Breeding the future Mini Ponies!

Team Greek Streak (Anthony and Thomas) took on the Claddagh Pub 4-miler on Sunday. As you can see by the photos Thomas was not at all tired and was overheard saying after the race "I really do have to go easy to keep the old man in tow....but it's good for him to get out in the fresh air instead of being in on the computer all day."

The duo cracked the top 100 in the race and I believe were the first babyjogger finishers.

Wang-Kjaersgaards kick butt....Dmitry finds a new sport to win at

The Wang-Kjaersgaards lived up to their Mini Ponie(s) of the year status with a strong 1-2 punch this weekend. Tina flew out to the left coast to do the Los Angeles Marathon. Despite some major obstacles (like the race directors letting the WALKERS start before the runnners, which slowed the early miles significantly??), Tina pushed hard and ran a strong 3:37.

Meanwhile on Sunday, the other half of Team Wang-Kjaersgaard was hauling booty up and down the hills of Central Mass in the infamous Stus 30K race. Frank finished very well in 2:03 for 15th place overall. (He looks like me in high school--running with a police cruiser behind him!)

"I ran very even for the first 20K, then I had problems with my knee again, which cost me about a minute," Frank reports. This was his last race in the 30-39 age-group, so you masters racers get ready!


On Saturday, Dmitry and Dave took to the snow at the Hawley Kiln Snowshoe race. Dmitry took on some of the top snowshoers in the region and won his first snowshoe race the hard way--leading through deep snow on a single-track trail for most of the race, finishing the five-mile course in 52:21. Dave chugged in at 6th place in 59:40.

There's some typically comical photos (some on purpose, some not so) of Dave and Dmitry's trip and race posted in the NETT photo archive.




Here's Dave with his two biggest idols--Richy Busa and Art "The Furnace" Gulliver!

Young takes top masters at Hyannis 10K

Paul Young continued his top masters running this weekend in taking the top masters spot at the Hyannis 10K.

Paul finished third overall in 36:46, achieving his winter-training goals of running sub-6s on the course and besting his previous Hyannis 10K PR of 37:14 in 2005.

Nice work Paul!

Adventure racing, snowshoe results

Dmitry and Jennifer's adventure race team won the Smartwool Swamp Stomp in Florida. According to the unofficial results,
Team EMS the first four-person coed team.




(Dmitry and Jennifer carry an old tire and a rusty lawnchair as part of the Garbage Contest at the Smartwool Swamp Stomp. No, I don't know what a garbage contest is either???)

The report from Dmitry:
"Dude we won, numero uno. We kicked @$$. We teamed up with another team that had one EMS racer and 3 JEEP team racers and we finished together. They made us paddle like 37 miles which I think was not only painful for me but for most of the others in our team. And then the lack of sleep, popping the caffeine pills and red bull. Bike was really hard for me too but I am happy with how I did on the trail sections. The climbing section was easy and I was able to wing a rappelling part. We went through all kinds of terrain including swamps. There was an easy component to this race which is no hills and we never had to submerge in the water.

When asked if it's common for newbie adventure racers to bring a camera and take pics during the race, Team EMS Captain Jennifer Shultis responded:
"No. But it's also not common for someone who has never rappeled, has mountain biked like once and paddled twice to be luaghing and kicking everyone's a$$ the whole way. Dmitry was a Russian Rockstar out there."



As always, Dmitry takes his racing VERY seriously, stopping here to get detailed coordinates from a large-mouthed bass mailbox.

More photos posted here.



On the snowshoe front, Dave H took on both the Hallockville Pond race on Sunday finishing 8th in the very tough four-mile event and the Merrimack River snowshoe race, taking 4th there on Monday.


OUCH!!! I've seen better running form from brain-damaged monkeys! (Photo courtesy a finished and fully recovered Dave Dunham)

Any other NETT results to share? Email them to Dave H at Ttroll71@aol.com.

Party!!! NETT's winter social at Frank and Liz's place

The NETT winter social on Sunday was a big hit. Great food, good friends and good times. Special awards went to:

Paul Young  Most ambitious race schedule
Frank White: Most ambitous schedule
Leo Fahey: Rookie of the year
Frank KJ and Tina Wang: MiniPonies of the Year

Some pics now available in the NETT photo gallery here. More from Dmitry available here.

NETT Results: Bradford, Fresh Pond, Frostys

Despite cold temps this weekend, NETT members were still out racing at various events.

Paul Young on Saturday ran the Bradford Valentine 5-miler and finished 17th overall and 3rd master in 29:54.

Frank KJ took a trip to Fresh Pond to run the 5-miler there on Saturday and finished 7th overall(?) in a very competitive field.

And Dave H travelled up to Atkinson NH on Sunday morning to the do the Frostys Dash for a Cure, a scheduled snowshoe race-turned road race benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
With very limited competition due to the format, Dave snagged second place in 19:13ish over the 3.3 mile course.

Forget the Colts, Dmitry wins Super 5K

Not a big football fan, Dmitry decided to spend Super Bowl Sunday running Jim Rhoades' Super 5K in Lowell. Not a big fan of second-place finishes, Dmitry crushed the field and ran a blistering 15:44, 30 seconds in front of the next finisher. Very impressive given the frigid temperatures. (Photos courtesy of JimRhoades.com)




Congrats Dima!

What happened to the Waltham Watches?

On this morning's run, we went right behind the old Waltham Watch Factory. It's an old brick building right on the river in Waltham.

According to this entry on Wikipedia, the "American Waltham Watch Company" was founded by Aaron Lufkin Dennison in 1850. "In 1854 a new factory was built on the banks of the Charles River, in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company eventually became the Waltham Watch Company, the first company to manufacture interchangeable movement parts, as well as assemble and sell at affordable prices reliable watches, Railroad chronometers, 8-Day Clocks and other timers in the U.S.A."

