DimaD gets fifth at U.S. Mountain Running Championships

The U.S. Mountain Running Championships were held yesterday at Mt. Cranmore in New Hampshire and NETT's Dmitry Drozdov finished fifth overall in 1:07:56. According to organizers, the course was designed to "mimic the World Trophy course, which will decide the World Mountain Running Champions in Switzerland this September. Instead of a simple hill climb, the course demands ascending and descending the steep, 4.2-kilometer hill. The men will run three laps and the women two. To further test the top runners, the downhills are designed to be steep and fast like Switzerland, and the whole course has a whopping 3,600 feet of elevation gain."

By the way, Dima's been on a tear in terms of gettings his mug in the press of late. Check out THIS PIC from New England Runner of Dima battling Dave Dunham at Mt. Washington. And he's prominently featured in the advertisting for the Marathon Sports 5-Mile race, wearing his NETT singlet (the magazine ad is better!).

Nice work Dima-enjoy the vacation!

(Photo courtesy of White Mountain Milers.)

Boston Globe covers lyme disease

For those of you who haven't seen it, the Globe has a very extensive report on Lyme disease up on its web site here.

Definitely worth a read--and debate if anyone has opinions/experience, post in the comments section.

NETT v. 2.0 takes to the track

I know some of you are getting a bit concerned with a phenomena we are starting to refer to as the "graying of the ponies". Yes, without even trying, we're building a very strong Masters club here, thanks in great part to Father Time. Dave Mingori and Frank KJ are the newest members, with a few more of us right around the corner.

All this might lead you to ask...what's the future hold for NETT? How are we building the long-term prospects for the club?

Well, this past week the next generation of NETT stars took to the track. If you check out THESE RESULTS, you'll notice some familiar last names in the girls 5 and under category. Yes, that's "our" Alexandra Miller finishing in a strong 5th place, and that's Audrey "Mini-Tick" De Zutter rounding out the top 10 (she's obviously just like her dad, just mixing in some sprints for fun, but clearly a distance runner--heck, Jer, maybe AUDREY will set that Long Trail record you had your sights on a few years back?) And it looks like Audrey's cousins (?) were in the heats as well,
with a Daniel takign 2nd and Caroline taking 7th. Looks like we have a legit little training group forming here!

I personally had the good fortune of being able to get a sneak peak of one of Alexandra's "tuneup" sprint workouts at Bentley last Wednesday...for those of you looking to build up some of your speed in the shorter sprints, here's what Alex goes through:

-Warmup by having your dad push you 2 miles in the baby jogger
-Do some plyometric exercises with Crazy Dave
-Practice running along the white lines of the track balance-beam style
-Several balerina-style twirls on track
-Upper body workout by digging in the sand of the long jump pit with a bucket
-Cooldown by having your dad push another 2 miles in the jogger.

Whew, I'm tired just typing that kind of monster workout!

Oh, by the way, their dads also ran the Will Speck Memorial 5K race too, with strong results. Alex's dad ran 17:25 and Audrey's dad was 21:04 while "uncle Phil" was in under 30 mins. No confirmation yet, and yes--those times were run with joggers (think about that--17:25 pushing one kid and 21 mins pushing two kids in the jogger for Jerry--ouch! And Phil's got two kids too!)

Anyways, looks like it was a fun day for all and glad to see SOMEONE is racking up the PRs around here, while the rest of us continue to target age group wins and go through box after box of Just for Men hair dye.

Kjaersgaard-Wangs, Cotton get front and center at Ashland Tri

Frank Kjaersgaard and Tina Wang (can you pick them out in this Metrowest Daily News photo?) both put in strong performances at the Ashland Lions Triathlon, while Nick Cotton surfaced again with a great tri effort.

Frank KJ finished 18th overall in 2:22 for the Olympic distance event while Nick was just a few minutes behind in 2:26.

Tina was the key to the winning mixed relay team that finished in 2:17.

