Lazy Dog Classy 3 mile

The Lazy Dog Classy 3 mile road race in the home town of Lynn was on the SRR Grand Prix. As a result, taking a win like I did the last two years was out of the question. I just wanted to run something respectable and hang on to some of the guys that I train with at the track workouts at Tufts. I ran over to the race changed into some flats and the SRR singlet. I had a few more minutes to jog around with Nakri Dao before getting on the line.

Suffering in the middle on Magnolia Ave

Chris Antunes (SRR) and Steve Gendron took the lead and I was fourth. I moved up to third before the mile in 5:16. Aharon Wright, Bradley Harris, and Andrew Clifford went by on a down hill and I slipped off my pace in an ugly way. Kieran Condon got past me shortly after and I had about enough of the passing. I stayed behind Kieran but he was holding the 15 yard gap into mile two. I started to hear some foot steps before reaching the parking lot through Equitable Bank. I gave up two more places in the next 30 seconds as I ran past Krissy at Magnolia Park. I had to wake up but the legs flat. I turned left on Euclid Ave and kept those two guys close until the last turn onto Broadway. I picked up the pace and charged past them before reached the finish line in 7th place overall - 6th for SRR. GPS got 3.03 miles and mile splits were as follows: 514, 534, 541. Pretty rough. I should have skipped the race in favor of the Ice Fishing Tournement at Flax Pond. Dennis Floyd, Nakri, and I did a slow run back over the course. The next race will be the masters mile at the GBTC Invitational. The race will also serve as the first in the All Terrain Series.

The Lazy Dog Classy 3 mile race results
KrissyK smugmug photos

Mill Cities Relay

Jim, Larissa, Elizabeth, and Megan at the finish

The Mill Cities Relay is always a fun event. 27 miles, 5 legs, 2 states, one river and a cold December day sums it up. A post race party at the finish in Lawrence via the Claddagh Pub caps off the day. This was my third year in a row running with SRR and the open coed team. Our team consisted of fast company: Alex White, Elizabeth Jackson, Larissa Park, and Megan Hyland. We secured a team name of SRR - Alex’s Bulk Organic Produce. If you want some organic veggies at a discount and delivered, just let him know. Larissa picked Brett Rickenbach (Winner’s Circle Coed) and I up and got to the Norman Crisp school in Nashua about 55 minutes before the 8:00 start. This gave me ample time to do all the pre-race stuff and safely get to the start line next to SRR’s Greg Picklesimer and Mike Quintal who ended up finishing 1 and 2 for leg one. Larissa drove off to get ready for leg 2. I settled into 10^th place or so about 400m into my 5.4 mile leg. Mike and Greg were up front and the pack was single file. I trailed or led a single file pack about 50m behind James Sullivan from GLRR. I got onto his heels after 3 miles and he would proceed to surge each time. Ryan Hayes from the Shamrock Running Club went ahead of us after 4 miles with a hard surge. I noted passing 5 miles in 27:58 and was pleased with that. I managed to pass Ryan 800m before our entry into the parking lot exchange zone and get a stride behind James before handing off to Larissa around 30:01. I think our team was in 8^th or 9^th place at the time. I collected Brett who also ran leg one and had to find Larissa’s car so we could drive to the next exchange zone for her finish. She picked up some places on her leg which had a few hills and plenty of narrow road. We got into the Greater Lowell High School about five minutes ahead of her exchange with Megan Hyland who was to hand off to Alex White for the long leg along the Merrimac River. Larissa, Brett, and I drove to the last exchange zone to see Elizabeth Jackson take off once Alex came in. She ran the final leg to the pub in Lawrence to a winning coed division time of 2:35:08 and 5^th team overall. Gate City and Whirlaway had coed teams finish 6^th and 7^th overall in the relay for a competitive race in our division. I had a great time hanging out with mates and members of all clubs inside the Claddagh. Huge thanks go out to Brian Cullinane and Brendan Kearney for putting the teams together. Brian would set a marathon PR the same day at the California International Marathon. Furthermore, John Gorvin was relentless for his communication and awareness of the event leading up to race day. In the end, SRR finished 2^nd overall to GCS in the club championship which is quite the accomplishment among so many competitive teams. Full Results

