Monday, March 31, 2008

New "Eastern New England" Trail Race Series Announced

Good news for the trail runner who's tired of driving all the way out to the Berkshires or Connecticut to get their trail running fix. This year will be the innaugural year for the Eastern New England Trail Race Series, sponsored by the North Medford Club.

Modeled after the successful Grand Tree series put on by the Western Mass Athletic Club, the Eastern New England series will include 20 races at distances from 3 miles to 17 miles, most in Massachusetts (and a couple in RI).

The series kicks off April 12 at the Merrimack River Trail Race and runs all the way until the final event Nov. 23, the Lil Rhody Runaround.

For more info on the series contact Rene Lavoie at NorthMedfordClub@verizon.net

Friday, March 28, 2008

Battle Road Runs in Full Swing


For the uninitiated, one of the staples in the NETT run repertoire is the Monday night Battle Road Trail run. We do them every Monday, 6 p.m. and now that it's light out and there's no ice we can park at the lot at the end of the trail (Corner of Old Mass Ave and Wood Street in Lexington) instead of across 2A.

Come one, come all!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Great Southie Irish Showdown Overshadowed

It was setting up to be a great duel between two, not yetintip-topshapebut desperatelyreadyforarace MiniPonies. That was, until, someone else--a woman, no less--stole the show.

Jerry the Tick and Frank KJ toed the line at the South Boston St. Patrick's Day 5K yesterday in full spirits. Jerry, a half-Irish/half Dutchmen felt a sense of pride swelling--or was that Guinness--in his gut, as the gun went off and he started up his battle with the "Great Dane", who was still bouncing back from his penile implant surgery. Two aging but fearless multisporters. One 5K road race for all the marbles amidst thousands of screaming drunken fans. Bragging rights would last right through until the Thanksgiving Day race. And somehow, it all went unnoticed.

While the details are still unclear, what IS clear from the finish times, that it was an epic battle between these two. The Tick edged the Dane by a mere two seconds. Two seconds. It took you that long to read the words--two seconds.

BUT BOTH WERE 40 SECONDS BEHIND THE OVERALL WINNER--A WOMAN.

Yes, GBTC's Alison McCabe stole the show by outlegging ALL the boys and winning in a very impressive 17:46 and made what should have been one of the road running world's most dyanmic finishes a mere afterthought.

Anyways....

In other racing action this weekend, the team of Karen and Karyn took to the streets. K-- Miller-Medzon scurried through the Ras Na Heireann USA in Somerville in 22:10, and took 5th in her age group! And K--- Ringheiser put on her "Away Uniform" and sped through the New Bedford Half Marathon in 1:31, yes sub-7 pace for those of you keeping score at home. And Dima Feinhaus had his "away uniform" on and ran a PR of 1:24. I'm sure he'd have run a 1:22 with a Coyote on his chest!

Congrats to all. As always, Go Mini Ponies.

Monday, March 10, 2008

NETT has All-Americans!

The USA Triathlon and Duathlon Rankings for 2007 have been posted and NETT had some very impressive results.

Duathlon: Congratulations to Paul Miller and Jerry de Zutter for taking All American honors placing 3rd respectively 6th in their age groups. Joe Hardin received Honorable Mention for placing 25th; Frank KJ placed 42nd. On the women’s side Tina placed 28th in her age group for duathlon.

Triathlon: Frank KJ, Jerry and Frank W all received Honorable Mention in the Men’s 40-44.

Complete rankings at THIS WEBSITE and sorry if we overlooked anyone. Send your own results to Dave and he'll post them up here.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Ticks at Stus, Oona at the Claddagh


It was a fairly quiet racing weekend for the MiniPonies, but Jerry the Tick and Anthony were out mixing it up.

"Oona" and Thomas Chamberas took to the streets of Lawrence in the Claddah Pub 4 Miler finishing up in 33 minutes. The Claddah is a family event for Oona in a number of ways. First off, his cousin is the race director. Secondly, it's a Greek guy running an Irish pub race (ironic because our Greek Streak married himself a full-on Irish lass). And most of all, the product of that Greek-Irish lovefest, Thomas, is already at consistent participant in the race.

(Photo courtesy JimRhoades.com)


Meanwhile on Sunday, Jerry the Tick De Zutter churned out 7:12 miles at the always challenging Stu's 30K race on Sunday.

41 2:14:25.34 De Zutter, Jerry Hudson, MA M 43 7.13

Jerry said of his performance: "Stu's 30K today was a good effor ton my part. I'm well undertained (my last race was Andover CC) and I did way too much socializing along the way but was pleased to run the pace I did (7:13 pace)."