Around the Bends: Summer Track Season (6/26/16 - 7/29/16)

Jason and I - early on in Friday Night Lights 10K
photo from KrissyK

I pulled my track spikes out of the bag and put them away in the closet, so that come winter when I need them for indoor I'll forget where I put them.  (Hopefully I read this post: ON THE SECOND SHELF IN THE CLOSET, IDIOT!)

Squaring the Oval: 26x1 Relay 
Event: Club Challenge Cup Marathon Relay
Date: 6/26/16
Location: Tufts University, Medford
Distance: 1600m
Goal Time: 5:20
Actual Time: 5:21

This year the SRR teams were named for the main Squares in Somerville - Porter, Union and Davis.

26 x 10 handoffs, 2010 and 2016

I had a lot of practice this winter trying to hit the 5:20 pace and even broke it twice.  So I went out with the same plan. I had this winter, 7-40 second 200s and then a sprint 200 to the end.

Urvi handed off to me and I took off. The 26x1 is largely a timetrial.  There are other people on the track but they haven't started at the same time as you and you can't really fall in with anyone because anyone you catch is going slower than you and those that are your speed or faster - you can't catch.

But, for 3 and a half laps I stayed pretty well on target.  My watch at 1400m said 4:41, so a fast 200 could still give me a good time and maybe a PR.  I didn't have it in me.  And as I passed to Nat, I saw 5:21.

I Don't Want Your Life: Friday Night Lights
Event: Friday Night Lights 10k
Date: July 22, 2016
Location: Denahy Park, Cambridge
Distance: 10k
Goal Time: 39:00
Actual Time: 44:something

I had planned to fill this report with James Van Der Beek Quotes done in a crappy Texas accent. Then I remembered - That's Varsity Blues.  Friday Night Lights is a completely different

Earlier this month I ran the World's Largest 10k - The Peachtree Road Race.  Since it was in Atlanta it was hot and muggy - starting at 75F and finishing around 85F.  On, the plus side, I figured the race in Cambridge would be cooler.  It wasn't.

At 6:30 pm race time the temps were 95F.  The humidity was not as bad as ATL, but it was still humid and 95.  Jason and I decided not to let the heat bother us and went out with the plan of 6:16/1600m.  The first one was a little too fast.  I tried to keep up the pace while Jason dropped back.

Video from Mike Giberti
Also check out his video of the Men's Elite Race

The second 1600 was slower, the third was slower than that and then the fourth one was up over 7 minute miles.  I just pulled my hat down and coasted through the last 9 laps...

Worcester Bound!: 5000m Championships
Event: USATF-NE Track Championships
Date: July 29, 2016
Location: Holy Cross, Worcester
Distance: 5000m
Goal Time: 18:00
Actual Time: 18:46 (1st, Age Group)

I made my warm up a run from Union Station in Worcester, through Kelly Square and up the hill to Holy Cross. I got there with a few minutes to spare and was able to get my number,etc before the start.

Only about a dozen of us started, so they put us in a joint heat: men, women, masters etc.  I definitely took off too fast in the first 150 meters.  So when we passed the finish line at 200 meters, I pulled out into the third lane to let everyone faster than me just go by.  The plan of 43 second 200s fell apart pretty quickly.  However I managed to break 6 minutes in each of the first 1600s.

Then with about 4 and a half laps left, I started looking for Jason.  I found him diagonally from me and about 190 meters behind me.  I knew I couldn't catch the next person, but I relaxed knowing Jason wouldn't come back and pass me like the 10,000 the week before.

Despite the tough race, I managed first in my age group!

Baby It's Cold Outside I: Indoor Track (12/19/15-1/31/16)

SRR Lou's team with Lou Ristaino
Brendan, me, Robert and Bradley

Lou's 4x1600 Relay (12/19/15)
Goal Time: 5:20
Actual Time: 5:23 (PR!)
Team Time: 21:47

Continuing a 15-year New England track tradition, the USATF held the Lou Ristaino 4x1600 Relay on the second of the 3 BU Mini-Meets.

Continuing a 2-year Somerville Road Runners tradition, I put together a 4x1600 Relay team that had zero chance of winning.

There were enough teams to make two heats this year.  Heat one was those who put under 20 minutes while the second was over 20.

We were in the 2nd heat.

Took the third leg this year.

Tried to stay within myself. Since, I wasn't starting with anyone, I decided to follow the simple 40" lap plan. I actually ran the first lap too slow - 42".  My new left shoe came untied in the first turn of the second lap - d'oh.

Anyways, I spent the next 6 and a half laps trying to not step on my laces. But then I successfully dropped it to 40 - 41" every lap.

I hit the last lap and sprinted out a 38" before handing off to Robert.

7 second PR!

As a team we took 3rd in our heat and 11th overall.

Leg 1 - Bradley, 5:21
Leg 2 - Brendan, 5:56
Leg 3 - me, 5:23
Leg 4 - Robert, 5:07


BU mini meet (1/2/16)
Race: 1 Mile
Goal Time: 5:20
Actual Time: 5:18.84 (PR!)