The factory "produced about 40 million high quality watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time fuses and other precision instruments between 1850 and 1950."

The American Waltham Watch Company went out of business in 1957, but had founded a subsidiary in Switzerland in 1954, Waltham International SA, which now produces Waltham Swiss made luxury watches. This company has some brief history on its web site here.

If that name Dennison sounds familiar, it's because he also founded The Dennison Manufacturing Company, in Framingham, which eventually became the Avery Dennison Corporation we know today.

Also of note, the Dennison has two other folks to thank for the company's success: Francis Cabot Lowell (the namesake of the city of Lowell) and Paul Moody (of "Moody Street"). According to the Charles River Museum of Industry's site, the two men took a 12-foot waterfall on the Charles River in Waltham (right where the museum sits today) and harnessed its power.

"While Moody devised a way to harness the river, Lowell devised a way to pay for it. He solicited participation from a tight-knit group of Boston's first families, raised the unheard-of sum of $400,000, and established America's first capitalized corporation, the Boston Manufacturing Company. Within a year, Lowell's dream was born, and America was never the same."

Thus was born the Waltham system of manufacturing in America.

The Vikings in Waltham?

No, we're not talking about the Minnesota football team coming to town.

For those of you who have run from Brandeis with us (and who hasn't), we almost always run past a large monument just off the campus on Norumbega Road. Most days we probably never even notice or mention it, but on a previous run I had stopped to read the monument and recalled that it mentioned something about Vikings living in this area.

So on Wednesday's run with Dmitry and Frank KJ, NETT's "Viking in Residence" we stopped again and read the plaque. Of course, reading a 100-year old plaque by headlamp is not optimal, but it clearly claimed there was some evidence of Vikings having been in the Norumbega area. Well, that's all we needed.

This week, Frank and I exchanged some emails and web research and here's what we came up with.

According to several sources, the Weston monument was commissioned and built in 1889(ish) by a retired Harvard professor Eben Norton Horsford(those kooky academics) who was convinced that the great Viking explorer Leif Eriksen had found his way to the Charles River.

According to this entry on StraightDope.com, "Later in life, and with too much time and too much money (and perhaps a few too many fermentation experiments), Horsford turned amateur archeologist and convinced himself that in A.D. 1000, Leif Erikson sailed up the Charles and built his house in what is now Cambridge, Massachusetts. Horsford did a little digging (literally) and found some buried artifacts that he claimed were Norse...A few miles upstream, at the mouth of Stony Brook (which separates the towns of Waltham and Weston), he had a tower built marking the supposed location of a Viking fort and city. As if that weren't enough, he also commissioned a statue of Leif that still stands on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. "

(See a good photo of the tower and read the inscription here)

It wasn't a sole wacko out there though. According to this site, Horsford's theories were, in fact, based on some earlier ideas in the 1870s including those popularized by Ole Bull, a great Norwegian violinist and purveyor of Norse culture, who was also a proponent of the theory, first put forward by Danish scholar Carl Christian Rafn, that the legendary Vinland of the Viking sagas was in New England, and that the first European to reach our shores was Leif Eriksson in 1000 AD. Rafn was a Danish archaeologist noted for his early advocacy of the theory that the Vikings had explored North America centuries before Christopher Columbus's voyage.

Bull visited Boston to dine with writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the two discussed the theory and decided to erect the statue of Leif Eriksen on Commonwealth Ave.But the statue was never made, apparently because of opposition from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which felt that there was insufficient evidence to support the claim of the Norse discovery of America. A few years later, Horsford picked up the cause.

But alas, there wasn't much "meat" to the good professor's theories. According to this page on RoadsideAmerica.com "The tests of time and critical scientific review were not kind to Horsford's ideas, but since he had the foresight to have his theories carved in stone, you can still visit monuments to his discovery today. Crackpots, take note!"

Anyways, that's the history there. If anyone's read this far, please leave a comment on the blog to let me know if this was at all interesting or tremendously boring.

And yes, there are a few Irish Vikings left around the area....



(Photo courtesy of Frank KJ)

History lessons, NETT-style

Well since it's a slow time of year for race results, I've decided to use the blogspace here to edu-ma-cate you MiniPonies a bit about some of the local landmarks we run by. As with last fall's posting about the history of Prospect Hill, I'll be writing a couple historic entries. Stay Tuned!

NETT results, photos from Boston Prep 16-miler

We had a great turnout at the Boston Prep 16 Miler in Derry, NH on Sunday. NETT members participating included: PMiller, DaveH, Toledo Joe, Jerry De Zutter, Frank KJ, Tina Wang, Dawn and Laura (they run all their races together!), Frank White, newcomeer Ben Speiss and Leo Fahey (whew!--did I forget anyone). It was also great to see our pals Marshall Randolph and Vladmir out there.

I'm simply too lazy to post full results of everyone and theirtime, but official results are posted here.

And be sure to take a look at these great photos in the NETT photo archive. Most photos courtesy of Jim Rhoades/I'matreadmillrunnerandafraid torunthehills Productions.

Dmitry takes second at GBTC Invitational Mile

Among some of the top milers in New England, Dmitry finished second overall at the Greater Boston Track Club meet's Invitational Mile. (see results here). Dima reports that he took the lead early but got boxed in later in the race before uncorking one of his trademark blistering final laps to finish in a mind-boggling 4:14.

Great Work Dima!

Big Ben at the Millenium Mile

We have our first results of the new year! Big Ben Winther had a great run at the Millenium Mile, ringing in the New Year with a 4:53 on the fast road course. The time put him in 66th place in what many consider to be the most competitive mile field in the New England area. Congrats Bennie!

