A month that started with great promise but spiraled down. I was feeling great at the beginning and then waylaid with a hamstring injury. So, no racing and lost some mileage for a couple of weeks. Mild hamstring strain typically takes 1-3 weeks and at 3 weeks I would say I’m approaching the end (I hope) of the injury.
Week Ending 03-01-26
My hamstring seems to be improving and although I’m still going a lot slower than I would like I was able to get my mileage up to “normal” with 85 for the week. I also phased out most of the biking getting in just 3:31 on the bike. Snow an cold made for a few challenging runs. I also did the odd midnight run to miss out on most of one of the storms (blizzard).
Week – 85
Month – 11 (March)
Year – 656
Life – 167,656
5 years ago - I lost my streak of 406 days of running when the oblique injury hit me mid-month. I only missed four days but could only run short and easy.
Place Div Div Pl Name Age Gender Bib # Time
1 MOPEN 1 Samuel Fazioli 28 M 103 20:25
2 MOPEN 2 Evan Thornton-Sherman 16 M 102 20:53
3 MOPEN 3 Thomas Paquette 29 M 106 21:03
4 M35-39 1 Dan Chruniak 37 M 108 21:27
5 M30-34 1 Conor Sleith 34 M 115 21:40
6 M25-29 1 Andrew Schwingel 27 M 107 21:52
7 M25-29 2 Cameron Cook 26 M 105 21:52
8 M25-29 3 Mark Rabasco 26 M 111 22:13
9 M30-34 2 Jason Dedonato 34 M 112 22:26
10 M35-39 2 Nathaniel Olson 37 M 117 22:28
11 M35-39 3 Corey Girard 38 M 119 22:53
12 M45-49 1 Casey Carroll 49 M 122 23:10
13 M25-29 4 Madhav Rajan 29 M 118 23:12
14 M30-34 3 Kevin Sheehan 31 M 113 23:20
15 M13-19 1 Matthew Reynolds 19 M 114 23:25
16 M30-34 4 Steven Vargo 32 M 124 23:26
17 M35-39 4 Dan Donato 39 M 123 23:34
18 M55-59 1 Dave Dunham 56 M 127 23:47
19 M35-39 5 Brent Wilmot 39 M 126 24:04
20 FOPEN 1 Heather Stover 34 F 140 24:06
25 M45-49 2 Mark Laprade 48 M 131 25:01
Start Finish Untied laces
My hip, glute, calf issues all continued to worsen during the week. I’d find out later that I had a strained oblique muscle. That explained the lightning bolt of pain shooting through my hip. I actually didn’t feel too bad when I arrived at Delta Dental for the Morrill Farm snowshoe race. Traction was tough in the sugary snow and it would only get worse as the field chewed it up during the two loops of 1.8 miles. About 70 lined up with 50 finishing the two laps and 19 choosing to do one lap. First time snowshoer’s Steve Brightman and Kevin Crowley shot out with John Carton in between them. I got around a fast starting Ellen Raffio and was all alone in fourth place by ½ mile into the race. It felt FAST. I was hoping to finish in the top three as that would earn me a fleece blanket. That hope faded a bit as the top three slowly pulled away. My hip and calf started to hurt on the second loop and every slip and slide made it worse. For a short time, I thought I might have a shot at third but Kevin ultimately finished 35 seconds ahead. I got fourth place overall which was only good enough for third in the 50+ age group! In all 11 of the top 15 were 50 or older.
Me, Carton, Brightman, and Boule – top four 50+ Morrill farm plastic cow
The next day I was off to Hopkinton NH for the second race in the Hopkinton 5k series. I was sore from the day before (and the accumulated soreness in my hip) but had signed up for the series and wanted to do all of the races. I was hoping I could run between 6-6:20 pace and as I switched into racing flats, I saw that Mark Laprade was warming up. The top couple of guys from the first race were back with Jim Angell (my CAR series teammate) and Eli Lemire (only 14 years old) ready to give me a race. I I figured I’d go out carefully (the first 100 meters was snow covered) and then hopefully up the tempo. I was a bit shocked when Mark went by me at about 1 minute into the race. My hip was killing me, and it felt like a shot of electricity pulsing through my side. Jim and Eli both caught me around ½ mile in. That was not how I’d planned things to play out! I was having trouble breathing deeply with the pain in my side but tried not to lose contact. We were all VERY careful as the 200 meters before and after the turn were on a dirt road which was now a combination of snow/ice. All four of us were together as we got back onto dry road and it was ‘game on’. I had a decent last mile (6:00) but they just eased away. Jim crossed the line first but none of us were sure who won since Eli had started five seconds after Jim. The official results had Jim winning by 1.1 seconds. Pretty exciting finish.
