Mill Cities Relay

“Bib number 143,” was called out by the exchange official. “143!”Oh shit, that’s me as I walked into the exchange zone expecting to be a fewminutes early. Scott Abrams was standing there looking around. I jumped intothe exchange zone and took the snap band and asked how long he was waiting. “Oneor two minutes” said Scott. That was our introduction. I had no time to apologize.

I burned rubber from the boathouse on the Merrimack Riverfor the start of leg 4, the long one (9.4 miles) of the five legs within theMill Cities Relay. Thomas Bok, Brian Lavallee, and Scott Abrams ran the firstthree legs and were a minute or two ahead of schedule. All I had to worry aboutwas to run down Rt. 113 via Lowell, Dracut, to Methuen to hand off to MichaelQuinn who would anchor the SRR masters team into Lawrence.

A guy I did not know was immediately next to me after the boathouse.He commented on the personality of the exchange zone official. We introducedourselves after determining that we were both looking to run low six minutemile pace. Corey Girard was running for the Greater Manchester Running Club(formerly Athletic Alliance). Two guys passed us within the first 600m. Theywould be the only two to pass along our leg. We ran through the drizzle andaround as many puddles as possible. Krissy and I had the same leg. It caught up to here on the trail along the river. 

I yelled out splits each mile as Corey and I were feeding off it for confirmation that we were hitting pace. He was holding his own andwe seemed to be matching pretty well as the miles went by. We both seemed content with the pace. I did push the sixth mile for the fastest of all with a 6:05.

It was cool to see Dave Dunham who snapped a few photos. Hewas around six miles (shared that Dan Verrington was just up ahead where ittook me a few miles to catch him) and then after 9 miles. Corey took off as weapproached our exchange zone hand off catching one of the guys that passed us 9miles earlier. It was pretty cool to randomly run with and have company from arunner for 99% of the leg sharing the work along the way.

I thanked Corey after we handed off to our respectiveteammates. My guy, Michael Quinn would finish up for our team who was 33^rdoverall and the 7^th men’s masters team for the day. My time was58:45 (6:12 per mile pace) for 9.45 miles.

Splits: 6:20, 6:13, 6:08, 6:15, 6:09, 6:05, 6:13, 6:16, 6:13,6:09 for the last .4

34th Annual Mill Cities Relay

I had leg 1 for the Mill Cities Relay race: 5 runner relay from Nashua, NH along the Merrimack River, finishing up in Lawrence.  27 miles, 5 legs, 2 states, 1 river is the deal here. This is a fun event as it is a great team event of the 19 running clubs that take part. The Somerville Road Runners put some time and effort into this and it is hard not to take part in the fun. I was fortunate enough to get onto a men’s masters team.  I got a good clean start and tried to determine who else was a master runner. My goal was to be as close as possible to the lead for the category after my 5.5 mile leg. I was running either in front of or behind fellow yellow SRR Kyle Pochini most of the way.  

Two runners went past me after 2.5 miles. The first was a GLRR runner who clipped my heels twice followed by apologies. He followed to crush the 2^nd half of the leg. The other was a woman from WRT who held me off by 10 seconds or so in the end. I finished up with a time of 33:10, 5:55 per mile pace for the 5.6 that my Garmin captured. I am not certain but think I was in the top 3 for the master category after leg 1. I handed off to Sanjay D’Souza who ran 6:15’s for leg 2.

Dan Verrington, Dave Dunham, Joe OLeary, and Kieran at the boat house in Lowell (3rd exchange zone)

Kieran Condon and Jason Lachapelle were there at the exchange waiting for me. We drove to the next exchange zone along the course cheering on the runners of all teams. We dropped Jason off for his leg 3 (2.5 miles) and then drove to the boat house in Lowell where Kieran got warmed up and ready for leg 4. I snapped a few photos and caught up with some folks. It was nice to be a spectator. Jason came in and handed off to Kieran. Sanjay was cooling down from the finish of his leg over to us so we finally got in the car and I drove us  along leg 4. We watched an epic battle between Kieran and Todd Prokop who had made up a 45 second deficit. They battled after 3 miles into the leg 4 all the way to the exchange zone. I am glad I got photos of that. 545’s for Todd on that leg is solid. I am sure it pushed Kieran as well. He handed off to Eric Ahearn. Our team did not know what place we were in for the masters.

