Now that the new year is in full swing, the NE Runner Calendar is out, and for the most part, many of the road racing series' have announced their 2008 schedules, I'd like to take some time to point out some other races besides the obvious USATF-NE Grand Prix events that we all know and love....

Now if you are are just the run-of-the-mill (no pun intended) runner like I am, and you run and race for fun like I do, then you may want to know about some other fun race series' out there that you can take advantage of this coming season. Some of these I ran last year, and others I ran back in my previous running life (in the 1990s).. I am trying to figure out all the races I want to run and really do love running up in NH as opposed to picturesque (sarcastic) Ollie or Baystate (I love Lowell...but that course...in October... i'm getting depressed already).

The USATF-NE Grand Prix

We all know about the big series that we'll run to show everyone how awesome the Merrimack Valley Striders are...

• New Bedford Half Marathon - New Bedford MA - [1/2-marathon] - Sun, March 16, 11am - [07 Results] - 1828 finishers
• Medical Center 6K - Nashua NH - [6k] - Sun, May 11, 9:30am - [07 Results] - 191 finishers
• Rhody 5K - Lincoln RI - [5k] - Sun, June 1, 9:30am - [no race in 2007]
• Yankee Homecoming 10 Mile - Newburyport MA - [10M] - Tues, July 29, 6:30pm - [07 Results] - 1279 finishers
• Bridge of Flowers 10K - Shelburne Falls MA - [10k] - Sat, Aug 9, 9am - [07 Results] - 531 finishers
• The Ollie 5 Road Race - South Boston MA - [5m] - Sat, Sept 6, 10am - [07 Results] - 1229 finishers
• Bay State Marathon - Lowell MA - [Marathon] - Sun, Oct 19, 8:30 am - [07 Results] - 717 finishers

But there are some others around that you may find fun and competative, that will fit nicely into your spring/summer/fall road racing schedule...

2008 Seacost Road Race Series:

Aside from the USATF NE GP races, there is also a very cool series up on the NH seacoast called (cleverly enough) the Seacoast Road Race Series. I actually prefer this race series to the USATF NE GP series because 3 of the 8 races are in Portsmouth (two are right in downtown) which is one of my favorite places to be. Also, you need to only finish 6 of the 8 races to get a very cool SCRR jacket. Check out the series information here.

The races:

• Children's Museum of Portsmouth - Portsmouth NH - [5k] - Saturday, May 3 - [07 Results] - 357 finishers
• Runner's Alley/Redhook 5K - Portsmouth NH - [5k] - Sunday, May 25, 11am - [07 Results] - 1824 finishers
• Market Square Day 10K - Portsmouth NH - [10k] - Saturday, June 14, 9am - [07 Results] - 1398 finishers
• York Days 5K - York, ME - [5k] - Sunday, July 27 - [07 Results] - 166 finishers
• Saunders at Rye Harbor 10K - Rye NH - [10k] - Thursday, Aug 21, 6pm- [07 Results] - 763 finishers
• Fox Point Sunset 5 Miler - Newington NH - [5M] - Saturday, Sept, 06- [07 Results - 477 finishers] - 477 finishers
• Great Island 5K - New Castle, NH - [5k] - Sunday, October 12 - [07 Results] - 630 finishers
• Great Bay 5K - Stratham NH - [5k] - Saturday, Oct 25, 9am - [07 Results] - 715 finishers

Quickies about my experience at these (from just this past year)...

The Redhook 5k, held on Memorial Day weekend is at the Redhook Brewery (yes, a brewery, Matt) at Pease Int. Tradeport right off of R-16 in Portsmouth. It is flat and fast. I ran this last year and had a blast... The start was featured on the cover of 2007 NE Runner Event Calendar (pic from the 2006 race of course). [photographic evidence from 2007]

Market Square Day is an awesome time even without the race. The whole downtown area is one big party..lots of shopping, eating, etc. All the bars are open early and all day (Matt). This had been part of the USATF-NE GP once before... Relatively quick 10k even with the rolling hills in the middle. Big prize money too...just ask Caroline :). [photographic evidence from the 2007 event...overcast and drizzly, but fun nonetheless]

Harbour Trail 5k is another fast 5k although I only got through slightly over 1 mile of it last year before calling it a day (thats what you get for playing 5 hours of roller hockey the day before...never again...Fernando didn't know that, but now he does). During the race, a Jr. high school kid in high-tops pulled up next to me and asked me what the mile split was...when I saw the first number of the time, I told him and then promptly whipped my singlet off (a-la Dennis Rodman after a double-technical) and pulled over. Revenge this year.

