NETT's Inside Take on the Vermont City Marathon and Relay

Now that the NETT crew from the Vermont City Marathon and relay finally dried out from all that rain, Eminem sent in their race report.

"I cannot say enough about what a resolute team we have. Despite unbelievably bad weather -- powerful rain, temps that felt like mid-30s, and very strong winds -- no one even considered backing out. Not even Soggy Shoes Cyrulik!

Everyone was at their appointed spots at their appointed times, everyone ran as though the sun was shining. Marshall doled extra sets of warm clothing to under-prepared team mates, Noah stood shivering at the starting line in his NETT singlet, Tina provided her hotel room for soggy mini ponies between running legs, and Amanda ran nine miles just to keep me company. Daniel -- who didn't have to run at all…I had recommended he stay home -- stood out at mile 20 waiting for me to arrive, (after waiting for Noah at his transition) and ran through puddles to pace me to the finish line at 3:57.

And Frank and Emma (dressed fashionably from head to toe in rain gear) watched the start and the finish. As for Zack and Chris, they ran as though propelled by beet juice and refined sugar. (Okay…they WERE propelled by beet juice and refined sugar). 

I wouldn't recommend running a "Marathon Splashdown" (as the Burlington Free Press called it), but if you're going to run one, my recommendation would be to join NETT first.

The Chrono Track results have more info than the coolrunning ones.  They divide the relay into all the various categories -- so you can see that NETT came 2nd out of 383 teams:

 http://results.bazumedia.com/event/results/event/event-1873 

The individual ones are cool on Chrono track too -- you see the person's stats, as well as a video of the person finishing: http://results.bazumedia.com/event/results/event/event-1873 (You just type the person's name in). Tina's official finishing time was 3:54:10; mine was 3:57:33 NETT's relay time was 2:51:11."

NETT "Pours" it On at Vermont City Marathon

Despite the rain, wind and cold, a crew of the heartiest Mini Ponies galloped to success at the Vermont City Marathon this weekend.

First off, big congrats to Eminen for earning that elusive Boston qualifier in very poor conditions. She ran a strong and steady 3:58. Tina was just in front of Karyn running a 3:55 while pulling double duty, running the first half of the mixed relay with Marshall. Their mixed relay team, by the way, was 7th in their division (mixed masters) out of 55 teams.

The NETT five-person relay team of Captain Fluff  Smith, Soggy Shoes Cyrulik, Poker Face Mahoney, Little Skittles, and Beetlejuice Schwartz kicked complete arse by throwing down a 2:51 good for sixth place out of more than 700 teams. As a mixed team, no less. That's a 6:32 average pace.

To see full results go here.

To see some photos go to the Facebook here.

It was a very successful day all around despite some very difficult conditions. It's a big testament to the strength and teamwork that makes NETT what it is.

NETT Takes Five of Top Seven Spots at Walpole 5 for the Fourth

A gaggle of Mini Ponies took to the woods of Walpole today at the Walpole 5 for the Fourth, a XC hosted by the new club, the Walpole Rebel Runners, in Chris Smith's hometown to raise money for Walpole's Fourth of July Celebration. The NETT results were impressive on all levels.

Here's Mary's report of the day:

"The Walpole Trail Race (5 for the 4th) was a nice event.  It was on the trails behind the Walpole HS (Chris Smith's old stomping ground).  It was a small low key trail race (perfect for NETT).  The trails weren't very technical, 1/2 of the race was on a gravel fire road, so it was a very runnable event.

In total, there were 6 mini ponies at the race but only 5 mini pony runners.  Dave did not race, since he's recovering from a 'small cold'.  Dave ended up unintentionally volunteering at the turn around point (an out and back that they didn't have a volunteer at).

Chris Smith battled with a high schooler (or so I'm told) and won the race.  He was followed by Big Ben (3rd overall), then Marshall (not sure of his place - but I assume he would've won his age group), followed by Me (2nd woman) and then Amanda (3rd woman).

