for the win

For two hours and 15 minutes, 23 teams had done 1600s around the track.  When Cambridge and November Project handed off to their last runners, it was nearly a dead head.  By 250 meters into leg 26, it was a dead heat.  November Project sat on the Cambridge runner.  And with about 350 meters to go took off.  Openning a gap of 15 seconds over Cambridge, November Project was the winning team.  SRR Team 1 took third.  My team, SRR Team 2 was 7th.

The Lou: Lou Ristaino 4 x 1600 relay

It was a long wait for the relay to start
Photo by Thomas Cole

Race: Lou's 4 x 1600 Relay - BU Mini-Meet #2
Place: BU Indoor Track
Goal Time: me - 5:30; team: 21:15
Actual Time: 5:30.79 (PR!!); 21:27

After the Mass Ave Mile back in 2012, Bradley and I talked about the anomaly of the mile.

There's a big problem with the mile for distance runners.  If your shortest race is 5 kilometers, the mile feels like a sprint.  It's not...

Yet there's a problem for sprinters.  If your longest race is 400 meters, the mile feels like a marathon. It's not...

This year was the 14th annual Lou's 4x1600.  I started to get a team together earlier in the year.  And then they scheduled it for 2 days after Christmas.  With Maple Leaf Joe in Toronto and Brendan in the Bronx watching BC blow a 14 point lead and then miss an extra point in OT, I needed to grab new guys.  Bradley and Joe were only too happy to run it.

After sitting around the whole BU meet (including Joe actually running in the Mile), we were ready around 2:30 to run.  I was running first.

Now as Bradley described, it's not a sprint.  So, I decided that I would drop into last place of the 6 teams at the start and just follow for the first lap.  That way I wouldn't run too fast in the first lap - as one is prone to do in the mile.  BUT, I did...

Despite staying in last and just hanging out in the back of the group, my goal of 41-42 second laps, I ran the first 200 in 34 seconds. blerg.

Klucznik starting the mile
photo by Thomas Cole

Well, I found a groove for a while before the inevitable slowing down around lap 6.  Joe told me as I ran by: "These next two laps are when you have to work."  In retrospect, I understand that better now than I did three and a half minutes into a mile.  I probably could have put myself into another layer of pain, but I didn't...

With one lap to go, I was far off the back and had already been lapped by two different teams.  I managed to run right under 39 seconds for that last lap.  I handed off to Mark for a 5 second PR from this year's Club Cup 26x1 Relay back in June.

Mark ran a 5:44 - 4 seconds faster than the 26x1
Bradley ran a 5:10 - 21 seconds faster than the 26x1
Joe ran a 5:00.7 - while slower than the 26x1, it was his second mile of the day and in the first one he destroyed his 26x1 time with a 4:47!

Liz - en route to her incredible mile time.
Photo by Thomas Cole

Jen Rapaport ran the 3000 and Mile - 11:33 / 5:47
Chriz Klucznik ran the mile - 4:44
Liz Cooney ran the third fastest mile in her age group in the NATION this year! - 6:13

Pumpkin & Cranberry & Gingerbread: Holiday Race Season (11/27 – 12/14/14)

Race 1: Je glousse! (11/27/14)

Scot, me, Rory, Chris and Pickle 

Race: Somerville Road Runners’ Gobble Gobble Gobble

Location: Somerville, MA

Goal Time: 25:00

Actual Time: 25:04 (PR!!)

Holiday Season kicked off with the Somerville Road Runners’ Gobble Gobble Gobble 4 miler.  A pre-turkey run & beer tradition, it starts in Davis Square and makes a loop of the Tufts/Ball Square area before heading back into Davis.

The trick of the race is to survive mile 3.  After two reasonably fast miles, mile three has three noticeable hills.  The last two are right after each other; the last one has a dreaded turn in the middle so after you’re half way up, you turn and see nothing but another quarter mile of hill.  But, after that, it’s a straight shot downhill into Davis. In 2010 and in 2013, my Gobbles were killed by underestimating the effect of these two hills. 

In 2014, as Bev passed me, she asked me for reconnaissance.  I told her about the two hills and the turn.  This also prepared me.  I knew that I could take the hills and that even if I put in a ton of effort, it wouldn’t be the end of the road. 

I found a gear that wasn’t too hard but that I could keep up some speed.  I passed one or two up the hill. When I got to the top, I was winded.  However, unlike the past where I might believe my race was now over, I knew I could recover for a bit and then throw on the juice for the last ¾ of a mile.