Todd Prokop and Kieran battling during the long leg

Once Kieran cooled down we got in the car and drove along the course to the finish. Eric had moved up several places. He passed Dave Long from Wicked in the process who was on a masters team. I am not sure if he passed the AARC masters team but his strong finish put our team on top in the end by a minute and seven. Pretty close! We got the brick at the awards ceremony at the Claddagh Pub which was cool. Below are the top four masters teams. Our team finished 10^th overall in the Mill Cities Relay. Full results.

Sanjay, Kieran, Eric, I, and Jason

10   207 SRR - 40'S THE NEW 20                              SRR     MM  JIM PAWLICKI         SANJAY D'SOUZA       JASON LACHAPELLE     KIERAN CONDON        ERIC AHERN           2:41:22

12     7 VAYA CON DIOS                                      AARC    MM  MIKE VEILLEUX        JAMES PORTER         MIKE PORTER          CHRIS BERNIER        CHRIS CLAPP          2:42:29

13   328 WICKED REPETITIVE                                  WRC     MM  JASON MATULEWICZ     BRETT RICKENBACH     CHRIS NOLIN          JOHN AYERS           DAVE LONG            2:42:42

21   173 NMC MASTER'S MACHINE                               NMC     MM  ED CHARTIER          KEVIN CAVANAUGH      KEN CARABBA          ART BESSE            JOSH CURTIS          2:51:01

My Mill Cities splits below. I raced almost 2 minutes slower than last year where I ran leg one with a 5:41 pace.

Kieran, Jason, Sanjay, and I

Mill Cities Relay

Today was another edition of the Mill Cities Relay. The men’s masters team for SRR had a few line up changes that had guys move into other divisions this year. I felt bad for declining to run the long leg of 9.4 miles several weeks ago. With XC Nationals coming up, I wanted to save the legs. I got leg one, which is still a 5.4 mile distance but had a new start location from the Wings Bingo Facility which was ripe with the smell of cigarettes as soon as you approached it.

I got a good clean start and settled in. At one point, I had three other SRR runners within arms reach in the 1^st mile which I clocked around 5:36. I was a stride behind David Long from Wicked. He would extend that stride to several over the next few miles. As would the SRR mates like Todd Prokop and John Longo. Arthur Besse, running for NMC, went by looking good more than half way through. I encouraged him to keep going and try to catch David (Arthur would run a 30:54 for 5.4 miles). I did keep Alex Hall (Whirlaway) close and managed to pass him just before the end of the leg where I handed off to Jim Rhoades with the 3^rd slot in men’s masters position. 

I picked up Jim’s car, changed my shirt and drove off to his exchange point at Greater Lowell. I ran over to the exchange point and gave Darrin Cormier a heads up and to expect Jim. Jim arrived and handed off to Darren who ran 2.4 miles to hand off to Jesse Morrow, our team captain who took one for the team by running the longest leg of the day (9.4 miles). At least we had the wind at our back for the most part. He handed off to John Wichers who took it home to Lawrence. Jim and I parked at the top of the hill on the last leg – 400m before the Lawrence town line. He took several photos for the hour before we packed up and headed to the finish line.

In the end, the our team placed 31^st overall. We were the 5^th master team for the day, respectable, considering the talent out there. My pace was 5:39 based on the time of 31:14 (I stopped the watch after my hand off) while Alex recorded a 31:06 right behind me. Everyone joined inside the Claddagh Pub for some grub. I had to leave during the awards but I saw several Bricks picked up by SRR. Overall, the club placed 2^nd overall, just three points ahead of 3^rd place. Every place counted! Results

31   164 SRR - JESSE AND THE RIPPERS   

MM  JIM PAWLICKI   JOHN WICHERS  DARREN CORMIER   JESSE MORROW    JIM RHOADES   2:53:28

Mill Cities Relay

This past Sunday was my 5th consecutive Mill Cities Relay with the Somerville Road Runners. I ran on the coed open team in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Last year, I got bumped onto the masters team. I ran the long leg (#4) in 2011. Since then, I have been fortunate lead off the relay for the teams. I like the first leg for a few reasons. It has a wide downhill start and I can see all competition around me. I can time my warm up appropriately so I am at the starting line for the 8:00. It was a cold morning with a frost on the grass but the sun was rising and sure to warm up into the 50’s by 1:00.

