Holyoke St Patrick's day 10K

I trouped out to Holyoke to hook up with my cousins the O’Connor’s at the 35^th annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day 10K.  As I drove through Chicopee I noticed that I was only about a ¼ mile from where I  lived as a kid on Pendleton Ave and figured I’d swing past the old house after the race.  Upon arriving in down town Holyoke I couldn’t help but noticing how rundown the city is.  Old mill buildings and 3 and 4 story tenement houses were in degrees of disrepair with most windows missing.  Now I’m thinking “what have I got myself into”, “where am I going to park my car”?  I drove to the location Dan O’Connor had given me “the corner of Chestnut and Dwight” and found that the O’Connor’s had commandeered a parking lot and were only letting their friends in.  Great, I will have a car after I finish this thing.  

 

I was greeted by Mike O’Connor, who was already enjoying a St Patrick’s day beverage, “No I’m not running, I’ve had 2 knee operations already” Mike said to me.  Soon I was saying hello to almost all of the O’Connor’s.  Tommy, Johnny, Jimmy, Judy, Irene, Michael, Danny and Kevin.  Francine, might have been there but I’m not sure.  Along with the O’Connor’s there was many of their kids (most are adults now), grandkids and many friends.  In all I’d say there were about 50+ in the group.  The weather was perfect, 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  However 75 degrees is perfect for drinking adult beverages and watching a race but not so good for running if all the running you’ve done is in below freezing temperatures or 35 degrees and pouring.  This was going to be one hot race for me.  

 

I asked around to see who needed to get there race number and discovered that most of the O’Connor’s weren’t running, with the exception of Danny and Kevin.  Most of their kids were running.   OK I needed to get checked in and get my number.  I jogged over to the start area and quickly checked in.  There were over 5000 people registered for this race, making it the 3^rd largest race in MA.  WOW.  As I jogged around I noticed that there was a pub on just about every corner and every one of them had outdoor taps running and people were packing them at 10:30 in the morning.  On the common across from where I was parked was a huge tent which was set up with more taps.  This was going to be one big block party after this race.  

 

I socialized with all the crew up until 12:30, then it was time to get ready.  I did some stretching and loosened up a bit with a light run.  I walked down to the start with Kevin and as I did a guy about my age grabs and says “Hey aren’t you Scotty Graham”?  I responded “yes”,  He introduced himself to me and said that he recognized me from my picture on my blog.  I was flattered because I recognized this guy by his name, Paul Bazanchuk, and he is one of the top 50+ year old runners in the country.  We headed over to the starting line together but the race officials wouldn’t let us jump in the front.  They wanted us to go around the side and to the back of the pack.  Paul and I decided that this was not going to work for us so we jumped over the barriers and got into the 4^th row.  Paul warned me to take it easy on the start of this race because we would be climbing to the 3.5 mile mark, and the big guns were going to take it out at 4:30 pace. 

 

Soon the “GO” command was given and we were off.  I was running hard, TO HARD, I was going to pay sooner or later.  About ¼ of a mile in I passed the O’Connor PARTY.  Then I noticed Danny up in front of me.  Dan had jumped in from the ¼ mile mark to avoid the crush of 5000 people.  He wasn’t going to win so why not.  I ran up behind him and gave him a slap on the back and encouraged him to hang with me.  No doing, and I continued down the road.  Soon we were climbing, and climbing and climbing.  I was toast.  People were passing me in waves.  There was one guy in front of me who would do a cart wheel every now and then to get the crowd going.  This really pissed me off.  I marked him for a kill.

 

Finally we reached the top of the hills by Holyoke Community College.  The homes up there were very nice and well maintained.  A huge difference from down town.  Now it was time to open up my stride and see how many people I could reel in.  I started off slowly and began picking people off.  As I continued I was catching loads of people.  At the 5 mile mark the O’Conner’s were on the side of the road cheering us in.    I even caught Mr. Cart Wheel.  Now I can sleep at night.