I did just that and finished with a 4 mile PR and just off my goal of 25 minutes.   

Shoutouts:

Klucznik took 2^nd in his age group

Joe O’Leary won his

Race 2: To Morrow Never Dies (12/7/14)

To Morrow Never Dies: me, Jim Rhoades, Joe, Jim Pawlicki

Race: Mill Cities Relay

Location: Nashua, NH -> Lawrence, MA

Distance: my leg – 2.5 miles; relay – 27 miles

Goal Time: 15:00

Actual Time: my leg - 15:13; relay – 2:33:02 (1^st Masters Men)

The week after Thanksgiving is the clubs tradition Mill Cities Alliance showdown – Mill Cities Relay.  This was the first year, I would run it as a master.   I was put on the SRR A-Team for Masters – named “To Morrow Never Dies.”  I was also put on the 2.5 mile leg so I could do the least possible harm to the team.

I did a little warm up circling Greater Lowell High a couple of times.  Then I ran into Jim Pawlicki, who ran Leg 1 for the team.  He was all business, making sure I knew who the runner handing off to me was and what colors he was wearing etc.  

Jim asked: “Do you know who Jim Rhoades is?” 

I replied: “yeah; does he know who I am?”

“I told him you were the tall, huge guy.”

Jim Rhoades came bombing around the back of the school into the exchange area.  I took the slap bracelet / baton and started sprinting out of the school.  When I got to the first turn toward the main road I realized I was running a 5:14 mile pace… oops.

The 3 leg may be the easiest piece of racing one ever does.  It’s only 2.5 miles.  It’s completely flat.  I found a groove at 6:00/miles and just kept running.  I was a bit worried when I ran under the bridge that I might hit my head.  I came sprinting into the finish; handed to Picklesheimer; and then made my way 1.5 miles to the volunteer point that was only 0.5 mile away.

When I got to the pub, found out we had won the masters!

Hand off between me and Pickle

SRR Shoutouts:

Male Sub-Masters – 2^nd

Female Open – 1^st

Professor Emeritus (Female Senior) – 2^nd

Coed Open – 2^nd

Coed Masters – 2^nd

Mark Duggan found the short cut to the 3M Parking Lot.

Race 3: Oh little town of Bethlehem (12/13/14)

Masters' National Team - Rory, Pickle, Robert, me & Joe

Race: National Club Cross Country Championships

Location: Lehigh College, Bethlehem, PA

Distance: 10km

Goal Time: 41:15

Actual Time: 41:09 (XC PR!)

Team: 17^th out of 40 teams

What would be a good place to have a XC race during the Xmas season? 

Bethlehem of course!* 

We drove out Friday Night; and much to Alex’s chagrin Bradley and I got a good night’s sleep. This would be my third National Championship of the year after the Pentathlon in March and Road 10K in April.

After freaking Joe out a bit and then pulling a Shark Tank by being uncomfortably on time (I would blame Alex, but I was a willing participant in in search for beer.), we headed out for a warm up run on the winding undulating course around Lehigh’s athletic campus. 

At 11:30 – sharp.  The mass start of 600 runners went off on the two lap course.  I felt pretty good, despite running the first mile too fast.   The 4/8km mark is about half way up the only really challenging hill of the course.  (The course is challenging over all but other than that one hill – not in one specific spot.)  After the first trip, I determined my next time up I would make my move there.

So the second trip by the cornfields, I started to kick it right at the 8km mark and after the last bit of really steep.  Slowly but surely I picked people off one by one.  I reached the top where it levels off a bit before the roller coaster downhill back toward the stadium.  I took a big breath here.  Found my beat and tore down the hill.  As we passed the 9 km point, I prepared for the last sprint it to win it bit.

Later I was talking to Jim Pawlicki about it.  We had the same experience.  As I started my last pick up with about 600 meters left.  Both of us figured we’d catch the two or three people in front.  Neither of us did.  In both cases the guys in front were as prepared as us.  The only challenge I had was a guy from Greater Philly tried to pass me with about 60 meters left.  The two of us got into a flat out sprint…

Finished with a XC PR for the 10K.

 Beast Mode sprint to the finish - (c) Michael Scott

Kate and the Pharaoh Hounds

Alex

Bradley

_____ 

* - For the sake of this story I’m going to ignore that John actually says Jesus was NOT born in Bethlehem; and, I will ignore the utter foolishness of the idea that the emperor required everyone to go back to their birth town for a census.

Race 4: On Dasher! (12/14/14)

SRR Team, Yulefest Champs!

