Race Report: Joe and Dave's Homegrown Backyard Marathon

What do you call it when 12 Mini Ponies run a wheel-measured 26.2 mile course through the trails of Weston and Lincoln?

The First Annual Joe and Dave's Homegrown Backyard Marathon, of course! An instant classic NETT event.

A few facts about the JDHBM:

• Wheel measured? Yup, courtesy of the Redneck 5000!
• Aid stations? Yup. More than you'd need?
• Shuttle service? Yes, runners were shuttled from the finish to the start to let them run the first or second half if they so chose.
• Spectators? Yes. Well, at least two of Joe's family were nice enough to come out and watch us run by!
• Finish line? You bet.



Redneck 5000

• Post-race party? Yup, pizza with family members and Paddler Steve.

It was a really really fun run and perfect for NETT. We all owe a huge thanks to Joe for putting so much effort into this thing. Seriously.

Here's the results:

Full marathon finishers:
Joe, Jason, YP, Tom, and Crazy Dave

First half finishers:
Brodie, Slava, JD and Andy

Second half finishers:
Ken, Ilya

A bit of both:
Frank


Purple Heart Award: Jason


Best Stunt Man Impression: Ilya

Best Bucky Goldstein Impression at Horsehendge: JD


Most Mileage Run: YP (of course, he ran extra before and probably after the run)
Best Comeback Run: Andy--great to see him out there.
Best Impression of a Lion Pacing the Cage: Tom
Bloodiest Shirt: Dave
Best Video: Patrick

Thanks to everyone who came out for the run and post-run party. It was really NETT at its best. Low-key, impressive, and family-friendly.

Racing Update: Reach the Beach, Scottish and US XC, Steve Cashes in

Just a quick update on the NETT racing news from August and September.....

The top news is that the NETT-Wings team finished EIGHTH overall in the 200-mile Reach the Beach Relay. It was the team's best overall place in the event and represents the ultimate in teamwork. From race logistics (Capn K) to all out speed (YP), to preparation (JD), the team was really ready this year. We had new faces (Joe C), and a lot of veterans (Justine, Tom, Christy, Marshall, Julie, OP, Slava, and Crazy Dave. Every year, this race is a real test and every year we get a bit older, but somehow, we all seem to manage it better.

To see a BIG photo album, check the NETT Facebook page here. Really, they are worth a look, 

Earlier in September, Crazy Dave took to the trails on a trip to Scotland and finished a solid third while setting two firsts: The first time he's been introduced as a special guest before the race and the first time he ever had to do a slip-and-slide to finish the race.

XC season is here! In early September, the NETT men's masters team ran the GBTC Elm Bank XC festival. Jason DJ Crazy Dave, JD, OP, and Paddler Steve teamed up to finish fourth overall team. Results are here. 

On the ladies side, Adrienne and Julie were in the top 10 masters for females. 

A couple weeks later Paddler Steve won his age group at the Holdenwood Trail Run in Shirley, Mass.and went home with $50 for his trouble. Katy got third in her age group and her daughter Laura won hers as well. Nice work! Always, the humble guy, Paddler said, "For some reason the announcer thought my time was great. I thought Marshall's effort last year was even better."

Has anyone stopped to think about the amazing quality of 60+ runners NETT has right now? 

For more frequent updates, be sure to check the Facebook page at /newenglandtrackandtrail. 

NETT goes Cherry Picking on the 4th

NETT's Men's Masters "plus" squad celebrated the nation's birthday by sweeping the standings at the Lincoln, Ma. 4 Miler.

Frank decided to lose his best training partner (Emma) and run without a babyjogger this year and just ran away with the 2.5 miler, winning easily in 15:33. Of course, Emma did jump out and help Frank with his finishing kick.

Also in the 2.5 miler, Steve easily took the 60+ category finishing second overall.

In the 4 miler Crazy Dave put on his patriotic (Darn Tough) socks and took the overall win while Marshall destroyed the field in the 60+ category. And Emma was kind enough to jump out and help Marshall with his kick (apparently Emma is not happy with our finishing speed!).

And the extended NETT family even took the win in the women's race as Steve's daughter Olivia won the overall women's race!

Overall it was a great day, a fun race and so great to see the NETT gang out there together.

Congrats Bogie!

Big congrats to "NETT West" member Bogie who worked his tail off this year to achieve a longtime goal of running a Boston Qualifier at the Revel Rockies marathon. He crossed the line at 3:14, a qualifier for his age group.

At the finish Bogie got a great sign (BQ) and made his own to acknowledge an old NETT pal (zoom in close)

Congrats Bogie--you earned that one!