 

I ended up running 43:34 which works out to a 7:01 per mile pace.  I was 169^th of 5000 runners and 9^th in my age category and 12 Irish American.  This was my slowest 10K EVER!!  This was even a slower pace then I ran Boston marathon last year (6:55 per mile).  This was one tough race.  I got back to the O’Connor’s tailgate party and was the first runner back.  Soon Danny’s son was back then came Danny, Kevin and the rest of the kids and friends.   Soon the party was in full swing.  Food, soda, Gatorade, and adult beverages were flowing.  I spent some time speaking with each of the O’Connor’s.

 

When I say there was a big party in down town Holyoke, I mean really BIG.  It was 9 square blocks with all the roads jammed with people, and beverage tents everywhere.  It was the largest block party I’ve ever seen.  And to think on Sunday it was going to be 10 times larger with the parade.  WOW

 

Around 3 PM it was time to hit the road so I headed out and swung by our old house on Pendleton Ave.  Funny we moved out of there when I was 9 years old but I remembered the way from the old dinner like it was yesterday.  The road was pot hole city, I think there were more pot holes then tar.  The two houses on the lot hadn’t changed much but there was a fence in between them now.  I can’t believe that 6 of us lived in a house that size.  Thanks Mom and Dad for moving us east and giving us a path to allow us to achieve so much.  We are truly blessed. 

 

Time to really focus in on Boston!!!

 

 

*This e-mail and any attachments may contain content protected  under federal law and is also confidential and proprietary in nature.  If you received this message in error, please notify the sender  immediately and delete the original and destroy all copies of the  message and any attachments. Any other use of this e-mail by you  including retaining, using, copying, distributing, or otherwise  disclosing this information in any manner is prohibited.  

Kingman Farm Moonlight Snowshoe 5K

This race is the highlight for me every snowshoe season. To run a race at
night in the woods with a head light on is a great experience. Not to
mention that this race is put on by one of the best race directors in the
area, Chris Dunn. Chris puts his heart and soul into making sure that
everything is perfect for his races. So when the lack of snow in the NE
area started to endanger this race, he and his team spent hours out on the
course trying to re-route it or shovel snow on the course so it would be
runnable in snowshoes. Alas, Mother Nature will not be beaten and at the
last minute Chris was forced to change the race to a snowshoe's optional
race.

I chose to run in my Yak Trax for better grip with all the ice that I
found out on the course during my warm up. As 50+ of us lined up for the
start Chris was very apologetic for the conditions. Most of use didn't
care because we were going to have fun no mater what the conditions were.
Chris gave us a 30 second warning and soon we were off.

Geoff C, Charlie T, Dan F, and Ri, when out like lighting. I settled into
the second pack (slower guys), and was running behind Austin S. One thing
that seemed funny to me is that we were working together like a biking
team warning each other of hazards along the trail. The sounds of "Roots,
Rocks, and Snow (funny guys we are)" could be heard from the group as we
flew down the trail. After about 1/2 mile I decided that it was time to
see what I had in me so I took over the lead from Austin. I was feeling
good as the trail wound around. However my sense of direction is poor at
best. Within 200 yards of me taking the lead I went off trail (totally my
fault). But in a blink of an eye I went from first in the pack to 3rd, as
Austin and Richard passed me. I was now running in 7th place over all and
worst yet I could hear the sound of snowshoes behind me.

I was not going to be beaten by some who was wearing snowshoes, NFW!!! So
I pushed as hard as I could to try and break this plodder behind me. I
figured that I had a huge advantage when we hit the field, because there
was no snow. But even though I was just a few yards behind Austin and
Richard I was having a tough time following the flags. You see that red
flags work great when they sit on white snow. But place them in a field
with mud and dead grass they go invisible. I think I ended up stepping on
50% of them in the field, sorry Chris.

When we finally reached the snow on the edge of the field my running form
went to h3ll. I was post holing and was stumbling like a old drunk.
After we finally hit the equipment barn by the "snow bridge" I was able to
regain some form and run again, but the sound of snowshoes was still in my
ear. All of a sudden a guy that I had never seen before at a SS race
passed me like I was standing still. In a blink of an eye he was out of
sight. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!

Now I knew that I only had 1/2 mile to go and I wanted to make sure I
finished strong, but I was struggling. In addition I knew that the last
200 yards was up a small hill. My plan was to hold my form best I could
and push hard up the hill. It worked, and I managed to put a couple of
seconds between me and snowshoe boy (Chris Smith).