Race: Yulefest (Race One of the SRR Grand Prix)

Location: Cambridge, MA

Distance: 5K

Goal Time: 19:00

Actual Time: 20:04

For a brief shining moment I sprinted up to the lead.  Holding my fist high, I started yelling: “I’m in the lead! I’m in the lead!”

This was only because the 50 people in front of me in the race all zigged when they should have zagged.  About ½ mile in the police directed the car and the biker to go left.  Everyone followed.  After about 3 steps I was among the first people to actually turn around and go the right way.

After my brief foray at the front, it only went downhill for me from there.

Tommy (festively dressed) & Anthony

Shoutouts:

SRR won the team competition

We had:

5 men in the top 10 – Klucznik, Jake, Chris Antunes, John Longo and Andrew Clifford

4 women in the top 10 – Bev, Nichole, Jen Rappaport, Deb Downs

5 men in the top Masters – Joe and Rory went 1-2 the day after Nationals, Tom Bok, John Wichers and Nat were 4,5 & 9

4 Masters Women iincluding a Gold-Silver-Bronze sweep by Jen Rappaport, Florentien and Teresa with Justine Cohen in 8^th.

Zen and the Art of Passing the Baton: 26x1 Relay (6/21/14)

Team Photo after race
Photo by Tom Cole

Event: 26x1 Relay
Distance: 1600m
Location: Tufts University
Goal Time: 5:30
Actual Time: 5:35 (PR!)

At the high school, college and Olympic levels, passing the baton is a big deal in relays.  A quick scan of the interweb finds hundreds of articles and looking at Youtube baton pass technique gives you 4,800 videos. Coaches suggest doing blind handoff drills during warmups and cooldowns. The marginal return of those miliseconds can make the difference between first and fifth.

I remember at practice after the BC Relays in high school Coach B and Dwayne Sykes discussing the travails of bad handoffs:
COACH: Dwayne, isn’t dropping the baton the loneliest feeling in the world?
DWAYNE: No. The loneliest feeling is walking back across the track to go pick it up.

Adult amateur distance runners who run a mile 1600m on the track once a year – don’t do any of these things.  It becomes a comedy of errors at the point of baton…

Last year, Jason refused to hand me the baton until I started running.  So I kept trying to grab at it and he kept moving it away from me so I couldn’t get it.  Finally, when I was running a pace he found acceptable, he gave it to me. (Fortunately, I was the anchor so I didn’t have to pass to anyone else).

Scot Dedeo and Rachel Shanley had an awkward hand off this year.  Scot came barreling in at near 200m pace to finish his 1600.  Rachel was convinced NOT to start running at 200m pace to begin her 1600.  So at these asynchronous speeds, Scot was forced to handoff to Rachel nearly behind him.

Some good can come of such handoffs.  In 2010, I handed off to Urvi even though we didn’t know each other yet…

2010 handoff, Urvi and I
photo by Robert Cipriano

This year, I was the 10^th runner for Somerville’s Trains team.  (This year the teams were Planes, Trains and Automobiles).    I got the handoff from Eva in more or less the best possible handoff for the situation.  While I of course went out a little too fast, it wasn’t unmanageable.  An 81 second first lap hadn’t destroyed me.  My next two laps, I followed Caffrey’s advice to maintain and be comfortable.  The last lap, I still had some juice left and didn’t feel like I was going to die.  I kicked it up a notch at 400 to go.  Then I tried again at 200 to go and had nothing.  Out of the turn with a 100 left, I had a bit of a sprint left.  I came in full bore and tried to hand it off to Benai in kind of a tomahawk motion.  But, she of course didn’t know what I was doing so she tried to grab it when it was high in the air. 

This led to a humorous picture that Karen really enjoyed showing everyone and SoRad said it looked like I was trying to play keep away with the baton.

The masterful Jesse to Benai handoff (Neil of November Project, looks on incredulously)
photo by Tom Cole

The SRR A Team, “Planes”, was victorious and broke the meet record with a 2:16:04.  Chris Antunes beat the meet record for a 1600, but that was broken only minutes later by Andrew Rotz from November Project.

November Project and Greater Lowell – A took 2^nd and third.  SRR – Trains: 5^th.