2008 New Hampshire RR Grand Prix:

These races seem to be pretty good and have had some nice large fields last year. I know the 10 miler is hilly (as part of the USATF-NE Mountain Running Series).

• Soup Kitchen 10K - Nashua NH - [10k] - Sunday, Apr 13, 1pm - [07 Results] - 347 finishers
• Bedford Rotary 12k - Bedford NH - [12k] - Saturday, May 17, 8:30am - [07 Results] - 459 finishers
• Pack Monadnock 10 Miler - Winton NH - [10m] - Sunday, June 1, 9am - [07 Results] - 225 finishers
• Bill Luti 8K - Concord NH - [8k] - Saturday, July 19 - [07 Results] - 401 finishers
• Old Home Day 5-Miler - Sandown NH - [5m] - Saturday, Aug 9- [07 Results] - 116 finishers
• St. Charles Children's Home 5K - Portsmouth NH - [5k] - Monday, Sep 1, 9am - [07 Results] - 874 finishers
• Footrace for the Fallen 5K - Manchester NH - [5k] - Sunday, Oct 19, 11am - [07 Results] - 681 finishers

Quickies about my experience at these (from just this past year)...

Bedford Rotary 12k - This was (up until this point) my longest race ever. As part of the USATF-NE GP last year, it was a horrific experience for me personally, but this is a very solid race early in the season. I'm pretty sure there were some hills...I blacked out a few times so I can't really remember.

2008 NE Runner Pub Series:

If you get REALLY thirsty after you run, you may want to keep these in mind as well. They also do a jacket or shirt or something if you compete in X amount of these races....Usually NE Runner will update their site with the info in late winter although it doesn't look like they've done anything about it just yet. Most of these sites still have last year's info on them so I will let you Google these to get the info if you are thinking of running any of these...

Doyle's Emerald Necklace 5M - Jamaica Plain, MA - [5M] - Sun, April 13 - [07 Results] - 1809 finishers
Irish Village 5M - W. Yarmoth, MA - [5M] - May 10 - [07 Results] - 191 finishers
Pat Polletta Winner's Circle 5K - Salisbury, MA - [5K]- July 2 - [07 Results] -139 finishers
Khoury's Summer Sizzler - Somerville, MA - [4.13 Miles] - July 13 - [07 Results] - 222 finishers
Bobby Bell 5 Miler - Haverhill, MA - [5M] - Oct 12 - [07 Results] - 271 finishers
Paddy Shillelagh 3M - West Newton, MA - [3M] - Oct 19 - [07 Results] - 1332 finishers

2008 La Sportiva USATF New England Mountain Running Circuit

And lastly, for the die-hard or just plain insane...there's always running up hill for hours on end...

• Wachusett Mountain, Princeton MA - [4.3 M] - May 24, 9:30am.
  
• Pack Monadnock - Wilton to Temple NH - [10 M] - June 1, 9am
  
• Northfield Mountain Run - Northfield MA [10.3 K] - June 7, 9am
  
• Cranmore Hill Climb North Conway NH - [10K] - June 29
• Loon Mountain Race Lincoln NH - [12K] - July 6
• Mt.Ascutney Run to the Summit - Windsor VT - [3.8 M] - July 12, 9:30am

If you have comments or stories about any of these races, please let me know...

Weekly Training for 02/11/08 - 02/17/08- Total: ~ 73 miles.

