Probably the biggest thing I missed during my running hiatus this summer was the competition that comes with racing. I don't mean the actual competitors (although I'm sure I missed some of them too!), but the actual act of competing. I love to race. Not because I'm an elite athlete. Not because I need to win. Not because I need another t-shirt or medal. But because I have a constant desire to push myself. To work harder. To get faster. When I sign up for yet another race, Deb usually says "I can't help myself" but I think we're on the same page. I think she know I need to race.
The lack of running didn't bother me nearly as much as the lack of racing. I can always find something else to do to stay in shape or fill the time (mostly). I got used to not running. I mountain biked. I had fun. But I wasn't racing. It's amazing how annoying social media can be when you can't do what you like to do (especially when 90% of my FB friends are runners). Man, did you guys bug me!
I've now been running for about 3 months. I can't say I've got that competitive fire yet, but at least I have the pilot lit. I've taken it real slow (a little gun shy about getting injured again), maybe even too slow. I generally average about 30 miles a week. That's fine for staying in shape but it's not enough if you want to get faster. I have been racing a bit, which can be tough this time of year. It seems the rest of the running world is winding down and I'm trying to ramp up. Not a lot of races to choose from but I found a few. I ran a couple of 5k trail races in November on the familiar trails of Mine Falls. I ran The Great Gobbler 5k Trail Race on Thanksgiving (only the second time I've ever run a race on Thanksgiving, believe it or not). Finally, this past weekend I had the lead off leg of one of our Mens Masters team at the Mill Cities Relay. Considering I averaged nearly 6:40's for a 5k in September (might be a PW), I guess I should be happy with 6:15's for 5.4 miles. I am not complaining. I'm just happy to be running again and more importantly, racing again. Time to ramp up the miles. Watch your back, I might be right behind you!
RANDOM NOTE: I took some pictures on legs 3, 4 and 5 after running my leg on Sunday. Feel free to share with anyone who ran the Mill Cities Relay.
2011 Mill Cites Relay Pictures
Showing posts with label Mill Cities Relay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mill Cities Relay. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
2010 Mill Cities Relay
I've run in the Mill Cities Relay every year since joining the Gate City Striders in 2005. I take that back: in 2006 MCR wouldn't let me run because of an idiotic 'rule'. Even though I was a dues paying, active member of GCS, I ran one USATF race in 2006 for the Moose Milers racing team (in March). This somehow made me ineligible to run for GCS. I'm not bitter though.... :-) (For the record, that rule is no longer in place).I'll get down off my soapbox now.
For the 2nd year in a row I'd be running on a Coed Masters team. Last year I was fortunate enough to be teamed up with some fast teammates and we won the Coed Masters division. This year I was teamed up with all new teammates (hmm, should I read into this?). Just to be clear, I don't pick my teammates. The Gate City Striders pay Michael Wade big bucks to waste hours of his own time arranging 140 runners into 30 teams in 12 different divisions in order to put our club in the best position to score enough points to win the Mill Cities Trophy. All I have to do is show up. My kind of relay!
This year I'd be teamed up with Randy Macneill (leg 1- 5.6m), Julie Hanover (leg 2- 4.75m), Carla Chandler (leg 3- 2.5m), Joe Rogers (leg 4- 9.5m) and I'd be running the 5th leg (4.75m) for the 2nd year in a row. I had some reservations about running this year. The event is fine, but I've felt a bit off the last month or so. I certainly have not felt fast (mostly tired). I was actually thinking about taking a whole week off from running.....gasp!
I kind of like running the last leg. There is no stress in getting to my leg on time and I get to watch the entire relay unfold. This year I hung out at the 1st and 2nd transition areas and took some pictures before finally driving down to Methuen to hang out at my transition area, parking my car about 100m before the actual hand-off area. I really didn't know exactly when Joe would arrive but guessed it would be around 10:30am. I got dressed and was ready to go by 10:15am and was thinking about going for a short warm up (since it was bloody cold out). As I stood by my car talking to Keith Obrien I happened to see Joe running by. Whoops, I guess I'll have to skip the warm up and I raced Joe up the hill to the transition area, getting there just in time to snag the baton and head off on my run. That wasn't planned very well :-)
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| Leg 5 elevation profile |
Leg 5 starts off fairly flat for the first 2 miles, climbs a decent hill in mile 3, descends in mile 4 and is flat as a pancake in the last mile. Last year I went out a little quick and suffered on the hill a bit. I had a decent time (28:30) but it wasn't easy. This year I tried to go out a little easier in the first couple of miles and work a little harder on the hill. I felt fairly comfortable as I hit the first mile in 5:43 (really?) but decided to back off a bit so I wouldn't repeat last years effort on the hill. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by my time. I decided not to check my watch again until the finish. I passed a half dozen runners in the first mile or so but generally ran alone the rest of the way. When you take the final turn you can see the finish but it's probably a 1/2 mile away. I saw another runner pretty far ahead and was definitely gaining but there was no way I was going to catch them. I crossed the line with a leg time of 28:07 (5:55 avg) and a team time of 2:48:32, good for 2nd Coed Masters team, 20th team overall. It turns out the runner I saw in front of me was the winning Coed Masters team. They finished 14 seconds ahead of us!
