Trail Running story in NY Times

Believe it or note, trail running was featured in the New York Times! I know, not the place you’d expect to see a story on our favorite pasttime, but low and behold there it is.

At least we know we were ahead of the curve.

NETT Ladies Tear Up New Bedford

Sure's it's better known these days for immigration raids than road racing, but a couple of our fine Mini-Ponyettes took a ride down to New Bedford on Sunday to clock in at the New Bedford Half-Marathon. Laura Wieland and Dawn Mampreian clocked dual 2:01s on the windy course as the sole NETT representation in the Whaling City. Congrats to them both on rep-re-zenntin with Pony Pride!

(P.S. ladies--Shirts are on the way--hang in in there...!)

Jerry takes third at St. Patrick's Day Race

Jerry De Zutter obviously skipped the Guinness and went for the speed this weekend and it paid off. He finished third overall and first master at the 67th St. Patrick's Day Race in South Boston.

Congrats Jerry!

Jennifer's report from the Pittsfield VT snowshoe marathon

I was just the dopey girl at the back (were we the only two who did the full marathon?) I was telling my friend Frida --fellow adventure racer and the one who won the marathon for the women-- that the only time I get that "killer instinct" is when I'm at the front. Other than that, I just have fun. So, after I followed a group of people that went off course up to the top of the sledding hill right at the start-- D'oh!-- I just had fun.

Between the extra distance and the confusion, that had to be 1/2 an hour lost. Oh well. I just chalked it up as a training day and it's a good thing or I would have gotten even more frustrated when my snowshoes started balling up with packed snow since it was so warm. It was awful. I should have hit them with PAM before the start. Urgh! I almost turned around before mile 2 of the second lap they were so bad, but reminded myself that "I was just putting in training miles" and kept going. I was so exhausted from the balled up snow that by the time I reached mile 4 (of 2nd loop or ~17 miles) that I was walking even on the road. Luckily, the sun eventually
went behind the clouds and by the time I got to the last 4 miles (after the
road sections), the snow was colder and no longer balling up.

The course was probably a mile or so short, but plenty of elevation gain kept it solid. There were a lot of snowmobile trails or even dirt roads, so not much of the singletrack that many snowshoe racers love, but finishing times would have been quite a bit different if that was the case.

Paul Low broke 4 hours with a 3:58 finish, Leigh Schmitt was 10 minutes back, then Todd Walker and Chad Denning. I think Frida was about 5 hours? I was closer to 6 hours or even over (I haven't seen official finish times yet).

My a$$ hurts from "sledding" on my butt (not a sled) on mile 25-26. Heehee. Pretty funny actually. I did my first self-arrest using my finger nails. I overheard a couple of young men who looked like they probably own both JackAss movies on DVD reporting to Andy, the RD, that, "Yeah.... that's pretty sketchy, actually."

I am thrilled out of my mind for Frida. She totally kicked butt and even had non-racing snowshoes on. She's amazing. We had a ton of fun over the weekend. It was a real "destination" type event-- you want to go and stay for the party.

Breeding the future Mini Ponies!

Team Greek Streak (Anthony and Thomas) took on the Claddagh Pub 4-miler on Sunday. As you can see by the photos Thomas was not at all tired and was overheard saying after the race "I really do have to go easy to keep the old man in tow....but it's good for him to get out in the fresh air instead of being in on the computer all day."

The duo cracked the top 100 in the race and I believe were the first babyjogger finishers.

Wang-Kjaersgaards kick butt....Dmitry finds a new sport to win at

The Wang-Kjaersgaards lived up to their Mini Ponie(s) of the year status with a strong 1-2 punch this weekend. Tina flew out to the left coast to do the Los Angeles Marathon. Despite some major obstacles (like the race directors letting the WALKERS start before the runnners, which slowed the early miles significantly??), Tina pushed hard and ran a strong 3:37.

Meanwhile on Sunday, the other half of Team Wang-Kjaersgaard was hauling booty up and down the hills of Central Mass in the infamous Stus 30K race. Frank finished very well in 2:03 for 15th place overall. (He looks like me in high school--running with a police cruiser behind him!)

"I ran very even for the first 20K, then I had problems with my knee again, which cost me about a minute," Frank reports. This was his last race in the 30-39 age-group, so you masters racers get ready!


On Saturday, Dmitry and Dave took to the snow at the Hawley Kiln Snowshoe race. Dmitry took on some of the top snowshoers in the region and won his first snowshoe race the hard way--leading through deep snow on a single-track trail for most of the race, finishing the five-mile course in 52:21. Dave chugged in at 6th place in 59:40.

There's some typically comical photos (some on purpose, some not so) of Dave and Dmitry's trip and race posted in the NETT photo archive.




Here's Dave with his two biggest idols--Richy Busa and Art "The Furnace" Gulliver!