Young overcomes more obstacles than usual at Cranmore

First, he gets lost on the warmup before the race resulting in a longer than usual warmup in a torrential downpour. Then he takes a rare wrong turn on one of his patented screaming downhills, costing him as much as 90 very painful seconds. But despite a couple mishaps, Youngstah managed to put finish a very solid 11th place overall (3rd master) at the Cranmore Hill Climb on Sunday.

Now many of you may have taken a wrong turn in a race--but in a hill climb/descent it can be truly devastating (because you have to trudge back up the steep section you just came down!). But Youngstah took it all in stride and extended his lead (I think) in the USATF-NE Mountain Running Series (results/standings are a bit hard to digest here, but looks like he's top master, with Martin Tighe in front of him as a 50 year old.) See photos here.

Nice work Youngstah! Way to represent NETT out there (or NETAT as they like to list us in the results for this thing).

In other racing news, Chris Smith finished 17th overall and fifth master (45:25) while Karen Ringheiser finished second female master at the New Charles River Run in Cambridge in 50:53.

NETT ranks in the triathlon world!

For those of you unaware, New England Track & Trail is an officially registered triathlon club, thanks to the efforts of Frank KJ.

While we don't have the masses of numbers that some tri clubs have (although, we've got some names on our tri roster some of you might not know!), we're definitely in the "quality not quantity" realm and it's paying off. With the very strong results at the recent FirmMan race (three men in the top 12, one of the top relay teams), NETT is currently ranked 8th in the FIRM Grand Prix, only a few points behind some much much bigger clubs like Wheelworks.

For those interested in helping our tri team score some points, check in with Frank KJ on which races are included and what it takes to score us some points. (And don't forget--Jerry hosts Tuesday night swims at Walden for the land lubbers looking to try their first tri!)

But rest assured, we're still staying very close to our trail-running roots as well. NETT currently owns the top two spots in the Eastern New England Trail Race Series (note: these standings don't include the Boxford Forest 10K, which Crazy Dave won and Mr. Young was second--that pretty much puts these two guys miles ahead of the rest.

NETT puts three in top five, second woman at NMC's Boxford 10K Trail Race

NETTers braved the heat and humidity to dominate the top spots at the North Medford Club's Boxford State Forest 10K, the fifth event in the Eastern New England Trail Race Series.

To give us the details, here's a report from the Hungarian Land Shark himself, Janos:

"The NETT group had a decent showing with 4 of us there, although we were outnumbered by the North Medford and GAC clubs. The North Medford club has to have the oldest members of any running club I’ve ever seen, as well as the lowest entry fees of $5. Since this was my first race wearing the NETT singlet I wanted to have a good showing. Crazy Dave ran a conservative race and got another win, Paul Young captured 2nd, and I got 5th place. Just to show how memory fades, I thought I had run this same race about 7 years ago, and I remember it being fairly flat with some technical running due to rocks. I looked it up and it was actually 13 years ago! In 1995 it was a 7.5 mile race that I ran in 51:15 (7:04 pace) good for 11th place out of 44. Yesterday the course was 6.3 miles in 47:12 (7:30) for 5th place out of about 25 runners. I found that the course had more little rolling hills than I had remembered, and I was feeling pretty tired running up and down them by the end of the course. The entire race was run “inside an oven” of probably 85 degree heat and high humidity despite starting past 6:30 p.m."

Janos was kind enough to host NETT members to a post-race BBQ at his house. All in all, about as much fun as a runner can have in that much heat!!

Coyotes take to the trails at Fitchburg (yes, I said Fitchburg), Lincoln, etc.

At the NMC Overlook 7 Mile Trail Race in Fitchburg Sunday, Crazy Dave and Jack Burke braved the record-high temps with good results (they finished standing up--that's good result when you're racing in 90-plus temps.)

Out in Fitchburg Sunday, "head for the shade" was the phrase of the day at the Overlook 7 mile race, the fourth race in the Eastern New England Trail Race Series. With legs that felt like tires with the air let out, Dave struggled to a third-place finish in 46:33, while Jack Burke easily achieved his pre-race goal of cracking the hour mark by finishing strong in 59:36. Pretty much all runners gave the race good marks for organization, course variety and marking.