2011 Mill Cities Relay

Smiling and asking about the competion ahead

The Mill Cities relay website sums it up best - 27 miles, five legs, two states, and 1 river. The race starts in Nashua and finishes right outside the Claddagh Pub in downtown Lawrence, Massachusetts. Five person teams are compiled with distances that vary from 2.5 to 9.5 miles along the Merrimac River. I was fortunate to get on a coed open team with the Somerville Road Runners. 2011 USATF New England Mountain Series winner, Kath Hardcastle led off the charge at the 8am start in Nashua, traversing 5.4 miles to Hudson, handing off to Andy Schneider. Andy hustled 4.75 miles over the state line and into Tyngsboro handing off to Kevin Guarnotta. Kevin ran 2.5 miles along the Merrimac River into Lowell handing off to me. I covered 9.5 miles through Lowell, Dracut, and into Methuen. I handed off to recent Larissa Park who recently ran a 2:52 marathon in Philadelphia. She wasted no time over the last 4.75 miles, finding her way to Canal Street in Lawrence to help the team finish 1st over in the coed open division.

I went to sleep last night pretty nervous about the relay. I was not too sure how the logistics were going to play out for me. I was worried about getting to the start of my leg, securing warm clothing at the end of my leg, and was uncertain how to get myself to the finish. Fortunately, Todd Callaghan put me at ease this morning in Nashua and let me ride with him as we were running the same leg. Todd and I got to the start of our leg around 8am when the relay started. We were not expecting our teammates to come through our exchange zone until after 9:10. I went out for a warm up with Todd at 8:45. The clouds broke for sun as I put on my yellow SRR singlet. I wore my Nike Lunaracer 2 flats. I walked over to the exchange zone and Kevin came in to hand off the slap band to me. I took off and set my sights on the runners that were about twenty seconds ahead which included Dave Corbett, Jim Rhoades, and Joe O'Leary.

While running through Lowell with the Merrimac River on my right, I recalled memories of my 2010 Bay State Marathon where I had a tough stretch in the last four miles. I ran through the water stop taking Gatorade from Jen Arnott (formerly Jen Lavoie) with whom I went to high school with. It took me a while to catch Chris Spinney who I was tracking down for a bit. I ran beside him for a few strides checking in. He mentioned that he rolled his ankle at 2.5 miles. He hung in there and was seen two hours later icing his ankle. I felt pretty good, still on my toes, with the sun now over my rear right shoulder. The river was flowing in the same direction as the runners. Everything was good.



Larissa Park, Andy Schneider (with the brick), Kath Hardcastle, and I



I peeked at my watch at 40 minutes into my run. Then I saw John Gillis for the third time on my leg - yelling encouragement and offering water. He told me that I was getting closer to Todd Callaghan who was hurting (turned out he had a stitch that haunted him for miles). I was guessing that I had two miles left and tried to close the gap. I passed mile eight and just then realized the leg mile markers where painted in orange all along (duh!). Todd was too far ahead to reel in. I turned left into the industrial park where the exchange point was. I could see someone driving Todd's Subaru Wagon into the parking lot. I came through the exchange to handing off to Larissa. I felt good about the effort (just under 54 minutes - 5:41 / mile pace). Joe O'Leary came in behind me. My relay mates, Kevin and Andy were there so I got an update on how the SRR teams were doing. Our coed open was in 1st place for the division. They offered me a ride to the finish but I passed so that I could find Todd and get my warm clothes and dump my flats for my trainers. I let Todd out of my sights and could not find him for the next 25 minutes. The sun disappeared into the clouds and I started to get cold. I finally found Todd walking with Dave Quintal who ran with Winners Circle. Todd drove us through the last leg and to the finish line where a huge after party awaited at the Claddagh Pub off Canal Street in Lawrence. I sat down to pasta, salad, and bread while catching up with teammates and friends. Our coed team finished first in our division so we got a coveted brick as tribute to the Mill City.