Results update: May 2016

Okay, the blogmaster is woefully behind in his updates, but here are just a few of the amazing results from NETT runers in the past month...or two..

Patrick Caron won...that's right, WON the Pineland Farms 50 miler this year. He said of the day, "The trails up there are awesome!" NETT has had some great races up there over the years and YP's clearly keeping up the tradition.

Also on Memorial Day weekend a couple new NETT members had good runs. Our new pal Jerome just crushed the Run to Remember finishing in a blistering 1:12 for third overall.

Up in Vermont Jason Dejoannis ran a very very solid 3:11 at the Vermont City Marathon, good for sixth in his division.

On our training runs we've seen a few new faces coming out regularly too, so it is a great time for new NETT members to come out and take part!
As always to get more updated info check the Facebook page!

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To get the latest updates and news on New England Track & Trail, be sure to check our Facebook page.

A Fast News Day for Joe C

NETT newcomer Joe C has run a lot of Boston Marathons and we all know how consistent he is. But the folks over at the Metrowest Daily News are recognizing it as well.

Check out this article: Boston Marathon: Weston runner seeks satisfaction of finish line

Hannah's Helpers in Full Swing

Hannah's Helpers is here and NETT is supporting it in every way! 

Here's the official announcement:

The organizers of the Wellesley One Mile and the Board of the Hannah Randolph Fund are proud to announce Hannah’s Helpers, our small effort to make the world a better place in memory of a very special girl.

Please visit the Hannah’s Helpers site for more information.

From the Archives: Lou's 4x1600 Relay

This time of year always makes some of us (okay one of us) remember one of the earliest NETT successes on the track. In one of our first years, we had two teams run in the Lou's 4x1600 relay on the (then) brand new BU indoor track. Here's a page from my log book with a card that includes the splits for both teams. Pretty impressive.

Anyone remember what year this was? Or even better, who the individual runners were?

To find out, check out the results posted here: Lou's 4x1600 relay results.

Bobble Head Bob ran the 1st Day 5 K in Whitinsville, MA on New Year's Day. "That's me with an old college buddy," Bob says. "It's the third year in a row I've run the race and visited with him and his family. I won my age group the first two years but this year I was second by 9 seconds. But the cool thing is the medal was made out of a cookie!"

Nice work Bob. Full results here.

Jingle Bells! Two Mini Ponies crash Davis Square 5K

Two NETTers ran the Jingle Bells 5K last weekend with great results. Here's Bobble Head Bob's report:

"Slava finished 21 out of 650 in his age group and I came in 4th out of 62 in mine today in the Marathon Sports Jingle Bell 5K in Davis Square, Somerville. Perfect weather but hard to run your fastest in such a big race (5,000), so I think we both did well. No pix except for a lame selfie. Results  are posted here."

Way to get in the Holiday Spirit guys! 

Ponies Take the Cup(s) at Walter's Run in second leg of NETT Winter Double

Overall winner
First place, Men 40-49
Third place Women 40-49
Third place Women 50-59

In part 2 of the annual NETT Winter Double, a few hearty Mini Ponies took to the streets of West Roxbury for Walter's Run with very positive results posted here.

Zack, Crazy Dave and Karyn all did the double. Zack went 2 for 2 on the weekend, winning Walter's Run in a blistering 16:07 more than a minute ahead of second place. Crazy Dave was next for NETT, winning the men's master's division and both Karyn and Mairead were third in their age groups. Bobblehead Bob ran a very solid sub-23 in the very competitive 60-69 category.

As always the Parkway Running Club put on a very well-organized and fun race. New RDs Reyna and Brian did a fantastic job motivating volunteers and getting great prizes (mugs, gift certs, etc.).

It was the great cap to the annual NETT Winter Double. 

Storm the tower! Mini Ponies Crush it at Mt Hood

First overall
Second place overall.
First Female 50-59
Second Female 40-49
First place, Men's Open Team.
First place women's Master's team.
Second place, Men's Master's Team
Fourth place Women's Open team

How's that for kicking total ass.

The NETT Mini Ponies basically dominated the Assault on Mount Hood XC race today with a great mix of team stalwarts and new faces teaming up to Assault the course.

HUGE congrats to Zack for literally running away with the race, paced only by his pal and new NETT favorite Joe. Going 1-2 pretty much sewed up the men's open category, but Slava made sure of it by running way beyond his current fitness level!

The Women's open team was a bright spot with three of NETT's top female recruits--Julia, Steph, and Bridget teaming up to finish fourth in a very tough category.