(Photo Courtesy of Jim Rhoades Productions)

BU Meet 3, Cleary Challenge Results

Dave Mingori reports from the third and final BU Indoor Track Meet:

Pretty good day yesterday at BU. I actually thought about doing a 3K/mile double but just couldn't get out of the house in time for the 3K. I finished the mile in 4:59.1 and 800 in 2:20 flat. Felt much more comfortable in the mile this week and worked well with Dustin Baker, who was just ahead of me (he had also run 9:38 in the 3K earlier).

Toledo Joe ran the 800 in 2:11. Bruce Goode was recovering from the flu and stepped off the track after the 400.


CLEARY CHALLENGE UPDATE:

So Dave Mingori's revised numbers, using my 4:27 converted from 1500:

(299-267)/(39-20) = 1.68

Dave H's results would be:

293-281=12
35-24= 11
12/11=1.09

Pmiller is a 3.0 (287-238 then divide by 3yrs)

Joy to the WORLD! BU Meet #2 results

NETT showed well at the second BU Indoor Meet this weekend.

In the Mile, Paul Miller led the charge in 4:48, then Dave H in 4:53, Dave Mingori in 5:04 and Toledo Joe justused the mile as a tuneup for a later race and cruised in 5:15.

In the 800, Bruce Goode made his annual "coming out (of semi-obscurity)" for the meet and clocked an impressive 2:10. Toledo looked strong in the 800 running 2:12, PMiller came in at 2:17 and Dave Mingori at 2:22.

Full results posted here
Results of the CLEARY CHALLENGE are being compiled over the holidays by a team of mathematicians and astrophysicists and we'll get those up ASAP.

BU Meet #1 Results. Dmitry wins mile, Ben and Dave...well...

The legend grows....

Dmitry won the mile race at the BU open meet in 4:16 yesterday and made it look easy.


Here's a pic of Dmitry moving by fast in his RUSSIA uniform. Gun goes off, he paces in second, takes the lead, gets passed back and then uncorks a freaking 26 or something on the last lap to dust the competition.



Man, he makes it look easy.(Two guys who know how to make it look excrutiatingly painful, Dave and Ben, also ran the meet, but we don't really need to go into that, do we Benny?) Special thanks to Frank KJ and Marcello for moral support (cut to scene of Dave bawling on Frank's shoulder "How did I get soooo -sniff sniff--sllllooowww???")



The Danish Duo in Fine Form.




Anyways, they're fun meets and open to any and all runners. Next week, we'll do the Cleary Challenge MILE at the meet and free lunch at the Super 88 after to the winner and loser of the challenge.

And we're still looking for teams in the Lou's 4x1600 relay at BU the following week.

Take the CLEARY Challenge at BU on Dec. 23

For most of us running track is akin to a walk down memory lane...no we're not as fast as we used to be and our PRs are a distant memory, but we still like to compete and challenge ourselves.

With that in mind, Rick Cleary and I have developed a new contest called the Cleary Challenge Mile which we'll test out at the BU Indoor Meet on December 23.

Here's how it works:

Rick, a mathematics professor with a sense of humor, has developed a formula that takes into effect your mile PR, your age when it was set, your current mile time and age and produces a number indicating how many seconds your mile time has slipped per year. Here's Rick's description of it:

Score = (Current mile time (in seconds) - PR(seconds))/ (current age - age at PR)

So this measures "seconds per year" that one is slowing down in the mile. For example, At the moment I'd guess I could run 6:00, my PR is 4:32, I'm 50, and I ran the PR when I was 23. Hence:

Score =(360 - 272)/(50 - 23) = 88/27 = 3.259

So, I'm slowing down about 3.26 seconds per year in the mile. (Unfortunately much more than that lately!)


There will be TWO awards given in this contest--one to the person with the LOWEST number (indicating their PR has slowed the least over the years) and the person with the HIGHEST number (because I'm pretty sure that will be me or Rick!).

If you want to participate, let me know. If you can't make the Dec. 23 meet, results from this week or Dec. 30 will be accepted. If you're not sure of your PR or have never run the mile but still want to participate, the accounting firm of Hannon, Cleary and O'Shannon will assign you a mile PR and estimate the age you SHOULD have set that PR.

Tina and Frank's Saturday Fun

We all had a great time Saturday morning at Tina and Frank's Battle Road run and brunch. Runners of all abilities came out and logged some miles, and eaters of all abilities logged some calories together as well. It was a really good time and thanks to Frank and Tina for the idea and for hosting. SPECIAL thanks to Frank who was sick as a dog on Saturday and still toughed it out on the run and breakfast.

Take a look at all the photos Dmitry took (while running we might add) here in the NETT photo gallery.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled for the date of the NETT Winter Social coming in late January.

Dmitry Conquers Mt. Hood

As we've become accustomed to of late, Dmitry simply destroyed a strong field of runners at the Mt. Hood Assault XC Race this weekend in Melrose. He finished the course in 18:37, almost half a minute in front of his nearest competition and well ahead of some of the top XC runners in the area.






"Hmm...where are the rest of those guys? Must have gotten lost."













What's wrong with THIS picture??

A brief history of Prospect Hill

Tonight, Dmitry and I introduced Leo to Prospect Hill. Leo had never been there before but he toughed it out through two fronts and two back side hills in the dark. Dmitry even climbed up the fire tower on the back side in the dark to spook us.

It seems every time someone new comes up to Prospect there's a long list of questions like "What IS this place?" and "When did the ski area close down?" "How did you find this?" and "How long is the road?"

