BU Meet 3, Cleary Challenge Results

Dave Mingori reports from the third and final BU Indoor Track Meet:

Pretty good day yesterday at BU. I actually thought about doing a 3K/mile double but just couldn't get out of the house in time for the 3K. I finished the mile in 4:59.1 and 800 in 2:20 flat. Felt much more comfortable in the mile this week and worked well with Dustin Baker, who was just ahead of me (he had also run 9:38 in the 3K earlier).

Toledo Joe ran the 800 in 2:11. Bruce Goode was recovering from the flu and stepped off the track after the 400.


CLEARY CHALLENGE UPDATE:

So Dave Mingori's revised numbers, using my 4:27 converted from 1500:

(299-267)/(39-20) = 1.68

Dave H's results would be:

293-281=12
35-24= 11
12/11=1.09

Pmiller is a 3.0 (287-238 then divide by 3yrs)

Joy to the WORLD! BU Meet #2 results

NETT showed well at the second BU Indoor Meet this weekend.

In the Mile, Paul Miller led the charge in 4:48, then Dave H in 4:53, Dave Mingori in 5:04 and Toledo Joe justused the mile as a tuneup for a later race and cruised in 5:15.

In the 800, Bruce Goode made his annual "coming out (of semi-obscurity)" for the meet and clocked an impressive 2:10. Toledo looked strong in the 800 running 2:12, PMiller came in at 2:17 and Dave Mingori at 2:22.

Full results posted here
Results of the CLEARY CHALLENGE are being compiled over the holidays by a team of mathematicians and astrophysicists and we'll get those up ASAP.

BU Meet #1 Results. Dmitry wins mile, Ben and Dave...well...

The legend grows....

Dmitry won the mile race at the BU open meet in 4:16 yesterday and made it look easy.


Here's a pic of Dmitry moving by fast in his RUSSIA uniform. Gun goes off, he paces in second, takes the lead, gets passed back and then uncorks a freaking 26 or something on the last lap to dust the competition.



Man, he makes it look easy.(Two guys who know how to make it look excrutiatingly painful, Dave and Ben, also ran the meet, but we don't really need to go into that, do we Benny?) Special thanks to Frank KJ and Marcello for moral support (cut to scene of Dave bawling on Frank's shoulder "How did I get soooo -sniff sniff--sllllooowww???")



The Danish Duo in Fine Form.




Anyways, they're fun meets and open to any and all runners. Next week, we'll do the Cleary Challenge MILE at the meet and free lunch at the Super 88 after to the winner and loser of the challenge.

And we're still looking for teams in the Lou's 4x1600 relay at BU the following week.

Take the CLEARY Challenge at BU on Dec. 23

For most of us running track is akin to a walk down memory lane...no we're not as fast as we used to be and our PRs are a distant memory, but we still like to compete and challenge ourselves.

With that in mind, Rick Cleary and I have developed a new contest called the Cleary Challenge Mile which we'll test out at the BU Indoor Meet on December 23.

Here's how it works:

Rick, a mathematics professor with a sense of humor, has developed a formula that takes into effect your mile PR, your age when it was set, your current mile time and age and produces a number indicating how many seconds your mile time has slipped per year. Here's Rick's description of it:

Score = (Current mile time (in seconds) - PR(seconds))/ (current age - age at PR)

So this measures "seconds per year" that one is slowing down in the mile. For example, At the moment I'd guess I could run 6:00, my PR is 4:32, I'm 50, and I ran the PR when I was 23. Hence:

Score =(360 - 272)/(50 - 23) = 88/27 = 3.259

So, I'm slowing down about 3.26 seconds per year in the mile. (Unfortunately much more than that lately!)


There will be TWO awards given in this contest--one to the person with the LOWEST number (indicating their PR has slowed the least over the years) and the person with the HIGHEST number (because I'm pretty sure that will be me or Rick!).

If you want to participate, let me know. If you can't make the Dec. 23 meet, results from this week or Dec. 30 will be accepted. If you're not sure of your PR or have never run the mile but still want to participate, the accounting firm of Hannon, Cleary and O'Shannon will assign you a mile PR and estimate the age you SHOULD have set that PR.

Tina and Frank's Saturday Fun

We all had a great time Saturday morning at Tina and Frank's Battle Road run and brunch. Runners of all abilities came out and logged some miles, and eaters of all abilities logged some calories together as well. It was a really good time and thanks to Frank and Tina for the idea and for hosting. SPECIAL thanks to Frank who was sick as a dog on Saturday and still toughed it out on the run and breakfast.

Take a look at all the photos Dmitry took (while running we might add) here in the NETT photo gallery.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled for the date of the NETT Winter Social coming in late January.

Dmitry Conquers Mt. Hood

As we've become accustomed to of late, Dmitry simply destroyed a strong field of runners at the Mt. Hood Assault XC Race this weekend in Melrose. He finished the course in 18:37, almost half a minute in front of his nearest competition and well ahead of some of the top XC runners in the area.






"Hmm...where are the rest of those guys? Must have gotten lost."