NETT (and friends) conquers the Run to the Clouds

It was another year of ups and downs at the Mount Washington Road Race. Ups of course refer to the race course mostly (7.6 miles of 11% grade to the top of the highest peak in the Northeast) and downs refer to the feelings most runners get about mid-way through the race.

The “extended NETT family” was well represented at this year’s race and when the cannon fired, we were off to tackle the “Run to the Clouds.” With temperatures in the 80s at the start, it was clear it would not be a day for PRs or course records (only one age-group record went down this year). "It was a bit hot today," race winner Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand said in a post-race report. "I thought I'd go out solid and see if I had anything there, but after a mile I knew I wasn't close to a record today, so I tried to stay conservative.”

For most of the first half of the race, it was a nose to the grindstone sufferfest, but at a certain point past halfway, the winds turned cool and brought a dramatic and welcome temperature change (at first I thought it was just me having that much welcome full stroke, but upon completion, the cooler temps were also reported by the other racers).

"It was painful during the first half of the race, both mentally and physically, because of the heat," second-place women’s finisher and current U.S. national champion Nicole Hunt, told the Manchester Union Leader. "The last two miles above treeline, it cooled off."

The NETT charge was led, as usual, by Dmitry Drozdov taking his second shot at the “Beast from the East” this year with successful results. He basically matched his time from last year on a more difficult day and moved up to 13th place overall in the field of close to 1,000 and fourth in the 35-39 age group, duking it out with another DD (Dave Dunham) for most of the way in a battle of age and experience vs. post-communist speed.

For my part, I clocked a very sub-par 1:15 for 30th spot overall (a personal worst on both accounts). The difficulty with this race is knowing how you’re doing along the way. Mile splits are had to digest, so I usually try to use the runners I know as benchmarks. This year I ran with Hunt and the third-place woman, normally a good spot for me, but unfortunately, they were a bit further back in the race than years past.

Perhaps the best race of the day for the extended NETT family was newcomer Dmitry Shirokov, who finished his first attempt at the race in a very respectable 1:30. Now most of us know Dmitry S is not a super-serious runner, but he’s certainly very comfortable on steep inclines with a long background of mountaineering to support him.

“My main goal for the race was to run without stopping or switching to walk,” Dima S said after the race. “So I was so focused on staying relaxed and saving energy and actually found that the race was easier than I expected.”

You don’t hear THAT very often. If you saw him at the top, bee-bopping around, waiting for his family to join him and hike down while most of us dry-heaved into the dirt or prayed lighting would strike us dead, you know this guy has a lot more potential. “Next time I should start a little closer to the start line to see Dima D’s WTF start.”

Dima S reports that his pre-race accommodations at the Moose Brook campground on Rt. 2 in Gorham were great and a short
10-15 minute drive from the auto road.

Friend of NETT Dima Feinhaus (are you detecting a trend here) ran a solid 1:36 in his second charge up the hill representing CSU, only a couple weeks post-Nipmuck Marathon. “My biggest complaint is that they ran out of beer at the post-race part really quickly,” Dima F said. “The nice bartender shared some of hers to fill my glass, but I should practice my hurt and disappointed look for next year just in case.”

Another friend of NETT (also representing CSU), Marshall Randolph put in a 1:34 time for 7th place in the 55-59 age group. Where do these guys COME from?

Special thanks to Jennifer S for giving us a ride down from the Summit. She volunteered to hand out finishing medals and has fallen deeply in love with race winner Jonathan Wyatt (see her lust-fueled close up photo above!), so if anyone knows his cell digits, please “hollah.”

See more of Jennifer's photos HERE.

See Dave Mingori's photos of Dave H and Dima D finishing here.

And see more photos from DimaD here.

As concerns the race, Jennifer commented that it “Looked hard and I was glad I didn't do it. I got tired just driving up the road. NETT men need to get coyote tattoos on chest for racing shirtless. Handling out medals sounded like an easy job but there are way too many body fluids around for my taste.”

Also, special thanks to always reliable NETT member Dave Mingori for pre-race accommodations and post-race attire. Guy’s solid as a rock.



