Wachusett Mountain Road Race - 3 miles

 Ah, the Saturday before Memorial Day. Sunny and moist in Princeton, MA. Good temps, enough to sweat on a short warm up. I had the CMS singlet on for this being a CMS hosted race. Today's challenge was to get to the top, about 2,000 feet on the elevation scale. I was one of about a quarter of the race who chose to race up only, not up and then down. These leg's are not was they used to be. The field was one of the biggest per Kim Gordon, race director. Steve Laska got the race and heart rates going at 9:30. I found "sustain" gear right away. No choice really. 9:14 passed at the 1 mile. Krissy got video beyond that mile on a rare flat spot. I come into view around 3:18. 

Mile two slowed down to a 9:34. At this point some were doing the run, walk and recovery method. I kept my head down and kept moving forward. I tried to push in the last mile to close a gap between teammate, Paul Bazanchuk and I but he held me off. Another teammate pulled beside me, David Lapierre with 200M to go! I was wasted but held Dave off, barely at our finish. 28:15 was the time. Place is unknown but was 69th to go through that check point (all runners got clocked at the top). I collected Dave and Paul to jog down. Dave wanted to take another route than the course and Paul got back into the race and sprinted after an age-grouper. I managed to hold 8 minute miles down. Overall, good day, over 7 miles covered. 3 Mile Results 10K results

Mt Wachusett Road Race - King of the Mountain 3 mile

The USATF Mountain Series scored the up portion of the race (3 miles to the summit) so that was my focus. My hamstring has been sore so racing down the mountain was not an option. Heading up one mile hill was a strenuous grind, just steps behind Dave Dunham. We got into the park and he pulled away. I settled in for the rest of the race up the auto road. It was hot, and any shade was sought after but limited. Chris Smith went by after 2 miles and made some ground on the seniors. I was ready to end the race and finally got to the summit in 22:38, 22^nd place. I had 9 CMS runners ahead of me which within a race hosted by the Central Mass Striders, was pretty cool. We have two new Seniors that made their debut: Ed Sheldon and Jeff Hunt. I waited at the top for five minuntes, drank a few cups of Gatorade and headed down the mountain with Tim Mahoney and Dave Lapierre. I opted to not go through the finish at the base as the run down was too casual. I headed over to the Wachusett Brewery with Stephen Laska for a plant tour and some samples. Then we headed over to West Boylston for lunch. On the way over there, the fuel pump on the Rabbit decided to fail. Needless to say, I and the Rabbit got towed home.  

The heat got to both the Rabbit and I

Wachusett Mountain

Kristen and I rolled into the Wachusett parking lot about 8:40 in the Gti. I had 50 minutes to grab my number, warm up, and make a pit stop. I ran into Tim Mahoney and Todd Callaghan on the warm up. I have not seen Tim in a while and he’s been racing very well recently. Meanwhile, Todd was so far satisfied with a pair of Nike Lunar Racer's that are usually for the roads and was going to give them a test run on this mix of road and trail today. Not before long, we were getting pre-race instruction from former CMS President Kevin Fallon. At this point, Dave Dunham almost tackled me for a greeting. It is great to see Dave lacing the flats up again and getting into races. We ran the D5K (Danvers weekly fun run) on Wednesday. It will not be long before he is whipping us in the mountain races. The start went off and I casually slid into twentieth place or so about 400m into the immediate climb up to the entrance of the auto road. The course was the same as last year, minus the last .10 of a mile around the duck pond. Mile one passed and I glanced at the watch without any effort to see the split. I carried on into the entrance trailing Ryan Aschbrenner from GBTC. Ryan was tuning up along with Ted Breen who are both racing the Mount Washington Road Race next month.

I caught Ryan at the end of the single track trail heading past the lodge. We began a climb into mile two. Bob Jackman pulled along side and I followed. A left hand turn into Old Indian Trail brought about the steepest part of the trail. Bob did a solid job, keeping a steady effort running up and I focused to stay as close as I could. Mile three passed and I was definitely feeling better at this point this year than last year. I know I went out quicker last year, but this just felt right today. We exited the trail, found pavement and knew the rest of the course was pretty much downhill – almost two miles worth. Only two seconds behind Bob, I told him to “let ‘er fly, it’s all downhill from there.” We would not separate more than a stride all the way down. We exchanged the pacing at least twice. We caught a younger gent on the way down and were reeling in Ross Krause with about 800m to go. Our strides seemed to be all out when Bob found another gear with about 100 yards to go. I had nothing left, finishing three ticks behind him for a 33:14 and 15th place in a very competitive field this year.

CMS folks represented very well with Kevin Tilton, Andy McCarron, Jim Johnson, Tim Van Orden, Tim Mahoney all finishing in the top 12. John Kinnee, Sam Wood, Jeff Goupil, and Bryan Johnston were not too far behind me and ran solid races. My Garmin measured 5.08 miles today. Someone said the course was touted to be 5.2 miles on the application. Either way, I would say everyone enjoyed themselves on a fair mountain course. This was the second race of the USATF-New England Mountain series and I am sure there will be at least 100 mountain goats by the time Ascutney (VT) is finished in July. I missed Northfield Mountain last week so it won’t happen to this guy in 2010.

