NETTers represent well at Sterling Classic Cycling race

The NETT Cycling team of Paul Miller, Jerry De Zutter and Joe Hardin took to the roads once again this past weekend with fine results. All three finished in the top 10 of their class 4/5 for 35+, with Paul winning their race in a sprint finish with Joe and Jerry only seconds behind. I think. I don't know--it's cycling so I can't really interpret the results.

Here you look at the results for yourself.

Congrats guys! Love the fact that they all registered as NETT, too. I'm sure the spandex crowd is like "who the heck is that?"

Date set for Chamberas XC Race

The date and details have been set for the Thomas Chamberas 5K XC race this year. The race will be on Aug. 25 in Carlisle--an exciting addition this year is that the race will be part of a USATF-NE XC series, so the competition and participation should be an all-time high! And we've got some new sponsorship thanks to Shereen Fahey of Bank of America mortgage offering up CASH prizes to mens and womens winner!

All the info (and a great new photo that's worth the click in itself--ladies prepare to fall in LOVE!) are posted on the race site here. If you're unfamiliar with the race, take a few minutes to read about it on the site.

As usual, NETT members are encouraged to participate in the event in any way they can--volunteer, race it, make a prize donation, donate to the CF Fund, or bring some food over for the post-race party. We owe a big thanks to longtime volunteers like the Winthers, PMiller, Toledo Joe, Bartles, Mr. Young, the Faheys, Doris, and all the others that have come out to help this very worthy cause. Let's keep it up this year.


Anthony & Dave, Co-Race Directors

NETT members take two of the top three at Blue Hills bike race

A race report just in from Jerry De Zutter:

Paul Miller, Joe Hardin, Bob Looney and yours truly
raced the Blue Hills Classic bike race this past
Sunday. We did our best to employ team tactics
with drafting, surging etc. 6 X 3.2 mile loop with an
~1 mile rolling uphill on each lap. As we agreed upon
before the race, every other lap, on the uphill
section the four of us, led by Paul came to the front
of the pack and pushed the pace; damaging the field in
the process. Finally, with two laps to go, Paul
dropped the hammer and rocketed off the front, not to
be seen again. We tried to catch his wheel but could
not.

Paul took the win in a very convincing and
impressive fashion, easily the strongest rider in our
race. In fact one of the race personnel ran up to him
after he finished and wanted to know what he had
breakfast.

[Editor's Note: Our boys impressed the organizations SO much that they put their photo up on the web site for the race here.

As a result of our team's hard efforts up
front I ended up in no man's land ahead of the main
pack with 2 laps to go. Uh oh! I waffled back and
forth with conventional wisdom telling me to drop back
to the pack but ultimately I stayed out front of the
pack to finish second. Joe and Bob, mixed it up with
the rest of the pack to finish strong at 8th and 13th
place (I think?). It really was an advantage to have a
"team" there and the tactics we used, I think, helped
tremendously. Some of us are chomping at the bit to
try another bike race.



A few pictures attached, Toledo and Paul before the
aggressions began. In the action photo, I'm far left,
Joe is far right. Almost looks like we know what we
are doing (well, OK, Toledo does know what he's
doing). The podium picture is missing one thing; where
are the podium babes!!!!

Interesting story on Josh McDougal

Here's an interesting read, especially for those of us who have been beaten by these kids when they were like nine or 10 years old! Glad to know it wasn't us--they are just freakishly fast!

Josh McDougal is a Perfect Example of What is Wrong With High School Track

Updated Boston Team Race Results

Just by way of an update, NETT's men's team finished 38th at Boston out of 69 total teams. Keep in mind, that's the open category and we had two masters runners on our team. So all in all, pretty darn good.

To view full team results, click here.

NETT Members on winning Tuckerman Inferno team

NETT members Dmitry Drodov and Dave Mingori helped the winning team claim the relay title in the Tuckerman Inferno race. Dmitry did the first run leg, while Dave did the final hike and ski down Tuckermans.

