Year in Review

Another year in running has passed, most of the races and adventures that we conquered earlier in the year seem so distant, it is as though they never happened.  Here is a re-cap of some of the events I was lucky enough to be a part of this year.


1/1/11 - I started the year off defending my title at the Hangover Classic in Bristol, RI, winning in 27:57. The previous 2 years this race had bad snow luck, the course was covered in inches of snow and ice.  This made for slow and dangerous conditions, so it was nice to get on some dry roads this year.

1/2/11 - This date was supposed to mark the first snowshoe race for the TNT Snowshoe Team, however, Hollis, NH did not have enough snow, so the race turned into the Beaver Brook Snowy Slushy Trail Race.  With a small field of 17, I was able to take my second victory in two days, I think that was my last win of the year!

1/15/11 - Feel Good Farm Snowshoe Race... this is one of my favorite snowshoe races.  Feel Good Farm is an interesting place, as is the owner.  This ended up being the first snowshoe race for TNT in 2011, and for some unlucky soles, it was their first snowshoe race ever.  FGF is a tough place to strap on the shoes for the first time.  We had 10 Turtles toe the line at FGF and I finished 7th in a field of 67.  Unfortunately, this race has been taken off the Granite State SSS schedule.

1/22/11 - Whitaker Woods Snowshoe Race was one of our longer snowshoe race trips, heading up to North Conway, NH. This was a first time event put on by Kevin Tilton.  He had a great course set-up and we had another good TNT showing, with 12 runners toeing the line.  The highlights of this trip were popsicle sticks and a trip to Moat Mountain.

1/29/11 - A group of 7 made their way up to Center Sandwich, NH (Home of the largest dining room set in the Northeast).  The Sidehiller 4 Miler was the next race on the Granite State Snowshoe Series calendar, and also a northeast qualifier for the USSSA Nationals, which meant there would be a strong field.  I had a pretty good race and it came down to my first ever snowshoe sprint battle in the last 1/4 mile with Charlie Thierrault and Danny Ferreira, both of acidotic RACING.  In the end I beat Danny, but Charlie out leaned me at the line...it made for a fun finish.

2/5/11 - Another snowshoe race, this time in Exeter, NH for the Exeter Snowshoe Hullabaloo.  This might have been my worst race of the year, up until this point at least!  The path was super narrow and I kept clipping my shoes and went down multiple times.  The course was pretty cool otherwise...but this just wasn't my day.

2/6/11 - I was talked into running the Super 5k in Narragansett, RI so we could field a men's team and win the team prize.  It was a beautiful day down in Narraganset albeit a little windy.  With the afternoon start, I was still able to get in a long run in the morning and then attempt to run a 5k off of a race the day earlier and a long run a few hours earlier.  I was happy to come away with a 4th place finish in 17:00 and more importantly, the team victory!

2/19/11 - Snowshoe double-header...Since the Beaver Brook Snowshoe Race from 1/2/11 was postponed we ended up with a double-header on 2/19/11.  The TNT SST made the trip to Hollis, NH in the morning for the BBSSR, which by the way WAS my worse race of the year, then we headed to Milly's Tavern in Manchester, NH for some food and beer before heading to Madbury, NH for the Kingman Farm Moonlight Snowshoe Race.  The night race is by far the most fun of the year, and after running like hell in the morning I came back to run a good race, but ended up finishing 5th instead of 3rd after following Geoff Cunningham off course.

2/26/11 - The next to last snowshoe race was held at Northfield Mountain.  This was to be the first NEF Snowshoe Championship, it was a tough race with lots of climbing and it made me tired.

3/13/11 - 2 weeks after running up Northfield Mountain on snowshoes we headed way up north to the FINAL! snowshoe race of the season, The Granite State Snowshoe Championships.  This race starts across the street from Mountain Washington.  It was a nice mix of groomed trails and long climbs.  The race went well for me, finishing in 5th place behind 4 acidotic guys.  We finished out the year sipping on some beer provided by Redhook and acidotic RACING.

3/20/11 - The New Bedford Half Marathon, finally a race where I could show that I was in shape, getting ready for the marathon doesn't usually result in great 3-4 mile snowshoe races.  This race went pretty well, and I ran faster than I had expected.  I tied my PR according to the official results, and on the watch I beat it by a second.  I ran with teammate Matin Tighe late int he race, but couldn't reel him back in, in the final half mile, and he got me by 2 seconds.