It got me thinking that I should research it a little bit. And since there's nothing good on TV tonight, I figured no time like the present. A quick review of my training logs show I personally discovered Prospect Hill in 1995 while working at a job in Chestnut Hill and commuting to Lowell every day. Any little "green" spot on the map between Newton and Lowell was on my radar that year.

But the history of Prosect Hill goes much further back. According to the "history" section of the Prospect Hill Advocacy Group's web site, Prospect Hill Park was created in 1893.

"At 485 feet above sea level, the higher of the two is the second highest point in the vicinity of Boston, only the Great Blue Hill stands taller. This peak has been called Great Prospect, but is more often referred to as Big Prospect, while its smaller associate, which stands at 435 feet, is known as Little Prospect. Both peaks provide excellent views of the Boston basin."

There's not much information available on the park in the early 1900s, but this site offers a great history of the ski area at Prospect Hill, which was founded in the 1940s by the town of Waltham. Originally there was a 700' rope tow to the top and two t-bars were installed later (there's a detailed history of it on the site). The most unique characteristic was that the steepest or "expert" portion of the hill was at the BOTTOM instead of the top, as it is at most ski areas. So the bunny slope was off to the right with no t-bar--just walk up, slide down. And the easier part was at the top just below the water towers. So beginners would take the t-bar up there and just go halfway down and stop. I don't know HOW they get down the bottom again though. I guess after a few beginner runs, they assumed you could tackle the steep part.

The area was closed in 1988 and reopened briefly a year or two later before being closed for good. According to one of the personal memories on the site, the second-chance failed for three reasons: no liquor license, no snow and the snow cannon literally blew up on the hill.





This is a pretty good photo of the area from the late 1970s--you can see the road we run up snaking its way up.


And there's a REALLY old picture HERE of folks on top of Prospect Hill. Again not sure what the date of this is, but it came from the web site for the Waltham Land Trust.

If you're interested in learning more about Prospect Hill or taking some hikes up there with a group, I'd suggest joining the mailing list for the Prospect Hill Advocacy Group.

If you're interested in history of other local ski areas like that, check out this site. What a great resource for finding more places to hold hill workouts!! Also, this site lists all the significant hills in Waltham (diabolical laughter...)

Fleece Banana Hammock runs to third at Mill Cities Relay

The Fleece Banana Hammock, a team of mostly NETT runners, finished third overall in the Mill Cities Relay. The team consisted of Jim Rhoades, Paul Y, Jean Dany Joachim, Dmitry and Dave H.




(Dmitry photo: JRhoades)

We were tied for fifth when Dmitry got the baton, he put a hurting on fourth and almost caught third, which we ran down easily in the final leg.













As we were entered under the Somerville Road Runners, however, and none of us are actually members of that club, we were an "unofficial team" did not count in the "official" relay scoring, whatever that means. We did however, get our fair share of $2 beer after the race and had a good time all around.

Special thanks to Dmitry's pal Vladmir for photos, co-piloting and comic relief, and our new pal James Gitanyu for handling pacing duties on two legs.


"I'm cold....you're running my leg right? No, he's running when? Why don't we just make Dmitry do it all? Hey, make sure JD's in the sun!"

Final Results of the NETTMPXCGP

With Andover behind us, we have the final results of the 2006 NETT MiniPony XC Grand Prix (NETTMPXCGP). First a quick note on the scoring. Participants were required to score in at least two events to count in the grand prix.

The Races Scored were:
Lynn Woods Relay
Thomas Chamberas XC Race
GBTC Topsfield XC
Mayor's Cup Franklin Park 5K
Wachusett Deer Run
Andover CC


Volunteers at the Thomas Chamberas 5K all received 10 points toward the Grand Prix. Due to his location in New Hampshire Ben Winther was allowed to substitute two races. Scoring is based on number of NETT participants in the race--if there's four NETT runners in the race, first NETT person gets 4 points, etc. Women were scored separately based on number of NETT women in the race. NOTE: If anyone thinks there's a mistake or their score is wrong, let me know. I'd be surprised if anyone's read this far, to be honest.



Final Results
Men's

Dave H 19
Paul Y 16
Paul M 15
Ben W 12
Toledo 12
Leo 11
Dmitry 10
Dave M 9
John K 5
Frank K 3







Women's
Tina 8
Adrienne 6
Deb R 4







Others scoring in single races were: Dawn M, Dave B, Laura W, Jean Dany, Anthony C, Cindy W,  and Kim S.




Thanks to everyone who participated, supported and ran with NETT in the XC Season this year! It was a lot of fun for all of us.

NETT Men Defend Andover Title, Women 3rd place team

(Photo Credit: Ted Norton)
The NETT men's team won its third straight title at the Andover Country Club Cross Country Race, while the women's team finished third overall, thanks in great part to a last minute addition (more on that later) and a couple very strong runs by our top Ponyettes.

The men's team was without its top two runners but still managed to hold off six other teams to win. All five scoring members of NETT were in the top 20 of the race.

Men were led by Dave H finishing 8th overall, with Young John Kinnee just a couple spots behind in 10th. Paul Y ran a PR on the course to score as our third man (fourth master in the race), while Toledo Joe also turned in a strong PR in the fourth NETT spot. And Frank KJ definitely didn't leave anything on the course in his first trip to Andover, finishing up the NETT scoring running very hard (I mean he looked like he was ready to explode at the finish--he knew there were points on the line for us!).

In a new twist, it was the first time NETT has fielded a women's team at Andover after having a men's team compete for five straight years now. The women's team was led by Adrienne Cyrulik, running for the first time at Andover, followed closely (as the photo will indicate) by Tina Wang with another strong performance. But the REAL Thanks of the day go to Toledo Joe's better half Kim for entering her FIRST EVER race to complete the NETT women's team and give them a third-place finish.

