Little Ones Before the Big One: Shifters and Doyles (4/4/15-4/12/15)

Race #1 - Shifters 5k

Eva, Victor (129), Mike and Melissa (288)
photo by Tom Cole

Date: 4/4/15
Location: Waltham, MA
Goal Time: 22:30
Actual Time: 19:09

My goal had been to run to Waltham and then do MP during the race...

I couldn't get myself going early enough this morning, so I had to ride my bike instead. Then that took so long riding directly into 25mph winds all the way, that I didn't warm up.

So I decided to not worry about anything for the race. The start lead to a XC narrowing about 100 yds ahead. So, I took the start easy and hung with Toledo Steve for the first 1/2 mile.

Once the crowd dispersed, I started to run. At the one mile mark, I looked at my watch: 6:45. Pretty good considering the first 400 was probably on 8 min pace.

So, right in front of me was Deb Downs. I figured, I'd catch up with her and then run with her for a while. The first part happened, but the second part didn't. I felt good so I just blew by her.

As I approached the second mile, I was catching up with Jim Normile. I caught up with him and tried to catch my breath. Instead he put in a bit of an attack on me. I figured I didn't have that energy and would lose him.

But as I crossed the mile 2 mark, I just felt okay. So I put in some effort to catch him and instead of staying with him when I caught him, I just blew by him. So, I figured I only had a mile left, I would see what I could do.

At about 2.5 you take the left back onto Wavery Oaks. And this is the signature hill of the course, back to the parking lot. I figured I wasn't going to let Jim back into our little race. I took the first part of the hill at a good clip. Then for the top third, I dropped whatever hammer Seth could pick up later.

I made the right turn before the quarter mile snake through the parking lot. I looked over my shoulder and Jim was a good distance behind but once I caught my breath from the hill I took the downhill and then the last left into the finishing straight.

I hadn't looked at my watch since the mile one mark, so when I got in sight of the finishing clock, I wasn't surprised to see I would barely miss breaking 20 minutes. But then I realized it was 19 minutes that I would barely miss. Wow.

Really good surprise race.

shoutouts -

Aharon & Andy were 2nd & 3rd overall
Deb was 2nd woman
Bradley, Joe, Barbara and Melissa Glockenspiel all won their age group
Carrie-Anne and Todd were second in their age group
John Wichers took third in his




Race #2 - Doyle's 5 Miler

Finishing Doyle's!

Date: 4/12/15
Location: Jamaica Plain, MA
Goal Time: 31:30
Actual Time: 31:26

At 9:45, I went downstairs to grab my bike to get out to JP.

And it was not there.  This is weird to me since I had put it in the bike room.  Crap stolen! After about 10 minutes of searchng the basement for...(Maybe somebody moved it?)  And then 10 minutes of not having a clue what to do...I pulled out Ajax Telemon - which I haven't ridden since the 300K Brevet last year - reattached the wheels, pumped up the tires, greased the chain and hopped out onto the road.  I got into JP with very little time to spare.

At the gun, Mariah and I decided to stay back.  Once the crowd disbursed, I started moving my way up.  I had two targets in front.  First I wanted to catch Mike Quinn.  And then when I got to him, I moved on to catch Matt Ridout.  So by the end of the first mile I was up with Matt.  In front of me was Nichole.  I decided to leapfrog to catch up with her.

I never did.

From the turnaround at mile 2 until the end of the race, I kept closing on Nichole.  But I never got within 20 yards of her.

But I managed to run at the limits of my ability.  I never looked at my watch except for the mile 3 time, because when the volunteer said it, I thought it was fast.

It was fast and also short... It was more like mile 2.9.  I did apparently run a 6 minute mile, but they had be a bit under.

That's when I started to pick up the women's race.  I was sitting behind woman in purple and looking ahead where Nichole and Amanda Watters were.  I didn't actually know the placements of the three woman and I didn't know how much energy I really had.  So I didn't want to run hard to catch up with Nichole with the purple woman in tow and then get tired and drop off where the only thing I'd done is make Nichole's race harder.

