Thomas Chamberas 6K XC Race brings in speedsters, donations

Another successful edition of the Thomas Chamberas 6K XC Race is in the books, thanks to the hard work of our organizers, volunteers and the runners who participated.

First and foremost the race raised upwards of $2500 in donations for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, so thank you to all who entered, donated or volunteered.

After an uplanned but rousing version of the national anthem courtesy of Michael Mahone, the Can Man, the race was off. This year’s race saw some of the steepest competition yet at the front of both the men’s and women’s races. NB Boston’s Ryan Carrara successfully defended his title in Carlisle this year by outkicking Aaron Price of the BAA to win by a mere three seconds in 18:02. But man oh man, what a deep field up front. As part of the USATF-NE XC Series the Chamberas race drew runners from several of the top clubs in New England and as you review the names in the top 25 or so finishers, you see a lot of very well known names on the list, an indication of how competitive this race was.

The same holds true on the women’s side, where Lara Johnson kept the women’s overall title with the BAA winning in 20:38, good for 29th overall. But Johnson certainly had to work for it with the likes of SISU’s Caitlyn Clark, Emily Kroshs, NB Boston’s Christy Mae Carrara and always impressive GBTC’s women’s squad in hot pursuit.
We’ll hold off on posting team scores to avoid any confusion, as there may be minor differences between our race’s team scores and those in the USATF series (series scoring requires USATF membership).

Thanks to the sponsors: Greater Boston Running Co., Etonic, Brooks, Asics, Reebok, CitySports, DarnTough Vermont, Eastern Mountain Sports, La Sportiva, Welchs, the Boston Athletic Association.

As always, huge thanks to our crew of volunteers this year including: Ben, Cindy, Ted and Elsa Winther, Paul Young, Doris Chow, Karyn Miller-Medzon, Dima Feinhaus, Karen Ringheiser, Mary Smith, Michelle Lang, Adrienne Cyrulik, Joe Hardin, Frank and Maggie White, Jack Burke, Eric Bucher, Chris Smith, Bill Newsham, and the myriad others I forgot. A special thanks to the Chamberas family who always shows up in droves for the event, including Thomas himself who took part in his first of many races on foot (as opposed to the baby jogger where he normally races).

Special thanks to Jim Rhoades for another batch of top-notch race photos posted here.

For another race review courtesy of Jim Johnson of MVS, click here.

Women 2nd, Men 7th at Lynn Woods

The NETT women came through stong again, taking second place in the women's open category at the 2008 Lynn Woods XC Relay, while the near-masters men's team finished 7th overall in the hotly contested men's open field.

The women started out very consistently with Deb Robertson leading off in 18:52 for the 2.5 mile loop, with Chrissy Durden running the second leg in an almost identical 18:51. Jennifer Shultis was up next and she clocked a very solid 19:21 before handing off to Adrienne Cyrulik, who threw down a monster 18-flat to bring it all home in 75:04 for 39th place overall, second in the women's open division.

39. NETT (311) 75:04
DEB ROBERTSON 18:52 18:52
CHRISSY DURDEN 37:43 18:51
JEN SHULTIS 57:04 19:21
ADRIENNE CYRULIK 75:04 18:00


On the men's side, Chris Smith led off with a speedy 14:38 putting us in 9th place. Janos Mako took the stick and cranked out a 15:16 before Paul Young matched Chris' leg and came through in 14:37 (weird huh?) to leave NETT off in sixth place heading into the final leg. Crazy Dave didn't exactly choke--but there was definitely a shortness of breath and blue on his face, as he closed it up in 14:08, but lost the battle for sixth place to a guy who threw down a 13:48. What are you gonna do, right? The NETT men finished up in 58:39. Had Crazy Dave found his fake ID from college and qualified as a master, the NETT team would have been second masters (second only to the CMS team that set the new masters record).


7 . NETT (275) 58:39
CHRIS SMITH 14:38 14:38
JANOS MAKOS 29:54 15:16
PAUL YOUNG 44:31 14:37
DAVE HANNON 58:39 14:08

Chrissy's CitySports crew also did well finishing 8th in the coed division in 77:58.
Special thanks to the runners who volunteered for teams even though we could work them all out (Bogie, Duggan and Martin).

As always, the volunteers and organizers at the Lynn Woods Relay did an outstanding job of getting accurate splits and keeping track of what appears to the naked eye to be complete and utter chaos. I honestly have no idea how they do it, but KUDOS to them.

Reminder: Thomas Chamberas 6K XC Race This Sunday!

Just one last reminder, that that Thomas Chamberas 6K Cross Country Race is Set for August 24 in Carlisle Mass.


The Sixth Annual Thomas Chamberas 6K Cross Country Race will take place on August 24, 2008 at Great Brook Farm State Park in Carlisle, Mass. at 9 a.m. with all of the funds raised going to benefit cystic fibrosis research.

The Chamberas XC race is unique because it is both a highly competitive XC event but it’s also a fundraiser for a very good cause: On July 27, 2005 Thomas Francis Chamberas was born. He was named after his late Uncle Tommy, a former standout runner at the University of Lowell who was murdered in 1994. This race was originally founded to raise money for the Thomas Chamberas Memorial Runner’s Scholarship in memory of “Uncle Tommy” but when Thomas Francis was only 10 days old he was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis.

Today, the race now raises funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation with the blessing of the Chamberas family.

The race attracts all levels of competitors from first-time XC runners just out for the cause all the way up to Olympic trials qualifiers and other top-ranked local runners. This year, the race is part of both the Eastern New England Trail Racing Series and the USATF New England Cross Country Grand Prix, so it’s sure to bring in the top runners in the area.

