September 2020

 5 years ago September 2020 - Not much going on during this month.  My glute/piriformis flare-up had me slowing down and back to Pinnacle Physical Therapy for the first time this year.  I also had a flare up with my ankle/posterior tibial tendonitis.  I did manage to sneak in a race at the end of the month which was just what I needed!

 

Had a nice ride with CMS teammates (Jim Pawlicki, Joe Shairs, and Greg Putnam) on the Labor Day holiday.  We put in 15+ miles on the Topsfield rail trail, then Doug DeAngelis joined in, and we ran another 11+ miles on the Topsfield and Independence trails.  Always great to get out there and connect with friends, especially this year (pandemic).

      

 

Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail Ride - I was looking for something interesting to ride after doing the Northern Rail Trail.  I came up with the Cross New Hampshire Adventure trail (XNHAT).  ​Of the 83 miles of the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail:​  ​40.4 miles paved road, ​ (only 10 miles on a primary road, 30 miles on quiet paved backroads), 11 miles dirt road, 15.5 miles dirt rail trail, shared with ATVs, 15 miles dirt rail trail, non-motorized only, ​1.1 miles paved recreation path. I put the word out and CMS teammates Kevin Tilton and Paul Bazanchuk were both "in", the only others to join in the fun were Jim Graham and Jeff Litchfield.  I got up at 1am on Saturday morning and was in Bethel Maine ready to run at 3:30 am.  I got in a nice 5m run on the rec path and north road (where we'd finish the ride).  Kevin showed up at 4:30am and I drove us over to Woodsville NH (Haverhill) for the start of our ride.  We met up with the others and went over the bridge to start at the Vermont border.  At 6:48am we were off and riding.  It was only 34 degrees but it was going to be a bright sunny day (sunrise was at 6:30am).

 

Total time for the ride was 7:20 with a moving time of 6:49 over 82 miles with 3,381' of climb.  Except for my ankle and rib (from a fall) everything felt pretty good. 

 

NHTI XC invitational:  I heard that NHTI (Concord NH) was having an open XC race.  They have a team but no races this season due to the pandemic.  The coach invited all former students and supporters to come out and race the team.  It was a very flat course, but there were a fair amount of turns and it was a mix of grass and dirt.  It would not be fast, but it'd be fast for cross-country.  Heats of 10 were set based on the number you were given.  I was in the second heat so that'd be one minute after the first group went off.  My heat had a good mix of kids from the XC team and supporters (including the president & CEO of Delta Dental - Tom Raffio).  The kids took it out pretty hard and by 200 meters in I was in fourth place.  I slowly worked my way up and by 1km I was up to second place.  We caught all of the heat 1 starters.   I just didn't quite have enough to get first (and he was looking back a LOT over the last 1.1 miles).  I was happy with the effort and the time was better than expected (18:54). A couple of youngsters from Bow started late and ended up running faster!

Results: 1 Ben Neff 17:46  2 Roanee Nickson 18:50 3 Connor Bernard 18:53 4 Dave Dunham 18:54 5 Garrison Hiltz 19:05