Post race included some a Polar drink, bagel, and a banana. Scott Mason and I caught up on serious training that was done when he was a young stud ripping up the roads. He was heading up the VCM - Vermont City Marathon after the race to take some photos. Here is a plug for Justin Fyffe who is going to surprise some folks tomorrow.

Big thanks to Wachusett for hosting the race, CMS for organizing the race, Polar Beverages, and Kristen for her company and photos. She took over 150 photos. Scott Mason should have a ton set up as well soon. Looking ahead, I will be running the Rhody 5K, Market Square 10K, and the Mount Washington Road Race in the near future. If I feel good on Monday and have nothing going on, I may jump into the Dory Run 5K with Dennis Floyd.

Wachusett Mountain road race report

The 2009 USATF New England Mountain series kicked off with the Wachusett Mountain Road Race. Due to construction of the access road up the mountain, the race course had to be changed and diverted into the beautiful trails. Runners were warned or at least advised with plenty of signage in and around the registration area. I even recall a refund was offered in advance if the course change was beyond expectations. Mountain runners are hardy souls and did not seem to mind. I welcomed the change of scenery and like the idea of having some generous downhill in the 2nd half of the race.

I went out pretty hard for the 1st mile, settling in behind Andy McCarron and Craig Fram. I did not get a mile split but the effort was quicker than I usually put forth. Kevin Tilton and Ryan Carrera took command after the mile and took off as we approached the entrance to the park. I opened the stride as we then got off the road and into single track trail. It was in this part of the race (1.5) miles that Craig Fram stepped aside to let me by as he was very cautious with the tricky footing, descending beside the 1st mile along Mountain Road. I ran past Kristen who was taking photos shortly before mile 2. I could see Andy way ahead. Meanwhile, I think Tim Van Orden was a few seconds behind me.

Then the grind began up Old Indian Head Trail. This was a steep half mile section that was pretty tough. Tim passed me about half way up. He looked pretty strong and I felt that I could hang on with him through the top . Seconds later, Middlesex Fells training partner, Todd Callaghan, passed by chasing Tim before we got to the top of the trail. I was suffering a bit but was counting on the down hill that awaited a bit after 3 miles.

I looked at my watch at the top of Indian Head and saw 21 minutes or so and wondered how long it would take to see the finish line. Tim and Todd had a 8-10 second lead at the water stop somewhere beyond 3 miles. I opened my stride and tried to reel them in. I made slow progress of that as we were all flying at the same pace. This was a controlled down hill section and thought that it was far from the reckless free-fall that I encounter at Northfield Mountain. I was closing the gap a bit as we ran past the Indian Head Trail that we ran up earlier. I caught Tim on the last uphill climb for the day and a few seconds later got around Todd.

Meanwhile, I looked left and down toward the ski lodge where the finish line awaited. I was not too sure how much longer it would take before we would arrive and what the course was like approaching the finish line area. I did not research the last mile so it was a big unknown. Todd checked out the course on Thursday so he had an advantage. My college coach at Salem State, Tom Derderian, always reinforced to me that you must know the course before the finish line. At any rate, I was in the midst of a battle.

We turned left off the fire road and down toward the duck pond beside the ski lodge. I took the inside turn and surged down the hill. I still had no idea how much race was left and how to get there besides the course flagging. I was trying the shake Tim and Todd. I remember taking the inside lane around the duck pond, even dropping my left arm, pointing to claim the lane as we approached a boulder about 20 yards from an upcoming narrow footbridge. Tim and Todd were hot on my tail as I navigated, carefully around a tree and onto the asphalt, taking a sharp left turn toward the finish chute 10 feet away. It was like the last 100m of a mile race on the track with three hungry wolves fighting for the kill. I crossed the line just ahead of Tim and Todd. I turned to see Tim in the chute right behind me and then Todd followed. I was exhausted.

Todd quickly pointed to his leg and mentioned a wipe out. I did not recall seeing him go down in the last two miles of the course and asked him where he dumped. He took a fall in the heat of the battle with Tim and I on the tough corner just before the parking lot. Kristen happened to get it on video and did not even know he went down because she lost us behind the tree and she stopped recording as we bolted into the finish line. You'll notice how Todd was making ground before we approached the bridge and then the three of us approach the tree and two make it out.

We ran a nice relaxing cool down over the last few miles of the course and certainly shared some good laughs over the battle for the finish. I hope to have many more with these guys in the future.

Wachusett Mountain (5.2? miles) road race

May 23, 2009

1. Ryan Carrera 30:44

2. Kevin Tilton 30:48

3. Andy McCarron 31:46

4. Jim Pawlicki 32:44

5. Tim Van Orden 32:45

6. Todd Callaghan 32:48

7. Tim Mahoney 33:26

8. Allen Spencer(?) 33:31

9. Dave Dunham 33:35

Course profile

Cooling down while Todd points to the scene on the corner before the finish line straight. Dave Dunham, myself, Todd Callaghan, Francis Burdett, and Tim Mahoney. Photos by Kristen Kozlosky.