What's wrong with THIS picture??

A brief history of Prospect Hill

Tonight, Dmitry and I introduced Leo to Prospect Hill. Leo had never been there before but he toughed it out through two fronts and two back side hills in the dark. Dmitry even climbed up the fire tower on the back side in the dark to spook us.

It seems every time someone new comes up to Prospect there's a long list of questions like "What IS this place?" and "When did the ski area close down?" "How did you find this?" and "How long is the road?"

It got me thinking that I should research it a little bit. And since there's nothing good on TV tonight, I figured no time like the present. A quick review of my training logs show I personally discovered Prospect Hill in 1995 while working at a job in Chestnut Hill and commuting to Lowell every day. Any little "green" spot on the map between Newton and Lowell was on my radar that year.

But the history of Prosect Hill goes much further back. According to the "history" section of the Prospect Hill Advocacy Group's web site, Prospect Hill Park was created in 1893.

"At 485 feet above sea level, the higher of the two is the second highest point in the vicinity of Boston, only the Great Blue Hill stands taller. This peak has been called Great Prospect, but is more often referred to as Big Prospect, while its smaller associate, which stands at 435 feet, is known as Little Prospect. Both peaks provide excellent views of the Boston basin."

There's not much information available on the park in the early 1900s, but this site offers a great history of the ski area at Prospect Hill, which was founded in the 1940s by the town of Waltham. Originally there was a 700' rope tow to the top and two t-bars were installed later (there's a detailed history of it on the site). The most unique characteristic was that the steepest or "expert" portion of the hill was at the BOTTOM instead of the top, as it is at most ski areas. So the bunny slope was off to the right with no t-bar--just walk up, slide down. And the easier part was at the top just below the water towers. So beginners would take the t-bar up there and just go halfway down and stop. I don't know HOW they get down the bottom again though. I guess after a few beginner runs, they assumed you could tackle the steep part.

The area was closed in 1988 and reopened briefly a year or two later before being closed for good. According to one of the personal memories on the site, the second-chance failed for three reasons: no liquor license, no snow and the snow cannon literally blew up on the hill.





This is a pretty good photo of the area from the late 1970s--you can see the road we run up snaking its way up.


And there's a REALLY old picture HERE of folks on top of Prospect Hill. Again not sure what the date of this is, but it came from the web site for the Waltham Land Trust.

If you're interested in learning more about Prospect Hill or taking some hikes up there with a group, I'd suggest joining the mailing list for the Prospect Hill Advocacy Group.

If you're interested in history of other local ski areas like that, check out this site. What a great resource for finding more places to hold hill workouts!! Also, this site lists all the significant hills in Waltham (diabolical laughter...)

Fleece Banana Hammock runs to third at Mill Cities Relay

The Fleece Banana Hammock, a team of mostly NETT runners, finished third overall in the Mill Cities Relay. The team consisted of Jim Rhoades, Paul Y, Jean Dany Joachim, Dmitry and Dave H.




(Dmitry photo: JRhoades)

We were tied for fifth when Dmitry got the baton, he put a hurting on fourth and almost caught third, which we ran down easily in the final leg.













As we were entered under the Somerville Road Runners, however, and none of us are actually members of that club, we were an "unofficial team" did not count in the "official" relay scoring, whatever that means. We did however, get our fair share of $2 beer after the race and had a good time all around.

Special thanks to Dmitry's pal Vladmir for photos, co-piloting and comic relief, and our new pal James Gitanyu for handling pacing duties on two legs.


"I'm cold....you're running my leg right? No, he's running when? Why don't we just make Dmitry do it all? Hey, make sure JD's in the sun!"

Final Results of the NETTMPXCGP

With Andover behind us, we have the final results of the 2006 NETT MiniPony XC Grand Prix (NETTMPXCGP). First a quick note on the scoring. Participants were required to score in at least two events to count in the grand prix.

The Races Scored were:
Lynn Woods Relay
Thomas Chamberas XC Race
GBTC Topsfield XC
Mayor's Cup Franklin Park 5K
Wachusett Deer Run
Andover CC


Volunteers at the Thomas Chamberas 5K all received 10 points toward the Grand Prix. Due to his location in New Hampshire Ben Winther was allowed to substitute two races. Scoring is based on number of NETT participants in the race--if there's four NETT runners in the race, first NETT person gets 4 points, etc. Women were scored separately based on number of NETT women in the race. NOTE: If anyone thinks there's a mistake or their score is wrong, let me know. I'd be surprised if anyone's read this far, to be honest.



Final Results
Men's

Dave H 19
Paul Y 16
Paul M 15
Ben W 12
Toledo 12
Leo 11
Dmitry 10
Dave M 9
John K 5
Frank K 3







Women's
Tina 8
Adrienne 6
Deb R 4







Others scoring in single races were: Dawn M, Dave B, Laura W, Jean Dany, Anthony C, Cindy W,  and Kim S.




Thanks to everyone who participated, supported and ran with NETT in the XC Season this year! It was a lot of fun for all of us.