At the start of the race Amanda said she was going to just "jog" the run and was worried that she shouldn't have worn her NETT shirt as she'd embarrass our group  - obviously she came in 3rd and was no where near an embarrassment :)

Big Ben entertained (as usual) providing random tidbits of knowledge - ask him about the difference between a Rotary vs a Round-a-bout."

Marshall added his take on the day as well:

"Mary graciously let me overtake her about a half mile from the finish because
she knew that my spirits can always use a boost. I certainly appreciate the 10
miles that she was forced to run Saturday making it possible for me to run with
her today.Toughest part of the day was having Amanda doing an IT band recovery 2 mile jog
and then lighting it up for the 3rd mile and almost catching Mary and me at the
finish.

And ya gotta watch those warm down runs.... someone put a brand new root in the
trail and I hit the ground with every part of the front of my body which was
probably lucky since I seem to have escaped unscathed."

It was a fun day with some of the core NETTers.

NETT Sets a Good Mood on Moody Street

Two NETT members rocked the streets of Waltham at the Moody Street 5k this weekend, winning their divisions.  Slava took 5th overall (out of 1,089 runners) in a time of 17:54, good for first in his division. Patrick was 10th overall and also first in his division with a time of 18:54.

Congrats!

NETT continues its assault on age-groups at Pipestave

It's still early in the trail racing season, but it's looking good already for NETT as they came away with age group awards at the recent Pipestave Trail Race. Here's Bob's report:

Chris Smith and I won our respective age groups this evening in the Pipestave 5K trail race, the first in the North Shore Trail Series (the first race is the only one on a week night). No confirmation if Chris  drank beet juice before the race too ...

Check out the age group results here

Nice work boys! Setting the bar pretty high!

Back to Business: NETT hits the roads and trails

Well it's been an odd/difficult/emotional -- pick your adjective -- period to be a runner, a Bostonian, a human lately. But  NETT is doing its part to make sure the terrorists don't win. And that means running -- a lot.

First off, big congrats to NETT's Boston marathoners Marshall and Amanda. At first, in the wake of all that happened, congratulating finishers in the marathon just seemed insensitive to those that were injured or died that day. But Martin, Krystal, and Lu  were all there to support runners and ignoring the great performances that day seems...counter..to the great spirit that drew these folks to the finish line. So here we go:

Marshall ran his usual strong race finishing 16th in his age group, in 3:17. Just amazing. Amanda laid down a PR time of 3:24 after putting in a very very solid training period and racing very smart. Mark my words--this is just the beginning for this Ponyette.

Since the fateful day NETT has been busy in more ways than one. We ran a memorial run along the marathon course from Natick into the finish line area to visit the memorial. There are some pictures of our visit here on the NETT Facebook page.

More recently, this past weekend, NETT hit the trails in a big way. Big congrats go out to Bob Segal who won his age group in not one, but TWO trail races this weekend! Here's Bob's report:


"You may recall, that I accidentally double-booked myself this weekend with the TARC half-marathon Sat. in Jericho Woods, Weston and the Foxtrot 10-miler at Blue Hills Sunday (which I registered for without remembering I had the TARC race that same weekend). So I decided to race the half marathon hard as I could to better my time from last year and maybe place in the top 3 in my age group. I improved my time by 10 minutes and came in first! See the results here. 

On Sunday I decided to go easy and see how I felt. Lots of rocks and hills (I can see how you fell and broke your ribs there) but by mile 5, I still felt pretty good so I picked up the pace to see what I could do. I finished first again!" See the results here. Lovin' this new age group so far ... must be the beet juice I continue to drink before every race."

Nice work Bob. Meanwhile on Saturday, Crazy Dave and Chris hit the trails in the Blue Hills for the Blue HIlls Brewery's South Shore Trail Race. It was ultra-low key (self-timed, no official results) but important number to remember was two-that's how many beer tickets each runner got! (Chris was second overall, Crazy fourth, by the way).

And Sunday it was really back to the normal with a brunch run at Frank + Tina's the most NETT of all NETT activities.

We'll never forget those that were directly and indirectly affected by the events on Marathon Monday and if I know NETT, we'll be organizing more events to honor the victims and raise money to help them. But it's also good to be back to normal, trying to spread good vibes through running.