Big Ben takes on the Muddy Moose

A quick report from Big Ben Winther up in the wilds of New Hampshire:

"I did the Muddy Moose 4 miler this weekend, what a horrible (and wonderful) mess it was. It wa a poor time, but good fun.

I can’t compare to past years but it was pretty messy. There were still a lot of icy patches around the muddy areas, and the fat guys (aka Ben Winther) seemed to fall right through down to the knee in the mud. I have a pretty good gash on one ankle from the ice, and little scrapes all over, but it felt good to get out and push it a little....

Got beat by a guy and his dog...the dog threw his nose in the air and trotted past with grace and ease while I was pulling myself out of the mud puddles with the spit on my chin...."

Ben finished up in 11th place in 33:54.
Nice work Benny--way to get out there and muck it up!




For those that haven't done it, here's a race review and video clip.


And here's a pic from last year's race--it was considered a DRY year last year! Yikes.

NETT dominates at the Wrentham Duathlon

NETT members were all over the Wrentham Duathlon this Sunday. Leading the men's team was Paul Miller, finishing second overall and certifying his place as one of the premier duathletes in the region. Paul won both run splits and had the third-fastest bike split of the day, finishing a mere 20 seconds out of first.

Frank Kjaerssgard had a very strong race, finishing 10th overall and second master in 59:51. Just behind Frank was Toledo Joe Hardin finishing as 4th master overall and 13th overall in 1:01. Also finishing very high up in the men's race friend of the club, Pat Dwyer who finished fourth overall.

On the ladies' side, Adrienne Cyrulik started off the multisport season in fine form, finishing 4th in her age group and 5th overall female in 1:09. And Tina Wang represented very well also, finishing 3rd in her age group in 1:11.


See more pics of the day in the NETT Photo archive here.
Hope I didn't miss anyone in those results. Apologies if I did.
Congrats to all! Nice work.

Rick's Boston Marathon review

Ten quick thoughts on a very memorable 2007 Boston marathon
By Rick Cleary


1.) Quick stats: My chip time was 4:13, a personal worst by seven minutes. I've decided my tag line for this one is, "The weather wasn't terrible, but I was."

2.) I guess I knew trouble was brewing at mile 10 when I heard somebody say, “Sixteen to go!” and I thought, “I haven’t run 16 since Boston last year and I’m already tired.”

3.) I really do, I hate to admit it, need to do some long runs. Fourteen years ago I remember getting to the starting line and thinking, "Hmmm, I haven't run longer than 14 since last August," but I still requalified easily. This year I had the same thought (but it was since last April, not just August) and I had no problem for the first half; running 8:00/mile almost exactly and hitting halfway in 1:37, right on target. But I was already very tired, and I slowed to 9:00 and had my first of several short walking segments at 18. A long day in from there.

4.) Despite the heavy legs I enjoyed it and I felt fine at the finish and I'm doing well recovering ... a little sore but no serious pains or blisters. I've already enjoyed a lot of time on the floor with Tommy and Eddie and managed to stand back up each time. In a year in which I've had little time to train, knowing that friends are keeping an eye out for me is very inspirational and really helped me to get to the finish. Highlight was the big family and friends group at Wellesley College, I have to learn to get running hard again after the adrenaline rush of passing everyone there.

5.) My friend Dave Carhart, a colleague at Bentley, lives just before the two mile mark. This was handy as I gave him my wind pants and Gortex jacket as I passed him. Dave also had his traditional "math sign" to encourage me. He knew that to requailify for next year I needed a 3:35, which is 215 minutes, and he had a sign that encouraged me to run 6 cubed plus e to the i*pi... 216 + (-1) = 215, clever!

6.) The weather wasn't bad for the race but had an impact on the weekend in other ways. My commuter train into town pre-race didn't show up due to debris on the tracks, for instance. Fortunately I had a good back up plan of riding to the start with friends from Wellesley.