4/10/11 - Doyles Emerald Necklace 5 Miler, It was a great after party, I don't think I raced?  Jackie ran a 5 mile PR though!

5/1/11 - The Cox Sports Marathon was the main goal of the spring.  This was actually the first time I had ever run a marathon in Rhode Island, so that was something to check off my list.  The race went pretty well, I feel I ran as well as I could with the training I had in the legs.  I finished with my second fastest marathon in 2:42:37

5/21/11 and 5/28/11 - We through in two USATF Mountain Series races before getting down to training for the Transrockies Race.  Northfield Mountain Race on 5/21/11 and Wachusett Mountain Race on 5/28/11.  The Wachusett Race went much better then the Northfield Race, but both were a blast.

7/17/11 - North South Trail Long Run.  Jackie, Karen and myself ran 35 miles of RIs NS Trail.  It was a great run in 90+ degree heat!

Jackie and Karen on the NST

8/7/11 - Because we are in the Brooks ID program, Jackie and I were lucky enough to get a free entry into the 1st Annual Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon in Providence, We had no intentions to race this 1/2, but took it as a good opportunity to get in a long run.  I ran 17 miles before the race, while Jackie did slightly less.  We then ran in the race together, starting out EZ and passing all the runners that went out too fast.  You can read about it HERE.

8/21 - 8/26 - Transrockies Run...the epic run of the year.  I highly recommend anyone that enjoys running in the woods to try this adventure.  You can read about it here!

Stage 2 Transrockies

9/18/11 - Our Turtle teammate Karen Benway was planning on racing the Pisgah 50k.  This worked out well because Jackie and I had 30 miles on the schedule.  So we decided to make the trek up to the race and it made for a nice easy way to get in 30+ miles, while practicing fueling for the upcoming JFK 50 Miler.  Other than a wrong turn late in the run for me, it was a great day.

10/5/11 - 6:45 pm TNT vs NRA Showdown.  This was probably the most proud I have been of the Tuesday Night Turtles as a team.  When there is a race on the line, and the other team is trash talking that they would beat us to death, the Turtles came out of the woodlands :)  We might not have the fastest folks around, but we had the most team pride on this night, and with that we took home the big W...it was a great night!

11/13/11 - RI 6 Hour.  This was the third running of the RI 6 Hour, not bad for a race I thought up in the shower one morning.  The 2011 event went well, other than those damn cops.

Sunrise @ Warwick City Park

11/19/11 - The JFK 50 Miler was a great trip.  I was happy with my new 50 mile PR and super happy to see the TNT Women's Team of Jackie Jackman, Karen Benway and Issy Nielson, come away with the team victory and also breaking the Women's Team Record that was set back in 2002 by over 2 hours!!  JFK Race Report

2011 JFK Course Record setting women's team!

So those were the major explorations of the year, there was also running the Fat Belly to Fat Belly the afternoon after running Northfield Mountain and the Grog and Dog Jog on Columbus Day Weekend.  Not to mention the Run for Hope a few weeks ago, but I had enough recapping!  On to 2012, which I already started with a not so good race at the Hangover Classic, ending my three year winning streak.  But I followed that up with a great 2 hour long run today in the Arcadia Management area with Karen Benway and Zak Kudlak, so things are already looking up!  Good Luck to everyone with their 2012 adventures!

2011 JFK 50 Miler

Back in the early summer there was great interest by many people to go and run the JFK 50 Miler and with the new registration process you had to be sure in July that you wanted to go, otherwise you were not getting in.

My plan was to try and get a male and a female team down to JFK and thought it was going to be hard to get a women's team but I should have more than enough guys to field the three person team.  In the end, I was the lone male and I was able to get a very strong female team signed up.

Fast forward to November.  In one form or another all of the runners that were doing JFK were at my race the RI 6 Hour.  I felt like all I needed to do was get through the 6 hour then I could finally focus on JFK.  Up until then I hadn't given much thought to many of the plans we had to make for JFK because I was pre-occupied with the 6 Hour organization.

Once the 6 Hour was put to rest for another year, we made some travel plans and on Friday morning around 7am the 4 runners plus Karen's husband Kevin and daughter Eva were off to Hagerstown, MD.  Fortunately the ride was uneventful and we arrived around the time we had planned.  We were staying at the host hotel where packet pick-up was, so it made things even simpler the day before the race, we checked-in, brought our stuff to our rooms, grabbed our race numbers and then all went out for a short run to loosen up the legs after being crammed in a car for a good part of the day.