This week was so so. My legs feel pretty horrible as of Sunday night. I know I am in need of another massage for sure. I ended the week by doing my long run workout at the Foxboro Old Fashioned 10 Miler [results][video of start and finish] on Sunday. It was my first 10 mile race and it went as I expected....pretty mediocre. The hilly course, combined with what felt like a constant headwind, and my beatup legs led to a mediocre time that was far from my goal time for 2008 for a 10 miler (55:40 - 5:34 pace). I'm glad I did it however...now I have some idea of what 10 milers and eventually half marathons are going to feel like. The more experience I get at these longer distances the better it will be for me for sure...It's just going to take some time. MVS RT member Dan Vassallo ran a very solid race for 7th overall. Dan was actually leading the race around the halfway point but has been struggling with some tightness and foot discomfort. A very impressive effort for Dan regardless as he ran 53:51 (5:23 pace). He also spotted me 25 beans for the race entry after I showed up all the way down there without my wallet. Thanks Dan!

10 Mile Splits:

5:31. -
5.31 (11:03)
5:19 (16:22)
5:25 (21:47)
5:25 (27:13)
5:32 (32:45)
5:41 (38:27)
5:54 (44:21)
5:39 (50:01)
5:38 (55:40) - 5:34 pace

Monday - 4:00pm (75 min) - easy - 10 miles - Haverhill with the Lama.
Tuesday - 6:30pm - 20 min easy + 18x 60 sec. on / 60 sec. off @ slightly faster than 5k pace + 15 min easy (tot. 70 min) (10.5 miles). Freezing cold and felt pretty crappy.
Wednesday - 5:00pm - 10 miles easy (75 min) - Methuen, Salem (roads) - solo. Icey, cold, wet, miserable.
Thursday - 12:00pm (8.5 miles) - 60 min - Newton (treadmill) solo (would be scary if it was with people)...
Friday - 5:30pm - (75 minutes) - 10.5 miles - Andover, N. Andover (roads) with Jon Healey.
Saturday - 4pm - (65 minutes) - 8.5 miles - Andover, N. Andover (roads) w/ the Lama. Feel like garbage.
Sunday - 10am - 3 mile w/up w/ Dan Vassallo + 10 mile race + 2 mile cooldown w/ Dan Vassallo - Total: 15.

Approx. mileage for the week....73.

Quote: "The best thing about being seen as the nicest guy in Hollywood is that no one searches my backyard for bodies." - Tom Hanks.

Today I decided to pass on the Valentine Invite at BU and run the Bradford Valentine Road Race (results) instead. This last minute decision stems from their being 140 posted entries in the men's 5k at BU and the first heat not scheduled to start until 8:25pm. Though it would have been nice to get on Flotrack in the 5th or 6th heat of the 5k, I opted out due to the fact I haven't been feeling 100% over the past 2 weeks and racing at 9:30pm indoors in a hot building didn't seem to fit my m.o. at this point. I may try one last 5k indoors in 2 weeks at the USATF NE Championships at Harvard.

In today's race, I actually felt ok despite the conditions and hilly course. Bradford isn't terribly fast, in fact as if the hills are bad enough, miles 2-4 were completely slush (which didn't treat my flats too kindly). I have a feeling that that particular road stretching over those 2 miles hadn't seen a snow plow and instead was just sanded to melt any ice that would have formed. Regardless, it was a mess. I ran behind Whirlaway's Chris Mahoney and SISU's Matt Germaine for the first 3 miles, then made a move up the last set of hills to pull right behind Chris for the last mile. We ran together and basically finished together, with neither one of us really kicking it in. I put forth zero kick and instead settled for a nice workout in 26:22 for the 5.07 (note the .07 :) ) miles and 2nd place by 1 second.

These photos by Ted Tyler from Coolrunning

The entire photo set can be viewed here.

Bricks, bricks everywhere...Pretty soon, MVS will be able to build its own private club headquarters solely out of bricks from the Mill Cities Relay... For the second year in a row, MVS wins the tie-breaker with Winner's Circle Running Club and takes home the overall club championship at the Mill Cities Relays [Results Here].

