Place: 4th
Link to results: www.coolrunning.com
Comments: Pouring rain. I ran pretty well considering my training is not really gear toward this sort of race. The pace went out rather easily for a NE road grand prix race and a pack of eventual 1-2-3 John Mortimer, Wilson Perez, and Casey Moulton, Ken Pliska, David Hinga, myself, and a few random guys going through the mile in just under five minutes. Mortimer made certain that it was a one-man show during the second mile (during an absolute downpour) and I was left to run by myself in 5th for a while. Toward the end of the dirt road, Carl Mease caught up to me just as I was catching Hinga. Mease and I blew past Hinga and I tucked in behind Mease until 800m to go. The last few miles were quite windy and my attempts to share the lead where met with surges and Mease’s attempt to retain the lead. Oh well, I tucked in a relaxed and then had enough left at the end to actually out kick someone.
Race Number 13:
Race: 5th 3rd Riverbank run (USATF 25k National Championships)
Date: May 8
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
Distance: 25 km
Time: 1:23:37
Place: 22nd
Link to results: www.53riverbankrun.com
Comments: I wasn’t really up for a race of this length /stature /magnitude /prestige at this point in my preparation for summer racing but Kelli and I were in MI attending to wedding-related things and I have always liked this race (this being my third time out) so I decided to run. I went out cautiously behind the lead pack and was surprised that my 1mile split was a bit slow (5:20) since I was a similar distance behind the leaders in 2001 and I ran 4:55. That is the last split that I can remember since my p.o.s. TIMEX watch whose carapace is water resistant to 100m lacked the integrity to handle the wettest April in New England’s history leaving me with only my memory for recording splits for the time being. I ran with Chris Magill, Paul Zimmerman, and another runner through the turnaround with the leaders getting smaller and smaller off in the distance. After crossing the river, we hit the headwind and lost one of our pack. The three of us remaining switched leads periodically to fight the headwind and this worked pretty well. Despite working together, we only managed to catch one runner the entire race. After 13 miles, my hamstrings were really tightening up and I lost contact with Magill and Zimmerman. A few minutes later, Kevin Gray passed me; personally, I cannot believe that no one else did as I ran so slow in the final 2.5 miles that Magill put almost a full minute on me! We hit the half-way mark in ~40:50, on pace for around a 1:22 finish so I was surprised that I had only slowed down ~2 minutes in the second half (considering the wind and the leg tightening thing. Nevertheless, tightening in my legs was such a factor that I was not really even winded after the race. At least I finished as “first non-elite number.” Following an experience such as this, I am going to have to seriously reevaluate my participation in future long road races. It all depends on how long it takes me to recover from this one.
Race Number 12:
Race: 7sisters trail race
Date: May 2
Location: Amherst, MA
Distance: 12 Miles
Time: 1:44:10
Place: 1st
Link to results: 7sisterstrailrace.com
Comments: Ben I decided to run the first together this year so that he would not have to run the entire way alone. So, I ran out easy and tried to work the hills on the return. I ended up negative splitting which is probably the first time that anyone has ever done that on this course (the turn around is considerable lower than the start/finish). It was really humid (just on the edge of sprinkling) and so the traction was not 100% but it was not all that bad either. I ended up running 1:44:10 something and I was very pleased with this as it is faster than last year when I ran even effort and less than one minute off my CR which I set in better conditions (not –at all humid and no mud and allowing two weeks of serious taper and focus.
Race Number 11:
Race: Merrimac River Trail Race
Date: March 27
Location: Andover, MA
Distance: 10 Miles
Time: 58:23
Place: 1st
Link to results: coolrunning
Comments: My hammies were still a little tight from the 10k/half double from the previous weekends but when there is a Dunham pie on the line, what can you do. My goals coming into the races where to defend my title (and get a pie), get a good workout, not seriously injure myself, and have fun. Rich Bolt, coming off of an ankle injury, decided to push the first three ankle friendly miles before hitting the rougher 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th miles. I ran about 10 meters behind him through some pretty good opening splits of 4:58 and 5:11 before moving into first at the three mile mark when Rich slowed and pulled to the side. The end of the third mile contained some pretty long stretches of ankle deep mud and this is where the race began to really slow down. The forth mile was a combination of really fast sections and twisty, hilly portions full of wet roots, rocks, and stream crossings that were pretty slow this year. Just after the forth mile marker, I came through a series of overgrown evergreens to find myself on the ice slick that was advertised pre race. Totally unprepared, I slid about 3/4s of the way down on my feet before falling on my back in a manner that pulled my elbow up above my head. I bruised my hip pretty bad as well but at the time, the only thing that mattered was that it took me about 400 meters before I could feel my arm again. The rest of mile 5 was pretty slow as I was pretty gun-shy following such a spectacular fall. The second half was remarkably slower than the first and had another fall (coming off of one of the bridges). My legs were pretty tired from the effort of the first five miles as well as the previous week.
