BU Meets Wrap Up

While NETT did not get a chance to run a 4x 1 mile relay this week at the final BU Mini-Meet this weekend, Dave Mingori was a one-man NETT squad on the track, running both the 3000 and the mile. Dave blasted through the 3K in sub-10 and then bounced back for a 5:06 in the mile.

Due to an overwhelming turnout at the meet, the relay got pushed back to 3 pm, too late for a couple of our team members to make. But Kudos to Big Ben and family for coming all the way down from NH to run, as well as Drs. Miller and Goode and soon-to-be-lost-to-Texas Peter G. Would have made a great relay team. Maybe next year.

Some light reading for the Holidays.

Just a quick roundup of some recent stories on trail running that have appeared in various newspapers around the country:

San Francisco Chronicle’s HEALTHY OBSESSION column

SanLouisObispo.com’s profile of ultrarunner Thomas Reiss.

Summit Daily News (CO) profile of Elliot Henry.

Elmira, NY Star-Gazette’s profile of Dave Weiss

Seattle Post Intelligencer story on trail and ultra running

Rutland Herald profile of Newton Baker

NETT women win the "Mt. Hood Massacre" XC Race

Okay, boys, get your spatulas ready!

The NETT women overcame a couple last minute calls in sick to win the women's division at the Assault on Mt. Hood 3.2(?) mile XC Race today, while the men put in a valiant effort--wearing aprons in the race no less--to finish second in their division.

The result is that the men's team has to cook the women's team breakfast after an upcoming run (details to come later).

The womens' team of Adrienne Cyrulik, Jennifer Shultis and Karen Miller-Medzon finshed 65, 88, 107 overall. (The results on coolrunning don't show their team score--we'll fix that). (UPDATE as of Monday AM): The Somerville Road Runners did in fact have a women's team that NETT beat by a very narrow margin, according to my scores--260 to 264!

The men's team pulled out every available member they could find to avoid losing the bet and put their three scoring members in the top 12 in the race, but couldn't overcome the CMS team putting up a 1,8,9 score. Running for the men's team were Paul Miller, Dave Hannon, Dave Mingori, Jerry De Zutter, Ryan Hunt, Bruce Goode and Anthony Chamberas.

The race itself was a hit with all the NETTers and extended family in attendance (Special thanks to Jerry's wife Jennifer handling extra babysitting). Course was very hilly and a mix of snow-covered golf courses and some paved roads. Post-race event was excellent--great food (pasta and meatballs piping hot), great drink (all runners get a nice beer glass filled up with cold beer) and good prizes (age-group winners get a bottle of homebrew!). The Melrose Running Club puts on a great event here.

Melrose Mt Hood SmackTalk Gets Downright Scary

The bad blood between the NETT men’s and women’s teams leading into the Assault on Mt. Hood XC race this weekend has resulted in a nasty war of words.

It all started at the Andover XC race, where the two teams had a bet. Whichever team finished higher in the standings for their respective division would have a nice breakfast prepared for them by the other team after an upcoming run. Unfortunately, the bet resulted in a tie as both teams won their respective divisions at Andover. That pushed the bet over to the Mt. Hood race this weekend.

Jennifer Shultis has been leading the women’s smack talk. “We want to see these men in the kitchen with aprons on where they BELONG” she said recently in a very spiteful and nasty email exchange with men’s team captain DaveH.

Dave responded by saying “Men wearing aprons and cooking. Aprons? PUhhhh-leeeaase. As we say around here in Boston ‘Nevaah gunnah haahhpenn.”"

Jennifer shot back to Dave and the women’s team with, “Apparently, the comment about seeing the guys in the kitchen wearing aprons got a reaction, or so Dave says. Claims they have quite a line-up. Blahblahblah...yeah, whatever. Dave, you better tell those little piggies of yours to giddy-up. I can almost hear them squealing, Clarice.”

The Hannibal Lecter/Silence of the Lambs reference left Dave utterly speechless.

I guess it will all be decided Sunday morning in Melrose.

Fleece Banana Hammock Rides Again!

For the third year in a row, the Fleece Banana Hammock team put in a very strong result in the Mill Cities Relay, finsihing 6th overall this year in 2:35.

Entered under the Somerville Road Runners banner, the Banana this year consisted of Jim Rhoades, Paul Young, Jean Dany Joachim, Dave Hannon and newcomer to the crowd, Peter Gallimore. The first leg went off very fast with some of the top runners in New England laying down fast times and putting the always fit Rhoades back a bit in the pack despite running his usual solid time. Young took the baton in around eighth place and began the process of chipping away, running down a couple runners. JD put in a PR time on his usual "baby leg" of 2.5 miles and gave the stick to Hannon, who was taking the 9.5 mile leg in the absence of our usual Russian Rocket, Dmitry Drozdov who's handled the long leg the past two years.
Hannon did his best to keep the team in competition, passing three teams along the way and handing off to speed demon turned marathoner Gallimore. Peter did a great job of holding onto our sixth place spot by holding off a pack of teams behind him including the Whirlaway masters team, always a daunting force to have behind you.


Honestly, have you ever seen a guy wearing purple tights look SOOO masculine? I don't know how he does it!


As always, the post-race party at the Claddagh Pub in Lawrence was better than most, with cold beer and warm soup.

Overall, it was another successful run for the Fleece Banana Hammock. Nice work boys.

(All Photos Courtesy JimRhoades.com).

Gatorade inventor dies

The Associated Press reports that Dr. J. Robert Cade, who invented the sports drink Gatorade and launched a multibillion-dollar industry that the beverage continues to dominate, died Tuesday of kidney failure. He was 80.

The AP report says "Now sold in 80 countries in dozens of flavors, Gatorade was born thanks to a question from former Gators Coach Dwayne Douglas, Cade said.

He asked, "Doctor, why don't football players wee-wee after a game?"

"That question changed our lives," Cade said.


I guess we all owe Dr. Cade a debt of gratitude for putting off the BONK for at least a few miles. So raise your plastic bottles to him one more time!

NETT men's, women's team win Andover XC titles

New England Track & Trail had a banner day at the Andover Country Club 6K XC Race this weekend, claiming both the Men's and Women's team titles at Andover for the first time.

It was a day for superlatives. The NETT Ponyettes came out in full force, fielding what is likely the strongest women's team ever assembled. While the women's race only scored top three, NETT would have taken the title if they scored top seven in this puppy! Finishing for NETT's women's team were: Karen Ringheiser, newcomer Mary Smith, Tina Wang, Adrienne Cyrulik, Jennifer Shultis, Laura Wieland, Deb Robertson, and Karen Miller-Medzon. Congrats on a well-run race ladies! VERY impressive turnout, running and scoring all around. It's a team win!


On the men's side, it was also a numbers game with NETT putting out a full squad with very good XC running from its runners. Up front Paul Miller ran a very strong race finishing second overall, setting NETT up nicely. Crazy Dave dropped the ball and let three guys scoot past in the last mile to score, but our 3-4-5 combination of always steady Paul Young, Dave Mingori and Jerry De Zutter sealed the deal with tight pack running (these three Woostah guys have been running races together like this for years and are a huge advantage in team scoring!) Big Ben Winther put out a great effort and Frank KJ toughed out an off-day but was there if we needed him to go all out. And Laura's boyfriend Kevin (sorry Kevin--didn't get your last name), laced 'em up and came out for the NETT squad as well. Again, a true team win.



Karen Miller-Medzon's two sons, Noah and Daniel, were also on the NETT team and represented us very well, both running strong with Daniel taking the Under 19 age category!

Special thanks to  Janos (aka the Hungarian Landshark), and Deb's mom (aka Mrs Roberston, I presume?)! And of course, our team photographer Nicholas again did a fantastic job of capturing the moment! Thanks again.