Despite the frigid temps today (16 degrees in downtown Nashua at that start) and a couple of bad weeks of running since hurting my back after New Englands, I actually ran well at this freakin' thing. Not a misprint. I ran 'ok'....I'm talking 'better-than-mediocre'. There actually may be some progression happening here in December, yes it's true.

After the ceremonial drop of the brick by MVS' own Coach Fernando Braz, the first leg of the race was off. Matt Pimentel (MVS Mixed Open) and I led the way, accompanied by GLRR Men's Open member and recent Olympic Marathon Trial competitor Casey Moulton, and a runner from GCS Triad's Men's Open team. The four of us ran basically together for the entire leg. I slipped back a few seconds between miles 3 and 4, but held my own over this rolly 5.6 mile course from the YMCA in Nashua NH to the Sears Warehouse building in Hudson NH. My 4th and 5th mile were my fastest 2, as I reacted to a move by Casey Moulton, who took the lead for a couple of miles late in the race. Shortly after mile 5, Casey (who was most likely doing this as a light tempo run) dropped back and Matt Pimentel and the GCS Triad runner battled it out for 1st and 2nd place. I passed Casey shortly before the exchange zone and handed off to Lars Bjune in 3rd place, only a few seconds back of the leaders.

Lars (a last second fill-in for a missing man) ran a tremendous 2nd leg (4.75 miles) from Hudson NH to Greater Lowell Tech in Tyngsboro, MA, where he handed off to (again this is NOT a typo) David Hinga. Yes, David Hinga...in an MVS uniform. If you don't believe me, I have proof....

David ran very well over the quick and flat 3rd leg, and handed off to Jon Healey, who had just made it to the transition point at the UMass Lowell boathouse. He unfortunately didn't have sufficient time to warmup or even pin his number on all the way...He was also up against a very good GCS runner, Ben Ndaya from the GLRR, and a 45 second pee-break along the Merrimack. Regardless, Jon ran a great race over the toughest leg of the course and handed off to our youngest member of the team, Mike Masse of St. John's Prep in Danvers, MA. Mike ran a tremendous final leg and held our 3rd place slot secure. Only 1 minute back of our finish, Mike Toomey completed the anchor leg for the MVS Mixed Open team.

As usual, the Claddagh Pub in Lawrence was the site of the finish line and after party (also known as the '6th Leg'). After some grub and some adult beverages, we were presented with the hardware...

My splits for Leg # 1:
Mile 1 - 5:20
Mile 2 - 5:25
Mile 3 - 5:29
Mile 4 - 5:11
Mile 5 - 5:04
last .6 - 3:15

Total 5.6 Miles: 29:48 (5:19 pace)

Because of the confusing nature of the race and the temperatures, the lovely and talented Kristin was not in attendance today to take some pictures. I took what I could and amateur photographer-in-training Mike Masse took some for me as well. I neglected to tell anyone to try to get some of MY leg of the race, hence no photographic evidence that I actually ran yesterday morning, exists.


Check what we have here, plus some of Jon Healey's pictures ...
My Flickr Slideshow

My Flickr Photoset

Jon Healey's Pictures

...if anyone has any pictures they would like to share, let me know.

Congratulations to Nate Jenkins (UML '04)(Saucony/GLRR) on his PR of 2:14:56 and 7th place finish at the 2008 U.S. Men's Marathon Olympic Team Trials. Nate bettered his qualifying time of 2:15:28 that he ran in February of last year in Austin, TX by 32 seconds on this NYC course that is considered to be at least 2 minutes slow. That means Nate's effort puts him most likely in the high 2:12 range. Nate also finished ahead of many elite athletes including the 2004 Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi (Nike). Other local running studs finishing with very respectable races were Casey and Pat Moulton (out of Pelham NH)... Very proud of all these guys... Full Results Here.