"So if I put you in the oven at 350 degrees would you cook faster because you're a Mick?"

NETT’s Kinnee, Shultis crush competiton at Lynn Woods Duathlon

John Kinnee just destroyed the competition at the first Lynn Woods Duathlon of the summer while Jennifer Shultis easily took the women’ title as well.

Perhaps most impressive is John’s first run split, a 14:41 which approaches a good run split on that course—period. He obviously went out hard, putting almost a full minute on his nearest competition prior to getting on the bike. He also had the fastest MTB split and fastest second run split of the day.
Jennifer was way out in front of her nearest female competition too, mind you, nearly breaking the top 10 overall.

Fantastic work both of you!

1. John Kinne 14:41 21:40 15:30 51:51f
11. Jenn Shultis 18:59 26:28 20:06 65:33 1. Female


Also of note: The main photo on the Lynn Woods web site features the start of last year's relay with NETT's Dave Mingori is a solid position.

NECN's coverage of Mt. Washington race

As the mountain goats among the Mini-Ponies put in our final prepartions for the Mt. Washington Road Race, I thought I'd post this short segment from NECN on the Mt. Washington Race. Includes a short interview with Jonathan Wyatt and some video clips of last year's race.



While I couldn't find any photos of any of our team running the race, I couldn't resist including this photo....photographic proof that Eric has in fact completed the race...just not a big fan of it.

Dmitry takes Lincoln, Mingori wins first master's title, Burney 5Ks at Concord

Just a quick review of NETT results this past weekend:

Although official results not available yet, early word has it that Dmitry Drozdov won the Lincoln Steeplechase trail run yesterday in 37:56ish.

Newly-minted master Dave Mingori ran the Worcester Firefighter's 6K and finished as the first master in 20:30 and 14th overall. "I was 20 seconds slower than last year, but I kinda expected that," Dave says. We can expect many more master's wins from this guy!

And Extra-Irish Dave Burney finished in the top half of the Emerson 5K in Concord, dipping just under 8 minute pace. Nice work!

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the NETT multisport racers followed through on a multi-brick workout out at Jerry's house despite torrential rains. Reports are that everyone came through safely, but pretty wet. (I, for one, was greatly relieved to see dark clouds when I woke up so I could completely wuss out with a semi-legit excuse of "Oh, I don't have the raingear to cycle in the rain").

A few others--me, Frank KJ, Adrienne and Bartels had a very nice leisurely run on the trails in Lincoln Sunday AM under clear skies and sun/

Winthers attack at Mary's Run

The Winthers--Ben and Cindy--took advantage of their home turf in running the Mary's Run 5K up in Henn-a--kaah...

Cindy continued to show strong results blistering through some sub7s and finishing up in 21:07, good for second woman overall and less than 20 seconds off the leader! Way to go Cyn.

After a week of altitude training (translation: drinking vats of Fat Tire Ale in Boulder) Ben muscled out a 20 minute effort.

Kuota Challenge at Rye By the Sea Duathlon

A great race report from Frank KJ:

NETT’s run/bike specialists did it again.

It was man-o-man and Kouta vs. Kuota at Rye By the Sea Duathlon and while Joe Hardin won the Kuota challenge by 19 seconds, Frank won the age group and 4th overall. Joe took 3rd in age group and 6th overall. Tina once again showed she knows to pick her races and finished 2nd in her age group and 3rd overall.

Frank was a mere 14 seconds ahead of Joe after the 1st run. Joe immediately chased Frank down and so they kept each other at the game for the bike leg (no drafting). At mile 9 we though we had caught the two leaders (both fast runners) and that we were now the leaders. Unfortunately 1) the two guys started drafting on us and eventually passed us on the 2nd run leg and 2) we had overlooked that there was an extremely fast cyclist who was way ahead of the rest of us.

The course at Rye is great. The run is a mix of 1 mile on paved road and 2 miles on soft trails in that order on the 1st leg and opposite on the 2nd leg. The bike leg is flat and goes along the Atlantic Ocean.