Race Number 10:
Race: New Bedford Half-Marathon
Date: March 21
Location: New Bedford, MA
Distance: 13.1 Miles
Time: 1:12:39
Place: 31st
Link to results: coolrunning
Comments: I was not really looking forward to the New Bedford Half. On the previous day, I had run the Holyoke 10k and I was feeling pretty beat up. I had hoped to recover well between the two races but had a horrible night’s. Luckily, the pace went out nice and slow. There was a headwind and so runners were more apt to pack up and I situated myself in back of the second back which went through the mile in 5 flat, about 10 seconds slower than the lead group of six. By the second mile, members of the lead group were already coming back to us and people came and went in the chase pack for the first four miles through the hills and into a bad headwind. At the top of the course, I found a pretty good groove, settling in at around 5:10 pace which is when our pack disintegrated with Chris Teague, Kevin Gray, and Bryan Kovalsky moving ahead and everyone else falling back. For miles 5, 6, 7, and 8, I ran behind Teague and passed Gray and Kovalsky back and forth. At about 8.5, Marzuki Stevens went flying by and I latched onto him long enough to leave Kovalsky. I was 8th New England and I was feeling pretty good about my chance for finishing top five. Then, when I reached over to click my watch for the 9 mile split, my right hamstring dunhamed and I lost about 6 inches on my stride. Eric Beauchene went flying past me and, over the next 4 miles, so did over 20 other people. This is not entirely surpirsing as I was running over 6-minute pace for the last 4.1 miles. Shit.
Race Number 9:
Race: Holyoke St. Patty’s Day 10K
Date: March 20
Location: Holyoke, MA
Distance: 10km
Time: 30:08
Place: 4th
Link to results: coolrunning
Comments: This is my favorite road race. It is (almost) local, has a great tradition, has good competition, and seemingly everyone in Holyoke is out watching it. The race generally gets its fair share of Africans but this year, some of the top road racers in New England showed up to take a crack at four-deep prize money at western Massachusetts’ biggest race. Compared to two years ago, the leaders west out slowly in 2004. Our first mile was an into a strong headwind 5:01 compared with a 4:43 in 2002. At two miles, (10:03) is was a four man race with myself, former national steeple 4th placer, John Mortimer, former DIII national champ, Mark Miller, and former winner, Paul Mwangi ahead of the field. With Eric Nedeau and Kassahun Kabiso in arrears, though, a top-four finish was by no means certain. After two miles, Mortimer and Miller took off leaving me to duke it out with Mwangi for third. Mwangi slowly pulled away and I was left to run miles 4, 5, and 6 alone. Somehow, I ran mile 4 (the uphill mile) 8 seconds faster than in 2002 and then followed that up by running mile 5 (the downhill mile) 22 seconds slower. I guess that I really need to do some more speedwork. I pushed it in to the finish running one very windy second slower than in 2002 in with remarkably different miles splits. It may be my favorite, but it is still a road race.
Race Number 8:
Race: USSSA National Championships
Date: March 7
Location: Squaw Creek, CA
Distance: 10km
Time: 40:35
Place: 2nd
Link to results: USSSA
Comments:
Race Number 7:
Race: Jones Town and Country 10 miler
Date: February 29
Location: Amherst, MA
Distance: 10 Miles
Time: 52:36
Place: 1st
Link to results: coolrunning
Comments: The 2004 T&C 10 miler went out fast. At 100 meters into the race, Eric Nedeau (Ned) was leading me by 5 feet and I was leading the rest of the field by a good 15 meters. After leading through the first two miles in 9:40, Ned slowed enough for me to pull ahead during the third (and steepest) mile of the race. After that, I just had to concentrate on pushing the pace and not letting him pull back any of my small lead. There is something about running long(ish) races on pavement that makes my legs tighten up really badly and this race was no different. Plus, I knew that Ned would have a slightly more potent kick that I and so I was very concerned about leaving the race until the end. The weather was beautiful, warm with a slight breeze and sunshine everywhere. In fact, it was my first no-shirt of the year.