This past Sunday I raced in the 1st Annual Mike Donahoe Memorial 5k in Georgetown, MA. This was a last minute add to the schedule. My coach thought this would be a good opportunity to get all the intangibles together before Mayor's Cup this coming weekend. The day didn't start too well, as I was up late watching the Red Sox game, and woke up slightly dehydrated and packing a very bad headache. It was a good thing that the race was a 12pm start, as it gave me a good opportunity to properly hydrate and stretch. All things aside, the race went surprisingly well, and I was able to run my 2nd generation (post-comeback) PR of 15:53 (results here). This was my first time under 16 since coming back. The course was relatively flat, with only 1 slight uphill at 2 miles and some gentle rolls just before. I stayed right with a pack of about 6 runners for the first 1.5 miles and then made a slight move as we made the turnaround to go back towards the finish. Nobody reacted right away and I was able to build up a lead that I held until the end. My head was definately on a swivel for the last quarter mile, but I was able to hold off former UNH runner Ro Crispin, who finished in a close second place. He had beaten me by only a few seconds at the Market Square Day 10K back in June. My splits were 5:08 | 5:10 | 5:06 | :27 (last .1). I officially set the course record (as this is the 1st Annual race) and won $100 (also my first cash prize since coming back).

Fellow MVS member and Olympic Trial qualifier Molly Taber also ran and was the first woman across the line in 17:35. She too, walked away with a nice $100 first place cash prize.

Click here for the Flickr set of pictures taken by the lovely and talented Kristin! Next up will be Mayors Cup this weekend ...

This past Saturday it was the 8th Annual Jennifer's Run in Lowell, MA. This run is a memorial to Jennifer D'Amour who was killed in a car accicent during May of 1999 (just before our graduation). Jen was a member of our women's cross country and track teams from 1994-1999. This run took over in 1999 for the Alumni race, which used to be held over the Chelmsford H.S. cross country course in early September.

Despite the 85 degree temp, my recent back problems, and my blister-ravished feet, I ran to what I now call my 'second-career PR' of 16:05. This was the fastest time I have run since coming back a year ago. The course isn't exactly fast, but it's not terribly slow. Brad Klinedinst (UML '00 and New Balance Boston) and Kevin Alliette (UML '03 and Whirlaway) ran neck and neck and had a good battle back-and-forth up front (I sat back about 25 seconds and watched this over the entire 5K). Brad ended up making a move on Kevin over the last quarter mile or so, which ended up being a very good strategic move on his part (taking into consideration Kevin's superior overall speed and finishing kick). Brad cruised to a 15:37 and Kevin was 8 seconds back at a cool 15:45. UML redshirt freshman Danny Wang (4:18.95 Mile and 7th place at the 2007 Nike Outdoor Nationals) was third, holding yours truly off by 4 seconds.

Top 12 w/ scoring...yes I know there was no 'official' scoring for Alumni vs UML students...but I thought it would be fun to point out that WE WON 28 to 37!

1. Alumni
1 2 4 10 11 = 28 | Brad Klinedinst, Kevin Alliette, Jim Johnson, Steve Walsh, Sung-Nam Jo (aka Jason Lavalley, aka Fuji, aka The 'Greaser')
2. Students
3 6 7 9 12 = 37 | Danny Wang, Adam Hanley, Jason O'Connell, Brian Beaudoin, Andriy Danylov

Photos of this race can be found at the usual Flickr site and all images were taken by the lovely and talented Kristin! Official full scoring can be found here at Coolrunning.

Today I dove back into the racing thing again with the Ollie 5 Miler. Needless to say that the 90+ degree weather didn't help things, and I blew up quite effectively after 2 miles. My splits were totally off today as well. I know I went through the 2 mile somewhere around 10:30ish and then everything seemed to fall to crap. 2 really slow middle miles and then a slightly faster 5th mile didn't help things today. Very rough time overall. The only comfort was to see that I wasn't alone. There were blowups everywhere. I couldn't get a groove going and for the first time ever in a road race, I actually grabbed water (at every single water stop). I hydrated more in last 48 hours than I usually do, in anticipation of this disaster, and I still broke down. Kristin got some decent pictures again of some MVS folks. Click here for the Flickr set.