But in about 1/4 mile we passed a volunteer who was calling out the woman's places - Nichole and Amanda were 3&4 and purple was 5th.  "Ok," I thought, "Nichole isn't the leader and she'll have to fight Amanda for 3rd anyways."  So now I charged ahead a bit right as we got to a little bump.  Purple woman didn't come with me so I charged the little hill hoping to open up a lead.

On the downhill, Nichole had gone ahead of Amanda.  So I decided to leapfrog to Amanda and then catch my breath and then leapfrog finally to Nichole.  I passed Amanda and went toward catching Nichole.

Right before we turned off the road on to the trails by the golf course, I heard my watch beep for mile 4.  And then passed the volutneers who were stationed where the course said it was mile four - probably 4.1 or so.  They called the times - 25:25.  I was thinking, great, 6 flat could give me a PR.

Nichole looked back - probably to see where Amanda was.  I looked back and saw purple woman reasonably close behind me.  I yelled: "you gotta run! She's closing!"

That was the closest I got to catching Nichole.  She started running harder.

I finished with a 31:26 and a Masters PR!!!

Shoutouts -
Picklesheimer - 4th Overall, 1st AG
Jake - 6th Overall, 2nd AG
Nichole 3rd Overall, 2nd AG
Gordon MacFarland defeated Matt again.

"I know thee not old race": Tavern to Tavern (9/22/13)

Finishing - and both feet off the ground

Race: Tavern to Tavern 5k
Location: Cambridge, MA
Goal Time: ??:??
Actual Time: 20:43

To be fair Tavern on the Square in Porter is no romantic image of the Boar's Head in Henry IV.

Also to be fair, after a 20 mile training run the day before - I should not have been ready to run too much.

But alas, that race hurt so much I just surrendered at 2 miles.  And by the end could only paraphrase Prince Hal turned Henry the V: "I know thee not old race."

“Some of That Pumpkin Shit”: Paddy’s Road Race (10/14/12)

A round of Some of that Pumpkin Shit

Race: Paddy’s Road Race

Distance: 3 Miles

Goal Time: 18:30

Actual Time: 18:43 (4 ½ minute PR!!)

I felt another twinge in my back as I passed mile 2.  This one was going to make me slow down.  I leaned trying to avoid whatever pain I could avoid…

Nobody ever starts their story of how they hurt their back with, “So I was trying to pick up a Volkswagon…”  No, it’s always picking up a cat, grabbing the remote, turning on a light.  Or, in my case it was putting paper in the copy machine.  I hurt it so bad that I spent all day Saturday laid up in my bed watching Battles BC on youtube.

Sunday morning my back was in serious pain.  I had trouble walking around.  If it was not the last race of the Pub Series, there was no way I would have made it to Paddy’s Road Race.  Yet, to finish the Pub Series I needed to run 5 out of 6 and I missed Common Fence because I ran the Reykjavik Marathon the day before.  (I know; I’m a slacker for not taking the redeye back from Iceland to run a 5 miler in Rhode Island…)

This would not be my first Paddy’s Road Race.  In fact, my other Paddy’s dated back to the time before.  In 2004, my cousin and my friend Grant and I ran this race.  A heavy smoker at the time, I was in my first incarnation of trying to reclaim myself.  In 2004, I had ran SRR’s An Ras Mor and the Malden Rotary’s St. Patrick’s Day race. I had easily defeated Jason in the race.  Grant had obviously not viewed the map since as we came toward the set of turns before the finish line, he thought it was the finish line and sprinted away.  As we turned onto Webster, I jogged passed the now exhausted Grant.

2012 was not the same.  The first mile I ran right at 6/min.  The second was a slightly slower 6:12.  That is when the twinges came into my back.  I lost Andrew who I had been trying to keep in sight if not on pace with.  Dan ran by me; and then Jess did as well. I finished up pretty strong and ran a respectable 18:43.  While not what I wanted, it was still 4 and a half minutes faster than 2004 and guaranteed a top 20 finish in the Pub Series!

