NETT women rise over adversity at Baystate Marathon

Huge congrats to the NETT women's team for becoming the first NETT team to score in a USATF-NE Championship road race this weekend at the Baystate Marathon in Lowell. And they did in perhaps the worst conditions imaginable for an October marathon.

Karyn Miller-Medzon led the charge with a PR performace of 3:54, followed closely by Deb Robertson in 3:57 and Chrissy Durden running a very strong 4:02.

And in the "NETTers scoring for other teams" category, the results were just as impressive: Dima Feinhaus (scoring for CSU) ran out of his mind in 2:54 (PR I believe?) with CSU teammate Marhall Randolph clocking a 3:28 (wins the 60-plus age group--yawn). And Karen Ringheiser in her always solid manner clocked a 3:37 for the BAA women's team.

Keep in mind this was in a rainy, windy cold day. To give you a sense of it, here's Karyn MM's report, which includes a description of her now usual mid-race migraine:

"Well...the weather was every bit as bad as predicted.

That said, I actually had a great race--my best marathon yet. For the first five miles, it was cloudy and a little drizzly and only slightly cold. After 5 miles, that changed--the wind and rain picked up and it was fairly miserable. Very hard to stay dry...and later...impossible. Still...things seemed to be going fine, and then at mile 8 I realized that I was having a migraine. Started seeing flashing lights, and my vision narrowed to a small tunnel. I figured I would just stay in until I was completely blind, or in such bad pain that I couldn't go on. I popped 3 motrin and hoped for the best. By mile 11 my sight was clearing and instead of crushing pain, I felt only slight pressure...so I continued. I soon forgot about it altogether. I got to the half where I was expecting to find Mary...but alas, she wasn't there. I pondered that for a few miles, and then, by mile 17, I realized that I felt GREAT. I just wasn't tired! So I sped up a little and just ticked off the miles. Around that time a friendly Vietnamese guy who could barely speak English was running with me, and he was a riot. i didn't have the energy to entertain him, so he simply entertained me, and stayed with me until the end.

Paul Young was wonderful, handing me a much-appreciated banana at mile 20. Saw him twice actually. So nice to see a familiar face through the downpour. For the last 5 miles, when the rain was really coming down, my new friend and I were able to speed up and passed about 40 runners. Just a great feeling. I ran into the stadium feeling strong, and finished in 3:53. I needed a 4:00 to qualify for Boston, so I had minutes to spare! Couldn't wait to get out of my wet clothes which by that time weighed about 20 pounds. Deb finished only 3 minutes later in 3:56 and Chrissy wasn't far behind in 4:01, which was also her marathon PR. Finally, I found Mary....who, with Martin, had miscalculated where the half was going to be...and ended up running much of the course looking for us. Thanks Mary and Martin! Ron and Justine and Paul were a great (and soggy) support team on the sidelines."

The night before the race, NETT had a team dinner at the Chateau in Waltham, and not only prepped for the race, but celebrated Chrissy and Martin's great news (they got hitched on the sly a couple weeks back!!).

Congrats to all!