Big Guy on a L’il Bike: Mount Alton Ride (9/11/11)

Distance: 22 Miles
Difficulty: Hard
Great Views of Lake Winni from atop.

Sure enough, I thought. I can’t ride it up this hill with it like this. So I picked up the Day-glow Death-trap, slung it over my shoulder and started running up the hill. And from behind me all I hear is Alex yell: “Oh No!!!” (I don’t know if it was in empathy or disgust.)

I got to the top of the medium sized steep climb where everybody but Alex (still struggling up on his Gary Fischer commuter). “Does anyone have tools?” I demanded.

******


As Aharon, Tim and the rest of the serious runners spent Sunday morning going on 10-17 mile runs at paces I don’t run races at, I tried to find a bike. For the ride we were planning later.

First in the garage was the maroon/brown mid-80s steel Trek. It had the issue of two flat tires and a misaligned rear wheel. I remedied these situations to find out it was also the size of a BMX bike and the rear brakes didn’t work at all.

So, I went with the second choice. It was a later Trek. An all aluminum Trek 1200. The color scheme was only slightly worse than the WLAF’s Orlando Thunder. (There was a little less blue in this day-glow yellow-green). After pumping up the tires and getting used to riding clipless pedals in sneakers, it wasn’t horrible. It still was built for someone around 5’7” and maybe 10 cm smaller than my Specialized. But, the brakes worked and I didn’t hit my knees on the handlebars.

The route Matt had planned was 40 miles with 5 hills. The first hill was Alton Mountain which was a steep bear of a hill. However, atop the hill there were views of Lake Winni were well worth the climb. Had I brought my camera to New Hampshire at all – you would see pictures of the great views.

Next was a long sweeping downhill away from the lake. Those on road bikes that fit them screamed down the mountain. I was a bit worried about the tipping issue – either sideways or forwards. So, I was back with Alex who is both tremendously light and was riding a Gary Fischer commuter bike. He eventually gained on me.

My speed slowed more once my handlebars stopped responding. Well, the handlebars responded fine, they turned – just they didn’t take the front wheel with them. So, I had to slow down to take turns at speeds that I could lean into the turns. This however meant that I kept losing ground to all the other riders.

At last, I passed Alex and caught near the others. I watched them fight their way up the steep incline. It seemed like a good hill. But --- When I tried to pull my way up, the handlebars kept moving instead of giving me power. Thus I had to dismount and run up the hill.

*****

Atop the hill I did get tools from Aharon and “repaired” the handlebars. The concensus was to turn around and go back as opposed to following Matt’s route over an unknown amount of dirt roads. I would have done the dirt roads on MY bike; but, I was happy to avoid such things aboard the Day-glow Deathtrap.

Instead we retraced our route to make it a 22 mile out and back.

Next year I want my bike and to do Matt’s route.

Over the Top: Revenge on the Runners (9/10/11)

After the Lake Winni Relay, we hung out around the fire pit at the "Old Guys' House."

At some point Tim came up and said: "Jesse, come here you have to Arm Wrestle."

Dutifully, I walked to the table and put down four different runners who earlier in the day had beat my team by four hours or more. Included in that group was Coach Joe O'Leary. Sure, he might destroy me in swimming, biking and running - but Drunk Arm Wrestling...

Strangely enough, the body type that makes you great at running does not make you good at arm wrestling, even though I didn't have my hat to turn backwards - so them I'm like a truck!

Dancing with Herbert: Lake Winni Relay (9/10/11)

Race: Lake Winnipesaukee Relay

Location: Weir’s Beach, NH

Individual Distance: 9.3 Miles

Goal Individual Time: 1:20:00

Actual Individual Time: 1:13:54

Team Distance: 65.1 Miles

Team Time: 9:28:52

Around Mile 3 of my leg I came up on my prey - Ann Rowley of relay team - Doublesexy. When I got close enough for shouting distance, I yelled:

“I’m coming for ya, Rowley!”

I quickly made my way past Ann with a brief chat and looked up to see where the next person was I needed to pass.

******

For about two weeks I’d heard: “leg 3 is the hardest leg;” or, “you’re going to walk up that first hill.”

Before our second leg came in, Aaron told me to try to catch Double Sexy. I responded, “Oh, I’ll catch Ann.” I got the baton from Yili, I was a little more than 2 minutes behind Double Sexy’s hand off. I came out of the parking lot and crossed Alton Bay to make the left toward Bay Hill Road.