It's a long way from the early days of NETT, when we could barely assemble a five-man team at the 2002 Andover race (it was Dave, Paul Miller and three guys borrowed from Wheelworks, who we barley knew--at least then!) It was the first race we entered as NETT and we've been back to Andover every year since.

(Big Ben screams "Hey, who wants another BEER? I'm BUYIN'")

UPDATE: For those of you asking about the BET between the men's and women's team, as I had planned it, the bet was based on PLACING as a team--so since we were BOTH first place in our respective divisions, it's a TIE and will roll over to the Melrose Race. (If you score the first three runners on each team, it would be the men's team winning, I think, but that wasn't the bet as I understood it).

So it's onto the Melrose race in two weeks for the breakfast bet. Three people score on each team.

Dasvidania Comrade!

As most of you know, we'll be losing Dmitry to the U.K. for a while, but he's promised to return here to the states with Venus as soon as possible (Here's a nice pic from his sendoff party at the Skellig) While over there, he will be grooming Venus to be a strong addition to the women's team by running her up and down every Fell he can find. (Is it a Fell? Or a Fells? Whatever.)

And here in the states, Paul Miller and Nick Cotton will be tutoring us British Phrases (This link is fairly amusing) to use when we head over to visit Dmitry and Venus.

Happy Travels, Russian Rocket.

Ayer 5K is overrun by Coyotes!

NETT put in another strong showing at the Ayer Firefighters Thanksgiving Day 5K, taking four of the top 10 spots and one of the top 5 women's spots.

Dmitry Drodov made the most of his last race here Stateside (at least for a while) by crushing the course record and winning the race in 15:09. This was Dmitry's fastest 5K time since living in the Boston area, a great way to cap off his racing before shipping off to the U.K. this weekend.

Jerry De Zutter put in a very strong run, clocking 17:36 good for 6th place overall and top master spot. Young John Kinnee was just a few clicks behind in 17:42 and Frank KJ only a few more back in 17:51, good for third master.
(Jerry does his always popular Fonzie impression for the adoring Master's Groupies)

The "Purple Heart and Wounded Knee" award goes to Tina Wang, who took a nasty spill after the two-mile mark and split her knee open. Not the least bit deterred, Tina tied her shoes, dusted off her leg and stood up and PUT THE HAMMER DOWN, to finish in 21:24, second in her age division. Crazy Dave ran with Tina for the race but is on the record as saying he was not at all responsible in any way, shape or form for Tina's mishap. Again..I didn't push her, not matter WHAT that video shows!
(Crazy Dave pouts like a baby as all the other NETTers show off their awards!)


After the race, it was off to Jerry's parent's house in Harvard for the annual Tri Town Turkey Trot, a 5K fun run around the neighborhood. NETTers Paul Miller (and Candace and Alex) came out as well as Toledo Joe Hardin for the jaunt. (No reports from the post-run football game--we'll call the hosptials to see if Jerry's been admitted yet).

Final Grand Tree Trail Race Series results posted

The final rankings for the Grand Tree trail running series have been posted and there's a few NETT names on the list. For the uninitiated, the series scores in two ways: First total points based on total number of races you do (the stoneheads) and secondly, a per-race "average score" percentage.

In the total points category, the top NETT finisher was Crazy Dave with 566 points over six races. Dima Feinhaus had 409 points over five races. And then there were some interesting "ties" for NETT-- Paul Young had 365 over four races and John Kinnee was the next name on the list, just behind with 364 over four races.

And ironically, Karen Ringheiser just outranked Dmitry Drozdov by one spot (Granted she did four races to get her 489 points and Dmitry only three). Frank KJ and Adrienne each had two races also.

In the overall average scoring, in the "six races or more" category, Crazy Dave was ranked fourth overall with a 94% average. In the five race category, Dima F was 24th with an 81%. In the four races category, Paul Young and John Kinnee were 12th and 13th respectively with 91% rankings and Karen was 56th with a 72%. Jennifer Shultis was in the three-race category with a 71% ranking.

I'm sure I missed some folks, but that's a quick review. It's a great series--it's free, volunteer operated and, as near as I can tell, pretty darn accurate. Kudos to Rob Higley of WMAC for compiling the results (I think it's all Rob?).

Ponyettes make challenge for Andover XC: Bring it on!

The NETT Women's Team has made a challenge and Dave has accepted on behalf of the men's team at the upcoming Andover XC Race. Here's the deal:

Whichever team finishes lower in their respective category has to cook a full breakfast after an upcoming run for the other team. Now, it may seem like a tough bet--the men's team has finished first at Andover for three years straight. Tough to beat that. BUT the women's team has a VERY solid squad lined up this year and currently has more members lined up to run than the men.

In the event of a tie, we'll roll the challenge over to the Assault on Mt. Hood XC race in Melrose December 9.

Tina takes sixth at Monson Half Marathon

Big congrats to Tina Wang, who finsihed sixth woman overall at the VERY competitive Monson Memorial Classic Half Marathon this weekend in Monson, Mass. (wherever THAT is?). AND her time of 1:38 put here FIRST in the 30-39 age group, cleaning up a nice $75 prize for her efforts. Typically modest, Tina says, "I was more than 20 minutes off from the first female. I guess not much chance going pro!"

Congrats Tina. That is a great result.

Report from Stone Cat trail races show NETT having strong results

NETT was well represented in the Stone Cat Ale trail races this weekend on a chilly early Saturday morning (races kick off at 6:15 AM-brrrrr). Official results are now available , and Paul Young finished the marathon in fifth place in a PR time of 3:27. In the 37.5 mile (three laps) distance, DimaD finished in first place chose to call it a day in 4:57 (on pace to set a record in the 50). And Karen Ringheiser and Dima Feinhaus also both finished the 37.5 miler as the first and second women (HAH!). So that's three people each doing 37.5 miles for the FIRST TIME.

And Jennifer Shultis overcame some early issues to finish THIRD WOMAN in the full 50 miler (note the first two women were a mere minute apart in a course record time!). Here’s her report:

“Marathoners and Ultras all started together, but the marathoners first had to go out and do a short prologue - a one time 1.2 mile loop before proceeding to do two 12.5 mile loops. This meant that all of the marathoners had to work their way through the maze of trails congested with slower ultra runners. This was my first 50 miler, so I probaby went out too fast. In fact, when Paul Young (marathoner) passed by, he wisely advised me to watch my pace, but on the first loop I felt like I was coasting so I just let it ride. My problem was, umm, let's just say I had to go ...I ran the first loop in 2:03 or so then decided to go into the school to use the bathroom. Mistake! Major time suck...6 minutes. By the time I grabbed food and something to drink, I had been there 7 minutes. I actually even had a little trouble warming my legs back up after stopping, but after that mistake I knew to just use the woods (ahhh nature...). I have no idea what any of my loop times were after that, but I know I was hitting 40 minutes pretty dead on each loop getting to aid station #1 (at 4 miles) and then another 40 minutes to # 2 at 8 miles (for the first 3 loops), so I was holding close to a 10 minute pace. That seemed like a pretty casual pace.

Then someone told me I was 5th female leaving aid station #2 on the third loop really??). Shortly after I passed a woman and she couldn't hang. I was pretty excited to be in 4th and wondered could I move up another spot(?), but I was really feeling "it" now. I came into the turn-around at the start/finish and saw Dima, Karen and Dmitry all there. I would have loved to stop and find out what they were doing (quitters!! Just kidding -they each did 37.5 miles or 3 loops!!), but I decided to get in and out of the aid station as fast as I could. I knew the less time I spent there, that meant the less work I'd have to do on the course. Karen gave me a grilled cheese, I wolfed down a cup of gatorade and split--I wanted to be done. Then, surprise, surprise...on the way out I saw a woman coming in who I KNEW had been in front of me before (WTF?!?!). I never saw her when I passed her--she must have been in the woods herself??--so now I was thinking I was in 3rd place for women?? WOW! But then the fourth loop got really hard. My calf had been hurting me since the 2nd loop and now both legs were really stiff and hurting. I was hobbling a bit and I started getting clumsy.