After the race most of us hung out at the finish area to cheer in all the
other runners. This is one thing I really like about this sport. Yeah
there are winners, but everyone in these races seems to be part of the
bigger picture and really encourages each other to do their best.

The awards were the best ever. Every person had a chance to win a prize
no mater where you finished. In fact every single person walked away with
something. Some even ended up with 2 prizes. I won a pair of micro
spikes...YES!!!

Charlie T ended up toasting Geoff to become the third winner of this race.

1. Charlie T
2. Geoff C
3. Dan 88.6 F
4. Ri F
5. Richard L
6. Austin S
7. Kevan C
8. Scott G
9. Chris S (first snowshoer)
10. Amber F. (first woman), Better half of 88.6
11. Jay C
12. Jay M

So, lets take a quick inventory of this race:

Lack of snow; bad
Quick re-route; good
Change to trail run; even better
Super fast start; bad
Working together to call out obstacles; good
Taking the lead of the 2nd pack; good
Going off course; Even better, the 200 yards of pressure was killing me
Being passed with 1/2 mile to go; bad
Beating the first snowshoer; good
First person over 50; only because the good guys didn't show
Soup and brownies; super (or is that supper)
Winning micro spikes; good
Spending time with some terrific people running around in the dark;
Priceless.

Thanks Chris Dunn for another great memory!!!

Where have I been???

Over the past several month I've kind of gone missing from a couple of
perspectives. First, I've haven't been blogging, because our IT
department has locked down our environment such that I'm not able to
directly access my blog. DAM IT GEEKS (hold on that would be my
department)!!! I could go around the firewalls but then again I have to
set a good example for the rest of the people in the company.

Second, I have not been attending any snow shoe races. The reasons for
this are two fold. 1st even before the Feel Good Farm race I wasn't
feeling well. I was running a fever and everyone at checking was telling
me I was pulling a "Jim Johnson" (aka sandbagging to the max). Well I
wasn't, and I spent that afternoon in bed and the following 2 days nursing
the fever and the next 2 weeks on a sick roller coaster. 2nd, my body was
not really happy with me after the race and I needed to give it a break.
Feel Good Farm was a total disaster.

Third, my wife decided to invite a whole gaggle of family up to our place
in Gilford and I have been playing the perfect host. I guess I had to
hang out with these people because they were my sisters and their
families. We did have a good time and I didn't have to run up any
mountains with screen doors attached to my feet.

Fourth, I've been doing some triple secret training for an Ironman I
signed up for in November. I am now swimming 3 to 4 times a week, or as I
like to call it "I'm taking don't DROWN lessons". I'll be blogging more
on this in the future.

Lastly I'm on a mission from god and I can't be stopped. This April will
be my 25th consecutive year racing in the Boston Marathon. I want to do
well so I've started my marathon training earlier then normal. Usually I
start my distance training in March but I'decided to start putting in the
miles starting in February. My BHAG for this years race is the same as it
was the last 13 year....to break 3 hours. The last time I was able to
accomplish this was back in 1996. Last year I missed it by 1 minute and 8
seconds. AAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Anyway, I'm back online, I'm feeling much better, no more company in the
plans, but the marathon training continues.

I hope to be at one of the SS races soon.

Test number 2

This is my 2nd test to see if I can use e-mail to update my blog

Email test of blog posting

I’m just testing to see if I can post an e-mail to my blog.

 

*This e-mail and any attachments may contain content protected  under federal law and is also confidential and proprietary in nature.  If you received this message in error, please notify the sender  immediately and delete the original and destroy all copies of the  message and any attachments. Any other use of this e-mail by you  including retaining, using, copying, distributing, or otherwise  disclosing this information in any manner is prohibited.  

2009 Recap...A little late

I've been meaning to put this together and I think it is finally
done. Below is a list of all the races I competed in over the 2009
season. There were some HIGH points, Boston Marathon and there were
some low points, a completely burnt out run in Plymouth, NH. I raced
on foot, bike, snowshoe, road, trails, snow, up mountains and across
states. I fell in almost every snowshoe race. I gave it all I had in
every race except for 1, once again it was the race in Plymouth, NH
where I was so beat up I just took it easy and mailed in the effort.
All in all it was a great year for me having turned 50 and putting it
all on the line. Below is the list.