Big thanks to all the GCS runners (especially Michael Wade) for putting together an incredible team effort. The Gate City Striders took home the Mill Cities Trophy for the 3rd year in a row!
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| 2010 Mill Cities Champs |
Monday, December 7, 2009
26th Annual Mill Cities Relay
Yesterday I took part in the Mill Cities Relay (results), a 27.1 mile 5-person relay from Nashua NH to Lawrence MA. If you don't live in the Merrimack Valley you probably never heard of it. This invitation-only club event includes 20+ running clubs from the Merrimack Valley (NH & MA) and has grown to over 200+ teams and 1000+ runners.
I was running the 5th leg of a great Coed Masters team (The WereWolfes of Lawrence) so I had a chance to drive along the course and take a few pictures. You can check them out here.
The recent snow and cold weather only played a minor role this year (unlike last year), with just a few icy spots to deal with (pretty much on every leg). Other than that it was a great day for racing.
Our club (Gate City Striders) were the defending champions and we were looking to repeat. With 127 runners on 27 teams (covering all 13 categories), we were ready for the challenge. Thanks to Michael Wade for spending untold hours contacting runners and setting up the teams to give our club the best chance at winning. In the end his magic formula did just that, giving the Gate City Striders the Club Championship for the 2nd year in a row!
Check out how we did in each of the 13 categories. Pretty strong & balanced showing across the board. Congrats to all teams.
Male Open - 2nd
Male Masters - 2nd
Male Seniors - 3rd
Male Veterans - 3rd
Male Ancients - 1st
Female Open - 2nd
Female Masters - 1st
Female Seniors - 3rd
Female Veterans - 1st
Coed Open - 1st
Coed Masters - 1st
Coed Seniors - 4th
Coed Veterans - 3rd
Everything worked out just fine and no real issues to speak of (other than a minor baton problem in leg 1). This is a tough race to really know what your position is during the race. So unless you recognize other runners, your finishing position tends to be a mystery until they post the results. For me, none of this changes the way I run my leg. Everyone is an equal opportunity competitor. If I can pass you, I will. If I can hold you off, I will. If you pass me, I get mad (but I won't hold it against you). In the case of my leg, I was able to do all three, passing 2 runners, getting smoked by Paul Doe and holding off a charging Goon Squad Coed team.
I never felt great during my run but I'm not complaining (much). After hitting the first mile in 5:51 and getting passed by Paul Doe at the same time, I settled into a more manageable pace for me as we climbed a modest hill between miles 2 and 3. I missed the next couple of mile markers so pace was a mystery from 2 miles on.
In the end we finished 14th overall in 2:47:55 (6:12 pace), 1st in the Coed Masters Division. For our efforts we get a brick! Congrats to my teammates!!
As for my 4.75 mile leg, I finished with a time of 28:30, 6:00 pace even. Of course my car was still at the previous transition area so as soon as I finished my leg I turned around and ran the leg in reverse back to my car (and yes, I got more than my share of "you're going the wrong way" comments). Once I got my car I started heading back to Lawrence for the post race party. As I was waiting for the light to change I spotted a familiar face standing in the cold...teammate Jeff Hunt. After running 9.5 miles he discovered a snafu with his transportation. His car was supposed to be at the end of his run. It wasn't. So he's been standing in the cold for over an hour, freezing his arse off. I picked him up, cranked up the heat (and heated seats!) and went looking for his car. We found it, making its way back to the transition area...finally. He survived and lived to run another day :-)
I was running the 5th leg of a great Coed Masters team (The WereWolfes of Lawrence) so I had a chance to drive along the course and take a few pictures. You can check them out here.
Kevin McIntyre, Leg 1, 5.6 miles
Karen Pattelena, Leg 2, 4.75 miles
Tammy Gaffey, Leg 3, 2.5 miles
photo credit - Michael Wade
Jeff Hunt handing off to me at the final transition
Our club (Gate City Striders) were the defending champions and we were looking to repeat. With 127 runners on 27 teams (covering all 13 categories), we were ready for the challenge. Thanks to Michael Wade for spending untold hours contacting runners and setting up the teams to give our club the best chance at winning. In the end his magic formula did just that, giving the Gate City Striders the Club Championship for the 2nd year in a row!
