Pipestave Hill Trail Race

L-R, Pawlicki, Dunham, Jones, Scott
Photo taken by Mike Fitzgerald

I jumped into the first of the 2013 North Shore Trail series of races with the Pipestave Hill Trail Race in West Newbury Thursday night.This race was a first for me so I was foreign to the area and course. Thus, I made a plan to scout the course with Dave Dunham. It was a mix of grass fields, single track trail, and fire roads. Throw in some roots, rocks, mud, one bridge and a few hills – like Pipestave Hill – and you’ve got a nice 5K trail race. The course was a large loop followed by a small loop within the first.  It was a chilly night with some wind. I could not warm up enough jogging slowly before having a moment of silence for the recent Boston Marathon bombings and walking the 150+ runners over to the start below a soccer field. Getting off the starting line was tough as my legs lost any warm blood flow. Andy Scott jumped right out with Dave Dunham and I in tow. Justin Jones (D5K) had to bail 800m in as his shoe came untied. Andy led Dave and I through the single track. I did all I could to stay close to Dave who is better at the technical stuff than he says he is. I passed Dave before we approached the end of the 1^st loop as I felt Andy was gapping us too much. We had a good climb over the field again and found that I was not gaining on Andy who had at least a 10 second lead. He doubled that as we exited out of the woods and back to the field for which we were running against the race (they were heading into their 2^nd loop). Andy finished 1^st in 17:59, I in 18:22, and Dave hung onto 3^rd with a 18:41. Full results. Dave had some calf issues that cropped up causing him to run slower than last year while he is more fit this year. I closed out the night with a cool down over the course, got in a D5K group picture, and caught up with a few folks on racing plans.