As usual, the post-race fare was beyond compare and the beer flowed foamy but frequent and free. We even met some new folks at the race. ("You guys are the fastest table we've ever sat at," they said after we all went up and got our awards!

NETT Thanksgiving Race results

A strong contingent of Mini Ponies came out to the Ayer Firefighters 5K this morning, with NETT taking spots 4,5,9,13&14 for the men and 3rd place for the women. Dave H took fourth on the 5K in 16:43, with Young John Kinnee, who was "defending his home turf" turning in a strong run, finishing fifth in 17:01. Paul Young kept asking "What about the next 23 miles?" after finishing his first non-marathon race in while in a strong 17:14 while Frank KJ and Jerry D-Z ran together in true NETT fashion helping push each other to places 13&14 in 17:42. So that made five NETT runners finishing within a minute of each other.

Tina Wang continued her strong finishes on the female side, taking 3rd place overall in the women's race, holding off a finishing surge by two women behind her to finsih in 20:12 (first in her age group).

After the Ayer race, Jerry's dad hosted his annual Harvard Turkey Trot fun run--quite an event. You've never seen such a big race of 99% relatives before. All of the above-mentioned runners ran together to finsih mid-pack in the run (some of us had to boogie before the touch football game, but would love to hear a report on that when available).

Meanwhile, over in Andover, Frank White surfaced at the ever-popular Feaster Five road race. Frank took 13th overall in 28:55. Nice work for a guy only a couple weeks post-NYC Marathon.

Did I miss anyone? If so, shoot me an email with the results!

See you all at the Andover XC Race Sunday at NOON.

Dmitry wins, Tina places at Norwood Turkey Trot; Paul wins masters at Breakheart

Dmitry once again notched a W in his belt Sunday with a win at the Norwood Turkey Trot. No one can trot like that Russian Rocket, that's for sure. Dmitry coasted through the 4-mile course in 20:53, well in front of second place.

Tina also ran at Norwood and finished third in her age group in 26:52. Yes, guys, that's 6:43 pace.
Tina's also furiously working on putting together a women's team for Andover next weekend too.

Meanwhile over in Saugus, Paul Young finished fourth overall and first master at the Breakheart Reservation 3-mile Turkey Trot. Paul finished in 16:43 for three miles on a hilly course. Great work Paul.


We'll look for more great NETT results on Thursday at the Ayer Fire Department 5K and next Sunday at the Andover Country Club 3.5 mile XC race.

NETT dominates the Deer Run, all over the Genesis Battlegreen, more....

NETT scored 1-4-6-7 at the Wachusett Deer Run this weekend. Dmitry Drozdov came in first in the five-mile race on Saturday, easily outpacing Gred Ward of CMS and Hunter Bennet Dagget of Framingham. Dave H was 4th, Dave M 6th and Young John Kinnee 7th in a gutsy race.

Dave M came back on Sunday to run the Veteran's 5K in Shrewsbury the next day finishing second there in 17:24.

Meanwhile over in Lexington on Sunday, NETT was all over the Genesis Battle Green 10K and 5K. Dmitry went for the double weekend victory in the 10K but was outdueled by one of the strongest runners in New England, John Mortimer. Dmitry finished second in 32:29, a PR for almost any of us!

Also running the 10K Tina Wang did fantastic, finishing in 42:10. (Photo of Tina tearing up the streets of Lexington)

In the 5K at Lexington, Rick Cleary ran a strong race to finish in 20:58 for 25th place ("One fat old guy you know won his age group in the 5K at Lexington too (didn't want the family to freeze through how long it would take me to do a 10K)."


And Deb Robertson ran a strong race to finish in 22:00, for 38th place overall out of more than 200 runners. Great Work Deb.

And rounding out Sunday, Frank White put in a great run at the NYC Marathon, finishing in 2:55 in the same year he had a new baby, graduated law school, took the bar exam and started a new law firm job....whew! Great stuff!

Jennifer's adventure racing team wins U.S. NATIONAL championships

Congrats to Jennifer Shultis' EMS Adventure racing team which owned the U.S. National Championships this past weekend in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Jennifer is the captain of Team EMS and both their three-person teams finished ahead of the rest of the field. Think about that--30 of the best adventure racing teams in the country get together and her two finished 1,2....truly impressive. And keep in mind, Jennifer is not a full-time racer or some trust-fund baby. She's got a 9-5 job just like the rest of us.


Congrats Jennifer! (photo of her at 2005 nationals, I believe??)

Read the November RICK REPORT

Here's the latest updates from our DEEPLY embedded BAA spy Rick Cleary:

"Congrats to the NETT team on many excellent recent results, and very good stories. I especially enjoyed reading about the Green Mountain Marathon which I've run several times; and which in 1982 (back when it was in August and went for a complete loop of South Hero Island, rather than the current out and back in October) I thought I was going to win. I was in the lead from 13 to 22 that year but then remembered that I wasn't very good and finshed third.

On Sunday 10/8 I did the Wayland XC Challenge at Wayland High, alma mater of Alberto Salazar. His picture was prominently displayed several places. I snuck into the top half of the field by running seven minute pace on a very pleasant and reasonably challenging course. I got beat by a kid who might have been 10 but might have been 4, certainly the smallest person I've lost to in my adult running career. I saw him at the start and thought, "Awww, look at that little kid going out too hard ... he's so CUTE!" Then I noticed I wasn't catching him. I eased by him at the mile mark and figured he was gone for good. The second mile was a very hilly and treacherous section of dirt trail and soft sand pit. Near the end of it I heard somebody gaining on me. I was stunned when this little 60 pounder scooted by and I worked very hard to keep up. I was just about back to even when we turned a corner and faced a fairly short but VERY steep hill. Much better for 60 pounds than 200. On the ensuing downhill I made up most of the ground but he was tougher around the track to the finish.