Summary
Toed the line 44

Miles raced 308.84

Time spent racing 35:23:29

Average mile pace 0:07:23

Won Race 1

Won division 16

2nd in division 10

3rd in division 4

Podium finishes 30

Number of runner ran against 34875

Number of runner in my age cat. 2992


Date Race name distance time Pace
1/10/2009 Pooh Hill Snowshoe Scrambel 4.97 0:58:43 0:10:53
1/17/2009 Beaver Brook 5K SS race 3.1 0:20:09 0:07:12
1/25/2009 Curly's Record run 3.7 0:41:32 0:11:11
1/31/2009 Cobble Mtn SS classic 3.6 0:44:13 0:12:17
2/7/2009 Sidehillers 4 Mile SS race 4 0:44:48 0:11:12
2/8/2009 Frosty's Dash for a cure SS 5K 3.1 0:28:56 0:09:20
2/14/2009 Horse Hill 7K SS race 4.35 0:39:48 0:09:09
2/21/2009 Kingman Fram Moonlight SS 5K 3.1 0:28:31 0:09:11
4/5/2009 Great Bay Half marathon 13.1 1:27:52 0:06:47
4/20/2009 Boston Marathon 26.2 3:01:08 0:06:55
5/9/2009 Biglake Half Marathon 13.1 1:29:08 0:06:48
6/8/2009 Krit Classic 5K 3.1 0:19:48 0:06:23
6/14/2009 Emerson 5K race for cancer 3.1 0:18:53 0:06:05
6/18/2009 Westford Summer Series #1 3.5 0:23:07 0:06:36
6/20/2009 Mt Washington 7.6 1:38:00 0:12:54
6/25/2009 Westford Summer Series #2 3.5 0:23:37 0:06:45
6/27/2009 Tilton-Northfield Dare 5K 3.1 0:20:10 0:06:30
6/30/2009 Good Times Series 3.1 0:19:18 0:06:13
7/2/2009 Westford Summer Series #3 3.5 0:22:48 0:06:31
7/4/2009 Center Harbor 4th of July 5 5 0:32:30 0:06:30
7/9/2009 Westford Summer Series # 4 3.5 0:23:38 0:06:45
7/16/2009 Westford Summer Series #5 3.5 0:23:05 0:06:36
7/18/2009 Bill Luti 5 Miller 5 0:33:42 0:06:45
7/23/2009 Westford Summer Series #6 3.2 0:20:49 0:06:30
7/25/2009 Canterbury Woodchuck 5K 3.1 0:19:51 0:06:24
7/30/2009 Westford Summer Series #7 3.5 0:22:46 0:06:30
8/1/2009 Laconia XC 5K 3.1 0:22:20 0:07:12
8/6/2009 Westford Summer series #8 3.5 0:22:57 0:06:33
8/8/2009 Alton Bay Old Home day 5K 3.1 0:19:53 0:06:25
8/13/2009 Wesford Summer Series #9 3.5 0:22:57 0:06:33
8/15/2009 New Durham Parks 5K 3.1 0:19:48 0:06:23
8/20/2009 Westford Summer Series #10 3.5 0:24:00 0:06:51
8/23/2009 Timberman Half Ironman 70.3 6:31:51 0:05:34
8/29/2009 Gilford Old Home Day 5K 3.1 0:22:16 0:07:11
9/5/2009 NHEC Co-Op 5K road race 3.1 0:21:43 0:07:00
9/18/2009 Reach The Beach Relay Leg 1 7.95 0:53:24 0:06:43
Leg 12 3.87 0:30:00 0:07:45
Leg 23 6.24 0:46:48 0:07:30
Leg 34 4.01 0:27:04 0:06:45
10/4/2009 5th annual Pinnacle Challenge 13.75 0:38:25 0:02:48
10/18/2009 BayState Marathon 26.2 3:18:08 0:07:34
11/27/2009 Chelmsford Alumni race 3.1 0:22:00 0:07:06
12/6/2009 Mill City relays 5 0:32:30 0:06:30
12/13/2009 Beaver Brook SS 5K 2.8 0:20:36 0:07:21