7.) I loved starting in the back of the first wave, we had a ton of room to run and move immediately. However getting passed by zillions of second wavers in the last couple of miles was sort of a drag.

8.) Fast Eddie Sandifer and I had some excellent in race conversations and he pointed out that the two times I've dropped out of Boston came at the extremes of the life cycle; just after my Dad died in 1990 and just after Eddie was born in 2003. In fact, I have a long history of running poorly in my first Boston after the birth of a son; so even though Tommy is almost one I am adding that to my excuse list.

9.) At dinner Sunday night I didn't have a beer or any wine, following BAA medical advice about avoiding hypothermia and dehydration. My friends Kim Snedden and Bob Talda did have one or two and then crushed me like a bug. So much for that advice!

10.) The funniest part about seeing my entourage at Wellesley was that I always take my orange hat off and wave it so they'll see me as I approach. Usually it's a baseball hat, but this year it was my blaze orange knit winter hat which holds quite a bit of moisture and as I circled it overhead in the strong east breeze I realized that I was giving the unfortunate pack of runners right behind me a very unwanted shower. Fortunately runners are used to that.


OK, time to pick a fall marathon and try to re-qualify for next year. Thanks again for all the online support; it really helped me get around!



Rick

NETT braves the storm at Boston Marathon

NETT runners braved the wind, rain and cold on Patriots Day to compete in the Boston Marathon.

Frank White led the charge, putting down a VERY impressive 2:50:29, which is I believe a PR for Frank in terrible conditions. Frank worked very hard this year despite having many other duties (law job, new daughter, teaching classes, etc.) to juggle. How many other people do you know put in their hard workouts at 8:30 pm on Tuesday nights in sub-zero temperatures?? Congrats Frank.

Jerry De Zutter was his usual consistent self, ticking away the miles in tough weather to finish in 3:04 definitely a sub-3 in decent weather!). Jerry's a longtime Boston veteran and always manages to run solid under any conditions.
Paul Young struggled in the second half of the race and shut things down in the last 10K. Not much you can do when you know things just aren't going your way, right? We've all been there. But Paul toughed it out and finished in 3:16.

"Hey Dave--remind me to train for this thing next year," yelled Rick Cleary as he passed us at the 18 mile mark, keeping his sense of humor despite the terrible conditions and a rough day for him. Rick finished up in 4:13.


Friends of NETT out on the course included Vladmir Luppov, who ran a very strong 3:07 despite missing a few weeks of training due to illness this year. And Dima Feinhaus was right there at 3:07 also.

And Tricia Grenier might have had the best performance of the day, running more than 15 minutes faster than her qualifying time to finish in 3:25, a truly impressive feat in miserable conditions.

Special thanks to all the NETTers who Ponied Up and came out to cheer on what many will remember as the most sparsely attended races in memory. Ben and Cindy Winther and their pal Michelle, Leo Fahey, Dmitry Drozdov and his pal Vlad, and Jennifer Shultis were all out there cheering, handing out candy and oranges to the runners and generally giving it "more cowbell".

As always, Go Mini Ponies!

Merrimack Results--NETT puts two in the top 15

NETT put two runners in the top 15 at the Merrimack River Trail Race on Saturday. Dave H finished 7th overall in 1:04 and John Kinnee finished 13th in 1:07, a solid run for young John. Leo Fahey continued to show promise off-road finishing the 10-mile course in 1:41 filling out NETT's 7th place team scoring (although to confess, we had no idea they were keeping team scores).


More photos available here courtesy of Dave Dunham.

Dima gets citizenship!

For those who haven't heard Dmitry was sworn as a U.S. citizen last week. Now he's free to become fat, dumb and war-mongoring just like the rest of US in Jesusland.

For photos of his ceremony and the post-ceremony celebrations, see the NETT photo archive.

NETT scores three men in top 10, top four woman

The NETT Mini Ponies were well represented at the Northern Nipmuck 16-mile trail race in Connecticut on Saturday with three finishers in the top 10. Dmitry took first place easily in 2:01, Dave H finished fourth in 2:15 and Dave M came in seventh in 2:21. Jennifer S represented the ladies well with a fourth place finish in 2:57.