The big running news here came from my much better half, who returned to racing after over five years off for various pregnancies and the like. Ann did the Tufts 10K for women and zipped around at 10:30 pace, just missing top half in the master's group. Not bad for her longest run in six years. Generally her being excited about running is good for my training, so let's hope it rubs off on me. It was sort of fun to take my turn being the support guy and spending much of the hour Ann was running putting the recently potty trained Eddie into and out of most the roughly 100 outhouses near the start. "

EDITOR'S NOTE: Rick that was Eli Bucher, son of race director Eric Bucher. Eli did our race in Carlisle last year and is certainly no regular "KID" by any stretch of the imagination (I think he's a Kenyan in caucasian drag). Great run and as always, entertaining story.

Results of Wrenthem "Handicap" race within the race

Paul Miller, physicist in residence here at NETT, again established a complex handicapping system for the Wrentham Duathlon to try to create fair competition between experienced and non-experienced participants. Paul even offered up a $50 gift certificate he had won as a prize to the winner of the handicap race. His handicaps worked well and the person who put in the best race on Sunday won the event--HIM!

From Paul:
"Here are the handicap results. Note that if either Joe or Dmitry had worn speedos like Frank they would have gained a 1min costume bonus and won the prize ...

I awarded a 1 min shoe-tying bonus for Dmitry and Dave, but in Dave's case it doesn't help him, since he was in the same situation last year and I automatically subtract bonuses from last years times as comparison :-) Note that handicap results were all within 1 min, but I'm open to suggestions of refinement (eg add an extra min for mtn bike). I think the windy conditions favored those with more bike experience, so next year the non-triathletes should lose less on the bike and therefore do better in the handicap...

1) Paul +0:25 (base 56, bonus,1 , actual time 57:25)
2) Dmitry +0:33 (base 60, bonus 1, actual time 61:34)
3) Tina +0:34 (base 73, bonus 2, actual time 75:35)
4) Dave +1:06 (base 66, bonus 3, actual time 70:07)
5) Joe +1:09 (base 61, actual time 62:09)
6) Frank +1:23 (base 63, bonus 4, actual time 68:23)

(Ps if shoe-tying took you longer than 1 min, well, it just shouldn't--I tested and with gloves on, I can untie laces, remove shoes, for T1, then remove gloves, put on shoes and retie laces in under 1min -- in fact, 35s, double-tied!



And for those of you keeping score at home, Frank DID beat Dave in the overall race on a mountain bike, although their "racing" times were only 1 second apart (Dave simply took longer in the transitions).

NETT grabs two--no make that three--wins, multiple age-group awards over the weekend

Dmitry won the Waltham Halloween Hustle Saturday morning in a blistering time, despite being attacked by a KILLER BEE (see photo). Now, we all know Bees are attracted to bright colors, so maybe wearing that BRIGHT ORANGE shirt was the reason for the attack. Good job on the win! (Photo courtesy of Ted Tyler/JimRhoades productions)

Full results posted at http://coolrunning.com/results/06/ma/Oct28_9thAnn_set1.shtml


The real drama came on Sunday at the Wrenthem Halloween Duathlon, quickly becoming an NETT favorite event. The cast of characters included PMiller in the role of Superman, Tina Wang in the role of Tinker Bell, Frank KJ in the role of, well, JunkMan?, Toledo Joe as The Glass Hammer, Dmitry in the role of Russian Rocket and one sketchy leprechaun.

Superman saved the day again this year, leaping tall buildings and cycling through windstorms faster than anyone to win the overall title. The Russian Rocket made the run split competiion a non-event, finishing fifth overall. The Glass Hammer rode like and through the wind with the second-fastest bike split to finish seventh overall (second in his age-group), JunkMan went "ultra aero" in a Speedo and a MOUNTAIN BIKE to win the side bet (he won it in the Transitions!) and finish 17th overall--again on a mtn bike. Impressive. The world's most hideous leprechaun went so slow on the bike, he travelled back in time, finishing 27th overall.

TinkerBell floated to an age-group first and 41st overall (she won all three splits, in the age group, by the way, not jus the overall title!).



(Photo courtesy of NICKPICS).

Full results posted here
http://www.firm-racing.com/result_report.asp?RID=539&type=1

A great day and a lot of fun. Once again NETT shows you can be serious and silly all at the same time. Trust me--no one wants to get passed by a drunk leprechaun!

LATE BREAKING NEWS: This just in, new Ponyette Adrienne Cyrulik won the Lowell Monster Dash Duathlon (we assume, since her name is butchered in the coolrunning results, and the photo evidence is unclear, but yea, we're pretty sure that's her in the results). Great Work Adrienne!

Check out results and photo here

http://coolrunning.com/results/06/ma/Oct29_Monste_set1.shtml

Groton Trail race review

Here's the brief run-down on the Groton Trail Race from Jerry De Zutter:

Mini-ponys in attendance (at least that I was aware
of): John Kinnee and yours truly.