Well, I can’t say whether it was the hardest leg or not. But I can say I jogged up the first hill on Bay Hill Road V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y! The comical steepness was only made up for by the fact that it was way shorter than the Bridge of Flowers hill. As I shuffled up cars that passed me seemed to strain heading up.

Thankfully that ended and I was on 28, heading to Wolfeboro now. I looked down the first hill and saw Ann halfway up the first hill on 28. I knew I had plenty of time and could run my race and catch her.

En route to passing Ann, I had to pass the three teams she had blown by since the race started.

After passing Ann I saw two blue shirts in the distance, one pale and one dark, that I had a chance of catching.

Around mile 5 I passed the pale blue shirt who was a member of “Girls with Guns.” Right at the last water stop on the route I was behind the team with the dark blue. I said something to the volunteers which caused dark blue to turn around. He looked SHOCKED and said: “Wow, you must have been far back.”

I smiled, “You’re the sixth person I’ve passed.”

While I had three miles left, I saw no one else to pass. Under normal circumstances I might have slowed down at this point. Now I was just out running by myself and I’m not too good at self-motivations sometimes.

Fortunately, the guy in dark blue had enough motivation to keep coming at me. Over the next few hills he kept creeping up and then I would widen it on the downhills.

With about a mile left we turned left onto a town street. I hopped onto the sidewalk. It became mostly flat and I glanced back twice and dark blue was farther away each time. Then, with a good two block view he was gone. Now I gunned it. Ran into the parking lot and gave a little Ickey Shuffle before handing the baton to Aaron.

After the race, I had got myself food at the pub across the street.  Upon leaving the pub, I realized, crap everyone's gone.  So I had to hitchhike.  Fortunately, Sara, Wendy and Steph were the 10th car by and picked me up!

******

My team, Herbert and the Exotic Dancers, came in 21^st out of 31 in the “Mixed Open” Category. Other Somerville Road Runners teams won the Men’s Open, Men’s 40+, Men’s 50+ and Women’s Open and took 2^nd in the Mixed 50+ category. Ann Rowley’s Doublesexy beat us (thanks largely to their ringer – I’m sorry, “emergency replacement” – Jim Moberg)

******

When I got home on Sunday, I had a facebook message from Ann:

“Next year, you and me, leg 3 rematch.”

You’re on, Rowley. I’m coming for ya!

Laboring on the Goose: Run the Goose 7K (9/5/11)

One of the cooler shirt designs

Event: Run the Goose 7K
Location: Gloucester, MA
Distance: 7 Km or 4.35 miles
Goal Time: 30:30
Actual Time: 33:16 (but ran too far)


Watching the guys and gals come into the finish line for the 25K made me happy I ran the 7k. They were definitely hot and haggard from the hills and heat.

The race started okay. (Although I almost missed it as I stood at the starting line some Irish guy told me: “The 7k starts over there!” And I got to the start in just enough time.

My goal had been 7 – 7:10 miles. I kept that up until we were actually running around the reservoir since the trail was dirt or uneven. That slowed me a bit.

But the real problem started around mile 3.25 when I got confused at the directions. One arrow pointed one way while another pointed another way. I saw a runner ahead of me and figured, he must be right.

About a quarter mile down that, I saw about a dozen people running toward me. What’s going on I thought.

“We went the wrong way!”

Crap, so now a dozen of us ran back to the crossroads where the guy who should have been there the whole time had now returned. I gave him a satirical: “Thanks!”

I probably slowed down considerably at this point, once you’ve gone the wrong way, you stop caring as much. But I put in a good strong last mile.

4.7 miles – 33:16

Extrapolated out to what I should have run around 30:45 for the 7k – pretty good! And, shockingly, it was a 7k PR!

Gimme Five: Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5 Miler (7/21/11)

Race: Sugar Bowl 5 Miler

Location: South Boston, MA

Distance: 5 Miles

Goal Time: 37:30

Actual Time: 37:25 (1^st, Clydesdales)

As we turned off of Day and onto the Harborwalk Path around 3.5 miles, I could only think of Third World’s song:

“It was 96 degrees in the shade!”

Thankfully, there was an L Street Volunteer with a hose spraying. Everybody was moving into the left lane to run through the spray.