Race Number 6:
Race: Hawley Kiln Classic
Date: February 21
Location: Hawley, MA
Distance: ~7mi
Time: 59:03
Place: 1st
Link to results: WMAC
Comments:Well, I finally won a snowshoe race in 2004; all that it took was for Rich Bolt to injure himself. In the absence of the Thunder Bolt, Ben Nephew took off from the gun and moved easily into the lead. I fell in behind and the two of us had a large lead on third place before hitting the singletrack at ~.7miles. Just before the singletrack, I pulled ahead of Ben and then led with Ben closely following through the ~1.5 miles of one-lane single track that had seen only about 6 sets of showshoes in ’04 (the RD and friends). I began to pull away from Ben after we hit the second groomed (snowmobile) trail and started to hit the rolling portion of the course. With Ben and the rest of the field in arrears, I tried to work hard and run a technically sound race. This was difficult since the trails (the singletrack, at least) were rough enough the they required constant attention but the course is so beautiful that you are tempted to look around and take it all in. I was feeling great and thinking about how I was going to smash the CR by several minutes when I reached the portion of the course that doubles back to the start. Usually, ~80 snowshoers passing through an area makes a track much faster; with the conditions today, however, the field had chewed up the trail and coming back, it was like running in sand. After what seemed like an eternity, I hit the snowmobile track and hammered in toward the finish managing a 59:03. Despite threats of rain and sleet, the weather was a cloudy and very comfortable 33 degrees- a beautiful day and a beautiful “tough but fair” course.
Race Number 5:
Race: Camp Saratoga 8K
Date: February 14
Location: Wilton, NY
Distance: ~8Km
Time: 32:42
Place: 2nd
Link to results: WMAC
Comments: Another snowshoe race, another second place. I could have saved a lot of time and gas by simply writing this race report from home. Let’s see… great weather for racing (considering that it was February), a fun course and a good field of CMSers. Rich took the lead from the gun. While I did not plan on beating Rich on a course like this, my goal was to at least make him work for the win. Any work Rich put into this one was purely endogenous as he gapped me somewhere between the second and third steps of the race. I passed Ben Nephew at about 600meters and then proceeded to run alone for the remainder of the race. The course was fun but it was much slower than I thought it would be. With the softness of the track, though, the race was a really good workout for my legs. They were trashed after about 15 minutes.
Race Number 4:
Race: Northfield Mountain USSSA Qualifier
Date: February 7
Location: Northfield, MA
Distance: ~7.25Km
Time: 36:06
Place: 2nd
Link to results: WMAC
Link to pictures: WMAC
Comments: As is the custom in New England snowshoe racing, Rich Bolt, um, “bolted” to the front of one of the deepest men’s fields this season. Following Rich on the snowmobile-groomed “Disney Loop” were Ben Nephew, Kevin Tilton, myself and a dozen more of the Northeast’s best. Continuing up the initial climb of the course (still groomed by a double passing of snowmobiles that morning), Ethan Hemphill and Junior Pullins moved into third and forth behind Rich and Ben while Kevin stopped and adjusted his snowshoe binding. Then, we hit the single track. 12 hours earlier, when a few from the CMS contingent marked the course, this trail was completely untouched snow, knee deep with a layer of ice. When we had finished dropping our surveyor’s flags, only six pairs of snowshoes had plowed through since the most recent two storms. Rich’s bold race strategy added one more set of shoes and, with efficient passing options non-existent, the next 15 (or so) racers were at the mercy of the pace set forth by those who were brave (or foolish) enough to pack down the trail for their pursuers. Ben soon tired (physically) of his roll as trail breaker for the chase pack and allowed first Ethan and then Junior to pass. Meanwhile, I was right were I wanted to be, far enough back that I had four or five guys in front to ensure a good trail, but close enough to the front of the pack that I could cover any major moves ahead of me. Ethan led for a while before Junior assumed the lead of the chase pack. At times, the pack was moving so slowly that I was forced to walk in order to avoid running over Ben’s heels. Ben was not nearly as laid back in his response to this situation as I was and even tried to pass his way back into second by cutting the tangent of a hairpin turn. With the deep snow and crust, however, the result was that he actually lost one place and ended up behind me. Once the climbing was over, Junior began to pull away from us on the flat single track. I decided to pass Ethan and go after him, and, after a few tries, I managed to get by and run hard down the rough single track leading to the infamous turn of 2003. I was surprised at how fast the trail was; this was probably because with the slow goings up the hill, my legs were much more fresh than usual at this point in the race. After turning onto the snowmobile track for the groomed section of the race, I slowly caught Junior in about 400 meters at tried to pull whatever lead I could on the downhill. I knew that there would be many pairs of fresh legs in arrears and I wanted to make sure that no one caught me. I could see Rich a few times on the descent- well ahead of me. He managed to stay on the course and finish about 30 seconds in front. Ethan, passed Junior at some point on the downhill and both runners finished just a few seconds back in third and forth. 13 runners finished in the 88 seconds after I crossed the finish line!