While updated standings aren't yet posted, after four events, it looks like Mr. Young and Crazy Dave should be 1-2 in the standings (by virtue of the fact that no one else has done three races, I think?) Check back here later: Eastern New England Trail Race Standings if you really care at all.

And even the "extended NETT family" had some inspiring performances this weekend. Jean Dany Joachim not only worked to raise some money for charity, but he also posted a BLISTERING 16:18 at the Vision 5K on Saturday in Boston.

And Marshall Randolph won his age group at the Great Lincoln Steeplechase this weekend, finishing 9th overall in 50:19 in that blistering heat. In case you're wondering, his age group is 50-59 and he's at the very tail end of that--he's 59 and finished 9th overall...wowie zowie! That's just plain impressive.

Miller wins! NETT puts three in the top 12 at FirmMan Mass

Big Congrats to Paul Miller, Frank KJ and Jerry De Zutter for their fantastic performances at the FirmMan Mass 08 Half-Ironman Distance Triathlon in a scorching heat. Paul crushed the field in a convincing 4:32. Especially impressive given his being 84th coming out of the water--there's hope for us LAND LUBBERS! Paul's half-marathon split was a smoking 1:25 off the bike. Ouch.

Frank KJ was second master and ninth overall in 4:51, with a strong 2:43 on the bike and a swim five minutes faster than the race winner's! Nice work Frank!

Jerry wound up 12th overall in 4:57 and fourth master. Of special note: Jerry's bike split of 2:35 was 6th fastest overall! That is one free-wheeling tick! Jerry's brother Jim did very well in the aqua bike competition as well (just swim and bike--no run).

AND...in case that just wasn't enough good news...Tina's relay team finished 3rd overall in 4:45, thanks to Tina's super-speedy 1:39 half marathon.

And, now the "from the field reports" that we all love. Here's Frank KJ's report on the race:

"Most astounding is that Paul took a spill on the bike course and ran a little extra on the run. Guess the crash got him really fired up. For an extremely hot day he ran fast. I had a great swim but never found the legs on the bike leg; but lucky for me they came back on the run leg and I picked up a lot up heat exhausted casualties to move into 2nd (very happy with that). One of those "casualties" were Jerry who - despite an email last week claiming he would go easy on the bike - really put the hammer down. Jerry caught me at mile 23, Paul at mile 32 of the bike leg. I passed Jerry at mile 8 of the run. It was extremely hot today; I have never seen people cramping after after the bike leg in a New England race but it happened today.

Tina's team did very well winning the mixed relay category. They are now 3 for 3. They started 5 minutes behind and their biker passed me. I spotted Tina at the turnaround. She had about a minute on me and I thought I would catch her but I never got closer than 45 seconds. She was flying - as many people kept mentioning to her. (I would like to point out though that I did run 48 seconds faster thus winning the Tina vs. Frank 13.1 race Jerry mentioned the other day ;-) )

It was good to see the De Zutters and Millers cheering us on: Jennifer, Audrey, Braden and Alex out there too. I'm sure the kids all fell asleep fast with all the energy they burned swimming and playing."

Frank also points out that, as NETT is an officialy registered triathlon team, these performances give us big points in the FIRM Grand Prix!

Jerry is his usual humble self in his report:
"My performance can be explained as, you get out of it what you put into it. I started swim training 3wks ago and have very few runs over 1hr this spring not to mention no hard bricks longer than ~35m bike/5mile run (multi-brick aside). Been spinning and getting on the bike all along. So when my swim came up mediocre, had a good bike split and couldn't finish off with a solid run, I more or less got what I deserved. I wouldn't blame it on the heat or the fact that the 4 gels and powerbar taped to my bike fell off in the first mile
of the ride.

My brother Jim did the aquabike. He had a good swim but not quite the bike he was looking for. Already chomping at the bit for the next race.

But easily the race highlight of the weekend for me was the induction of my (and Paul's) daughter into the ranks of triathletes. Check out the photo album of the kids race the day before our race. Was great to watch and support the kids who really made good efforts on a hot day!!"


Tina's report is short and sweet: "It was brutally hot! Paul ran down everybody and got the first place. Jerry biked super fast and I almost let Frank catch me on the run."


Congrats to all....very very strong representation out there.

Proud to be a Pony!

