Mine Falls Trail Running Festival

Fall and cross country racing in New England is my favorite of all disciplines within the year. Being a crazy year with the "crona" and tight grouping/event restrictions in the state of Massachusetts, racing has been a huge void since mid-March. That has left us with virtual races. I just can't get fired up for the virtual races. I did a few Lynn Woods virtual races in May/June and a 1 mile in April. Otherwise, not a fan of virtual racing. 

New Hampshire seems to be ahead of the curve with getting events off the ground in recent months - even with some restrictions such as staggered start, small waves of runners, limited numbers of racers, et cetera. If you are looking for a centralized site or app to find a race, good luck, I don't know of any. Enter social media....read that CMS teammate Dave Dunham was targeting an Ultra Distance race in Mine Falls in Nashua, NH slated for early October. I never ran in Mine Falls and was very curious about the venue and running in a real race. There were various race distances offered as part of the Mine Falls Running Festival hosted by Sub5racing. Being that they had hosted a non-virtual set of races late in the summer and very reasonable COVID Common Sense requirements was a plus in my book. I booked the 5K and was looking forward to my first paid entry and race since January. 

I met up with Dave Dunham and Dan Verrington for a warmup over the 5K course which started from the Pine Street extension of the park. The single track trails were very runnable. A few small bumps, would not even call them hills along the way. Most of the 5K course was fire road width. There was a set of 20 long steps to stumble down with 300m to go but that was the only hazard on the course. 

About 60+ gathered at the start line at 9AM. Everyone was masked and spaced out evenly based on their comfort level. No one wanted to line up on the start line. I found that funny. I stood about 3 rows back, excited to run my first race since January. As we started, I focused on getting some room and settling into something around 7 minute pace. I took my mask off in a hurry so I could breath. Soon, a single track path had me caught behind some folks and I struggled to pick a spot to go around them. I respected the tight quarter to pass with 6ft surrounding so I waited for some room after what felt like several long minutes.

Mile one was around 7:22 and seemed content as I was working for that. Mile 2 was around 7:44, slower with the bumpy part of the course. After two miles, the course had a generous flat section along a canal. The guy in front of me laid some "gapplebees" like I was standing still. It was lonely out there but no complaints. A youngster past me after I managed to not trip down the steps at the end. From there, it was a flat 300 meters to the finish. A tiny participant trophy awaited me in my black CMS shirt, sweating out the almost 25 minute effort over 3.34 miles (note longer than 5K). Low 7:20 pace hurt a bit but so happy to get a race and heart rate up.

Mine Falls Running Festival results, October 11, 2020 Nashua, NH

6th place James Pawlicki 24:49.0 Gun Time

Dan would run 22:34 for 3rd place while the winner, Ian Post ran 20:16. Dave changed his race down to the 16 mile (8 and 16 milers started together) and would take the win. I unofficially joined the Dunham Running Club for the team competition. Still not sure how the team did or how the scoring worked out. But I scored the best gift of all with Dave sneaking a DRC patch and sticker into my race bag.

Trophies!

Dan Verrington and I after the start

Limited Edition Dunham Running Club patch and sticker