Total Points for Each Club Gate City Striders 106 Winners Circle Running Club 99 North Medford Club 80 Somerville Road Runners 76 Greater Derry Track Club 63 Whirlaway Racing Team 43 Greater Lowell Road Runners 41 Shamrock Running Club 41 New Hampshire Athletic Alliance 30 Merrimack Valley Striders 30 North Shore Striders 26 Wicked Running Club 24 Squannacook River Runners 19 Mystic Runners 14 Gil's Athletic Club 11 Andover Striders 10 Melrose Running Club 9 Sandown Rogue Runners 5 SISU 0
Check out how we did in each of the 13 categories. Pretty strong & balanced showing across the board. Congrats to all teams.
Male Open - 2nd
Male Masters - 2nd
Male Seniors - 3rd
Male Veterans - 3rd
Male Ancients - 1st
Female Open - 2nd
Female Masters - 1st
Female Seniors - 3rd
Female Veterans - 1st
Coed Open - 1st
Coed Masters - 1st
Coed Seniors - 4th
Coed Veterans - 3rd
Everything worked out just fine and no real issues to speak of (other than a minor baton problem in leg 1). This is a tough race to really know what your position is during the race. So unless you recognize other runners, your finishing position tends to be a mystery until they post the results. For me, none of this changes the way I run my leg. Everyone is an equal opportunity competitor. If I can pass you, I will. If I can hold you off, I will. If you pass me, I get mad (but I won't hold it against you). In the case of my leg, I was able to do all three, passing 2 runners, getting smoked by Paul Doe and holding off a charging Goon Squad Coed team.
I never felt great during my run but I'm not complaining (much). After hitting the first mile in 5:51 and getting passed by Paul Doe at the same time, I settled into a more manageable pace for me as we climbed a modest hill between miles 2 and 3. I missed the next couple of mile markers so pace was a mystery from 2 miles on.
In the end we finished 14th overall in 2:47:55 (6:12 pace), 1st in the Coed Masters Division. For our efforts we get a brick! Congrats to my teammates!!
As for my 4.75 mile leg, I finished with a time of 28:30, 6:00 pace even. Of course my car was still at the previous transition area so as soon as I finished my leg I turned around and ran the leg in reverse back to my car (and yes, I got more than my share of "you're going the wrong way" comments). Once I got my car I started heading back to Lawrence for the post race party. As I was waiting for the light to change I spotted a familiar face standing in the cold...teammate Jeff Hunt. After running 9.5 miles he discovered a snafu with his transportation. His car was supposed to be at the end of his run. It wasn't. So he's been standing in the cold for over an hour, freezing his arse off. I picked him up, cranked up the heat (and heated seats!) and went looking for his car. We found it, making its way back to the transition area...finally. He survived and lived to run another day :-)
Monday, December 8, 2008
And the Winner is......
Congrats to the Gate City Striders for winning the 25th annual Mill Cities Relay yesterday. This was our first Mill Cities win since 2000! Woo Hoo!
The light snow that fell most of the morning caused a few mishaps early on in the race and provided some slick roads for both runners and cars. By leg 2 most roads were fairly clear and running was much improved. Overall, a nice competitive day of racing. Complete results can be found here.
The top 5 running clubs were:
I ran leg 2 (2.5 miles) for the 1st time. This leg is about as flat as you can get. Footing was fine except for the last 1/4 mile on the bike path which was a little snow covered. I finished up in 14:14 (5:42 avg pace), passing one team early on and then closely following the eventual Mens Masters winning team (SRR) the rest of the short way to the finish.
Here's a pic (courtesy of Jim Rhoades) of me handing off to Joe Donnelly.
Jim Rhoades has a bunch of pics on his site and I took some pics of GCS runners along the way. Enjoy!
Also check out Jim Hansen's MCR 2008 video on his site as well.
The light snow that fell most of the morning caused a few mishaps early on in the race and provided some slick roads for both runners and cars. By leg 2 most roads were fairly clear and running was much improved. Overall, a nice competitive day of racing. Complete results can be found here.
The top 5 running clubs were:
- Gate City Striders (99)
- Winners Circle Running Club (96)
- Merrimack Valley Striders (77)
- North Medford Club (75)
- Somerville Road Runners (62)
- Male Open (2nd)
- Male Masters (3rd)
- Male Seniors (2nd)
- Male Veterans (1st)
- Female Open (4th)
- Female Masters (1st)
- Female Seniors (4th)
- Female Veterans (1st)
- Coed Open (7th)
- Coed Masters (2nd)
- Coed Seniors (2nd)
- Coed Veterans (none)
I ran leg 2 (2.5 miles) for the 1st time. This leg is about as flat as you can get. Footing was fine except for the last 1/4 mile on the bike path which was a little snow covered. I finished up in 14:14 (5:42 avg pace), passing one team early on and then closely following the eventual Mens Masters winning team (SRR) the rest of the short way to the finish.