Two friends that Jackie and I know from Canada were going to be at the race and we had hoped to have them join our crew of 6 for dinner and as though all the planets lined up we bumped into them at the packet pick-up and they were staying right accross from an Olive Garden, so they got there a little early put our name in the hat and by the time we arrived we only had about a half an hour wait.  It seemed everything was coming together well for us and we would be able to eat, get back to the hotel room early, get our stuff together and get to bed early so we could be awakened at 4:30 am for the start of our long race day.

Race morning came fast, but everyone seemed to have rested well.   We drove from Hagerstown to Boonsboro in the dark of morning and arrived at the school for the pre-race meeting and/or to stand in a line for the bathroom, depending on who you were.  Once the meeting was over we made our trek to the starting line, which is over a half mile from the school.  As soon as we arrived, we hear "Three minutes until the start"  WHOA!  that came quick.  The four of us quickly stripped down to our race gear and moved a little closer to the front and before we knew it BANG!  the 2011 JFK 50 had started.

The race starts on a main paved road, which you are on for just over 2 miles and in that time you climb around 1000 feet.  I stayed slow and behind many people that I would later pass, but knew there was no need to sprint out in the first miles, because this was going to be a long day.

After those climbing road miles were over you dropped into a short trail section, which was just a short tease of the terrain that would come soon after.  The short trail section lead us to another paved road that would again rise about for over a mile before we finally got onto the AT section that we would stay on until about 15.5 miles.

The AT section is very rocky and is covered in many, many, leaves.  I saw numerous people take tumbles in front of me, just as I had in 2007, but this year I was careful and never even came close to hitting the ground.   For most of the AT I was running with Ian Torrence.  This was his 17th time running this race, so I knew, he knew what he was doing, however earlier in the race he stated that he would not break 7 hours this year, so although it was nice to follow him through the AT, once we hit the canal path at 15.5 I had to get down to buisness because I had some time to make up.

The C&O Canal Path was mostly uneventful.  The path is basically a marathon and has no turns to speak of.  It is flat and made up of hard packed dirt, it was a little forgiving on the legs, but tough to keep the mind in the game when fatigue and boredom sets in.  I thought I handled both well, and when hit with what I thought was going to be a major breakdown I stepped up to the challenge and worked through it and finally made it to the end of the canal path and was about to start the 8+ mile trek on the rolling pavement that would lead me to the finish line.

The last 8 miles had each mile marked in reverse order.  It was a nice little countdown to the end.  At first 8 to go seemed short, but then 4 to go seemed like the longest run I would ever have to conquer.  By the time I got to the 1 mile to go mark I was happy the race was almost over.  Content that I would run under 7 hours and just got it in.  It was a nice way to finish the race.  I wasn't in horrible pain as I have been in at the end of the other two 50s that I had run and I was able to run every step of this race and the last mile would be no different.  I cruised in at 8 min pace, came down the final 600 meter which is a slight uphill and heard my name over the loud speaker.  I had finished in 23rd place in 6:55:08, a time I was happy with, but you always want more.

Now that I had finished, my attention turned to the women.  When would I see them come in, how was their race going?  I had no clue how the last 7 hours had gone for them.  The good thing was I did not have to wait long for the answer.  Karen was seen coming down the long straight away with another woman on her tail.  She was able to hold her off and finished as 4th woman in 7:07:35.  Not too long after we spot Jackie's bright green shirt.  She was going to smash her sub 7:30 goal with a time of 7:19:53 and a 7th place finish in the women's division.

Now we waited for Issy, we knew that with a descent finish from her that the women would not only win the team title, but would beat the women's team record from 2002.  Fortunately for us we did not have to wait in suspense too long, Issy had run faster than she thought she would, running an 8:20:29.  The girls smashed the old team record of 25:11:16 with a 3 person total of 22:47:57! 

2011 Women's Team Champions!

In the end we were all pretty happy with our results.  We went in to the gym to warm up, get some food and wait for the awards.  After that we jumped on a trolley bus type of vehicle which carried us about a half mile to the car and we were off, back to the hotel.  After taking a very refreshing shower we went to a restaurant called Barefoot Bernies to grab some grub and a celebratory beer.  After that the group, minus Jackie and I went to Dairy Queen for some more celebrating!

The night ended in true Turtle fashion with Jackie, Issy and myself pouring some bombers into some pint glasses and falling asleep while still chatting...I would say it was a successful trip.

Jackie, Me, Issy, Karen...the morning after.