 1. Finish 2:16:04 SRR Planes(14)

 2. Finish 2:22:51 NovProject(10)

 3. Finish 2:24:11 GLRR 1(4)

 4. Finish 2:34:56 NETT(9)

 5. Finish 2:38:12 SRR Trains(15)

 6. Finish 2:39:47 TMIRCE(11)

 7. Finish 2:46:00 MRC(7)

 8. Finish 2:46:22 GLRR 2(5)

 9. Finish 2:46:45 TVFR(12)

10. Finish 2:51:58 ComRun(2)

11. Finish 2:57:17 GFRC(3)

12. Finish 3:11:01 SpiderOneRacing(13)

13. Finish 3:11:20 Wicked(17)

14. Finish 3:16:28 Mystics(8)

15. Finish 3:16:40 GLRR 3(6)

16. Finish 3:20:06 SRR Automobiles(16)

17. Finish 3:24:41 BOMF(1)

Bears, Beers, Battlestar Galactica: The Fighting Guppies Reach the Beach (9/13-9/14/13)

Fighting Guppies Beach Reached:
Back Row: Scott, Jim, me, Steve, John, Matt, Megan, Jason
Front Row: Korynn, Deb, Freddi, Emma

Race: Reach the Beach
Distance: 205.8 Miles
Location: Cannon Mountain -> Hampton Beach
Goal Time: 25:53:00
Actual Time: 25:09:08
Pivo Index: 2

So, it was my second relay in as many weeks (including two other Kings of Beer from last week's team)

I ran into the darkness, into the unknown.  Ahead the only thing I could see was a lonely light on the back of a reflective vest.  It slowly swung back and forth like a 1970s Cylon from Battlestar Gallactica. That light was the target.  Keeping one foot in front of the other and throwing my watch under my headlamp to be sure I was near speed...

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

It was my first night leg of Reach the Beach, a 200 mile relay from the White Mountains to the Atlantic. (Chrissy Horan breaks down the 5 Ws of Reach the Beach on boston.com pretty well.)  The race had begun nearly ten hours earlier.  In the driving rain at Cannon Mountain, Matt started with 10 or so others on the first leg. Matt set the tone for the team early by passing two people from the group that had started 20 minutes earlier.

Passing people is known as a "kill"; getting passed is called a snipe.  The night run was both best for "kills" and a good way to keep yourself moving.  After passing the Cylon, I could see the next flashing red light ahead in the night.  I kept my eye on the light on the lonely road hoping there was no dangerous wild animals lurking and ready to attack.

The second leg of the relay was given to Megan.  She of course ran a fantastic race.  But she had the first brush with wildlife.  Coming down a hill, just off in the woods a Bear was rooting around.  A guy ahead looked back toward her with the "Did you see that?" face.  Since I was the next leg, I did not get to hear the story until later.  My first leg was out of the Bretton Woods resort - home of skiing and the post World War II economic system.  Then it was a long 4 mile climb up toward Mt Tom and Mt Eisenhower.

While I was fearing the night leg for some reasons, I had been happy to actually do some down hill running. The whole race has a loss of 2000 feet, but my first leg was actually a gain of 300 feet.  So my second leg would be a breathe of fresh air into the cool night.  The downhill bits had me charging down through the night.  I started hopscotching from person to person (and tried to figure out what to say to people as I ran by them).

After Van 1 (me, Matt, John, Jason, Freddi and Megan) passed the baton to Van 2 (Deb, Scott, Emma, Korynn, Jim and Steve), we headed out for dinner.  We stopped at Moat Mountain where I had the Buffalo Quesadilla and the 6 Beer sampler flight (the Weiss and the American Pale were the best). Then we headed to the Van exchange where I got an hour sleep in a softball field.

Beers - Stout, Porter, Pale Ale, Pilsner, Blueberry, Weiss
Photo by John Wichers

At midnight I was on the road running from person to person and happily charging.  At mile 3 of my leg I noticed a line of 8 people.  I knew I had nearly two miles so I could take it measuredly.  I slowly moved through the group but the person who had been at the back actually was making his way through the crowd almost as fast as me.  Then with half a mile left, he took off.  Later I connected the dots and realized this was probably Brendan Caffrey.  I came in front of the church - having caught all but the last 2 - I passed to Freddi and then nearly vomited in the churchyard.

We finished the night runs and made our way to the next vehicle exchange, where I slept another three hours under the stars.  My final leg was 8 miles of rolling hills and then a steep uphill to finish the last half mile.  While I had passed 36 people, it's safe to say this is a team act - like Marx's theory of revolution, Moneyball or team defensive rebounding - the actually passing is only the last violent act of ongoing larger social or team process.  But the end of our third and last hand off to Van 2, we were 45 minutes ahead of the expected time.