The post-race was in Paddy’s Pub.  In 2004, it had been a beautiful day (2012 was NOT), and we spent the post-race on the side of the pub talking with a guy who was probably my age now.  We also had the most remarkable beverage – Pumpkinhead beer.  We had never had a pumpkin beer before.  In fact Pumpkinhead was relatively new, only coming out in limited supply two years earlier.  Grant and I were so amazed by the beverage we kept wanting more and more.  Grant even told the waitress: “give some of that pumpkin shit.”

Since then I have tried a variety of pumpkin beers, Harpoon's Pumpkin UFO, sweet pumpkin beers, imperial pumpkin beers, pumpkin IPAs.  8 years later I drank Pumpkinhead upstairs in the unfinished attic of Paddy’s Pub.  And, to this day it is still the best.  (Smuttynose’s Pumpkin is a close and acceptable second place).    

I stood among people who like me enjoyed the racing.  My back hurt a bit, but we were able to relive the race and our paces and the steps.  I got to talk with and meet Andrew and Jess. Once again I was able to connect yet another strand of the past to the person of the present; exorcise another set of demons and whittle them to the wisps of memory; ghosts of yesteryear.  Dan went to get another round and I told him: “give me some of that pumpkin shit.”

SRR Shoutouts -

Robert, Chris and Joe all finished in the top 10

Jess was fifth in women and locked up 3rd in the Pub Series

Dan added some more points to his total (enough for 17th?)

Bradley continued his great year - matching 10th in the Distance Medley with 10th in the Pub Series.

3 Miles On the Road: Jack Kerouac 5k (9/30/12)

Working through the Pain because "it all ends in tears anyways" - Notice the only one smiling is Andrew (259), he's about to blow by all of us like we are standing still.

Race: Jack Kerouac 5k

Location: Lowell, MA

Goal Time: 19:00

Actual Time: 19:33

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

Kerouac has launched so many ill-fated adventures.  It’s as if we all have our own Dean Moriarty’s father to find.  I might be the only person in the country who hitchhiked across country as a young adult (probably 22) and then read On The Road afterwards.  But he touches something of the anti-establishment wanderlust whose desire is a rite of passage to all of us.  Somewhere deep inside ourselves we also have to ask: “Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?” 

The whither is not even that important at the time.  It’s the going. “There’s nowhere to go but everywhere…”

Well, Saturday we took Amy’s shiny car in the morning to Kerouac’s hometown – Lowell, MA for the Jack Kerouac 5k.  It was the fifth race in the Pub Series; and – as described by New England Runner – “in a ham-fisted decision” it was made race number six of the New England USATF series and New England 5k championship.

Today I identify as little with Sal Paradise as I ever did with Holden Caulfield (really you left the fencing foils on the subway because you kept looking at the map?).  Today purpose and reason for actions are important.  But that’s probably just getting older, like the old man’s basketball game that doesn’t take any extraneous steps. 

The purpose today was to get nearer my goal of finishing in the top 20 of the Pub Series (and earn my New Balance shoes for 5 out of 6 races).  This was going to be thwarted by the USATF’s “ham-fisted decision” since non-Pub Series runners would take places 1-50.  But, in an extra-ordinary decision, New England Runner ranked the Pub Series runners from 1 to 50.  This meant I still had to race it hard.

In my nervous passion to balance as fast as I can run to that eventual goal of 6 minute miles, I find I always go too far too fast in the beginning of EVERY SINGLE 5k.  This time, I wasn’t going to do it.  I was going to run behind Tim Morin for the first mile NO MATTER WHAT.

After the gun went off – I didn’t.

I did spend the first mile looking back to make sure I wasn’t too far ahead.  While I tried to stay between Tim and Bradley and ahead of Danny Mac, I felt like: “I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop.” At mile one I passed Frank Georges reading off the times; 5:55.  5:55 really isn’t too fast (I told Tim that later.); but – as usual – he was right.  Because that’s 5:55 gun time – which meant I ran a 5:49 first mile! 

Well now it was time for Quitter Jesse to run the second mile.  Maybe it’s the fact that my runner persona is getting further and further away from the ephemerality of youth’s “ so frantic and rushing-about and even further rejecting Sal Paradise and Holden Caulfield.  But Quitter Jesse never emerged; slower Jesse did.