I fell twice and kept stubbing my toes (Ouch!!!). My pace was really suffering, but after the last aid station, I started to feel pretty safe in 3rd place. After all, not a soul had passed me in the last loop and a half. I knew I just needed to put out enough to hold my position...


But then as I let myself walk this short hill about 2 1/2 miles from the end, I looked back and saw that the phantom woman ( the one I had never seen as I passed) was now back and she was catching me! Yikes!!! I started running as the trail turned out of her sight and just prayed(!!) that a) she had not seen me, and b) that if she had, that she hadn't seen me walking (detecting weakness). I have no idea where it came from, but I put my head down, clenched my fists and ran it in as fast as I possibly could. I literally have no idea where it came from--I'm not that competitive fo a person, but this one I wanted. I never let up and it's a good thing as that woman was probably less than 2 minutes behind me crossing the finish line.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me and my story. I guess I'm pretty excited as I never thought I'd do so well. I WAS 3rd female (yippie!!) 19th overall and my time was 9:13 and a lot of change (closer to 9:14 than 9:13).”


And DimaD has pic here.

Vlad goes 3:01, the "shark" has XC fun

Our buddy Vlad Luppov (he of the Shamrocks fame) ran the NYC Marathon in a very solid 3:01. Considering he only had about 1.5 months of decent training post-injury, this is a phenomenal run for V.

Also this weekend, Janos Mako (aka the Hungarian Shark--that's just me trying to make up a nickname--did it work?) was at the Amherst NH XC Festival and had this to say:

"The men’s XC race was not well attended, I think there were only about 25 men. There were a lot of kids races earlier in the day, and the course will host the Junior Olympics XC event next weekend. The course featured well maintained trails mostly through the woods, and around a pond. There were 2 short but steep ascents with steep descents, a steeplechase gate, some empty stream beds, but most of the course was rolling hills up and down through the woods, with a lot of turns. A tougher course because of the rolling hills, I ran 40 seconds slower (20:01) than at the Mayor’s Cup for the same 5k distance. I finished 18th and I think I was 6th master. The only team that seemed to have a lot of runners there was the SISU team."

NETT takes wins at Busa Bushwack, Genesis Battlegreen

Sunday was a winning day for NETT as Adrienne Cyrulik took the women's title at the Busa Bushwack Trail Race and Dmitry Drozdov returned to the Genesis Battlegreen 10K in Lexington to take the win.

First, the report from the Busa Bushwack trail races (UPDATE: Link for results not working--check back later) In only her second full trail race Adrienne outran all of the women in the 9.3 mile race to win in 1:11:31. "I think this really IS my sport!" she said after the race, obviously now a full-on trail racing fan. She won a pair of Saucony running shoes for her efforts in addition to the unique trophies given out by the one and only Richard Busa himself.

NETT had a strong showing on the men's side as well in the 9 miler putting two in the top 4. Crazy Dave was third place overall in 57:00 and Young John Kinnee was just a few clicks behind in 58:22 for fourth. Frank KJ used the race for a hard training effort and clocked a 1:044:55.

And NETT was well represented in the 5.3 miler as well. Paul Young took second overall in 33:11.

And special thanks to NETT's Anthony Chamberas who volunteered at the race, handling timing duties among other.

CLICK HERE to see more photos of the Busa Bushwack.

And while we were all running around in the woods, another group of NETTers was over in Lexington taking care of business at the Genesis Battlegreen 10K. Dmitry Drozdov avenged his bridemaid showing here last year by destroying the competition with a 32:21 clocking over the hilly 10K course (that's a 5:13 pace to us mortals).

And only a week off their tremendous runs at the Marine Corp. Marathon, Dima Feinhaus and Karen Ringheiser both put in great races at Battlegreen with Dima running a 39:41 and Karen crossing the line at 41:20.

Congrats to all. Check back for more details and photos as they become available.

Mayors Cup 2007 report

While much of our team was down at Wrentham, another squad of New England Track & Trail regulars put in a strong showing at the Mayors Cup XC races on Sunday.

Dmitry Drozdov gets the gold star of the day for uncorking a 25:22 in the extremely competitive 8K race, a very strong run even by Dima's extremely high standards. "Hell yeah, I'm happy with that run," he said. To put this race in perspective, Dima runs 25:22 for 8K and finished 31st. Whewwww, that is a fast race!

In the Franklin Park 5K, NETT's team finished 7th overall in the three-person team competition. Crazy Dave led the charge with a 17:14 in 21st place, followed by a nicely grouped batch of four NETTers-Ben Winther in 18:52, (free agent) Drew Hanchett two seconds back, Marcello Scippa another six seconds back (4th master overall) from Drew and Janos Mako 20 seconds back in 19:20 for 6th master overall. Full results posted here.

So a good XC race with good pals, followed by a Patriots Trouncing later in the afternoon, followed by a Red Sox repeat miracle that night, and it's about all this Boston boy could want!

NETT takes overall and four of the top 10 spots at Wrentham

Great results for NETT at the Wrentham du. Here's Frank KJ's race report:

Another multi-sport season wraps up with the Wrentham Halloween Duathlon. Two-time defending champion two years running Paul Miller took the lead from the get-go and at a relaxed pace; in fact so relaxed that the rest of us thought we were running too fast. Well that was all over at mile 2.5 when Paul pulled away from his sole companion at that time. After that he never looked back and steadily increased his lead. Paul and his Union Jack shirt cruised to a convincing overall victory in 56 minutes, still the only person to ever win this race.

Toledo Joe Hardin and Frank KJ battled it out in the M40-44. Joe took the charge from the start; Frank overtook the lead at mile 1 and led by 15 seconds into T1. The lead was short-lived as Joe passed Frank at mile 3 into the bike and steadily built out the gap to 1 minute before the final run leg. Joe ran very strong and thus Frank never got any closer. Joe was right on the heels of a couple of other guys but settled for 7th overall and taking first in the age-group. Frank finished 8th overall and 2nd in the age-group.

And Bruce Goode gets "rookie of the year" honors with his debut in duathlon an impressive 4th place in the M40-44. Expect more from him 2008 in both triathlon and duathlon.

Tina Wang continued to show her diversity finishing 6th overall and a mere 3 seconds behind the winner in the W35-39 age category.

Last but not least, Jim de Zutter also had his duathlon debut taking 2nd place in the M70-74. We need to give him a NETT jersey!

Results will be posted at www.firm-racing.com

NETT shows up in force at Groton Trail Race

Well, it was a great day for trail racing. Sunny and warm (a bit too warm at the 12:30 pm start) but the 10th annual Groton Trail Race got high marks from all eight(?) members that took part.

Paul took a week off from marathoning got a "V" in the race, taking first in the short race.

NETT was well represented in the the long race (9.5 miles) with two men in the top 10 and three in the top 20, while the women's team had three of its finest out as well. On the mens side, Crazy Dave took 5th, Young John Kinnee was 9th (?) and Frank KJ cracked the top 20 with a very solid effort.

On the women's side, Adrienne Cyrulik took to trail racing like a duck to water, finishing as the 5th woman overall in the race, despite her claims she was underprepared and unsure about the course, etc. Our off-road expert Jennifer Shultis snuck in the race in stealth mode but finished very well, as one would expect from the captain of the top adventure racing team in the country.

But the REAL surprise of the day was Tina Wang's very strong run--but more importantly her great attitude about it all. Tina's on the record as not being a huge fan of the off-road running, but given the size of the smile on her face coming into the finish (as captured in this great pic by her son/team photographer Nicholas) I'd say Tina might be mixing it up on the dirt more often.

Another pleasant surprise was the appearance of Crazy Dave's college teammate Shane Mason coming out and mixing it up on the trails like an old pro. Man, it was great to see him out there.