Gun goes off and in the first two miles I feel pretty
good, suspiciously good, moving ahead of a few people.
Despite telling me later that he couldn't breathe
(hyperventilating) John steadily moves away from me
with a few other runners. ~mile4, I'm still feeling
good can't hear anyone behind me but no one
immediately in front either, see John at the end of a
long straight, other runners that were with him not in
sight, those guys must've dropped him, gee is John
coming back to me? ~mile 7, some tough terrain, I'm
going OK though, see young John at a place where the
trail doubles back on itself, he's still behind the
guys he had been running with but I realize I'm not
catching him and he looks to be running pretty well.
~mile 8.5, I'm not worried about young John anymore
because I can tell (more doubling back of the trail) a
few veteran trail runners are closing on me. Hold them
off though and finish 1:04 something for 9th place.
I'll take it (and the burger and Belhaven on tap at a
local pub after). As for young John, turns out he
lights the afterburners in the last 2 miles and blows
by the guys that were a bit ahead of him (Steve
Petersen and another fairly speedy trail runner, not
sure of his name) to post a 1:02 something, 6th (?)
place. Very strong race for John!

NETT Women 2nd, Men 4th at Mayors Cup; Dawn and Laura run Chicago..more

The NETT Women's Program took another giant leap forward, with a second-place finish in the Franklin Park 5K at Mayors Cup. The team of Adrienne Cyrulik, Tina Wang, and Deb Robertson scored 27 points, second only to the Greater Boston Track Club. Adrienne led the Ponyettes finishing the long 5K course in 21:33, followed closely by Tina only five ticks back and Deb finished very strong in 22:46. As a team, they outpaced much more experienced clubs such as Central Park TC and Somerville Road Runners. Great work ladies! Let's keep the momentum rolling!

On the men's side, NETT finished fourth with 36 points, only two points behind GBTC (Darn!!!) The team of wiley veterans Dave Hannon, David Mingori, and Frank Kjaersgaard ran well as a team, finishing in places 9,11 and 16 for team scoring.

Special thanks to Doris and Deb's folks for cheering on the NETT teams again out there, as they did at Topsfield.

Meanwhile, out at the Chicago Marathon, Dawn Mampreian and Laura Weiland ran strong, finishing together in 4:11:40. Details are not in yet, but congrats to these two as well!!

The writing's on the wall: Let's pick it up GUYS!!!!

Update on Mini-Pony XC Grand Prix Scoring through Topsfield

Okay folks, the scoring for the NETT Mini-Pony XC Grand Prix is heating up. Through the Topsfield race today, here's where we stand:

Dave H: 18
Paul M: 15
Paul Y: 13
Ben W: 12
Tied with 10: Joe H, Dave B, Anthony C,
Dmitry D: 6
Dave M: 5
Frank KJ: 1

Volunteers at the Chamberas Race all received 10 points. Beyond that, scores are based on your finish among NETT runners in a race (Dmitry was first out of six runners today, so he gets 6 points).

Women's scores will be posted later.

Next up on the XC Grand Prix is the 4th Annual Otter Brook 5K XC Race in Keene NH on Saturday, October 14 and Mayor's Cup in Franklin Park on Sunday, Oct. 22. Email Dave if you're planning on attending.

NETT Women win GBTC invite! Drozdov wins men's title

In their first formal race together, the NETT Women's Team--okay well two women and two of their friends--took first place at the GBTC Invitatational XC Meet in Topsfield this weekend. Tina Wang finished 2nd overall in her first-ever XC race in 23:04. Deb Robertson, a friend of Tina's, was 4th in 24:31 and Dawn Mampremian and Laura Wieland finished together in 25:18. Special thanks to Deb and Laura for coming through at the last minute and completing the women's team score and running very well.

On the men's side, Dmitry Drozdov won the men's 8K(ish) race overall in a blistering time of 26:30, almost 30 seconds in front of the second-place runner. Paul Miller was the second NETT racer in 27:56, followed by DaveHannon, Paul Young, Dave Mingori and Frank Kjaersgaard. The men's team finished third, only five points behind BAA.

Full results of the race are posted here.

Team members feasted on fried seafood after the race at Woodman's in Essex.

Cotton takes fourth at Mud Sweat and Gears

Quietly, below the radar, NETT's Nick Cotton has been increasing his multisport fitness over the summer and even getting on a mountain bike now and then. "I'm not a mountain biker!" he says, but the results at the Mud Sweat and Gears duathlon say differently. Nick finished fourth overall with, not surprisingly, strong run splits (4th and 5th), but an 8th-fastest mtn bike split! I dunno, Nick. Looks like you might have a future in this stuff. Nice work out there.

NETT News 10/1/2006 Young takes 2nd in New Hampshire, Greenway Challenge, and more.

The lead news this weekend was Paul Y taking second at the New Hampshire marathon Saturday in a strong 2:52:31 on a very hilly course up around Newfound Lake. Paul did lead duties from mile 5 to mile 25 before running out of gas in the last mile. It was a great effort and a well-run race for the Youngsta, taking top masters spot. Official results posted here.


And from Dave M. out at the Greenway Challenge a multisport relay (or solo event if you're REALLY crazy like the Queen):

"This year's course consisted of 3 running legs of 3.8 (road), 2.5 (trail with the last 3/4 on pavement) and 3.35 (road); 3 biking legs (13.7, 13.8, 21.4) and 2 paddling legs (4.5 river and 1.5 lake). I was once again on the Great Canadian team, which is a canoe & kayak store a friend of mine owns, and we won for the 5th time in the last 6 years. Our winning margin of right about a minute (after 4.5 hours) was the closest of all our victories. We did it with 1 runner, 1 biker and 2 paddlers."

Jennifer S (of course) did it solo (all bow), finishing as 1st solo woman and either 5th or 6th overall (out of 19 soloists) beating many of the relay teams. Quite impressive. (Photo of Jennifer at 2005 Greenway--how can someone do that kind of event and SMILE the whole way???)


Dave managed 21:15 (5:35's), 14:48 (5:55's) and 18:57 (5:39's). The 1st run was basically flat and fast. The 2nd was on very soft trail. Flat terrain but tough footing. The last run was rolling but net downhill. "I was definitely feeling the burn on the 3rd leg so was happy to sneak under 5:40's and hold off a good runner (who was also fresh) from the 2nd place team," he says.