The women's master's team were paced by Kristin (second female 40-49) and Karyn (first female 50-59) and Julie "Save the Day McVeigh" basically scrapping her morning plans to show up and help the team to the victory!

And the men's master's team was paced superbly by Paul, Chris, newcomer Joe with Crazy Dave and Andy offering support.

Big thanks to our cheering section (Slava's family, new recruit Matt ) coming out for the day.

As always, the Melrose Running Club put on a great event on an insanely tough course. Great food, post-race awards ("YOU get a nutcraker, YOU get a nutcracker, YOU get a nutcraker). Brian Slater's crew just brings it every year.

Overall, an amazing day--THIS is what it's all about! Great results, but most importantly a LOAD of smiles and fun.

YP Takes the TARC Winter Crown, Bob Grabs an Age Group Podium

Big Congrats to Young Patrick who ran away with the 40-mile TARC Fells Trail Ultra Winter trail race last weekend.

The race, which was founded by NETT's own Bogie D, does laps of the Fells Skyline trail and runners can do laps either clockwise or counterclockwise. As a result, runners don't have a great sense for what place they might be in during the race. YP said he wasn't sure how close he was to second place. Well, it turns out he had a full 24 minute lead by the end of the race.
See the full results here.


YP wasn't the only one who had a good race weekend, too. Bobblehead Bob had his own success. Here's his report:

"On a whim I registered for the Cambridge Winter Classic 5K on Saturday last minute and jogged over from my home in Somerville to the race at Central Square on Sunday morning. Nice crisp, bright day and saw several familiar faces.

It was my first 5K road race since January 1st, the hip injury in the marathon, etc. so I wanted to get a baseline to see where I was fitness-wise before I run Walter's Race next Sunday December 13. I had been doing some track work outdoors and indoors lately trying to regain more of my speed, so I wanted to see if that work had made any impact on my fast twitch muscles.

Well, there were a couple of surprises.

The first was that they made a mistake marking off the course, so it turned out to be almost 3.5 miles instead of 3.1. So, my initial dismay at my time was tempered when the actual, longer distance on my Garmin matched other runner's measurements and ultimately the race officials'.

The second surprise was that I came in third out of 47 runners in the 60+ category!

Slava --- who at 39 is at the top of his age group --- was there too and ran a blistering pace to finish in the top 20 out of 450 runners in his age group!"
Full results here:

https://my.racewire.com/result/7013246

Congrats Bob!

NETT lays it down in Upton

Congrats to Young Patrick and Bob Segal for performing well at the recent durtyfeets Upton Trail Race. Patrick came in first in his age group and third overall in the half marathon (long) distance in Upton State Park, fractured collarbone and all. Bob came in second in the Senior division of the 10.5k (short), which for this race started at age 55+. Bob says, "It was a cool crisp day, perfect for running. Nice trails with rocks, roots, hills, fire roads, the works!"

Full results here. 

NETT goes 1-2 at Watertown, gets a little whacked at Busa Bushwhack

Mini Ponies were charging all over the place this past weekend on the roads and trails.

Huge congrats to Zack and Paul for teaming up to finish 1-2 at the Watertown Boys and Girls Club 5K Road Race. For Zack it was a mere tempo run, but for Paul, who doesn't race on his feet all that often, it was a smart race. "The guy who won the last two years tried sticking with Zack the first mile. I think that helped wear him down so I had a chance to take him with 1/2-mile to go. I knew better than to try keeping with Zack!


If you're wondering why Paul wasn't wearing his NETT shirt, he had a VERY good reason. His wife was running for school committee and Paul sayd, "Given the local event and two days until the election I was wearing Candace's campaign t-shirt to get a bit more visibility for her (then spent the afternoon handing out leaflets up and down those hill-roads across from the Watertown track NETT used to do hill workouts on).

And by the way, Candace won her election, so chalk up one more victory for the NETT family this weekend!

Meanwhile over at the Busa Bushwhack trail race in Framingham, things didn't go quite as well for the Mini Ponies. In the 10 miler, YP got a bit dinged up after taking a pretty nasty fall which slowed him down to 7th place overall. Crazy Dave posted another mediocre result finishing in 1:12. And NETT newcomer Julia got the "full" trail running experience by taking a slight detour but still finished in a speedy 1:30 over the rugged 10 mile course.

In the five-mile race, Adrienne did a real number of her ankle and had to drop out of the race. And we all know her well enough to know that had to be a nasty injury-and it was, her ankle and foot immediately swelling up. Thankfully, the race organizers do SUCH a good job here, they had a ride for her back to the school where there were two EMTs waiting to treat her and wrap her ankle in ice. (That's one of those nice EMTs in the back of the photo and it now you know why Adrienne is seated!).