Race director Paul Funch did a fantastic job of marking the course for this race--every corner and turn was very clearly marked and the water stops were great. Nice work Paul.

Special thanks to Nicholas for the photos, Adrienne for the pumpkin bread, and Frank and Tina for taxicab.

Rick Report: Breakers Newport Marathon

Here's a great race report from our roaving reporter, Rick Cleary:

Hello running fans:

A report on today's Amica Breakers Newport Marathon in Rhode Island: I ran 3:46:20, so I didn't qualify for Boston (needed 3:35). For a while I thought I had it, I made it 20 in 2:38, right on schedule, but I suddenly got very tired and there was a big hill. I walked a little and almost gave up but got a second wind and ran OK from 22 to 24, arriving at 24 in 3:16 and thinking, "Hey, two nine minute miles and a can squeeze in there!" I ran the next 3/4 of a mile fast enough, I think, but there's a short steep up just before 25 and my legendary lack of mental toughness kicked in. Once 3:35 was out of the question (and my legs really hurt a great deal, not cramping exactly but powerfully achy all of a sudden) I gave up and walked quite a bit leading to the finish time that made it sound like I missed by a lot.

Conditions were OK, not great. High 60s and almost 100% humidity at the start so that by mile 1 (in 8:17) I was dripping and by mile 2 water was sheeting off of me. The sun never came out, though, so it never get worse.

My lead excuse is that Tommy, normally an all-American super sleeper, woke up last night and wanted to play from roughly mid-night to 3:30. Ann tried to do a long shift but he was loud enough that even I, another excellent sleeper, got up to consult. He didn't seem sick (and is fine today) but we gave him Tylenol anyway. Didn't work, as predicted on a front page article in yesterday's Boston Globe, ironically enough. I was up with him from 2 to 3:30, 30 minutes of book time, 30 minutes of TV, 10 minutes of trying to get him back to sleep in his bed, and finally I had the great idea to take him for a car ride, which worked. Nearly four before I was back to bed, and I got up at 5:20 to make it to the 8 AM start. Definitely my first marathon on about three hours sleep, but I'm not sure it made much difference. (I roomed with Alan Bowman and Shawn McDonald before a couple of Bostons and those guys were so nervous and excited that they didn't sleep at all and still routinely beat me.)

A graph of my personal "probability of re-qualification" would show it starting near zero and growing linearly to almost one by mile 18. I decided to look at the watch after the first and second miles, but then only ever three miles from 2 to 20 ... I hate information overload. From 2 to 17 my three mile splits were 22:31 (way too fast), then 23:36, 23:38, 23:38 and 23:42; perfect! Just what I was hoping, a little under eight per mile, and I was feeling stronger all the way. I maintained faith to mile 20, though 17-20 had slowed to about 8:30 almost the entire section was uphill, moving away from the coast. As noted above I gave up at 20 but by 24 I was back in good form and thought I was going to do it. The combination of not having run more than 17 miles since Boston (when I probably only ran 16 and walked 10) and that slightly too fast early start probably did me in when coupled with the sleeplessness.

At this early juncture I'd pretty much rank the four choices below as equally likely:
1.) Run another marathon this fall/winter and try again to qualify.
2.) Forget it, take a year off from Boston, and try to requalify next year while on sabbatical.
3.) Get into this year's Boston some sneaky way as fund raiser or playing the "it will be my 30th" card.
4.) Run Boston as a bandit.

I feel great as I write this at 4:30, just a little fatigue but can do things around the house, play with kids, etc. It's a very interesting mix of feelings of accomplishment (I was not at all sure I had a chance to qualify, so this was a pretty good effort) and disappointment (was hoping for good reason to quit being a good boy and losing some weight, as I have recently managed to get from 200 to 190, now it's clear I should keep aiming lower instead of bulking up for the Holidays!)

OK, up for a quick nap (thanks, Ann!) before hoping that the Red Sox make us 1 -1 in today's "athletic events of interest!" I'll be the guy sleeping in Section 6.

Rick

Strong results at Diamond Hill, MDI and Down and Dirty

First off, congrats to Young John Kinnee for defending his title at the Down and Dirty Duathlon in Lynn. John clocked a 52:23 on the Lynn Woods course, putting him almost a minute in front of second place. Here's his report:

"The Lynn Woods duathlon season came to a close at the Down & Dirty Duathlon. Although I'm bored of the course, this is a great event with awesome shirts, refreshments, and prizes. I did the first run in 14:39 and was in third place. The guy in first smoked the run and I was nervous but his bike leg stunk so he wasn't a problem. I was happy with my bike leg considering I haven't been riding much. I had about 30 seconds going into the final run with the $100 first prize on the line. I was able to hold off the field and finish in 52:20. My best time of the year was 51:50 but there were different rules for this race that slowed the transitions down a bit. Between the nice long sleeve technical shirt, the jug of Accelerade, the judge of Hammer Nutrition, and $100 it was a very successful race."

Thanks John and Congrats!
Also on Saturday, NETT put three in the top 10 at the Diamond Hill-Birchwold 22K Trail Race. Crazy Dave and Jerry De Zutter ran together for much of the race until a slight misnavigation split up their nice group and put the race into overdrive. Crazy Dave finished third overall in 1:39, Jerry finished (under slight protest) sixth and Dima Feinhaus cracked the top 10 with a 1:50 effort.

Meanwhile, up in Bar Harbor, Me. on Sunday, Paul Young continued his fall marathon blitz by throwing down yet another race in the 2:50s, this time a 2:57 at the Mount Desert Island Marathon, good for 7th place overall.

And over at the Baystate Marathon, Ben Spiess threw down a 2:55 effort and new NETTer Karen Miller-Medzon put in a solid sub-4 effort. Also of note, NETT pals Peter Gallimore and Jean Dany Joachim clocked 3:03 and 3:33 respectively.

NETT ladies hit the roads at Tufts, Chicago

In addition to their success at Wayland XC this weekend, four NETT ladies ran extremely good races on the roads this weekend.

First off at the Tufts 10K, Karen Ringheiser and Adrienne Cyrulik ran very strong performances on Monday. After racing at Wayland on Sunday, Karen cranked out a 40:37 for 91st place (out of 5,000!) and Adrienne ran phenomenally, clocking 42:38, good for 115th place, perhaps the best race we’ve seen her run.

And Dawn Mampreian and Laura Wieland defied the laws of physics and completed the Chicago Marathon in record heat (I think we’ve all heard the horror stories about Chicago this year). Their strategy of running together might have been the smartest one of the day, as both finished this grueling race that saw only a fraction of its entrants finish. Hopefully both are recovering well.

Congrats!

NETT shows up BIG at Wayland XC Challenge

NETT was out in force at the Wayland XC Challenge this weekend with mens, womens and masters teams.

The NETT women stole the show, tying with SISU project for the women's team win in the race. Karen Ringheiser led the Ponytails, cranking out a 21:18 on the 5K course. She was followed by the always reliable team captain Tina Wang in 23:11. Jennifer Shultis came up big for the team with a 23:57 and Deb Robertson was just a few ticks back in 24 flat. And new NETT recruit Karen Miller-Medzon chipped in to round out the team scoring with a 24:41.

On the men's side, NETT split in two, with an open and a masters mens team in the race, finishing second and third. Dmitry Drozdov did his usual damage, torching the field to win with a 15:58, becoming the first person to break 16 minutes on the Wayland course. There were nine--yes count them nine--more NETTers to follow, including NETT's cycling specialists(PMiller, Toledo Joe, JerryD and Bruce Goode--yes, that ws Bruce Freakin Goode out there hashing it up!). Marcello Scippa came out of hiding to represent VERY well out there and there were some new faces (Janos Mako, Ali Azerbajani and Rob Lee) and "Mr. XC" Frank KJ who coordinated the team efforts with phenomenal results.