As we were leaving the transition area, I ran into Barry who was standing there with his team's slap bracelet.  "You shouldn't have that" I said.  Apparently they had dropped off the runner for the 31st leg at the start of the 32nd leg - oops.

After a brunch including a Pabst Blue Ribbon, we made our way to Hampton Beach where we met up with the five Van 2ers not running.  We stood on the beach - getting sand throughout my shoes - awaiting Korynn.  We met Korynn with 50 yards to go and the other 11 of us followed her in to the finish.

Korynn finishing with Guppies in tow

Fighting Guppies finished 20th overall and 9th in the Men's Open.

My Legs

Leg 3: 3.88 miles; 27:19; 7 kills
Leg 15: 4.91 miles; 33:38; 13 kills
Leg 27: 8.57 miles; 1:00:51; 36 kills

Random Old Post
Krka Loop - Cycle and Hike - Sibenik, Croatia July, 2009

Winni, Winni, Chicken Dinni: Lake Winnipesaukee Relay (9/7/13)

Team Picture (back Dan, John, Marc, Tim; front - Steve, Aaron, Seth, Jesse)

Race: Lake Winnipesaukee Relay
Location: Lake Winnipesaukee, NH
Goal Time: 1:20:00
Actual Time: 1:17:04
Relay Time: 8:37:58
Pivo Index: 1; apparently it's already invented and it's a snakebite, not a "shander." (Not enough people like Portmanteaus - portmanteaux?)

Seth, Tim and I were standing in the parking lot of El Mariachi Mexican Restaurant awaiting Aaron to run by.  We were talking to two people from the Wicked Running Club.  The woman asked us: "What running club are you guys from?  You're so much bigger than most runners."

Indeed.  Each of us are over 6 foot 200 lbs.  Not your typical runners.  The Kings of Beer - as the Clydesdale team - are the big guys.

We ran it last year; but with Johnnie O on daddy duty and Tim Harden in St Louis on uncle duty we needed to pick up two new Kings. Enter Tim Sullivan and Steve Smrcina.  The eight of us brought it ...

Along Leg One

This year we mixed up the legs so that everyone could do different ones.

LEG ONE – Jesse
Distance:  10.7 miles
Time: 1:17:04

LEG TWO – Seth
Distance: 11 miles
Time: 1:30:13

Obligatory picture of the Kings on thrones

LEG THREE – Dan
Distance: 9.3 Miles
Time: 1:11:42

LEG FOUR – Tim
Distance: 4 Miles
Time: 31:20

Aaron and Marc right at the 5/6 exchange (John and Dan in the background)

LEG FIVE - Marc
Distance: 10.4 Miles
Time: 1:37:55

LEG SIX - Aaron
Distance: 6.4 Miles
Time: 52:11

A six pack of kings - complete with Vuvuzela

LEG SEVEN – John
Distance: 8.5 Miles
Time: 56:43

LEG EIGHT – Steve
Distance: 4.4 Miles
Time: 40:49

Steve "The Toledo Torpedo" running the anchor leg

There are rumors this may have been the last Lake Winnepesaukee Relay, which would be distressing.  But I'm already looking into new venues for the Kings of Beer: Vermont? Nova Scotia? Nevada? Norway?

SRR Shoutouts:

Beer of Kings (clever play on our name) - 3rd overall
Aged with Attitude - 1st 50+
En Fuego and Chafin the Dream - 1st and 3rd womens'

Back on Track: BOOM! goes the Dynamite (6/22/13)

Me, as anchor leg finishing up with our team in 4th.
Photo by Sarah Wright

Race:  26 x 1 CLUB CHALLENGE CUP MARATHON RELAY
Location: Tufts University, Medford/Somerville, MA
Goal Time: 5:25
Actual Time: 5:46
Team Result: 2:35:47 - 4th Place

I came around and finished the first leg of my lap and looked at my watch: 1:22.  Oh, it's gonna be a bad run. I looked at Tim and Seth and just shook my head.

This is the third time I've run the 26 x 1 relay.   (It is what it sounds like. Each team has 25 runners who run one mile (1600 meters, actually) and one runner who starts the race with a 592 and later runs a mile him/herself.)  This year, I took on the role of team captain for SRR-Paper (Dynamite with a cuttable wick).  Captain is a lot of work - herding 26 cats each running 1 mile - each arriving at different times...

The day started early - 7:30.  (Although Tommy had to be there even earlier, so I didn't feel too badly).  As we stood at the captain's meeting, we were shocked that for the first time in three years there would be no delay and no need for Brendan K. to use his advanced iPhone meteorological skills.