“What's your road, man? — holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road. It's an anywhere road for anybody anyhow.”  For the moment I felt like guppy road.  I figured if I could maintain until the mile two mark, I would be able to regain form. 

I didn’t.  I was lost trying to keep up.  By the time we got back to the Tsongas Center.  I felt lost.  Dan had passed me.  Tim and Tim and Bradley were long gone into the distance.  There was a little bump from the Tsongas Center back up to the turn and I had nearly quit.  Just gliding in was all I had left.

All that lay ahead was a little bit of road and I could still break 19:30 (and still be my third fastest 5k ever) – “the road is life.”  We got to the top of the hill and Martin had passed me; Andrew went blowing by me.  I had enough to sprint to the end despite the pain since “it all ends in tears anyways” (that might be from Dharma Bums or Big Sur actually?); I tried to encourage Jessica who had also caught me too.

I finished in a respectable 19:33 – third fastest 5k ever – and managed to move up to 20^th in the Pub Series!

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” 

― Jack Kerouac, On The Road

SRR Shoutouts

-          Bradley PRed and broke 18 (and beat Daniel)

-          Kate Hails PRed and finished second in her age group

-          Robert Cipriano won his age group

-          Jacob Barnett took third in his age group

-          Tim Harden broke 18!

-          Jessica McGarty cemented her hold on 3^rd in the Pub Series

SRR Teams:

-          Men’s Open, Masters and Seinors – 7^th, 3^rd and 2^nd

-          Women’s – 6^th, 5^th and 6^th

Make Mine a Smutty: Smuttynose 5K (6/3/12)

Race: Smuttynose Will Run For Beer 5K

Location: Hampton, NH

Goal: Top 50 and 20:00

Finish: 45^th overall (37^th Male - scored in the Pub Series!) and 19:58

I had two goals:

1. Finish in the top 50
2. Break 20 Minutes

check and check!

Photo by Ruth Sespaniak

"We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable." 

~ Roger Bannister, first person to break a 4 minute mile.

Shoutouts -

Robert Cipriano took 2nd Overall

Chris Kluznik won his age group

Bradley Harris and Jessica McGarty each took 2nd in their age group (PR for Bradley)

Dan McGinty, SoRad and I all scored in the Pub Series for our first time!

Going for the Green: Doyle's Emerald Necklace 5 Miler (4/22/12)

Joe O'Leary (555) heading for a Grand Prix Championship (Photo by Ruth Sespaniak)

Race:               Doyle’s Emerald Necklace Road Race

Location:         Franklin Park

Distance:         5 Miles

Goal Time:      30:23

Actual Time:   31:19

Now as the wind was humming into our face, I decided to step up and block the wind for Bradley who had carried me through the first 2 miles.  Upon my step in front the wind immediately stopped.  I am a god!

Doyle’s was both the second leg of the NE Runner’s Pub Series and the culmination of the five part SRR Grand Prix.  As long as Matt “Ran-A-Marathon-6-Days-Before-In-90-Degree-Heat” Noyes didn’t beat me, I had pretty much locked up 15^th Place in the Grand Prix. (Of course, if Matt RAM6DBI9H did beat me, he would have really deserved 15^th Place).  With nothing to lose (except maybe dropping from 15^th to 16^th Place in the standings), I checked with Bradley (who was even MORE certain of finishing in 14^th Place than I was of my 15^th) that he was going to try to break 30 minutes and I figured I’d follow him for as long as I could.

The course winds its way over the Olmsteadian Circuit Road in Franklin Park that hugs the edges of the golf course.  It takes the right at Playstead and the passes the Giraffe entrance of zoo.  It was around hear that I did my magic with wind…

After the turn around by White Stadium, the course goes back to the golf course and takes a left.  It was at the 3 mile mark (which was slightly too early) and the timer placed us at 18:20.  By the time we passed the Club House again, I could no longer keep up with Bradley.

Mile four for me was a recovery mile.  I ran what was probably a tad under 7.  The four mile check was at 25:28.