Even Anthony Chamberas got involved timing some of the kids races.

Congrats to all and it was really a fantastic day for NETT. This, to my knowledge, is the biggest showing (15 people) at one event.

Overall results posted here.

NETT puts three in the top seven at Monroe

NETT’s trail running goons took to the hills at the Monroe Dunbar Brook 10.5 mile trail race on Sunday, with very strong results.
With some rain the night before, the course was wet in spots and a bit tricky for the trio of Crazy Dave, Mr. Young and Young John. The course heads out on a mile-long trot along a brook before taking a very steep turn to a hike/run section. After that, there’s more climbing, but of a gradual nature, to the 2,500-foot peak
Dave took third overall in 1:21, Young John was fifth in 1:24 an Mr. Young ran a solid 1:27 effort for seventh a week both pre- and post-marathon, if that makes sense.
And while the boys were off running around in the woods, Doris was hard at work in the two-mile version of the race, cracking the top 20.

NETT Multisporters do some MAJOR damage at Buzzards Bay Tri, Take the win at Mud Sweat and Gears

The NETT Multisporters really showed their stuff in two of the final multisport races of the year.

First off, down at the Buzzards Bay Triathlon there were some MAJOR surprises.

Not surprisingly, Paul Miller had a very strong race finishing 6th overall despite dealing with some equipment issues with the second fastest bike split and third fastest run split.
Somewhat surprising was Toledo Joe Hardin was leading Paul for much of the race, having a VERY strong race, finsihing one spot behind Paul with the 4th fastest bike split and a top-10 run split. Way to go Joe!
And VERY surprising was the re-emergence of Bruce Goode in his first (at least to my knowledge) triathlon appearance here in New England and his first race in quite a while. Bruce finished a VERY respectable 39th place with solid splits across the board. Nice work Bruce.


Also this weekend, BIG NEWS that Jerry De Zutter claims the title at the Mud, Sweat and Gears off-road duathlon. I don't mean Masters title--he won the damn race by almost FOUR MINUTES with a clean sweep, winning all three splits in the process. Here's his report:

I was hiding in the woods at the Mud Sweat n' Gears off road duathlon (1.8run-6mtnbike-1.8run-FIRM race). It was a very light turnout for the race but there was one guy out in front on the first trail run, I went by him about 1/2 way through that first run and it was clear sailing all the way from there, went on to post an ~4 min win. I was a bit worried about my race pacing with no one to race but needn't have because my finish time was only a few seconds slower than my fastest time on that course out of the ~8 times I've raced it (stretching back to mid-late 90's when I was fast in off-road multi-sport). I was happy with the effort I put in, and didn't take my foot off the gas almost the whole race. Great day for being out in the woods tearing up the trails.

Congrats to JERRY!

NETT Women and Men both put in strong showings at Topsfield XC Race

It was a great fall day for XC in New England and NETT made the most of it. Both men and women put together full teams for the Topsfield XC Race on Sunday, making a strong showing.

It looks like the NETT women finished fourth among an extremely strong women's field, while the men finished fifth in their race. The competiton was fierce on both sides, with the USATF-New England XC Series bringing in some top-notch competition.

The ladies ran first, and NETT was led by Adrienne Cyrulik who put in a very strong race, finishing 15th overall in 22:22. She was followed by Tina Wang, who claims not to like trail running, but continues to impress off-road, finsihing 24th overall in 23:25. Laura Wieland and Dawn Mampremian ran together to clock a 24:35. But the best performance of the day on the women's side came from Marina Shirokov, Dima's daughter, who only started running XC this year but finished the VERY TOUGH 5K course to help the ladies complete a team and win $50!!!
Women's team scores
1. GBTC
2. SISU
3. Naval Academy Prep
4. NETT


On the men's side, NETT had some very solid performances, also finishing fourth (results not updated yet?). Dave H led the men in 17th place, finsihing the 8K course in 28:03. Young John Kinnee was 28th in 29:53. Ben Winther unleashed a vicious kick to finish in 31:26, Dmitry Shirokov ran very well just behind Ben in 31:52. Frank KJ toughed it out running semi-injured for the team in 33:52 and Oona Chamberas ran maybe his third XC race since college to finish up 37:13.

Men's team scoring
1 CMS 27 1 2 4 6 14
2 SISU 57 3 5 7 18 24
3 GBTC 62 8 10 11 13 20
4 NAP 86 9 12 17 21 27
5 NETT 124 16 23 26 29 30


Afterwards, it was the annual trip to Woodmans in Essex for fried clams!!

Special thanks to the NETT cheering section of Doris, Paul,  Cindy and Thomas.


SEE THE PHOTOS IN THE NEW NETT ARCHIVE

Mr. Young takes 4th at New Hampshire Marathon

Paul Young continued his fall race blitz this weekend, taking 4th place in the New Hampshire Marathon in Bristol, NH. Paul finished up in 2:55, second master, and seemed no worse for the wear on Sunday when he came out to cheer us on at the Topsfield XC race.

Full Results posted here.

Rick eats hot dogs and drinks beer--WHILE RACING!

NETT's "roaving reporter" of sorts Rick Cleary took part in the annual Big Man Run this year, the unofficial Clydesdale Championships in Somerville. Here's his report:

Saturday I ran the “Big Man Run” for the second time, the five mile race (I get 5.25 when I map it) for runners 190 pounds and up. A few skinny guys who respond early get in too, but aren’t eligible for prizes. It pretty much does a perimeter of Somerville with stops at a number of bars (there were four in 2006, just three this time) where competitors must eat a hot dog (with roll) and drink an eight ounce draft beer before continuing. It’s really just the ticket for me, combining running and gluttony, my twin passions.

I finished 12th for the second year in a row, but I think this year’s was a better performance for several reasons:

-The more bars, the better for me. I pick up a lot of ground in the eating/drinking portion of the event. So to finish in the same place with more running and less consuming was a good effort.

-I did it almost four minutes faster (40:26 vs. 44:05) and there’s no way one extra bar would have cost me 3.5 minutes, I was in and out of the others in less than two minutes each.

-I weighed in at 196, still safely above the cutoff but well under the 202 I registered last time; perhaps a sign that I’m getting in some sort of shape. (The organizers are kind, you weigh in with your running shoes and race outfit on … one guy weighed in at 188 and they let him go chug a couple of pints and try again and he made it the second time.)

-Last year I went alone but this year the family came along. This was mostly a plus as I enjoy the support, and they enjoyed the spectacle of 250 fat guys trying to run through Somerville, and Eddie had some great in-race commentary. (“Mom, when I grow up I could do this race because I’m a boy but I don’t think I will because I don’t like beer.”) It does start in a rather dicey neighborhood, but they found a nice school playground to use while I was running. The only drawback was that having Ann and the kids there made me realize how genuinely terrible the post-race food was. (A buffet of more hot dogs, greasy burgers and little deli sandwiches). The year before I’d consumed some happily without thinking that it might be awful.

Only downsides:

-I did not win my age group this time, after a 13 minute win in the 50 and over last year. This time there was a 51 year old from Houston, Texas in front of me but the way the results are split up I can’t tell his weight … maybe he was a skinny? In any event I can claim to be the fastest fat old glutton on the East Coast.

-I still miss the fourth bar, three just doesn’t seem as hard somehow. I had a great post-race conversation with another guy that went like this:

Me: “Too bad there were only three bars this year.”
Other guy: “Yeah, I was pacing myself thinking we had to stop once more, I would’ve kicked it in sooner.”
Me: “I’m not talking about strategy, I just wanted another beer.”

-It didn’t bother me, but apparently the first bar wound up with a long line for the food. It’s over a mile from the start, and up a huge hill, so I would have thought that the crowd was spread out enough to handle 250 runners … but I guess that is a lot of people to serve in a short time!