I had told Sanjay that I was going to try to put in a 35 minute race. In a perfect world, with reasonable temperatures, that would have happened. Today was not such a day. At 4:00 it had been 101°F Downtown and 98°F at the airport! While it had probably cooled down to chilly 95 by 6:30 race time, it was still HOT!!!

I managed to keep myself in control and on target for the first 2 miles. The pancake flat course against the Harbor had me easily stamping out 7 minute miles. At the turn around at P Street (roughly 2.0646 miles according to L Street’s map), I heard 14:20 something. Perfect!

Then, I turned around. Ahhhh! I had had a tail wind. Now, I was running directly into a HOT land breeze. Unnngh!

Immediately the mixture of heat and wind threw off my dream of 35 minutes. But, I regrouped and committed myself to 7:30 miles the rest of the way. While I did not achieve that – especially the mile between 2.5 and the turn off at 3.47 – I did keep myself stamping along without the undulating peaks and valleys. (Over the past year, I have become a far more consistent runner).

While my last mile was only a 7:30, only one or two people passed me and I was largely able to stay with the group with whom I had run through the 3.47 mile water hose. I started to get the buttered scallops taste in my mouth, but still fought through it. Sanjay (who is both with Somerville and L Street) stood at the last turn cheering me on for the last 50 yards. I pulled in with a 5 Mile PR and brought home some hardware!

Blood, Sweat and Beers: Summer Steamer (7/10/11)

Kevin, Marc, Ann, Mauricio, Me, Dan (w/ Clydesdale Trophy)

Race: Summer Steamer

Location: Somerville, MA

Distance: 4.13 Miles

Goal Time: 28:55

Actual Time: 28:52 (2^nd, Clydesdales)

I told Dan, “Without John here, you and I are the biggest candidates for the Clydesdales.” I don’t think he actually believed me. But, when he held the trophy two hours later, he definitely did.

With the demise of Khoury’s and the safety changes to the Thursday Night Run course, the Steamer is even more special. It is now the only time we run the old, or “classic,” 4.13 Mile Course.

So, with traffic control we stood outside the now derelict Khoury’s Spa in the sweltering heat awaiting the gun. It was between 85 and 90 by 10:00am. (They don’t call it the Steamer for nothing!)

Dan and I ran out at a great clip. At mile one, we were around 6:30 and 13:00 at mile two. This is when I realized two things: 1) We could still see Erin Wyner (we were probably going too fast); and, 2) Saturday’s Belgian beer blast at Felix’s was not exactly the best pre-race meal.

I tried to fight it to the top of Lowell Street and the crest of Medford (where, the course gets considerably easier). But at the turn onto Medford, I knew I was kidding myself. “Yep,” I said, “I’m done! Go for it Dan.”

“Al right,” he said. And I watched him slowly disappear in front of me as I packed in the last mile in 8 minutes or so.

I finished with a Khoury’s PR and 2^nd in the Clydesdales and fully ready to replace all the Belgian beer I’d lost in the run.

THE KEG OF GLORY: CLUB CHALLENGE CUP 26x1 RELAY (6/25/11)

“I drink from the keg of glory, Donna. Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land” ~ Josh Lyman, The West Wing

Matt, Team Captain of SRR-Wind, drinking from the Keg of Glory

Race: Club Challenge Cup 26x1 Relay

Location: Somerville, MA

Goal Time: 5:30

Actual Individual Time: 5:45

Team Time: 2:38:06, Third place over all.

At the end of the day, I was able to laugh at my overzealous start. Joe O’Leary – coach and role model extraordinaire, who at 42(?) runs a track mile faster than I did at 18 – also had a good laugh at my first 200 after the race. “My first 200 was only 2 seconds faster and I thought I was going out too fast!”

But, before the end of the day, there is the beginning of the day. The morning was filled with summer thundershowers. Now, for those from the South and West, New England thundershowers are not the refreshing heat beating rains one gets in the late afternoon of the Dog Days. Nope, they are cold (comparatively), less intense and far longer. What would be 15 minutes of respite in Atlanta or Saint Louis is 3 hours of dreariness in New England. The storms threatened to make the track and running upon it a total mess. Things did not look good for the relay.

Rain, Rain, go away, the running clubs want to play.