At the time check I had fully recovered and was ready to bolt for the finish, but Erin Morin had warned me of the next half mile that was enough uphill to be a bit snotty.  So I held back and held back until I was at 28 minutes and near the 4.5 mile mark before I gunned it.  There was very little uphill left and then a little downhill to Doyle’s pub for the finish.

I almost caught back up with Mariah who had passed me during my recovery mile… but it was not to be.  I pulled in with a 6 minute PR – 31:19.

Also, I finished the last mile in under 6 minutes (5:51) – something I have never done later than mile 2 of a race.  Also I beat both Tim Morin* AND Megan Hyland* for the first time.  (*They were also part of the Ran-A-Marathon-6-Days-Before-In-90-Degree-Heat Club, so it’s not a 100% victory).

Shoutouts –

Korynn, SoRad, Matt Noyes, Bradley Harris and Seth Maleri all had 5 Mile Personal Records (Korynn and SoRad also beat FatJesse’s PR).

Megan and Chris Smith both took third in their age groups (and SoRad in no way almost lost Megan’s medal).

Joe O’Leary and Mariah Tinger pulled off the double – they both won their age group AND locked up first place for men and women in the SRR Grand Prix.

Equilibrium & Disequilibrium: An Ras Mor (3/25/12)

Daniel (12) starts to sprint away from Bradley (99) at the last turn

Race: An Ras Mor, 5K

Location: Central Square, Cambridge

Goal Time: 19:00

Actual Time: 19:15

For me 5Ks are often relay events. The first mile is run by Amped-Up Jesse who is ready to run through a wall (in a 5:30 mile). The second mile is run by Quitter Jesse. This Jesse (who is probably owes most of his quitter mentality to the rough shape he was forced into by Amped-Up Jesse running through walls at 5:30/miles) is ready to drop out of the race at a moment's notice largely because he hurts and is a little tired thanks to the mile his teammate ran (stupid Amped-Up Jesse). The third mile is run by less emotional, Rational Jesse. Rational Jesse responds quite well to the mess that both Amped-Up Jesse and Quitter Jesse have placed him in. Rational Jesse realizes the energy reserves he has and the course ahead and puts in a good mile. At some point I will run a great 5K when I can find an equilibrium for each of the three Jesses.

This search for equilibrium might be found in the work of former Central Square resident and Nobel Prize winner John Nash. Nash "discovered" that cartelizing a market or game is often better for the producers or players. Players or producers will be willing to sacrifice a chance at the most optimal outcome for a guarantee of the second or third most optimal. Obviously it's not that simple. People don't win the Nobel Prize for stating common sense. They win the Nobel Prize for taking common sense, rejecting it and then restating it in a long involved math equation (such as the Nash Equilibrium Equation):

One almost thought that as the An Ras Mor was in Central Square - once home of Nash and near MIT where he once taught, the power of Nash's equation would seep into the three Jesses and their relay.

If you thought that - you were wrong.

The first third to half mile, I was putting in around 5:15. Amped Up Jesse finished the first mile at 5:50. Quitter Jesse then spent the long not steep climb up to Harvard Square trading off reasons in his mind reasons not to quit with swears directed at Amped-Up Jesse and crossed the 2 mile line at 12:16. Rational Jesse got his shit together and brought in a last mile around 6:20 and a good sprint after the turn.

The battle for first was great according to those who saw it. First and second each had the lead at one point during the last one tenth of a mile. Lee Danforth pulled off the win with a 15:59.

Bradley Harris and Daniel O'Donoghue finished a duel with 12 year old Daniel nipping Bradley at the line.

Shoutouts

- The O'Donoghue boys swept the three podium spots for the under 15 age group

- Jon May won the Masters

- Robert Cipriano took second in his age group

- Big PRs by Kimi and Kate Daniels

- Breakfast Chris who was Shanghaied into running the race put in a monstah 17:30

- Seth had a PR at the Eastern States 20 Miler

- Carl Wagoner finished his first Half Marathon (on the most confusing course map ever) with a 1:44 (after sleeping through a Half last weekend).