The best performances of the day for NETT came in the five-mile race our trio of most mature runners finished 12th (Patrick finishing in a spot that equals 1/5 his age), 18th (Marshall) and  36th (Bob). Great work guys.

(In this pic Crazy Dave and YP hob-nob with trail running royalty--Art Gulliver and Rich Busa. YP definitely doesn't have a problem warming up to folks! )

NETT's M+Ms Go Over (to) Niagra Falls

NETT's Mini Ponies raced well in two countries this weekend (including one race that actually spanned two countries!).

On Saturday Eminem and Eminem Jr. (aka K-M-M and N-M-M) headed to Niagara Falls for the Niagara Falls International Marathon and Half Marathon. Initially, things were not looking hopeful for the younger of the duo, who suffered a para-spinal lumbar sprain about 10 days prior. The question was...would he run or wouldn't he? Dr. Ron determined that running would not create further injury...the decision would wait for a game day assessment. Well...with the help of a few pain patches, a lot of optimism, and unbelievable determination, he completed the half in a very respectable 1:37 (7:28 pace) and won first-in-age-group for his effort.

The senior member of the family team was ecstatic about her race, finishing in 3:57:05, about 3 minutes faster than her Boston Qualifier in very strong headwinds. Her brief report: "I ran the first half, from Buffalo, across the Peace Bridge and into Canada, comfortably and confidently with the 3:50 pace group. Stayed with them through the 30k (18.6 miles) when the headwinds along the Niagara River really picked up. It felt like we were running carrying weights for the last 8 miles. By that time I was a little depleted and slowed my pace down by nearly 35 seconds per mile until the finish. So my second half was just over 5 minutes slower than my first. That said, I had no doubt that I'd finish, and couldn't wait to see my support crew by the roaring Falls at the finish line. Exciting day!" Her run earned her 6th place in her age group, a medal with a rotating Canada-US flag, and tea from Tim Horton's!

Back in the USA, one of this fall's most prolific runners, Ilya Bass, completed the Canton Fall Classic 10k in 47:41 (a speedy 7:41 pace!) placing him 8th in his age group. Congrats!

Stay tuned for next weekend's results, when a sizable crew of Mini Ponies heads to the Busa Bushwack Trail Race.

Mini Ponies Crash the Age Groups at Ravenswood, Scarecrow races

NETT Mini Ponies had a very successful weekend, taking multiple age group awards at the Ravenswood Trail Race and the Lincoln Scarecrow race.

First, here's Bobblehead Bob's report from Ravenswood:

The Hall family did quite well today at the very technical Ravenswood 4.1 mile trail race in Gloucester. Andy and Bridget ran together, pacing her to second place in her age group. Meanwhile, Kristin, who owns this race it seems, finished first in her age group. And on top of that, during the post-race raffle, the Hall family won a family membership to the trustee organization that sponsored the race. They can go to all their parks and conservation lands for free! In my firdt North Shore Trail Series race of the season, I was happy to come in second in my age group. Beautiful crisp fall day and lots of goodies afterward.Full results posted here.

Meanwhile over in Lincoln, Paddlah Steve took the 60+ age group at the Lincoln Scarecrow 5K race, edging out his age-group nemesis (and all around good guy) Joel B.

And lastly Beet Juice Zack crushed the filed at the Pam's Run 10K in Wayland, running away with the race in 33:28, a cakewalk for Zack. Results here.

Mini Ponies Roll Onto Wayland

The NETT XC specialists headed to the Wayland XC race for the umtheenth time and had a ball racing around the fields and trails of Wayland High School. On on the men's side, the Mini Ponies rolled out their more veteran squad and made the top 10 teams (okay, there were only 10 teams). Not bad. The trio of Steve, Marshall, and Patrick all finished in sequential order, a great XC team strategy. (Andy dropped in the first quarter with a bad hamstring).

On the ladies' side, our newest member Steph had a ball in her second trail race and Katie did double-duty as runner and mom/coach shuttling between the youth races and her own 5K. 

On a more historic note I'm pretty sure NETT has had some representation at Wayland every year since it's inception. It's a great race. 

Video: NETT Wings moves up to 9th place at Reach the Beach

Breaking news in the NETT newsroom: The Wings team somehow moved up to 9th place overall in the final results for the Reach the Beach relay (one of the top teams must have been penalized in the final results).

Also, here's a fun video that documents our journey through the wilds of New Hampshire. Enjoy!