With the drop of the brick, the race sprinted out. I chose my position carefully and scanned ahead for any master runners. David Long (Wicked Running Club) and Doug Martyn (Whirlaway) were just ahead. I passed Doug before the first bridge and got in behind David. We passed the mile in 5:31. David said that was pretty quick and I shrugged while mentioning to just keep it going. We slowed to a 5:40 into mile two and he was now behind me. We would occasionally run past his relay car of Wicked mates who would cheer for us. The rolling hills slowed me down to a 5:50 through 3 miles but I bounced back with a 5:43 and 5:46 that had a little downhill in them. I passed no one and no one passed me since I broke away from David before mile 2. I did have SRR’s Sean McDonough (his first race since exactly one year ago) in front of me battling someone else along the way. I rolled into the relay exchange, hearing David behind me (see video below). My time was 30:46 for the 5.4 mile leg handing off to Sanjay D’Souza. I traded the slap band for his keys. I had the masters team in the lead by less than five seconds.



I got in the car after a quick photo with Krissy (she ran leg #4 later in the morning) and drove off along the leg 2 course following along into relay exchange zone #2. Sanjay held his own giving up a few seconds to Chris Nolin from Wicked. John Wichers took over for the 3rd leg running 2.5 miles before passing the reigns over to Greg Pickelsimer who got the lead back and extended it for our masters team. Sanjay and I drove into relay exchange zone #4 to give Joe O’Leary a heads up and to support teams along the way by shouting out the window at anyone we knew. At the last exchange zone, I caught up with the teamates and watched Greg come in and hand off to Joe who was the last leg runner for our team. Out team, SRR - Joe O'Leary and the Heartbreakers would win 1st place in our master category with a time of 2:34:46, just about three minutes ahead of 2nd place Wicked Persistent, and 3rd place, Brick Chasers (GDTC).

2015 Mill Cities Relay Results

Krissy and I after my finish
Photo by Maryann Kozlosky

Just before the 1st exchange zone
Photo by Krissy Kozlosky

Myself, Joe O'Leary, Greg Pickelsimer, John Wichers, & Sanjay D'Souza
Photo by Chris Klucznik

Mill Cities Relay

Today was the 31st running of the Mill Cities Relay - consisting of 27 miles, 5 legs, two states, and 1 river. Joe and Sandy Armstrong from Wicked Running Club picked Krissy and I up for the ride to Nashua. I met up with Jim Rhoades to give him his number and drop off my running bag before heading out for a 2 mile warm up. I was running leg number one for the Somerville Road Runners Men's Masters team. I went through the mile in 5:26 in about 5 seconds behind Brian Keefe from SRR. My third mile was the slowest (see below) per Garmin. I recall SRR training mate Kieran Condon passing by and I stayed with him for less than 800m before a few more guys went by. We were fortunate to have a tail wind. Mike Paulin from the Wicked Running Club and D5K weekly runs passed me during mile four. Mike and I finished the Vermont City Marathon together back in 2013. I dug down to surge back and pass Mike after mile five and held him off, handing off to Jim Rhoades. I drove his car to the next exchange zone to pick Jim up and watch him hand off to Jesse Morrow. Jim and I then went to the boat house. We missed Jesse finish and hand off to Greg Picklesimer who was taking on the long leg. We drove the back roads over to the fourth exchange zone where Greg was handing off to Joe O'Leary. As we drove past, it was obvious that they were in the midst of the exchange so we drove into Lawrence so Jim could take some photos (see the link in the results below). Joe looked good running past us as did the rest of the SRR folks. We got back in the car to warm up and drive to the finish at the Claddagh Pub in Lawrence. After watching the finish line for a bit, we headed in for some food and drink for a few hours. Team photos were taken and awards were given. Our team got a Mill Cities Brick for the 1st place men's masters team! The post race set up is awesome to catch up with everyone and all things running. There were funny stories all around.........

Dan Vassallo passed 61 runners on leg 4
Festus being Festus
Ask Paul Hammond about the story behind the Cowboy boots
Where was Mike Quintal?

Joe O'Leary, Jim Rhoades, Jim Pawlicki, and Greg Picklesimer

Statistics from the Garmin 220
30:25 overall time (30:01 in 2013 and maybe under 30 in 2012 - stopped at 30:22 after hand off)
5.43 miles
5:36 mile pace

5:26
5:34
5:46
5:34
5:39
2:24 (.43)

Full Results

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

Mill Cities Relay

As the Mill Cities Relay slogan goes, 28.3 miles, 5 legs, 2 states, 1 river. I ran my second relay in consecutive years with SRR Coed Open team. I led off with a 5.4 mile leg from Nashua, handing off to Diona Fulton who was responsible for 4.75 miles before passing the baton to Lexi Abel who would rip through 2.5 miles to the boathouse on the Merrimac River in Lowell where Chris Klucznik would run the 9.5 mile leg to hand off to team captain, Sean McDonough, to take it home with a hilly 4.75 miles to commence at the Claddagh Pub in Lawrence. Our team, SRR - Nuke to a Knife Fight, finished 12th overall and fourth overall in the very competitive Coed Open division. All teams by division are here.