Race Number 3:
Race: Fleet Empire State Run Up
Date: February 3
Location: New York City, NY
Distance: 86 fl.
Time: 11:11
Place: 4th
Link to results: NYCRR.org
Comments: The Fleet Empire State Building Run-Up (FESBRU) is a race that I have wanted to run for a few years now. As a mountain runner, stair racing has intrigued me as a juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane. Mountain running is sacred. The races take place on courses that were, depending on your philosophical bent, created either by millions (or billions) of years of plate-tectonic-driven orogenic processes, God, or both. Race courses, as a matter of necessity, take competitors through unspeakable natural beauty and often finish in locales so perfect that one can’t help but consider amending some future will in order to ensure that your ashes are one day scattered in such a place. Running inside, no matter what the occasion, is profane- even something so viscerally enlightening as the employ of nothing but muscle, sweat, and a little bit of luck to climb over 1000` in a matter of minutes. Actually, the lobby of the Empire State Building has some really nice granite and the view from the observation deck is unique, stunning, and, dare I say it, beautiful. In between lays a stairwell painted dark gray and a few service corridors whose design was not exactly aesthetic in its intent. The stairclimb as an athletic event is thus an evolution toward purity. The mountain in the beauty void. Without the distraction of natural beauty, only pure effort and the singularity of getting to the top faster than anyone else remains. This is the intrigue- asking yourself for but a few minutes of shear, athletic aggression and expecting nothing in return.
The media frenzy surrounding this race in amazing. Admittedly, this was one major reason that I had wanted to run here. In the warm up area, one floor below ground level, there were a probably half a dozen cameras interviewing competitors. This was nothing compared to the scene in the lobby where bleachers were needed in order to accommodate all of the press. The winners were shown on CNN and countless major media outlets report on the race. USA Today even published an article in which they interviewed me regarding my training for the event. This, of course, was before it became public knowledge that I suck at stair racing.
Going into the race, I felt that greatest obstacles to my success were the start and the short duration of the event. The start is on the ground floor in the lobby with about 20 feet between the starting line and a single door leading into the stairwell. Race numbers one through ten had priority on the starting line; with number 41, I was very lucky to sneak a spot on the line to the extreme right side of the corridor. This was a big mistake. While I probably knew more about fluid dynamics that any of my competitors that day, I had not realized that this should have been a factor my choice of starting position. In a normal race, the field moves according to the decisions of individual competitors each of whom are trying to run the shortest allowable distance to the finish line. In the FESBRU, however, the field behaves as a Newtonian fluid wherein the flow velocity at the center of the flow conduit is double that of the average flow velocity. This is, of course, assuming laminar flow, which, it will soon be evident, was not entirely applicable to the situation. I do not remember anything between the blast of the starting horn and entering the stairwell. A well-timed photo from the NYCRR website indicated that numerous runners had already passed me in the first 5 feet of the race. Somehow, I managed to get to the bottom of the stairs halfway down in the field! After navigating my body through the doorway, I ran smack into the back of the runner in front of me. Instantly, the runner behind me ran into the back of me. It is at this point in the race, that the waiting begins. After running all out at the gun, the majority of the field than proceeds to stand still and wait for the congestion to clear sufficiently for forward motion to resume. This part of the race probably comprised less than one second; however, for those runners who’s competitive nature has been sharpened by years of hard work (everyone in the race), the wait seems to take an eternity.