The Club Challenge Cup 26x1 Relay 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. The 12 Teams who were entered this year – including four from Somerville Road Runners – waited around wherever they could stay dry awaiting the start.

On the threshold of H-Hour, Brendan Kearney - race director, runner, and clandestine meteorologist – announced that the race would be pushed back half an hour, “as this cell of storms should pass over.”

“You’re a weather man now?” I asked.

“Well, I looked at the Doppler on my iPhone. I think I can see what the clouds are going to do,” was Brendan

“Okay, sure thing,” I scoffed.

[Aside] I would like to take this moment to apologize to Brendan. Your remarkable climatological skills with only a smart phone proved exceptional. I’m sorry for my misplaced derision. The rain cleared up right when he predicted it.

To borrow from team captain, Matt Noyes, we have a “long-established (read year-long) tradition of team naming.” Last year Somerville Road Runners’ three teams were: Blood (Fast), Sweat (Faster) and Tears (Fastest). This year: Earth, Wind and Fire. This year I made the jump from Fast onto the Faster Team Wind. And, I got to run the second mile (third leg, as Josh ran the 592 meter “speed leg” before he then ran our 9^th or 10^th mile).

Dennis put in a fantastic first mile. As he approached the hand-off, he looked quite confused. Unlike virtually everybody else in our club, I was NOT wearing an SRR jersey since I have not successfully been able to buy one yet (instead I had on my early 1990s Deion Sanders Falcons jersey); AND, he probably had no idea who I was. I looked up and just yelled “WIND!!! WIND!!!” Confusion subsided; crisis was averted.

When I received the baton we were in fifth place behind SRR-Fire, Cambridge-A, Greater Lowell - A and Wicked Running, I think. I set out on what felt like a good and quick pace. Well… one of those was correct. It was quick!

After the aforementioned overzealous 200, I came around the second turn. Along the front stretch, there was a puddle roughly the area of Kazakhstan and the volume of the Caspian Sea. Third place, from the Wicked Running Club, was going right to avoid the puddle. I just trudged right through the Caspian Sea in lane 1; and, by the end of the first lap I had put SRR-Wind into 4th place. The Wicked runner sounded as if he sped up when I passed and tried to stay with me. By the end of 500, however, something Wicked that way went – fading away behind me.

What time is it? PRIMETIME!!!

Laps 2 and 3, I put myself into a good pain position. I was running well. As I completed my third lap – I hit it at 4:18. While this was a bit slow, I knew I could still put in a good time with one last 80 on the last lap. I started to gun it – at least I thought. I was definitely putting in more effort, but as I came around and handed off the baton to Karen. I looked at the watch and had run a 5:45. My last lap for all the effort was only an 87, ungh.

Fortunately, from Karen on down, my team picked up my bad performance – leading to the final legs. Among those who picked me up was my personal friendly rival - Bill Hees. Bill ran a 5:44 to beat my time by one second - bastard!

Yet before that could happen, the first two teams had to fight it out. SRR-Fire and Cambridge-A were, in the eyes of the race director, neck and neck when SRR’s Greg, mile 24, got the baton for the next to last handoff. Brendan gave him quick update and some encouragement. “You have only about a hundred yard lead, kick it up!” It was only when Cambridge came through not handing off did Brendan realize SRR-Fire had a 100 yards PLUS one lap lead.

[aside] Apparently Mr. Kearney is such a savant when it comes to meteorology that he has forgotten how to count to four.

With a good kick from Greg followed by Alex and Joe, SRR-Fire maintained their lead to set the meet record – 2:19:26. Cambridge-A came in only a minute and a half back – 2:21:04 which would have been the meet record.

Joe O'Leary (lane 2 in yellow), coming in for the Bell Lap for SRR-Fire

As Cambridge-A was coming in for second, my team – SRR-Wind, Cambridge-B and Greater Lowell-A were within one minute of each other and running for the last podium spot. With the anchor leg and most of the team lining the track Aharon Wright took a close race – 30 seconds to Cambridge and 1½ minutes to Lowell and made it not so close opening up a 1 minute lead and securing our spot for third on the podium!

Robert, enjoying the Keg of Glory

Thanks to Karen Sarefin for the pictures.

Final Times: http://www.racemenu.com/assets/result_files/11/original/7th_Annual_26x1_Mile_Club_Challenge_Relay.pdf