I had a simple plan to hit 40" laps.

I ticked them off pretty well. There was a girl behind Emma and I whose coach was calling out splits: 39.5-40.5 pretty much every lap.

As we hit the 800, I started pushing a little knowing that it would take a little more work to run the same speed. Then with 500 left, I thought it was 300 left. So, I picked it up a good bit until I realized my error. I did one more 40" lap for lap 7 and finished off with a 37" final lap for my adult mile PR!

Emma also finished with a PR - 5:24

Culla - 3K Age Group Champ

USATF Masters' East Regionals (1/31/16)
Race: 1 Mile
Goal Time: 5:15
Actual Time: 5:18.51 (PR!)

Basically I ran the exact same race I ran three weeks ago.

I went out and clicked off 40-41/sec per lap.  In the second lap I got caught up in a with the group and put in a 37 second lap.

At around Lap 5 Culla was trying to convince to catch up with the next guy who was 20 yards ahead of me.  I was caught between running my race and trying to get "in a group."  I decided on the latter; although the former may have been the better option.

The last lap I had a little left and put in 36 seconds to barely beat my previous PR from three weeks ago and 3rd in my age group.

Culla won his age group for the 3000m
Joe took second in his AG in the 5000m
Pawlicki was 2nd in his age group in the 3000m
I took 2nd in my age group in the shot and was the only person in the weight and superweight

3+1=hurts: Cross Country and Road Mile (8/22-8/23/15)

Very early in the race

The weekend was spent with not one race but two.  First the New Hampshire Cross Country Championships in Manchester.  Then on Sunday, the Inaugural Fast Mile at Race to the Row.

Cross Country 5K (8/22/15)
Race #1: New Hampshire Cross Country Championships
Distance: 5K
Goal: 20:00
Actual: 20:26

The New Hampshire meet both kicked off the USATF-NE Cross Country Grand Prix and was race #6 of the ATR series, so there was a lot of interest in the Fast Heat.

You'll notice my official goal time was 20 minutes.  That was calculated based on last year's Mayor's Cup.  I had heard Derryfield Park was harder than Franklin; but with what I thought would be better fitness, I could make up that time and run about the same.  After Scot, Bradley and I did our warm-up on the course, I knew I wouldn't run 20 minutes.

So "cross country" is a strange discipline.  The only uniting force of cross country races is that they are not all on roads.  Some, like Franklin Park or Lehigh run around mostly open areas of parks or athletic fields and may have one or two challenging spots.  Others, like the 4K on the Fourth are laps of athletic facilities on a lot of roads and slight jaunts into trees.

Derryfield Park's 5K is one half the classic cross country course.  It starts with a lap of the baseball diamond and tennis courts and finishes with a zig zag across a big open field.  But the middle half.... The middle half is a double track trail race.  There are two steep hills (the first is steeper; the second is longer), a couple of steep downhills, several large granite blocks and a fallen fence you have to duck under ("Low Bridge!" Amanda Wright yelled back to me as she went under.)

The first mile was a lap around the ball fields of the park. I managed to stay pretty even keeled.

The second mile entered the woods. I have not figured out trail/cross country yet. I always take the hills too fast. After the Antenna hill I was able to catch my breath. This was great as I then was able to run hard up the Ski Lift Hill. I caught up with Bradley and got ready to go down hill and catch my breath again. Bradley went just pulled away from me.  I never caught that breath.

As the third mile zig zagged across the fields near the start, I never regained. Once again, I fell apart at the end.

One day, I'll get Cross Country Races.

Start of the Fast Mile
photo by Tom Cole

Road Mile (8/23/15)
Race #2: Fast Mile at Race to the Row
Distance: 1 Mile
Goal Time: 5:30
Official Time: 5:20
Actual Time: 5:26 (2nd Place, Adult PR)

This was the third running of the Race to the Row 5K but it was the first year of the Fast Mile.  I figured I wouldn't be too tired from the NH XC 5K to run a mile the next day.

There were about 15 of us in the mile.  As Kate sent us off on the start, it was an easy beginning. Nobody initially took off.  But by about 50 yards, one person ran out ahead of us.  Mark said: "There goes our winner."  I was actually less sure because of his running.  He looked more like the end of the race than the beginning.

I spent the first quarter mile closing down his lead with a third guy following me close behind.  I had closed enough ground that I figured I could ease into the next half mile.  We caught up with the leader right around a half mile.  We were still running, what for me was, an untenable pace.

The next quarter was a little slower.  I was in the lead with second now right behind me.  But I felt I could lose him.  Once I put a little move and he felt like a soft pace.  So right before the rotary, I decided when we got to 2/10ths of a mile I would start a sprint and try to win the race.

Unfortunately, with 1/4 mile left the guy on me just took off.  I immediately saw his speed and thought: "That guy is going to win."

While I tried to bring him back, I never could.  He had taken a 30 yard lead and I really only brought about 10 of that back in the last stretch.