Here’s hoping that next year I have to drink a lot in the car to make the weight limit on race day! Full results POSTED HERE

Next up for me: Marathon in Newport, RI on 10/20 to try to qualify for Boston.

Mr. Young Starts his Fall Racing Blitz

Well it’s that time of year again...if it’s Fall on the calendar, it’s time for Paul Young to do an insane number of unusually long races. And it’s starting early this year!

Mr. Young finished 4th overall in the Pisgah 50K in a personal Best of 4:26.
“I had run a 5K in Pelham,NH on saturday in 90 plus heat and it probably hurt me at Pisgah,” he said.

Then to top things off he hit the Nahant 30K this weekend. where he finished 5th overall, top Master.

Look for at least one more marathon-distance run from this guy this fall (smart money's betting 2 or 3 more!).

Race Time in Douglas, Mass.

While most of us never heard of Douglas, Mass. this weekend, it became a hotbed of NETT racing! Early on Sunday, Jerry D, Toledo Joe and Crazy Dave toed the line in the sand at the 5 Star Triathlon in Douglas. After waiting a long time in cold water before the start, we got off...here’s how Jerry reports it:

"The race abruptly started ~1min after national anthem (no raft of pre-race announcements)! Joe ended up with nice clean water out in front while I was totally unprepared and off to the side and got 1-2ed by an arm backswing and then a kick which rearranged my goggles (been a long time since I had that happen to me). Swim was definitely short. Kind of odd to mount up the bike just behind Carmen who was near/in front of, behind
and then finally in front of Joe. I was thinking that with a good effort we could both stay near Carmen (Monks, the race winner) and I knew there was a few other guys up the road. But I could see, even before I passed Joe, that Carmen was pulling steadily away from us. Oh well. Anyways, a lot of hills packed into that little course. I think the
young kid that finished 4th actually put up the fastest bike split. I was kind of surprised to see only the young kid and then Carmen run out of the transition as I was coming in. I didn't look back but heard some sort of sounds that didn't sound like a normal bike dismount, apparently Joe sacrificed the body to save the bike.

Crazy had a good race even though they have him listed as Vinny Aguiar (#4). (Editor’s note: Race officials accidentally gave Crazy Dave the wrong race number—it was of a guy who registers for a lot of races, but rarely shows up and is like 6’6” apparently. Anyone need an XXL T-shirt?)

My dad had a good race, haven't seen his splits yet but he won his age group (Editor’s note: Jerry’s being family-modest here—his dad got the loudest applause during the awards ceremony and was congratulated personally by several top-ranked guys. Was a great site to see the Colonel getting his due after working his butt off all summer at Walden!).

Good racing Joe, you were strong and I'd be lying if I said I was only thinking about catching Carmen on that run, was keeping a keen ear out, listening for any
footsteps coming up behind.

Good work Crazy, way to race the multisport AND fly the colors. Question is, how do we incorporate our logo onto a tri suit?"

MEANWHILE on the other side of Douglas, Dave Mingori was busy cruising through the 4th Annual Douglas Family Fun Run 5K, taking second place overall in 17:29. The race was won by friend of NETT Jason Croteau in 16:56. Gotta get that guy out to a couple races for us Dave!

Frank beats Tina at Firmman

Here's a race report from Frank KJ at the FIRM Man half-iron triathlon:

Now what is this all about? Of course Frank would not a have a chance against Tina if she was crazy enough to do a half-ironman. And of course she isn't. Instead Tina smartly teams up with a great swimmer - Big Al (many of you know him) and cyclist Norm Collard - a category 4 cyclist from NEBC.

For the last 2 years it has been Frank vs. the relay team and both times the relay team came out ahead. But this year Frank had had enough left in the tank to run down Tina and beat their relay team by 1 slim minute. The team started 10 minutes ahead. Al was 3 minutes faster than Frank out of the water and Norm added another minute or two to Tina's cushion. Since it was an out/back run Frank could get some gap times on Tina and at mile 8 the deficit had been eliminated. The last 2.5 miles have little shade, two nasty hills and a 1/4 beach run to the finish so nothing could be taken for granted until one stumbled from the loose sand into the finish shute.

Tina's team did so well that they actually placed 1st in the Mixed Relay. Frank took 9th overall and 2nd in his advanced age-group. Funny enough he would have placed 1st had he still been in the youth category.

Swanzey race honors Elijah Barrett

The Keene Sentinel ran a very good story this week about the Swanzey Covered Bridges race, held only a week after its founder and avid trail runner and triathlete Elijah Barrett lost his eight-month battle with cancer at only 31 years old.

While I didn't know Elijah well, I certainly had the pleasure of watching him run away from me at more than a couple races on more than a couple surfaces over years and he was always a classy competitor. The picture here is of him winning the 2001 Weekend Before Hunting Season trail race (courtesy of coolrunning.) He put on a lot of races and events up in the Keene area for charity and supported and participate in many many others--from trail races to snowshoe to triathlons--from his shop, Endurance Sports in Keene. He'll be missed out there.

Frank KJ CLEARED of controversey at Cranberry Country Tri

A race report from Frank KJ on Cranberry Country Tri:

Okay before you all start to harrass me for getting a penalty at Cranberry let me state: I never drafted and I was surprised to find out when I saw the results last night for the Cranberry Country Triathlon.

I saw the officials around mile 3 during the race as I had just caught up to a group of people. At that time I was not able to pass (unless I crossed the double-line in front of the official) so I stayed 4-5 bike lengths behind. As I moved up to pass I realized there was a turn so to stay safe I immediately dropped back to 4-5 bike lengths again. At no time was I in violation. Right after the turn I easily passed the group and never saw them again. I sent an email to USAT last night; not that I think it will change anything.

UPDATE (as of Monday AM): I just got an email from the USAT referee. I am cleared of drafting and my honor has been restored! Here's what they said:

"From the results website it appears your number was 148. You were penalized for 5.10f - Position. This section of the competitive rules indicates athletes must ride to the right unless not safe to do so or when passing. The write up indicates that around mile 2 you rode on the left of the course for 22 seconds when the road was clear and in good condition to your right."


Other than that I had a good race. Solid swim (thanks to our Walden Pond swims), solid run (thanks to a cooperating stomach) and a so-so bike (my gluteus/piriformis came back around halfway and probably cost me about 1 min). I rode this course 1.5 min faster back in 2003 and ran 1.5 min faster as well. That's what happens when you turn 40!

Jerry The Tick's Response to the controversey:

Oh, so you're the guy I'm always having to yell, "on
your left!!" at to try and get you to move over.
They've got your number, next time they are going to
get you for dropping an empty gu pack.

-Jerry

Dave Guertin completed the event without any controversey, finishing 114th out of the field of close to 600, capping off a very strong rookie season for Dave.

Chamberas XC Race a Rousing Success

WOW!

That's about the only word to describe the day on Saturday at the Fifth Annual Thomas Chamberas XC Race. "Wow" sums up the overall turnout (close to 200 runners with a parking lot filled to capacity, making for a VERY nice donation to the CF Fund!). "Wow" sums up the performances on the race course (Ryan Carrara's blistering time of 18:22 for a two-second win on the 6Kish course and the extremely strong women's field led by Mariko Holbrook in 20:56). "Wow" sums up the above and beyond effort from our race volunteers, who were blindsided by number of entries and rose to the occasion. And "Wow" sums up the feeling most of the runners told US about the race itself.

As for the race itself, the mens race came down to a kick, with New Balance Boston's Ryan Carrara outkicking Ryan Miller of SISU Project for the $50 cash prize courtesy of Shereen Fahey at Marlboro Savings Bank. Men's masters was won by Dan "always a factor" Verrington and men's seniors title went to the ageless John Barbour of GLRR. The men's team title went to CMS.

