2018 Old Mountain Trail 5k

Old Mountain Field is a deceiving place. You would never think that these fun little trails are back in this small area. I was pleasantly surprised the first year I ran the race in 2012 and every year has been a little different, between course changes and weather.

December 2012 - 3rd place – 18:57 Fast dry year

January 2014 - 1st place – 23:32 Snow year

December 2014 - 3rd place – 19:08 unmemorable year

December 2015 - 6th place 21:34 Hungover year, TNT Christmas Party the night before.

February 2017 Did Not Run

I felt pretty good going into this race. My training has been uneventful, but consistent. No work outs to speak of, a few solid long runs and a few shorter races.

If I were Eric Lonergan, I would take out every one of these trail races the way he took this one out. FAST. This certainly made me suck wind early, but I said fuck it and went with it. Eric and Greg had a good gap pretty early and I followed Brightman. After about a mile I went by Steve and felt like Greg was coming back a bit, but I think it was just the twisty nature of the course that made him feel closer than he was. I still felt pretty good as we started through the “swamp area” it is twisty and not much of a defined trail. I never felt over my head and was making good progress and then BAM I went down. It was a solid fall but I was up pretty quick, but it definitely took my legs away from me, it took a while to get going again. Once I did I was quickly caught by Garvin and Ronald McTall guy. We headed towards the rock bridge creek crossing, where we were met by the same stupid guy with his two dogs off leash on trail. It was a good thing they were off leash, but this was the second time in the race that these dogs brought us to a crawl, I had to put my hands on the dogs and move them out of the way; fun times. After that we started uphill downhill flat hill who the hell remembers and Garvin and Mr. McTall man went by me. Garvin was passed shortly after. We hit the faster, wider trails on the course and the slick bridges. My new Inov-8s that seemed so sticky and grippy on the ice were basically, as Garvin put it, like roller skates on the bridges. I slid right off one of them. Out onto the field before re-entering the woods, Galoob was yelling at us. I was being caught by Old Man Brightman and Jonny was within distance. There is a hard left-hand turn when re-entering the woods and of course I slipped there too and we head back up the next to lastish hill and that’s when I was just fucking done. Brightman went by me after the stairs and I stayed close, but I was gassed, nothing left.

February 2018 - 6th place 20:18 Wet and muddy year

We did a group cool-down with the WTAC guys and headed over to The Mews. We had a pretty solid Turtle group, plus Brightman and Leslie OD. After that some of us headed up to Proclamation Ale
Company and one thing led to another and it was 7:30pm. A fun Saturday I would say.

Breaking Bob

A rare non-race post. There is not a USATF-NE GP race until June, but I will be racing again soon. I wanted to get my ass in shape and run well at Ribfest, but the harder I tried, the less motivated I have gotten. I came to the realization that I am just not having fun with it. I am forcing runs and feel like hell most of the time. I am achy and beat up. So, I decided to stop focusing on getting in shape. I am just going to go out and do whatever feels good on any given day. I am going to race just for the sake of doing a race and not care how piss poor I do…and let me tell you, it will be bad!

So, what does “have fun” mean? I guess whatever. For now, I am going to try to get back on the trails more. Try to do some races I have never done and re-visit some that I have not done in years.

So, first up is the VCM Relay. I was fortunate enough to get an entry through my involvement with Hoka One One New England. I will be running the 2-person team. I have run the VCM Relay like a million times with the Turtles, but not since 2009. We had many memorable and can’t remember trips to Burlington. I have run the 5-Person team with 5, 4 and 3 members. I have also run the 2-person team alone the day after running the Wachusett Mountain Race. (My teammate was injured).

The next race after that will be the Cranmore Mountain Race. The last and only time I ran this race was also 2009! That was a rough race. It was my first real mountain race and I sucked! I don’t climb that well, I am heavy and that doesn’t help my climbing. This year’s course has some pretty solid downhill and I think I can do well on that section…the rest; well the rest will be a lot of suffering. But…FUN right?! Haha. I am looking forward to it.

So since I decided to start doing more trail race and uphill racing I thought I should start getting back on the trails. I ran a very rainy easy short trail run on Saturday, it was more like a river run…but it was a ton of fun. Last night I headed over to Lincoln Woods with my goal to get in a good amount of uphill running and to do a fartlek of sort and basically stumble around the trails making myself suffer.

Well, mission accomplished. I was sucking wind on the long and steep ups. I was hammering the downhills and I had no clue where the hell I was going. I went around the baseball field in the park which along the fence was saturated with mud and water, I just barreled ass through it…the moms and dads gave me some interesting looks!

So with my new found sense of enjoying running…again…maybe I will actually get in shape…maybe.

Speaking of trails and whatnot.  I starting this NE MUT Blog...and there is a Facebook Page as well.  Basically a round up of anything I see about NE MUT running.  If you have anything interesting to share...please do. 

Arcadia Out & Back

Decided to do something different this morning, so off to Arcadia to run out and back on part of the North South Trail.  I have run on these trails before, but decided to take a few photos today.

Midway Lot on Rt 165

1/2 mile in.

Crossing Arcadia Road into the Arcadia Trail

One of the many NEMBA built bridges

Breakfast?

Rhode Island trails are filled with old stone walls

Spider web, the spider ran up to that leaf on the right, see black shadow.

The trail is in there somewhere

Have a seat.

North South Trail marker

Big River Trail Run Video

Here is a video from a trail run we did in Big River on 1/28/12.  This was the second attempt with the GoPro.  I think this one came out better than the first one.  For some reason the quality isn't that great on YouTube, but enjoy!!

Training 1/1/12 to 1/7/12

I don't generally do training posts week in and week out, but figured I would give it a shot.  However I will just touch on key workouts/"interesting" runs and not the everyday grind.

1/1/12 - Hangover Classic 5 Mile Race - This went poorly, just wasn't feeling it.  Jumped in the bay after the race with some Turtles, then grabbed some grub at Aidan's Pub in Bristol, RI.

1/2/12 - Great trail run around Arcadia Managment Area - 15 miles

1/3/12 - Turtle night...turned into an upbeat adventure with the last 3 miles in 18:30

1/5/12 - Hill workout with DP and DJ.  1,2,1,2,1,2,1 mins

1/7/12 - Fun trail run

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!