As team captain, I decided to make Brendan put down the Doppler and pick up the baton for the "speed leg."

Speed leg with SRR-Scissor's Brendan K. in the lead
Photo by Ted Tyler

I had realized looking at the teams that registered, I realized that the first SRR team (SRR-Rock), Cambridge's 1st Team (CRCi) and Greater Lowell's A team (GLRRA) would be competing for the cup.  SRR - Paper (Dynamite with a cuttable wick) would be running for fourth and best B team - our own unofficial Calder Cup.  By the end of the first full mile leg, my predictions started to bear out.  We had dropped behind the monster duo of SRR-Rock's Larissa Park and GLLRA's Lindsay Willard.

The timers on SRR-Scissors
Photo by Robert Cipriano

As team captain, I was able to organize two husband wife handoffs - Tom Bok and Florentien de Ruiter and Dan and Ali McGinty.  (Korynn tried to get a pic of the McGinty handoff for me, but Dan's big head blocked everything out like an annular eclipse.)

Double SRR Handoff; Simon and Brandon handoff for SRR-Paper (Dynamite with a Cuttable Wick); Alex and Jake handoff for SRR-Rock
Photo by Tom Cole

Our last 4 runners leading up to me - Simon, Brandon, Tommy B and Jason - were able to hold off the hard charging CRCii team and give me an easy job at finishing in fourth. (Like, Hall of Fame reliever Dennis Eckersley once said, Lots of times the game was "saved" before I even came in.)

Jake breaking the tape and winning for SRR-Rock; notice no expense spared for the tape (Did you get Dan to borrow that from work or something?)
Photo by Robert Cipriano

This was fortunate since almost instantly, I realized my captain's duties that neglected a warm-up, hurt my chances of running well.  The first lap was too much effort and too damn slow.  Then i kinda tapered off from there.  In my head, this was my own victory lap as captain: I had gotten 26 people there on time, I like to think I assisted Culla in getting SRR-Rock to be the winning (and record breaking) team, I now just was going to enjoy this run without hurting myself (especially since I wasn't in shape to PR the mile...).  While I was able to still bring in a 1:17 last lap, those middle two were kinda crappy.

Final Leader Board:
 1. 2:17:26 SRR Rock
 2. 2:19:13 CRCi
 3. 2:22:41 GLRRA
 4. 2:35:47 SRR Paper (Dynamite with a Cuttable Wick)
 5. 2:37:45 CRCii
 6. 2:39:54 TMIRCE
 7. 2:46:09 MRC
 8. 2:51:18 GLRRB
 9. 2:51:23 WickedSpeedy
10. 2:59:31 GFRC
11. 3:14:11 TVFR
12. 3:14:57 SRR Scissors
13. 3:45:42 WickedMilers

Team Rock with the Challenge Cup
Photo by Tom Cole

Official Leg Times
Total        LegTime Lg    Runner          
0:01:34    01:34      S      Brendan Kearney
0:07:25    05:51      01    Michael Quinn  
0:13:37    06:12      02    KAREN ENCARNACION
0:19:48    06:11      03    Karen Serafin    
0:26:21    06:33      04    Laurie Gagnon  
0:32:49    06:28      05    Florentien deRuiter
0:38:02    05:13      06    Tomas Bok        
0:44:25    06:23      07    Bill Hees        
0:49:57    05:32      08    Brendan Kearney  
0:56:29    06:33      09    Elizabeth Cooney
1:01:43    05:13      10    Lino Mancini    
1:07:43    06:00      11    Eloise Marais    
1:13:15    05:32      12    Corey Maillette
1:19:26    06:11      13    Andy Marinelli  
1:25:06    05:40      14    Brendan Caffrey
1:31:36    06:30      15    Sara Radkiewicz  
1:38:04    06:28      16    Wendy Palto    
1:43:42    05:38      17    MATT NOYES
1:51:08    07:27      18    Alison McGinty  
1:56:49    05:41      19    Daniel McGinty  
2:02:20    05:31      20    Tim Morin        
2:07:31    05:10      21    Scot DeDeo    
2:12:55    05:24      22    Simon Anderson
2:18:08    05:13      23    BRANDON WILLIAMS
2:23:21    05:13      24    Tom Breider      
2:30:01    06:40      25    Jason Lachapelle
2:35:47    05:46      26    Jesse Morrow (C)  

Paper Scissors and Rock
Photo by Tom Cole

BOOM! goes the Dynamite with a cuttable wick! (Bill would like to mention, it's a "fuse")