NETT's Rick Cleary was out in the field(s) and had this report to file:
"I ran a nice 5K XC race that turned out to be 3.5 miles at Great Brook Farm Park in Carlisle, MA 10 days ago. It's actually sort of a hybrid race, half what I would consider classic XC (wide trail mowed through fields and dirt roads in pretty good condition) and half trail run (single lane, in the woods, rooty and rocky and hard to follow.) Both parts were hilly. It was a very strong field, or I ran very slowly (two minutes slower than 2005) or both. I only made it into the top half because some local high schools sent plenty of kids who aren’t in shape yet. The race had 60 people in 2005 and 2006 and grew to almost 200 this year but the organizers did a good job adapting to the bigger field and it went off smoothly.

Wow, upon reading above, that's the dullest race report I've ever filed. I think other interesting things happened at this race, but I've been so busy getting freshmen into the right courses, and our day care center closes the week before Labor Day, and I even did a couple of training runs that I was too busy to write until now. I think I'm going to try to get my Boston qualifying time in Newport, RI on 10/27. I did a 13 mile run on Saturday, my longest run without a number on in two years, so maybe I mean it this time!"

For a full collection of photos go to Jim Rhoades' site.

To read Ryan Carrara's review of the race on his blog Easy Gait click here.

To read BAA's Josh Gordon's review on his blog, click here.

On the women's side the top three were split by a mere 30 seconds, with BAA's Mariko Holbrook taking the win, followed by Christy Mae Carrara and Emily Raymond of GBTC. Jennifer Rapaport of Somerville Road Runners took the masters title and SRR also took the womens senior's crown thanks to Barbara Grandberg.

And GBTC's always strong women's team walked away with the team title.


(photo courtesy of Boston Run Gals blog).





To read the GBTC's review of the race on their blog, click here as well as HERE.

But the most impressive was the performance of our volunteers at the start, on the course and at the finish. Special thanks to (in no particular order): Water stop crew Paul Young and Dave Dunham, course marshalls Jerry and Audrey De Zutter, Frank KJ, and Toledo Joe (five years straight). Leo and his sweep crew. The registration team of Anthony, Doris, Ben and Cindy rose to the challenge of a bigger-than-expected crowd with the help of Eric Bucher (RD for the Wayland XC Challenge). And the finish line crew got a big hand from Chris Benson, a college buddy who literally finished the race, turned around and started ripping off tags from the runners behind him to help get people through the shoot faster) and Tina Wang recording numbers. Bridget for her general race support at start and finish. Bill Newsham for chipping in at the race and creating the XC sereis. Jim Rhoades for his always professional picture-taking. Audrey and Alex for their artwork. John Kinnee for donations and participation. Leo and Shereen for the post-race volunteer party.

There are many many others to thank--Dave Bartel for making an unplanned water run when we ran out in the heat. Everyone who pulled the streamers off the trees on their cooldowns. George and Cynthia Chamberas for their food, help and support (and the original creators of this race).

And most of all, Thomas Chamberas. T-man was the consummate host, greeting racers and volunteers with a smile, thanking them for coming and secretly telling Dave that in five years time, he will be the man to beat in the under 19 category!

NETT has banner showing at Lynn Woods XC Relay

NETT called in a few favors and fielded three full teams for the always popular Lynn Woods Relay with great results.

In the Mens Open category, the NETT-Banana team of Dave Hannon, Dmitry Shirokov, Peter Gallimore and Dmitry Drozdov finished fourth in the category, fifth overall in an NETT course record time of 56:52. Dave put the team out in fifth place with a sub-14 clocking, Dima S ran a very competitive second leg to keep us in the mix and setting it up well for the always strong Peter who clocked an impressive 14:21 on zero speed training and Dima D took it home in a mind-boggling 12:55.

The NETT-Masters team turned more than a few heads, finishing second in the masters category to powerhouse GBTC by a mere 19 seconds! Due to some traffic snarls, one of our runners on loan, Chris Smith, took the leadoff spot and took us all out hard in the first stretch, finishing up in 14:47. The City of Cambridge's Next Poet Lauretate, Jean Dany, took the next leg running a very solid 14:54 (and basically caught the NETT open team at the end of leg 2!). JD passed off to Janos Mako, who threw down a 15:45 and left it in the capable hands of Paul Young, who ran a gutsy 15:04 to wrap up second place in the masters field (Note: For those of haven’t done this relay, it’s nearly impossible to tell who the other teams you’re racing against are. So even though our guyers were just off the Masters lead, it was hard to tell that during the event, even for spectators.) Hats off to these four guys for a VERY strong race, putting the NETT Masters name on the map with a 60:27.


On the ladies' side, the NETT Ponyettes finished fifth in a very competitive women’s open category (the women's field might have the most depth at this race). Adrienne Cyrulik put the team out very well in the first leg, clocking a speedy 17:30 on the rugged 2.5 mile course. Tina Wang took over from there and despite her insistence that she’s not a trail runner, cruised over the rocks for an 18:25. Distance queen Karen Ringheiser sped off from there, clocking an impressive 18:18 and Adventure Queen Jennifer Shultis wrapped things up with an 18:50 to close out at 1:13:03.






(The team talks strategy)
After the race, Mr. Young took us all on a long cooldown up past a lookout tower with a great view while the GBTC team fattened up by eating BBQ (that NETT sent over to them for that reason--we’ve got them right where we want them)! All in all it was a very fun event.


SEE DMITRY's PHOTOS HERE

For a great series of photos from the race, check THIS SITE.

A quick NETT history lesson, the Lynn Woods Relay was really one of the first races NETT did as a team (Banana!) back in 2002, and it always has a special place in our hearts. We’ve fielded teams there every year since and while the cast of NETT characters changes from year to year (but the times get faster!), it’s always going to be a team favorite. Special thanks to the folks who came out last-minute like Chris Smith, Jean Dany and especially Peter, who literally got the call a day in advance and ran phenomenally for men’s open team.

Say no to headphones!

The iPod boom has led to more runners wearing headphones and, most likely, more accidents while running. The BOSTON GLOBE has a good take on this issue this week and points out that in the recent Jerry Garcia race in Cambridge, "of the first 50 finishers, only three wear earphones. Among finishers 697 through 708, seven do."

Which group do YOU want to be in?

Dmitry and Jennifer nab top spots at the inaugural Hampshire 100K mountain bike race

Sunny skies, paired with moderate temps made for perfect conditions for
Jennifer, Dmitry, and Terry, Dmitry’s long-time friend and training partner
from KC (visiting for the weekend), as they rolled up to the start-line for
the first ever EFTA Hampshire 100K mountain bike race. The start and finish
of this 62.9 mile, single-loop race was Greenfield, New Hampshire. The
course began with 20 fairly fast miles of paved and gravel roads, bike
paths and railroad tracks before the real fun began. Riders who went out
too fast would feel their legs as they hit the power lines about mile 30
for the first major climb of the day. It would just get worse from there as
the climbs on jeep roads and single track from miles 30-55 felt as if no
descents were given as payback for all the hard work. The race was to
support the Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center, but Jennifer started
to wonder about mile 55 if it was a benefit or a recruitment activity.
Finally, at the top of Crotched Mountain, there HAD to be a descent…
Ironically, there was a violin player on top playing what sounded like
music for a funeral, then the Summit Trail descended off for the most
technical riding of the day—multiple rock drops, followed by a stone wall
crossing and winding, rocky tight single-track. In the end, Jennifer took
the top spot among the Expert women (although she notes she was beaten by a
sport woman by 5 minutes in the final times), Dmitry was third in his age
group for the Sport division and Terry broke Dmitry’s bike.

Paul Young takes 3rd at Savoy

Paul Young took third place at the Savoy 20 Miler Trail Race on Sunday, clocking a 2:48 on the always unpredictable course.

Here's Paul with old friend Peter Keeney before the race.