Finally, we were (physically) allowed to move forward. The next few minutes were filled with easy running as passing is very difficult. At this point, I was very discouraged about my chances of finishing well. Then, I looked up to see that race favorite (and eventual winner), Rudolf Reitberger was only two runners ahead of me. This convinced me that, despite what I thought was an awful start, I still had a chance to finish well since Reitberger had finished second in his previous two attempts at this race. The next few minutes of the race, I passed many competitors who had capitalized on a better-than-average lobby dash and were now victim to staggering levels of blood-borne lactic acid. Passing these runners was relatively easy despite the narrow (4 feet wide) width of the staircase as, by this time, I was moving considerably faster then they were. With every additional flight, however, passing became increasingly difficult. After six or seven minutes of running up stairs, I was not moving that much faster than the runners that I was passing. The last three or four times that I passed runners required several flights for me to completely get by. By this time, we had managed to work our way into the bulk of the women’s field who had started five minutes in front of the first men’s heat- adding significantly to the difficulty of navigating a race on stairs. With a few minutes to go, I had moved into third and was thoroughly dispirited as I could not see the leaders and time was running out. My last two passes had been extremely difficult (physically demanding and psychologically defeating) and I was completely fed up with the event and with my inability to deal with its rigors. The only runner to pass me during the race then came up behind me and repeatedly attempted to forcefully pass on the right (inside). After being shoved and yelled at for a few flights, I pulled wide on the landing and allowed him the opportunity to pass on the inside. This was another mistake. A few minutes prior, it had taken me five flights to finally pass this guy. When I did so, it was on the left (outside) with no assistance. In return, I endured a few shoves before entering into a nadir of apathy about the event and the nature of competition in general. This was the end of my race and I ran slowly to the top thinking about how much time and money had been wasted on the trip.
Before completing the event, I had said that to run well in the FESBRU would require 95% pure, mountain running fitness and 5% specific stair running ability. In hindsight, I would change that to 75% pure mountain running fitness (the winner, after all, was an accomplished mountain runner who has beaten me on many an Alpine slope), 5% specific stair running ability, and 20% ability to pass people on a four-foot-wide staircase while maintaining focus on the race at hand (to word it a politely as possible). I work hard year-around on the first 75% and, for eight workouts this January, I worked pretty hard on the middle 5% by running as many as 10 repeats of our 29-story campus library in the course of a single session. I could probably work to improve my standing by focusing on that last 20% but I would view preparing for this event the same way that I would view training for running fast down a steep incline. There is no way to properly prepare for running extremely fast downhill except to do it in a race. No matter how hard I try, I am never going to run as fast down a hill in training as I will during an important race. Likewise, there is no way that I would subject myself to the sort of situations that would allow me to train for 11 minutes of extreme unpleasantness. Short of attending a Who concert or waiting for DVD players to go on sale at the local Wal-Mart, I wouldn’t even know how to go about it.
Such is the nature of the event. The FESBRU is the oldest, most prestigious, and greatest stairclimbing race in the world. Part of this race and its honorable tradition is the lobby start and the utter craziness that its competitors must endure in an attempt to win it. Tradition is an important thing in racing and I hope that 26 years from now, the FESBRU is using the same course, the same starting procedure, and the same observation deck finish. Meanwhile, I will be looking for columnar joints in basalt, dragonflies, and columbines during my races.
Race Number 2:
Race: Curly's Record Run
Date: January 25
Location: Pittsfield, MA
Distance: ~3.5M
Time: 28:51
Place: 2nd
Link to results: WMAC
Comments: ...another snowshoe race, another second place. Dave Dunhams's account of the race follows:
Race Number 1:
Race: Greylock Glen Snowshoe Race
Date: January 17
Location: Adams, MA
Distance: ~3.5M
Time: 25:17
Place: 2nd
Link to results: WMAC
Comments: In my first time on snowshoes since the USSSA National last March, I felt a little bit rusty. Add this to some tired legs and a poor choice in crampon selection and the result was pretty ugly. This year, the course required a minor rerouting in order to keep runners from traversing an icy portion of trail. The detour funneled runners onto a narrow bridge only 50 meters into the race resulting in a wicked-fast sprint at the start. After running in fifth for the first few minutes, I moved up to third and then into first on the long climb that makes up the first half of the race. Pulling away from the field, I took one pursuer, Elijah Barrett, with me. Elijah closely trailed me until about 15 minutes into the race when I overshot a tight turn. Smelling blood in the water, Elijah attacked and I could do nothing to respond as he slowly pulled away over the next ten minutes of racing. As least the weather was nice. This year was a full 15 degrees warmer than last year at a balmy 7 degrees. Conditions were excellent for both fast racing (an evident by Kelli Lusk’s almost three minute lowering of her own CR) and socializing (as evident by the 120 hotdogs consumed post race).