Rambling running experiences from southern New Hampshire with a focus towards road, trail, mountain, relay, track, snowshoe, triathlon, adventure, hiking or anything else that interests me....hey look, a chicken.
The Pinnacle Challenge VII in Newport,NH is probably the biggest team event of the year for acidotic RACING (30+ this year!). The unique double duathlon event (5m road run, 5.4m mountain bike, 13.75m road bike, 3.65m trail run) offers something for everyone. For the past couple of years I was on a 4-person men's team, running the 5m road leg and 3.65m trail leg previously. Early on in 2011 (before I got injured surprisingly) I decided to do it solo.
Fast forward to September of this year. I hadn't run in nearly 3 months due to a nagging injury. Thankfully I kept busy with a ton of mountain biking and some tolerable road biking, but no running. So I had roughly one month to ease back into running just enough so I wouldn't embarrass myself at Pinnacle. I needed every day.
Teammate Jason Massa (who has done this race solo every year I believe) offered some advice - do each leg as hard as you can and hope to hang on at the end. Ok, I'm sure I'm paraphrasing a bit but I liked his advice. It is a race after all. My brain doesn't have a 'go easy' gear during a race. I guess the point was you'd probably over-think each leg too much if tried to pace yourself along the way. The other (more important) piece of advice was to make sure you eat and drink, primarily on the road bike. Noted.
I lined up with teammates Liz Hall and Austin Stonebreaker for the 5m leg. I think we all stayed within a few seconds of each other for the entire out/back run. Surprisingly, this was the leg I was most worried about and I was quite pleased with the results. I ran hard, finishing the run in 31:47 (6:21 pace). I quickly swapped shoes, threw on a helmet and headed out on the mountain bike for leg #2.
Finishing the 5m leg
Ok, a couple of things to note if you plan to do this solo. First, it's much harder going from running to biking then biking to running (like in a triathlon). Second, wear gloves. Finally, carrying a 30lb mountain bike up a gazillion stairs on the side of a ski jump (after running 5 miles) is tiring.You've been warned.
Evil stairs
Yes, both the mountain bike and the trail run legs go up these stairs, located about a 1/4 mile into the leg. My legs were burning when I made it to the top with my bike. And it doesn't get much easier, with nearly ALL the climbing located in the first half of the bike (and run for that matter). I could do no better than ride the entire climb in my granny gear but at least I was able to ride the entire thing. A few days of heavy rain had left the course very wet and very muddy. By itself it's probably a fun course. Throw in a 5m run for a warm up and the fun kind of goes away. No complaints. It was a nice course. Tough, fairly technical but rideable. Once over the summit I was pushed pretty hard by another rider and we flew on the way down, eventually teaming up with fellow aR teammates Mike Sallade and Amanda House on the screaming descent. We swapped positions a few times before reaching the transition in 42:49, completely covered in mud.
Heading out on the mt bike
The next transition was easy. All I had to do was swap bikes and go. This would be my least favorite leg. The course was a straight 6 mile shot out, followed by a fairly intimidating 1 mile hill and then back to the transition area. As instructed, I drank and ate as much as I could on the ride. I'm sure I went way easier than I should have on this leg. I never really pushed myself. By this point in the race I was looking at it more like a recovery ride. I battled aR teammate Robin Allen-Burke up the monster hill before she put the hammer down and crushed my on the way back. Overall it was a lackluster performance on my part as I finished up in 45:55, a fairly slow 18mph avg. Glad that's done...
Muddy me on the road bike
Generally I had been transitioning fairly well (although there are probably some improvements I could have made to speed things up a bit). I put my trail shoes on, grabbed a bottle of water and headed out on the run. I was tired but felt pretty good but did walk the evil stairs. Like the mountain bike course, the trail run course is all climbing in the first half. In fact, the run course was about 90% of the mountain bike course. I shuffled up the hills, running behind another runner most of the way up. Near the summit I passed and led for a while as we began the descent. Somewhere near the top I made an attempt to jump over a small tree that crossed the trail. As soon as I jumped my right hamstring cramped severely, stopping me in my tracks. The runner went by, asked if I was ok and then continued on. I tried several times to continue on and couldn't even take a single step. Darn it. I had about 2 miles of downhill to go and I couldn't move. I tried to stretch my hamstring as best I could (I do not stretch very well). After several minutes of stretching I was finally able to slowly walk. Eventually I managed to turn my walk into a slow jog and then into a fairly decent run. I was completely paranoid about my hamstring seizing up again, especially running downhill but it held up enough for me to finish the run in a somewhat painful 32:52.
At the finish line...finally!
My 2:35:51 finishing time was good enough for 8th overall in the solo division, 3rd in the masters division (behind Jason Massa in 2nd). I was more than happy with the results , all things considered. It was hard, it was mostly fun but next year I'm pretty sure I'm going back to team competition!
For the second year in a row I joined my fellow acidotic teammates for a little 4-person relay action in Newport, NH. The Pinnacle Challenge is a double duathlon consisting of a 5m road run, a 5.4m mountain bike, a 13.75m road bike and finishes up with a 3.65m trail run. I was taking part in the team event but they also have solo and duo categories for those that are interested in a real challenge.
My team had a last minute scratch so I was scrambling in the days before the race looking for a replacement. I managed to find a runner but he was a complete unknown so I wasn't sure what to expect. I guess we'll find out on race day.