Jerry outruns Frank KJ at Timberman

It was man-o-man at the Timberman Half-Ironman this weekend with Frank KJ and Jerry DZ representing the NETT troops out there. Frank took lead on the swim and the bike but in the end Jerry pulled off a strong run to run away with the top NETT honors. "It was a very competitive field with lots of pros and some amazing run splits," Frank reports.

The REAL question was how hard did Jerry have to kick to catch the world renowned Karen Smyers, who finished one spot behind him? For more on that, let's go to JERRY's Report on the race:

Saw Frank K's and Dave's comments on e-mail/blog so
figured I'd add my perspective (since I'm on vacation
up here in NH and drinking a beer on the deck of the
place we're staying while waiting for my son to wake
up from his nap).

Timberman is a great event if you want to experience
triathlon at it's finest. The expo/festival has really
caught on and the Gunstock ski area venue adds to the
atmosphere of the whole weekend's activities.

Saturday, stiff wind pushing large whitecaps across
the water for my 73yr old father's sprint triathlon
swim. He earned his stripes just by making it through
that; he kept disappearing from sight in between
swells. Since he started in the very last wave he was
the absolute last person out of the water (as a
volunteer that day, one of my jobs was to follow
behind the last swimmer out of the water and through
the transition- kind of funny that person was my
father). The colonel (dad) moved up on the bike and
cruised one of the fastest 3 miles he's run in quite
some time (he's still puzzled how he did that esp.
since he had his knee replaced less than 2yrs ago!).

Myself and others were real psyched the next day broke
with way less wind and warmer temps. In fact I even
felt a little guilty about what the guv (dad) had to
endure the day before. Anyways, for this race I
entered myself in the ~40 person, elite age group wave
instead of my ~240 person 40-44 AG wave. So despite
the reports of a close race between Frank (and a few
other non-NETTers) in reality I was always
approximately 20 min ahead because I started 20min
ahead.

Never having had much luck previously in the distance
triathlon events I had some specific goals and ended
up reaching a 1/2 IM PR by taking a conservative
approach to set myself up for a good finishing run.
Despite calm looking waters the swim was actually
quite rough. Got through that and endured a weird
mishap on the bike where I pulled my cleat out of the
pedal and basically crashed without actually hitting
the deck. Once I got into a nice rythm on the bike I
started steadily, slowly catching other elites and a
few pros on the bike. Started to feel a little energy
depletion towards the end of the bike and ended up
swallowing 4 power gels in the last 20 miles of the
bike. Came out onto the run feeling pretty good and
did my best to find the 7min pace I was looking for.
There's no way I couldn't have a strong start as I had
a 40+ person cheering squad composed of my family and
step/family located right as I came out onto the run
course! Really helped to have them there. Toledo Joe
was out on the run course and 2/3 of the way through
the run I got a split from him that told me I was
close to target pace. Run was the first time I was
able to see and high 5 Frank K as we passed. I didn't
high 5 Karen Smyers but she's always pleasant enough
even though I'm sure that was more like a casual day
on the race course for her. Probably explains why I
caught her on the run (she started 2min in front of me
in the pro wave) Crazy Dave. Anyways, I suffered on
the 3rd leg of the 1/2M run but was able to hammer the
4th/ last leg (~3miles) of the run to acheive my goal,
1:30 run split. Real pleased with my 4:47 flat race
time.

I'm also going to lay claim, along with Joe, to a top
10 finish to the beer tent. My dad, step-mom were just
behind, definitely in the top 20.

Saw/chatted with a myriad of other NE/NY (almost elite
MM; JS ;-))area athletes who participated in what has
become a national/international level competition.

OK, son woke up, my rambling's are done. See y'all
around. -Jerry



As Jerry mentioned, Saturday was the Timberman Sprint and Jerry’s dad took top-honors in the 70-74 age-group. His goal was 2:15 but in true De Zutter style he hammered the 5K run to finish in 2:08. Congratulations Jim!

All results at

Alberto Salazar's amazing story

Here's a very good story about Alberto Salazar's miraculous recovery from a massive heart attack. Perhaps most interesting will be the effect his heart attack will have on the young runners present (including Galen Rupp) when it took place. Pretty amazing story.

Toledo Joe nabs 4th overall, top master at Lowell Tri

It seems like Toledo Joe Hardin really does "love that dirty water" up in Lowell, as he raced to 4th place overall, top master in the Wild Cat Sprint Triathlon this weekend. Joe put in a well-balanced race, with the fourth fastest bike split and 4th fastest run split as well.

Nice work Toledo Joe!

DaveM wins Masters Crown at Deary 5 miler

Dave Mingori finished as top Master in the Day Kimball Deary Hospital 5 Mile road race in Putnam, Ct. this weekend. Dave churned out sub-6s on the course to finish in 29:50 for 10th place overall.

I think Dave better get a new closet for all the master's hardware he'll be collecting!

NETT puts two in the top 10 at HERC Open

DimaD and Crazy Dave cracked the top 10 overall (and top five in their respective categories) at the Herc Open Speed Hiking Competition in Sugarbush, Vt. this weekend.

The unique race did not have a male/female scoring system to determine winners of the $25,000 cash prizes, but rather split competitors by weight--Over and under 60 Kg. Dima was in the over and Dave in the under. The race course itself was extremely difficult--6,600 feet of elevation gain in about 15 miles, all on the donwhill ski trails of Sugarbush (topping out at more than 4,000 ft at the top of Lincoln Peak).

Dima ran strong from the get-go putting in a steady effort on the uphills and making up some ground on the stacked field during the long downhills. Not surprisingly, Dave did just about hte opposite and would catch Dima on some of the steep uphills (as steep as 70% grade!) and then watch him pull away on downhills.

Dima held on to finish 4th in the over 60Kg category in 2:27:41. Dave was in the mix until a total physical meltdown (legs cramped up) on the last uphill and managed to stagger to the line in 2:32:59 good for 5th place in the skinnies category.

Friend of NETT Tricia Grenier finished 15th in her category in the short loop race.

Jennifer S also started the race, but got wise quickly and pulled out of it. I bet she can walk down stairs today!

CLICK HERE to watch a video news report on the race, including an interview with winner Paul Low.

There's some race photos here.Look for more photos HERE!

The race was somewhat controversial in the decision to award money based solely on weight class and not gender. Read THIS ONLY FORUM DEBATE will show you). Also See Scott Livingston's BLOG with his distaste for the race prize structures along with comments from some of the women in the race.

If it helps put things in perspective, when you look at the results of the top 12 without weight class, here's where they fall (O=Over 60Kg, U=Under 60Kg)

O1 Paul Low Belchertown MA 405 33 2:05:39.0 7:51/M
U1 Ben Nephew Mansfield MA 15 32 2:21:31.9 8:51/M
U2 David Vona Valatie NY 22 25 2:22:05.4 8:53/M
U3 Dan Verrington Bradford MA 4 45 2:25:39.7 9:06/M
O2 Eric Morse Berlin VT 466 42 2:26:38.8 9:10/M
O3 Mark Churchill Morrisville VT 455 32 2:27:34.4 9:13/M
O4 Dmitry Drozdov Waltham MA 468 35 2:27:41.6 9:14/M
U4 Cliff Lentz Brisbane CA 8 42 2:29:20.0 9:20/M
U5 Dave Hannon West Roxbury MA 38 36 2:32:59.3 9:34/M
O5 James Sweeney Albany NY 448 26 2:33:48.7 9:37/M
U6 Jack Pilla Charlotte VT 27 49 2:35:29.5 9:43/M
O6 Eli Enman Huntington VT 450 30 2:42:51.5 10:11/M

Here's a review of the race in the Montpelier Times Argus.
And to make sure their weekend was complete, Dmitry and Jennifer spent Sunday at the Xterra Triathlon up in Hanover NH, with Dmitry 23rd and Jennifer 52nd.