Krissy dropped me off at the Claddagh before 7:00 so I could meet up with my team. Lexi and Chris followed Sean and I up to the start. We were surprised how icy the side roads were upon our approach to the start in Nashua. It was somewhat concerning. Someone joked that they forgot their ice skates. I got sorted in my racing gear and waited in the cold Port-O-John line at 7:35. By the time I got out, I only had 12 minutes to warm up for the 8:00 (sharp!) start. I bumped into Todd Callaghan and we ran five minutes out and turned around to head back to the start. We missed the gun. There was a mild panic followed by hustling to get past and up to the front of the race. It took us a few minutes but we were in the top 25 before we knew it. The footing underneath was not too bad aside from ice on a bridge that lasted about 75 yards. I reeled in one runner at a time and got up into 7th place. I could see Mike Quintal way up ahead leading the SRR open. Todd pulled up on me before 3 miles, with a split of 16:42. We had some back and forth with three guys right in front of us (Whirlaway, GLRR, and ?), maybe 8 seconds up. Mile four went by in 22:17 (5:35) as Todd and I continued the back and forth battle, working hard to keep the pace honest and keep the three gents ahead close. Mile 5 went by in 27:50 (5:32). We had just .4 to go. Soon, Todd asked if the exchange was ahead. I was not familiar with the course so I was feeling it out myself. All I knew was that we were looking for a Sears warehouse.

28.3 miles later from L-R, Jim Pawlicki, Sean McDonough, Lexi Abel, Chris Klucznik

We soon started to see runners turn left so we knew that the exchange had to be in there. Todd got a step ahead into that turn. I used discretion and caution not to slip. We ran into the exchange ready to hand off to our teammates. We both slowed down to a crawl as no one was there to accept the exchange from our outreached arms. I walked through the exchange, looking for Diona on the left, right, straight ahead. I saw at least six other SRR mates. Jeers and booing rang from the spectators with their disapproval. One guy told me to keep going. I turned around, walked back to the beginning of the exchange with the baton strip up above my head. Todd found his partner. Then I saw Diona on the side walking in. She had that look of surprise and "oh @#&%?!" She jetted out of there. I think I then stopped my watch at 30:22, not really sure, it was a blur. That .4 accounted for a 2:32 I guess? Sean was huge. He had my bag of dry clothes right there for me. I changed into them a few minutes later after catching up with Krissy and friend Sandy. Sean collected his car and we drove through that second leg cheering mates along the way. We went ahead to the boat house where Chris was getting ready for Lexi. The studs were ready to take off in this exchange...Pat Moulton (GCS), Joe Navas (WRT), Dmitri Drozdov (SRR), Jake Barnett (SRR open), Jose Ortiz (WRT) just to name a few. While hanging out, I was happy to see Chris Simpson come through for the SRR masters. He's a quick dude and it was awesome to see him on the roads as his forte is with spikes on the oval. Lexi came through to hand off to Chris Klucznik who had the longest leg of the day but one that would include a lot of runners to catch. Sean and I drove to the last exchange so he could get ready. While there, I caught up with Scott McGrath (former CMS, then WRT). One thing of note at the last exchange, the Port-O-John's were not there forcing runners to hit the woods. Anyhow, Chris came through to hand off to Sean.

Todd and I entering the exchange zone. Photo by Roger Perham.

I drove Sean's car to the finish with Chris and Lexi in tow. I gave a yell out the car window to anyone that I knew along the way. Sean brought it home and the team finished 12th overall as mentioned above. The next two hours were spent in the Claddagh for the post race festivities. I devoured the meal like a starved fugitive and caught up with several friends. In particular, I spoke with Mike Pelletier of the North Shore Striders, getting the scoop on the Nahant 30K (I got lucky and won this a few years ago) which will be granted as a USATF New England Grand Prix Championship in the next week. I am excited for the opportunity to have a race in my backyard. Soon, it was time to call it a day at the Mill Cities Relay which in summary is the perfect opportunity to get your club to put several teams out there and have fun. I saw that throughout the event and even more so at the Claddagh Pub where members from all teams are in good company. The event for me closed with a team photo which must have been downright intimidating with all of that black and yellow. As I reflect on my leg today, the one thing that sticks out is how quick it went by. I don't mean the time it took run 5.4 miles. I mean how fast it all went by. It felt like it was over in minutes, not a half an hour. I guess that is a good thing.

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.