Walden Pond Swim Trivia

With the Tuesday night swims getting into full swing, Frank KJ decicded it was time to share a bit of trivia about Walden Pond. Here's his report:

"With swim season at Walden Pond in full gear, I thought I’d share some facts and trivia.

Walden Pond is a 102-foot (31 m) deep pond, 61 acres in area and 1.7 miles (2.7 km) around. A famous example of a kettlehole, it was formed by retreating glaciers 10,000 - 12,000 years ago. More data and photos on WIKIPEDIA'S WALDEN POND ENTRY.

Walden Pond is of course famous because of Thoreau but what you may not know is that Thoreau had first chosen a section of shoreline of Sandy Pond (Flints Pond); I am sure you trail runners are all familiar with Sandy Pond, which is not accessible as it serves as drinking water for Lincoln. Tradition say, however, that Thoreau was not granted a permission to build a cabin because Captain Flint had heard about the extensive forest fire Thoreau had set by Fairhaven Bay (also known from our runs in Lincoln Woods). Had Thoreau had his will we might have been swimming in Sandy Pond instead.

Finally, if you just want to know how far you have been swimming in Walden, then you can find just about all the yardage listed in the PDF posted here, courtesy of Breakwater Sports Training.

In NH Elsa gets going; Tina Wang cranks at Rye

It wasn't just down in Dub-Rox where the NETT action was happening this weekend.
Breaking news into the NETT Newsroom confirm that Elsa Winther, who is SOOO far ahead of the rest of us in the running gene pool, completed her first race this weekend at Mary's Run in Henniker, NH. And, oh, her parents Ben & Cindy completed it as well but really, Elsa is the star here...NETT's News Department has scored these EXCLUSIVE first photos of the future phenom.








And lastly, the Double Duty award this weekend goes to Tina Wang. Not only was she in attendance Sunday at the Corrib race cheerng us on and scooped up a coveted NETT award at the post-race party, but she also managed to finish 4th woman overall and 2nd in her age group at the Rye By the Sea Duathlon on Saturday, finishing in 1:39. Congrats to Tina!

Whew!

Corrib Pub 5K gets high marks, high finishes from NETT

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood of West Roxbury on Sunday at NETT members gathered to run the Corrib Pub 5K and assemble at Dave and Doris' for the post-race cookout and social festivities. UPDATE: We even made the West Roxbury Newspaper's BLOG.

First the race. As is becoming the norm these days, the Coyotettes completely showed up us menfolk by putting two women in the top 6 places in this race of more than 1600 people. Let me repeat that: Two women in the top six women (both of which ran 25K trail race last weekend!) Impressive. Mary Smith got the turnover rolling to crank out a sub-21 effort, good for 3rd woman overall and tops in her age group. And not far behind was Adrienne Cyrulik who also rebounded from the Pineland Farms race extremely well to lay down a 21:17 good for 6th place (note: results have her as 7th, but we counted--she was 6th dammit--one of those two ladies in front of her in the results doesn't really exist, trust me).

Excellent job ladies!

On the men's side, Crazy Dave didn't quite rebound from Pineland Farms quite as successfully putting in a 17:15 good for 9th overall. Dave Mingori, who has spent every free waking moment for the past three months skiing down various parts of the Presidential Range, cracked the top 20 with a 17:50, good for 5th master.

As promised, the post-race festivities were the real draw at this one, though. After we watched the awards ceremony, where Mary represented us proudly, it was back to the house for some burgers, beeaahs and socializing. It was great to see NETT faces old and new mixing together.






The NETT awards were handed out to the following folks in attendance (and some not):

Multisporter of the Year: Jerry the Tick De Zutter
Performance of the Year: Leo Fahey (Blue Hills trail race)
Workout of the Year: Alex Miller (6x1000m @ 3:15 avg on the Bentley track and not even breathing hard!)
Recruiter of the Year: Tina Wang for her last-minute heroics at Wayland XC among others.
Relay Leg of the Year: Nicholas for his swim leg on the Wang Dynasty Team at the Sudbury Triathlon.
Best Recipe: Oona Chamberas' Cinnamon Eggs!
Team Performance of the Year: Andover XC Race (Mens and Women's Champions). Honorable mention: Lynn Woods (three complete teams) and Mt. Hood Melrose.
Most Sorely Missed: Dmitry Drozdov.

Note: All photos courtesy of Frank KJ Productions
MORE TO COME>