Here's a pic (courtesy of Jim Rhoades) of me handing off to Joe Donnelly.
Jim Rhoades has a bunch of pics on his site and I took some pics of GCS runners along the way. Enjoy!
Also check out Jim Hansen's MCR 2008 video on his site as well.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Mill Cities Relay
If you don't live in the Merrimack Valley (both Mass and NH) then chances are you've never heard of the Mill Cities Relay (MCR). It is an invitation-only event put on by the running clubs in the region. Presently there are 19 member clubs. Yep, 19 running clubs all in the Merrimack Valley region.
This will be the 25th year of the event (which takes place on Sunday, Dec 7th). Starting in Nashua, NH, the relay closely follows the Merrimack River before ending in Lawrence, MA, just over 27 miles later. The relay has 12 different divisions and consist of either 3 or 5 runners depending on the division. Most divisions do have 5 runners though. Below are links to the 5 legs:
Leg 1 - 5.6 miles
Leg 2 - 4.75 miles
Leg 3 - 2.50 miles
Leg 4 - 9.5 miles
Leg 5 - 4.75 miles
My club (The Gate City Striders) hasn't won the overall title since 2000 but has had a couple of 2nd and 3rd place finishes since then. I do like our chances this year so hopefully we'll be successful in 2008 and will bring home the trophy (and accompanying bragging rights).
I'll be running in the Mens Masters division with the following teammates:
Mike Wright
Mike Wade
Steve Wolfe
Joe Donnelly
Brian Crane
This is by far the fastest team I've been on so I'm pretty excited about our chances, at least in our division. Thankfully they were kind enough to give me the short leg.
Below is the complete list of clubs and how many teams they are fielding in each division.
Division key:
CM - Coed Masters
CO - Coed Open
CS - Coed Seniors
CV - Coed Veterans
FM - Female Masters
FO - Female Open
FS - Female Seniors
FV - Female Veterans
MM - Mens Masters
MO - Mens Open
MS - Mens Seniors
MV - Mens Veterans
This will be the 25th year of the event (which takes place on Sunday, Dec 7th). Starting in Nashua, NH, the relay closely follows the Merrimack River before ending in Lawrence, MA, just over 27 miles later. The relay has 12 different divisions and consist of either 3 or 5 runners depending on the division. Most divisions do have 5 runners though. Below are links to the 5 legs:
Leg 1 - 5.6 miles
Leg 2 - 4.75 miles
Leg 3 - 2.50 miles
Leg 4 - 9.5 miles
Leg 5 - 4.75 miles
My club (The Gate City Striders) hasn't won the overall title since 2000 but has had a couple of 2nd and 3rd place finishes since then. I do like our chances this year so hopefully we'll be successful in 2008 and will bring home the trophy (and accompanying bragging rights).
I'll be running in the Mens Masters division with the following teammates:
Mike Wright
Mike Wade
Steve Wolfe
Joe Donnelly
Brian Crane
This is by far the fastest team I've been on so I'm pretty excited about our chances, at least in our division. Thankfully they were kind enough to give me the short leg.
Below is the complete list of clubs and how many teams they are fielding in each division.
| Club | CM | CO | CS | CV | FM | FO | FS | FV | MM | MO | MS | MV |
| Andover Striders | 1 | 2 | | | | | | | | | 1 | |
| Gill's Athletic Club | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Gate City Striders | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Greater Derry Track Club | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Greater Lowell Road Runners | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Mystic Runners | | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Melrose Running Club | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Merrimack Valley Striders | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||
| New Hampshire Athletic Alliance | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| North Medford Club | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| North Shore Striders | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Sandown Rogue Runners | | 5 | 1 | |||||||||
| Squannacook River Runners | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Shamrock Runners Club | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Somerville Road Runners | 1 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Winner's Circle Running Club | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Wicked Runners Club | | 6 | 2 | |||||||||
| Grand Total | 17 | 48 | 14 | 3 | 12 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 20 | 19 | 17 | 11 |
Division key:
CM - Coed Masters
CO - Coed Open
CS - Coed Seniors
CV - Coed Veterans
FM - Female Masters
FO - Female Open
FS - Female Seniors
FV - Female Veterans
MM - Mens Masters
MO - Mens Open
MS - Mens Seniors
MV - Mens Veterans
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