Thomas Chamberas XC Race Another Success in 2011

The Thomas Chamberas 6K XC Race is in the books for 2011. It was a great success, as we put on a great race and raised more than $3500 for the Cystic Fibroris Foundation--and we got the race in right before Hurricane Irene let open a can of whoopass on New England. About 150 runners finished the race this year. Results posted here

Chris Miller of the Naval Academy Prep took the men's race in 18:06. Amelia Lanberg of GBTC took the women's race in 21:11. Both Navy Prep and GBTC brought a ton of runners to the race, as they have in the past, so very big thanks to them and their coaches. The Greater Framingham Runnning Club and the E Streeters also brought teams. But the highlight of the day came when the race's namesake, Thomas, came striding into the finish, having run almost the entire course -- at six years old!! Wow. Check out the stride this kid has! Specail thanks to all our volunteers again this year. And of course to all our sponsors and folks who donated prizes. We had some very generous donors all around. Thanks!

Weekend of tris and trails for NETT gang

It was a weekend of triathlons and trail runs as a couple groups of Mini Ponies set off on some adventures this weekend.

Question: Would you run into the deep woods with two guys named Crazy Dave and Farmer Ed? Well Mary and Molkie answered "yes" and were treated to an epic run up, down, and around Mount Greylock this weekend.

Farmer Ed Alizbozek and his trusty canine guide Tippy led the NETT trio on a guided tour of Greylock, starting with a 50-minute climb, hitting the War Memorial Tower and the Bascomb Lodge, taking a detour to take in an astounding view from Stony Ledge, and winding up with a dip in the falls at Lower Peck Brook. It was a fantastic day of running. Many thanks to Farmer Ed!


Not to be outdone, Frank KJ headed out to the Westborough tri this weekend and met up with an old (but young) NETT member who's been a bit quiet recently. Here's Frank's report:

"Katherine and I did Westborough Sprint Triathlon today and with great success. Katherine won her AG and I took 3rd overall. Steve Levandosky who is in my AG won overall. The swim was super short so I stayed in contact with Steve the entire way. On the way out of T1 he realized he had forgot to put his helmet so that gave me a chance to get a head start. Nevertheless he got me around mile 3 and then steadily pulled away from. The run was a great mix of trails along Chauncy lake and through corn fields and some road and grass sections. I knew I had a good race but I was still surprised to learn that I had taken 3rd overall. Good luck to Katherine at Nationals next week.

P.S. The ice cream run is now officially over as I finished the last bit of Cherry Bomb the other night!"

History Almost Repeats at Greenfield and Thankfully Doesn't Repeat at Dam Race

There were some great NETT results this weekend from the trails and the tris, with history nearly repeating itself in one instance and thankfully not repeating itself in another.

Here's a report from Frank KJ:

"Martin and I ventured out to Greenfield triathlon again this year and with almost equal success as last year. Last year Martin won the international distance and Frank took 3rd in the sprint. This year Martin was the first person to cross the finish line but some ueberbiker in the next wave eventually ended up with the victory. Martin was, however, more than one minute faster than last year and once again had the fastest run time so all in all great race.

I was 3rd to cross the finish line in the sprint but some even older dude got me by a mere 12 seconds. Looking closely at the results reveals that he was 29 seconds faster than me in the transitions - guess I need to spray some more PAM on that wetsuit. I had the fastest run split of the day and 3rd best bike split so another good day in Western Mass for me.

Thanks to Lincoln, Emma, Chrissy and Tina for cheering us on - and letting us race ;-) "

Great report, Frank. Meanwhile this weekend, Dave Molk continued his tour of the classic New England trail races, this time at the Dam Trail Race in Oxford, a notoriously tricky course to follow. Here's Molkie's report:

"I ran the Oxford Dam race this past Saturday, finishing 12th. Going into it, I didn't know much other than that the course has a reputation for being hard to follow and features a river crossing. The first mile or so was really dusty, so the footing wasn't the best, but it quickly became packed down.

It's definitely a run-and-gun type course, with minimal technical spots or hill work. The water level was extremely low, so the crossing wasn't particularly intimidating and unfortunately didn't provide much of a cooling effect (there was a fair amount of exposure with hot/humid conditions, something that really hit home on my overly ambitious cool-down).

Good course marking - apparently a different course from last year's (which I guess has been the trend). Lots of helpful volunteers - definitely worth checking out."

Nice work Molkie. Keep it up!