15 years ago - June 2011: The month started with a lot of promise and lofty goals and ended with a DNS (did not start) at the US Mountain championships due to injury.  I started off (06/05/11) with Rhody 5k (USATF NE 5k) in Lincoln RI.  We had a nice day with temps around 70 and low humidity. I may have pushed a bit too hard on the only hill on the course (leading up to the 2- mile mark). I just didn’t have the wheels to get moving after that and kicked in with a 16:36 which was only good enough for 12th in the 40+.  Our masters team did take 2nd place and I scored, which was a bonus.

CMS 40+

36      5/93   15:59 5:09 Greg Putnam              41 Wakefield MA     

49      9/93   16:15 5:14 George Adams           41 Gilsum NH         

56      11/93 16:24 5:17 Joe Shairs                  43 Peabody MA      

64      13/93 16:36 5:21 Dave Dunham 47 Bradford MA

69      17/93 16:44 5:24 Daniel Verrington        48 Bradford MA

89      23/93 17:33 5:39 David Quintal             48 Salem NH

100     26/93 18:03 5:49 John Pajer                  48 Leicester MA      

The following weekend (06/12/11) I convinced Steve Vaitones to add the 10,000 to the schedule for the USATF NE track championships in Weston, MA.  I then reached out to my teammates and we ended up making up most of the field of nine runners.  I settled into last place at the start and went around Dave Quintal before the 200 meter mark; he would be the only person I’d pass in the 25 laps around the oval. I ended up taking 7th and missed my masters best by 9 seconds. CMS dominated the event taking second through eighth place.

 

Switching gear again, this time head to the mountains (06/19/11) for the Mt Washington road race.  I’d stayed away from mountain racing so far this year. Based on my road times and the mileage I’d been putting in I felt I was in shape to run close to my masters PR (1:09:08). The heavy rain came down during our warm-up then stopped just before the race started. I slowly moved through some fast starters and by 2 miles found myself right behind Craig Fram. We were consistently running 4 seconds behind my stretch goal pace, so I knew I was going to be close to my 40+ PR.  Conditions were just about ideal with very little wind above tree-line. At 7 miles I knew I’d be very close to my 40+ PR and if I kept it together, I’d break Andy Ames age 47 record (1:09:33). I ended up finishing 17th and 3rd in the 40+ in 1:09:11, three seconds shy of my masters PR. I was surprised to later learn that I also scored (5th man) for the winning CMS open team. Our 40+ team also won, demolishing the field!

 

1 M2034 1:01:32 Rickey Gates               30 M Woody Creek CO       SSR

2 M3539 1:01:42 Tommy Manning         35 M Colorado Sprs CO     

3 M3539 1:03:31 Matthew Byrne           36 M Scranton PA   

5 M4549 1:04:33 Simon Gutierrez          45 M Alamosa CO   

6 M2034 1:04:45 Peter Maksimow          32 M Maintou Sprgs CO     CMS

10 M2034 1:06:59 Kevin Tilton               29 M North Conway NH     CMS

11 M4549 1:07:09 Francis Burdett          46 M Worcester MA CMS

12 M2034 1:07:22 Jim Johnson              34 M Salem NH       CMS

15 M5054 1:08:50 Craig Fram                52 M Plaistow NH    WHIRL

17 M4549 1:09:11 Dave Dunham           47 M Bradford MA    CMS

23 M4044 1:11:51 Tim Van Orden          43 M Bennington VT CMS

37 M4549 1:16:01 Ernest Brake             49 M North Sutton NH       CMS

40 M4549 1:16:41 Dan Verrington          48 M Bradford MA    CMS

47 M4549 1:17:52 David Quintal            48 M   Salem NH     CMS

89 M6064 1:27:01 Judge Jones              60 M Billerica MA     CMS

117 M4549 1:29:37 Stephen Peterson    45 M Chelmsford MA          CMS

  

The week after Mt Washington was a recovery week for me. My calf was definitely strained so I headed to Pinnacle Physical Therapy in hopes of a miracle. I was able to run (slowly) but it felt like a giant knot in my calf, needless to say I was worried about the prospect of running up/down Cranmore Mountain (site of the US mountain championships) on a balky calf muscle.  Over the weekend I visited some fire towers in Northern NH and my calf went into full blown spasm and that was the end of my mountain running for a while.