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.