For photos, check the NETT archive here.

To read a review of the race in the Nashua Telegraph, click here.

Coyote in Downtown Chicago Quiznos

I thought this might be of interest since we, after all, the NETT Coyotoes:

Here's a LINK TO A VIDEO of a coyote that decided he wanted to try a Quiznos sub, but COULDN'T GET SERVED!

Discrimination!

Mingori Tunes Up, Young's by the Sea

Dave Mingori ran the Boston Tune Up 15K in Upton, Mass. on Saturday, finishing 13th place overall in 56:55. Note: 7 of the top 13 were 39 or older, making the age-group races very competitive.

On Sunday, Paul Young did a final tuneup before Boston down in Cohassett at the 10K by the Sea. Paul finished 9th overall in 36:29, third master.

Trail Running story in NY Times

Believe it or note, trail running was featured in the New York Times! I know, not the place you’d expect to see a story on our favorite pasttime, but low and behold there it is.

At least we know we were ahead of the curve.

NETT Ladies Tear Up New Bedford

Sure's it's better known these days for immigration raids than road racing, but a couple of our fine Mini-Ponyettes took a ride down to New Bedford on Sunday to clock in at the New Bedford Half-Marathon. Laura Wieland and Dawn Mampreian clocked dual 2:01s on the windy course as the sole NETT representation in the Whaling City. Congrats to them both on rep-re-zenntin with Pony Pride!

(P.S. ladies--Shirts are on the way--hang in in there...!)

Jerry takes third at St. Patrick's Day Race

Jerry De Zutter obviously skipped the Guinness and went for the speed this weekend and it paid off. He finished third overall and first master at the 67th St. Patrick's Day Race in South Boston.

Congrats Jerry!

Jennifer's report from the Pittsfield VT snowshoe marathon

I was just the dopey girl at the back (were we the only two who did the full marathon?) I was telling my friend Frida --fellow adventure racer and the one who won the marathon for the women-- that the only time I get that "killer instinct" is when I'm at the front. Other than that, I just have fun. So, after I followed a group of people that went off course up to the top of the sledding hill right at the start-- D'oh!-- I just had fun.

Between the extra distance and the confusion, that had to be 1/2 an hour lost. Oh well. I just chalked it up as a training day and it's a good thing or I would have gotten even more frustrated when my snowshoes started balling up with packed snow since it was so warm. It was awful. I should have hit them with PAM before the start. Urgh! I almost turned around before mile 2 of the second lap they were so bad, but reminded myself that "I was just putting in training miles" and kept going. I was so exhausted from the balled up snow that by the time I reached mile 4 (of 2nd loop or ~17 miles) that I was walking even on the road. Luckily, the sun eventually
went behind the clouds and by the time I got to the last 4 miles (after the
road sections), the snow was colder and no longer balling up.

The course was probably a mile or so short, but plenty of elevation gain kept it solid. There were a lot of snowmobile trails or even dirt roads, so not much of the singletrack that many snowshoe racers love, but finishing times would have been quite a bit different if that was the case.

Paul Low broke 4 hours with a 3:58 finish, Leigh Schmitt was 10 minutes back, then Todd Walker and Chad Denning. I think Frida was about 5 hours? I was closer to 6 hours or even over (I haven't seen official finish times yet).

My a$$ hurts from "sledding" on my butt (not a sled) on mile 25-26. Heehee. Pretty funny actually. I did my first self-arrest using my finger nails. I overheard a couple of young men who looked like they probably own both JackAss movies on DVD reporting to Andy, the RD, that, "Yeah.... that's pretty sketchy, actually."

I am thrilled out of my mind for Frida. She totally kicked butt and even had non-racing snowshoes on. She's amazing. We had a ton of fun over the weekend. It was a real "destination" type event-- you want to go and stay for the party.

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.