Details and results will be available at www.greenwaychallenge.org

On Sunday, John Kinneee won the Down and Dirty Duathlon in Lynn. John won the first run split, the bike split and the second run split!! Yikes. Results here.

And out at the Harvard Apple Ramble 10-miler the team of Kjaersgaard and Wang ran great with Frank clocking a 1:03 and Tina continuing to impress with a 1:11. Nice work on a tough course! Full results here

NETT News--Greylock, Peterborough, Colby

Another great weekend of racing news for the NETT Coyotes.
Since I'm such an arrogant f--k, I'll start with my own experience out at the Greylock Marathon. It was only the second time the race has been held (first in 1998) and though I wasn't in tip-top shape, I figured who knows when this will happen again, right? WTF. I did it. The course was listed as having 6000 feet of elevation an even though I did review the course map and elevation profile, it just didn't hit me that most of that is in the first two-thirds of the race. It was pretty much non-stop--climb 1000 feet, drop back down. Repeat. Anyways, some hardy souls met the challenge and out of the 76 that entered all but two finished. Official results posted here.
Wanna see the definition of "train wreck" then click here


Here's a great photo of Kenny Clarke to show what the course was like!

To read a great story about it in the Berkshire Eagle, click here.


Elsewhere in NETTland, Paul had a busy weekend of racing. On Saturday Paul took 3rd place in the Peterborough, N.H.- Harvest 5-miler in 29:43. As a bonus, he got to chat a bit with the esteemed Bill Rogers before registration (for the record, he kicked Bill's arse!)

Congrats To Dima!!

Congratulations to Dmitry who got hitched to the lovely Venus while on his three-week trip to Russia recently. Sure, he's one of the fastest guys in New England, but Venus ran him down from a different country! Congrats. I don't know the right phrase in Russian, and the Google translator is not that advanced.
But in Ireland, they say Slainte!

NETT grabs 2 wins, 6 top 10 finishes over the weekend

More great results by NETT members out on the roads and in the multi-sport arena.

First, the multi-sport news. Paul Miller won the 5-Star Triathlon on Saturday with Toledo Joe Hardin coming in 5th overall. Fantastic results! Official results posted here:
http://www.firm-racing.com/result_report.asp?RID=536&type=1

Also Jerry DeZutter finished 5th overall at the Dover-Sherborn Boosters Triathlon! Results posted here:
http://coolrunning.com/results/06/ma/Sep17_DoverS_set1.shtml


On Sunday up in Billerica, NETT took three of the top 10 spots at the Billerica Police Athletic League 5K. Hannon (1), Paul Young (3) and Ben Winther (8) made a very strong showing. (The trio decided to skip the Shawn Nassaney XC Race when it was determined entry cost was $35!)

Great results all around!

Who's Dave Trying to be?

Dave seems to have a new look...who's his model?



Any Guesses??? Look below.....














RICHY Busa! Richy's one of the only guys I know to have a race named after him!

Jennifer's Wrentham Wreckage!

Today, our guest Blogger is Jennifer S. writing about her experience with the Brand Spanking New Wrenthem Trail Race.

I go to Wrentham and sign up. I'm number23 and I think only one more person signed up behind me. That makes mychances for a top 25 finish start to look real good.... We take off up tothe top of the ski "hill" (elevation gain 35 feet?) where we are told that there are coming and going streamers, but to stay left. Can do, so we gettot he top and I'm in about 5th place. The top of the hill has a whole crowd of teenagers from the HS x-country team there to volunteer and to, nodoubt, see a "real" trail race... ;-)

Streamers shoot off to the left andI see others go straight--I ask "go left?" Yes! Yes! comes the anxious reply. Go left! So, I go left and the course starts to wind through some rough trails and then dumps us out on a fire road where streamers can nowbeen seen going left and right. There is mass confusion and my early strong position has been reduced to a huddle of lost and confused runners. We decide to go left, which turns out to be the correct decision. I believe we were probably supposed to have done something different up there on that hill, but we're on our way now and the mood has been set for the day.

This is where adventure racing skills helped me out. I continually caughtrunners who couldn't follow the streamers and a few gave up trying to stay ahead and just stuck behind me and let me lead. It was very empowering andit was a strategy that paid off for them as we continually caught up toother faster runners at trail junctions when they got confused and decided to wait for us.

Needless to say, I was feeling pretty smug about the wholething, especially as I start to drop some of the runners behind me...untilthe last mile. As we're running up a park road, I say to my last runningpartner, "I'd be a lot happier if I saw another ribbon about now." We continue on and I'm really getting worried. We pop out to a road and justas I'm about to declare that we've missed a turn, I look left and see the pink streamers again and an aid station. Yahoo! We run up and the teen girls manning the station seem surprised to see us. We're the first ones to come through apparently. They give us water, but when ask for help with directions, they don't know the course and aren't sure at first until we tell them where the finish line is. Now they, being cross country runners, know and they point us to the streamers and we're off. But something still doesn't seem right and me and my buddy get to another trail junction where streamers go right and left. We see a runner ahead and decide to follow him. We arrive at the finish line and several of the runners that had been behind had finished head of me. I tell the RD that they must have gone off course since the girls at the third aid station said we were the only ones to come through.

He's now terribly confused, because there was no third aid station. So, after several minutes of confused note comparison, we realizethat I did indeed miss streamers that went off to the left and by goingstraight to the road, I had inadvertently put me and my running mate ontothe course of the Wrentham 5k Wroad Wrace! So much for me and my superior navigation skills!