Totals and averages 308.84 35:23:29 0:07:23


# of SS races 9
# of Road 5K races 9
# of XC 5K races 2
# of 3.5 mile races 10
# of 5 mile races 2
# of Half Marathons 2
# of Marathons 2
# of Relays legs 6
# of Hill climbs 1
# of Tri's 1

Average Road running pace 0:06:56
Average SS pace 0:09:45
Shortest time spent racing 0:18:53
Longest time spent racing 6:31:51

Beaver Brook Snowshoe 5K

The GSSS has officially started. You can find the results here. It was expected that a whole bunch of the big boys would show up for this race and they didn't disappointed.

This morning started out with final travel arrangements made at 7 AM. I headed up to Hollis with acidotic Racing teammate Mike O'Conner towards the end of the snow storm that dropped anywhere from 1" to 12"+ inches of snow through out northern NE. The travel was made easy due to my trusty GPS. I love that thing! We arrived and ran into the Cullen's who were doing their first SS race. They mentioned that their daughter Amber and her husband Dan (acidotic teammates) were going to be showing up.

Mike and I threw on our Yak Traks to get a warm up run on the course. As we did Jim Johnson showed up (Yes my record is intact for beating JJ to races). Right away JJ is starting his sandbagging. "My foot hurts, I don't feel well, I wasn't going to run, I think I'll just hang on DD tail" Give me a break!! He has been crushing every field he toes the line with. He won Runner of the Year award for the state of NH, was selected to the Inov-8 mountain running team, and his biggest win of all, announced his engagement to the lovely and talented Kristin. He is one lucky guy. My money was on JJ.

Mike and I did an easy run of the course and even walked a few times on the hill sections so we did wear our legs out before the race.

Soon I was talking to all the usual suspects at the race, Bill Morse the divine leader of Dungeon Rock Racing, Dave Dunham (master mountain runner of the year), Jim Hansen, Phil Erwin, Steve Wolfe, Chris Dunn, Tim Cox, Scott Mason (Racing photographer extraordinare), Dan Scotina (ultra running machine), Brent Tkaczyk, Dan Cooper, Jay Curry, Keith O'Brien, Richard Blake, .... That's enough, I think you get the point, the same old crew was toeing the line and the competition was going to be fierce. As Mike and I were driving to the race he was saying that he hoped that we could finish in the top 10, I responded that we'd be lucky to finish in the top 20, then I started rattling off all the people I thought might show up. Our goal became "Don't embarrass ourselves".

Soon it was time to toe the line. We headed down to the starting line with approximately 90 others. I tucked myself into the third row and got ready. Just before the race started I made a quick change of my cleats to ice cleats because the cover was thin and I didn't want the long cleats under my feet.

The "GO" command was given and snow was flying everywhere. I started off slowly on purpose and was trapped behind quite a few slower shoers but I didn't panic. I waited until we reached the 180 degree turn before I started to push it. Now this is an out and back course and most of the first half is down hill. So I decided to not go all out in the first half because the last 2 times I ran this course I had nothing left in the 2nd half. Slowly but surely I stated picking off shoers. At the turn around point I had a good lead on the the next shoer. Richard Lavers and Brent Tkaczyk had about a 50 yard lead on me and I figured that my chances of cat hing them was slim to none. So I just

focused on maintaining my form and work as hard as I could.

With about 600 yards to go Brent and Richard were

right in front of me, WTF!!! I tried getting around them but there

was no room on the trail. I just hung behind them and settled in until

the last 150 yards. The problem was they had more left and blew me

away those final yards.

I finished 14th over all and Mike finished 15th. To put this race in

perspective I ran 1 minute and 30 seconds faster then I did a month

ago and Mike ran 45 seconds faster. I guess I have to consider this

a good effort for my first race of the season.

acidotic RACING took 1st in the team competition and I was 2nd in the

50 - 59 year old age category. Mike was 7th in the very tough 40 - 49

year old age category. And of course JJ won the race.

I will declare that A Good Time Was Had By All.