10 years ago – I only raced twice during February of 2016. No complaints on either result. On 02/14/16 I raced teammate Jim Pawlicki at the Brooksby Snowshoe Classic. I had originally entered in another race that was cancelled because it was too cold! In all 38 of us took off but I’d only see Jim. I led early and after the mile Jim made a move and dropped me. I got back to him after 3 miles on a climb and we went back and forth until 100 meters to go when Jim found another gear and beat me by 4 seconds. At minus 2 degrees at race start this was (at the time) the fourth coldest temperature I’d ever raced in.
1 James Pawlicki M41 21:21
2 Dave Dunham M51 21:25
3 Jeffery Hixon M41 24:05
4 Brett Rickenbach M40 25:15
A week later (02/21/16) I retreated to the indoor track. I was entered in the USATF NE indoor track championships and my hope was that the entire field wouldn’t lap me over the 5,000 meters. I had run 17:26 a few weeks before and was hoping to improve on that. Sixteen runners were entered and 14 were out of sight in the first 200 meter lap. Dan Verrington was the closest but too far ahead for me to latch on. He was 7 seconds ahead at the mile, he came back a bit in the last mile but still buried me.
1 Adam Pacheck GBTC 14:47
2 Matt Hillard Battle 14:51
3 Nate Jenkins CMS 14:55
12 Dan Verrington CMS 16:59
13 Dave Dunham CMS 17:06
I had scheduled Friday off as my car needed repair for a recall notice and it would require that the car be in the shop the whole day. Al B also had Friday off and offered to drive for some town high points. Game on!
We met up at 9 am and spent the next 7 hours visiting 12 town high points. Most were just drive ups but we did have a couple of short hikes. The best was a 1/2 mile snowshoe hike to the highest point in Holliston. In order:
Reading (drive up) back yard looked no higher than front and no one was home.
Lincoln - Drove up Reservoir access road, then hopped the fence (tough for me, I'm not very flexible).
Weston - Drive up, owner did not know he had the highest point but was happy to let us visit his back yar.
Westwood - Drive up, between two house, both having construction work done and no one home.
Wayland - Drive up, no one home tromped around the yard a bit.
Millis - Between two houses, owner knew he had the high point and had no problem letting us check it out.
Medway - Parked at the end of the circle and bushwacked to the town line. A bunch of deer in the woods.
Holliston - snowshoe hike on marked trails. "Summit" had a stone statue.
Norwood - Couldn't get in near the tennis courts and the water towers were fenced and had active construction. Bashed around a bit on the cemetery side.
Brookline - parked behind the Benevolent Association and checked out the very high fence. Squeezed in along the fence and the brick wall.
Newton - took the Waban path and found a hole in the lower fence, scrambled up the hill to the upper fence (nothing higher within).
Watertown - parked behind the building on the top of Meetinghouse hill (used to be Trinity school) golf course built around it. Walked over to the nearby high point.
Some improvement to my hamstring as the week went on. Still not ready to fully return to running but hoping to start doubles next week and just keep the morning rides in place. Hit 50 miles for the week along with 5 hours on the EliptiGo (70 miles), 6 hours on the spin bike (117.5 miles), and 1:45 (20 miles) outside on the roads (Giant bike). Taking whatever my hamstring will allow...
Week - 89
Month - 176
Year - 571
Life - 167,571
On the road, a winter wonderland near Turtle Pond.
20 Years ago – I was coming off of a 1.5 degree calf strain during February of 2006. I ended up missing 6 days and slowly eased back into running and racing. I ran the Frosty’s Dash 5k snowshoe race (02/12/06) running easy on the uphills and quicker on the flats and downs. I managed a 6th place finish in a field of 49 with the race being held during a blizzard that would end up dropping over 18 inches of snow. The following weekend (02/18/06) I was feeling a lot better and tested myself at the Fudgesicle 5k series. I ended up taking second place running 17:52 to Dan Verrington’s winning (and impressive) 16:45. I finished the month (02/25/06) back at the Fudgesicle and Dan chose to run with me for the first half-mile before taking off for the win (17:14) and I again took 2nd place this time in 17:49.