For more registration information, past results or to make a donation, please visit the race web site at http://cff.chambosfund.org or contact Anthony Chamberas achamberas@alum.bu.edu 781-899-0499.

TIMBER! NETT goes BIG at Timberman Tri

There were a slew of Mini Ponies out at the Timberman Triathlon in New Hampshire this weekend, so let's get right to the results so I can resume watching women's diving.

In the sprint tri, it was Jerry De Zutter in 12th and Paul Miller in 13th finishing together in 1:06:56. It was something of a family reunion for the De Zutters in the sprint tri, as little bro Phil came in at 1:23, big brother Jim in 1:25 and Jim Senior at 74 years young came in at 2:08. It's only a matter of time before Audrey and Bradon get out there!

In the women's sprint, Tina Wang finished very well in 1:27:40.

In the half-iron distance, Ali Azarbayejani had a good race, finishing 62nd in 4:48 Frank KJ clocked a 5:14 in his third half-iron this year! And young Dave Guertin put in a very solid effort to finsih up in 5:34. And NETT pal Pat Dwyer continued his stellar season on his way to Kona by finishing 12th in 4:28. Great work guys!

The crew had a pre-race workout on Friday AM at Walden Pond with a breakfast after. Whatever they ate it worked! Congrat to all.


And just in case you don't feel lazy enough as it is reading about these maniacs, the Hoyts, Dick and Rick, did the half iron race as well. I'm off to eat a whoopie pie!

NETTers find business as usual at the Oxford Dam Trail Race

Three NETT runners made it out to the Oxford Dam Trail Race on Saturday with good results. Here's the report from Dima Feinhaus:

"The Oxford Dam Trail Race certainly lived up to its reputation again this year as people were massively getting lost yet again. To assure success of the race, the RD made sure to use three different colors to mark the course and changed the course yet again this year. There were plenty of volunteers first two miles, but then ... not quite as many.

At one of the turns I saw NETT's own John Kinnee running across the field in the opposite direction. I was impressed and surprised that someone could be so far ahead. Indeed John was just speeding up back to the trail after taking a short detour. About a mile later as we were running under powerlines (mostly up, on loose rock) yours truly followed four runners (including John) up the steep hill against my best judgment. That was the biggest and steepest hill of the race and Ben Nephew called it the bonus hill. He made the same mistake but proceeded to win the race.

But it wasn't the end of the story for Young John. He missed the final turn to the finish and had to run an extra 200 yards at the end too but still managed to finish 6th overall--not bad. I finished 7th right behind him (2nd master).

On the women's side Karen Ringheiser finished 2nd female without a single scratch, great progress for a pretty technical race. The woman who pushed her last year chickened out and diddn't show up this year after several death threats from the NETT hit squad. Always trying to fit in, Karen missed the last turn too just like John but still managed to get back to the finish without losing any spots in the women's race. Running the race this time included a few muddy puddles and an "over the knees" river crossing--- I dunked myself into the water as a pleasant way to cool down.

Overall the race attracted more than 100 people, 50% growth over last year. Wow!

Toledo Joe takes Masters title at Wild Cat Tri, Tina goes West

Toledo Joe Hardin finished fourth overall, first master at the Wild Cat Triathlon in Lowell this weekend. Joe put in a solid swim and run and absolutely tore it apart on the bike with the second fastest bike split (27:05 for 11 miles!). Notably, the fastest run split of the day was a blistering 13:32 thrown down by a new entrant into the world of triathlon, Eric "Bosh" Beauchesne. (At least Toledo Joe's from Toledo--after growing up with us in Chelmsford, I don't know HOW Bosh could swim in the Merrimack! Yuuuccck). Joe's strong performance racks up more points for NETT in the FIRM Grand Prix. NETT is currently 7th overall with 66 points.

In other tri racing news, Tina Wang finished sixth in her age group, 79th overall at the Greenfield Sprint Triathlon in 1:27.

Congrats to both Joe and Tina! Keep up the good work!

Young nabs another top 10 finish at his 10th Escarpment Trail Race

Most people are happy if they can finish the very challenging Escarpment 30K Trail Run in upstate New York once. Some finish one and never come back. According to the race web site, "This single track trail crosses no roads, has total elevation changes of nearly 10,000 feet, and requires all aid to be backpacked in by volunteers. This is not for your average runner but for the runner who trains 12 months a year, and has spent years building a base and gaining long distance experience. Therefore, qualifying standards are required to insure that all participants have experience with endurance events and have a reasonable chance of completing the course within 6 hours."

But not one to be deterred by a rugged course, Mr. Young this year finished his 10th Escarpment, amassing one of the most impressive lists of finishes in the race’s storied history.

Unlike most years when the challenge is the extreme heat, this year, the challenge was water—lots of it. According to the race director’s report, “This year's event was highlighted by incredible electrical storms that for all of the runners aside from some of the early leaders, got dumped upon with rain, hail, and near lightning strikes.”

But true to form, Mr. Young pushed through it and finished 8th overall and third master. “It’s hard to believe I've finished 10 of these now,” he says. “It’s my longest streak at any one race. This year there were extremely wet conditions. I feel bad for people finishing after me as it thundered, lightning and hailed on them. I'll get my 200 mile shirt next year.”

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This summer I went to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. It was fun. The mountains there are really high. Doris came too. I did a race up Cypress Mountain too. It was supposed to be on Mount Seymour but the snow there was still too deep. I finished 11th. Doris said that was good, but I am not sure. Most of the other guys in the race were better at the downhills than me but that's cool. I saw a black bear on my run in Whistler. It was big. A nice girl gave me a ride in her car so the bear would not eat me. He looked hungry. We have lots of pictures.