My official time was 5:20, but the course was a bit short.  At a mile it would have been 5:26, still an adult PR.

Afterwards I was the bike marshal for the 5K and led as Joe Lamer and Kath respectively won the men and women.

Lead marshalling the race at about half way.  Joe with the second place and Kath.
Photo by Tom Cole  

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.

Winter Wonderland: Indoor track 2015 - (1/3 - 1/25/15)

January - not with a bang...

Event #1 - BU Mini Meet (1/3/15)

Mike and I in the 3000m - photo by Tom Cole

Location: Boston University

Race #1: 3000m

Goal Time: 11:00
Actual Time: 10:53 PR

Mike and I got into the heat with largely high school runners.  So while the high school kids took off (like I would have 25 years ago) we stayed to the game plan.  My goal had been 44 second laps.  The first one was really 41, but I soon hit the grove and started clicking off 43 to 45 second laps.

At 2000m, Mike and I were off the back by about 50 meters.  But I noticed they were slowly coming back toward us.  With three laps to go, Mike made his move past me.  While I couldn't go with him, I was able to follow at a distance.  The last lap I did around 41 seconds, passing people all the way to the end.

200m - photo by Tom Cole

Race #2: 200m
Goal Time: 0:30
Actual Time: 0:32.21



Event #2 - Lazy Dog Classy 3 Miler

Brendan and I in the Lazy Dog - photo by KrissyK

Location: Lynn, MA
Race: 3 Miler
Goal Time: 18:30
Actual Time: 19:31

I have nothing to say...

Event #3 - Greater Boston Track Club Invitational

Finishing the mile - photo by Tom Cole

Location: Harvard University
Race: Mile
Goal Time: 5:30
Actual Time: 5:35.35 PR

The second year of the USATF-NE All-Terrain Series started with the mile at the the GBTC Invitational.  My seed time got me into the first heat of the Masters' mile. (The back of the Masters' Mile).  My goal was 5:30, but I figured I'd start at 5:20 pace and try to hold that.  I didn't.

With 2 1/2 laps left Matt came by me.  Once again, like the 3000, I couldn't stay with him.  The last lap I brought my last lap down to 42 seconds.  It was still my fastest track mile since high school.

...but a whimper

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

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)

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")

5280 feet: the mass ave m1le (7/22/12)

Tim, me and Urvi after the Mile.

Race: Mass Ave Mile

Location: Cambridge, MA

Goal Time: 5:30

Actual Time: 5:33 (Adult PR!)

I passed the quarter mile clock at 72 seconds!  My internal Keith Jackson voice hit: “Whoa Nelly.” If I continued running at this pace I would break my all-time record for the mile.  The one I did when I was 17 and used to run the mile every week.  Well, looks like I’m in trouble. Not much I can do about now – GO For it.

*****

The Mass Ave Mile is a new event in Cambridge.  Starting in Porter Square and finishing in front of Harvard, it just runs straight down Massachusetts Avenue.  They set up clocks every ¼ mile for updates.  Tim said he forgot to run the tangents; I noticed few tangents to run except for into Harvard Square.

*****

I passed the half mile clock at 2:30!  After such a fast quarter mile I figured my race was over anyways.  Might as well try to keep up the INSANE pace I had started.  What did Joe say? You might think your banking time, “but, the bank charges interest.”  It was now time for me to pay up.

*****

I had feared that the start of the race would be a big cluster fuck. It was the first year (always a bad thing) AND not being headed up by a runner or normal race director.  I was wrong.  They had managed to place an obvious divide between under 5:20 and over 5:20.  Tim, John and I stood right on the divide.  This was good for both John and Tim as they were able to run with the groups of runners who were their respective speeds.  It was bad for me because I got sucked up into the people running John and Tim’s respective speeds.  (See: The aforementioned Keith Jackson impression.)

*****

At three quarters of a mile I was at four flat.  This was odd since for the most part I was passing people.  However, I had “lost” 12 seconds on that quarter alone.  But that was okay, with another 90 second quarter I would still run a 5:30!

*****

After the finish line we were escorted down Kennedy to Winthrop Square where there was a good light breakfast spread with bagels and coffee and what not ; and a little mini-runners expo.  The awards were then held on the grass outside Grendel’s. 

*****

The finish line was in sight as we made the gentle right into the Square (a tangent Tim apparently did not run).  5:22!  “C’mon!” I yelled to the guy next to me: “5:30!”  Alas, it was not to be.  I came across at 5:33 – still an adult PR but at least 5 if not 10 seconds slower than I could have run without a CRAZY first quarter.

Tim finished at a blazing 4:55!  Urvi came in 6 seconds faster than her mile from earlier this year.

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

“For the Team”: CLUB CHALLENGE CUP MARATHON RELAY (6/12/10)

Handoff with Urvi and I
photo by Robert Cipriano

Location – Tufts University, Medford, MA
Distance – Team (26.2 Miles)/ Individual (1 Mile)
Goal Time – 5:25 (Kevin’s Mile the week before)
Actual Time – 5:40
Team Finish - Next to last