Transition area
The Pinnacle Challenge is a well organized but low key event. There's a good mix of uber-athletes and regular joes and most are very supportive of each other. Nothing like watching guys with $10k bikes racing against guys with $100 bikes. When I say racing, I mean they're in the same race. Plus with so many acidotic teams racing, there tends to be a lot of inter-team racing going on, not to mention my usual I gotta beat Chris' team no matter what attitude that I take into every race against Chris. However, since Chris is the master team builder in these events, chances are good that he's stacked the teams in his favor. Jim Johnson decided to dump his teddy bear CMS singlet for the day and slip on the acidotic colors. Jim would run the 5m leg, followed by Austin Stonebraker on the mountain bike, Ted Hall on the road bike and finally me on the trail run. I liked our chances. Turns out a team of CMS/BAA guys liked their chances too!
Jim aR Johson
At 9:30 the 5m runners were off and the rest of us waited. We didn't have to wait very long. 24:36 later Justin Fyffe came into the transition area. Wow. That was fast. Not long after Jim entered the transition area in 24:59. Seriously, he barely broke 25 minutes for 5 miles. Who can't do that?? (apparently, everybody at the race except Justin). We had a problem though. I mean, we invite him into our cult, set him up with a styling sleeveless man-shirt with the acidotic logo on the front and then he slips on some arm cozies??? Sorry Jim, this relationship is NOT going to work out. Please turn in your singlet.
Back to the race. Jim did manage to give us a 1:21 lead over Team Chris and the race was on! Austin headed out for the mountain bike loop with Chris following shortly after. Less than 40 minutes later they'd both return, with Chris holding a 10 second lead. Ah, ya gotta love a good race! Christian and Ted would essentially head out for the road bike loop together. As I chatted with Chris I told him what needed to happen: my rider (Ted) needed to put 2+ minutes on Christian for me to even have a chance. That's because I was up against a crazy fast acidotic runner with dual citizenship (apparently he runs with CMS when he doesn't want to have fun) - Tim Cox.
As the riders approached the transition area I could see what was happening. Christian and Ted were actually riding together. Crap. Game, set, match. Ted came into the transition area with a 2 second lead over Christian. 2 SECONDS?? I needed 2 minutes!! Oh, well. At least I didn't have to run scared waiting for Tim to catch me. There was a good chance I wouldn't make it out of the transition area before he passed me.
Stairs on the run
As I ran as fast as I could around the track and headed to the woods, Tim pulled up beside me. I could hear Jim yelling "hang with him!" and almost cramped up from laughing. 1/4 mile into the run and I was at max heart rate. Finally, we turned into the woods and out of sight from the spectators and I commented to Tim that I could finally let up and off he went. I stayed with him on the stair climb but not much after that. It was fun while it lasted. I had a decent run. The first 2+ miles were all climbing as we headed to the summit before heading back down on some fantastic single track. Oh, and on the climb to the summit they threw in a 20' rope climb just to mix it up. Nice! Back to the downhill (since the uphill part basically sucked). I recovered pretty quickly and opened it up on the way back down. The footing was great, the trail flowed nicely and the corners weren't sharp. It was FAST. About half way down I passed a solo guy and came close to passing another one just before the finish.
In the end I ran 25:10 and our team finished in 2:07:54 (complete results). Last year this time would have been more than enough for the overall win. This year it was good for 4th team overall and 2:04 behind Tim (and Chris' team). See, I told him I needed 2 minutes!!!!
The team of Justin Fyffe, Mark Miller, Josh Ferenc and Greg Hammet scored the win and came within 18 seconds of breaking 2hrs (a feat that has never happened in this race). Not bad for a bunch of Pinnacle rookies.
Last year I ran the 5m road leg and had the 4th fastest split of the day. My team last year finished 4th overall.
This year I ran the 3.65m trail leg and had the 4th fastest split of the day. My team finished 4th overall.
If you want to finish 4th, I'm your guy.
I'm #4!!
acidotic RACING was out in full force yesterday in Newport,NH for Pinnacle Challenge V, probably the only double-duathlon you'll find (if you were looking!). aR fielded 4 teams plus a solo entry in the 5 mile road run, 5.5 mile mountain bike, 13.75 mile road bike and 3.4 mile trail run event (results). With four, 4-person teams plus a soloist, there was some serious inter-club braggin' rights on the line (not to mention the chance for FREE BEER FOR A YEAR!). Let's just say it doesn't suck to be sponsored by a brewery :-)
Our team included myself on the road run, Chris Dunn on the mountain bike, Geoff Cunningham on the road bike and Brent Tkaczyk on the trail run. I liked our chances! We were ready for some racing!!
Geoff, Steve, Chris, Brent
My day would start early and end early...only because I was doing the 1st leg, the 5 mile road run. Turns out the first 2 miles of the road was more like a cross country run, with the first 1/2m run across a field and the next 1 1/2 miles run on a rail-trail. Nothing overly difficult, just an odd way to start a road run. About the 2 mile mark the course hit the pavement, and the only significant hill on the run. The next 1/2 mile was a series of short climbs. By mile 2.5 the hills were gone and it was either downhill or flat the rest of the way back. Miles 3 and 4 were along a nice country road which even included a run through a covered bridge. We were essentially running around the perimeter of a small grass airfield (Parlin Field). Once around the airfield it was a straight 1 mile shot back to Newport High School and the location of the transition area.
At 9:30am we were off. I settled into a fairly comfortable pace through the fields, trying to find someone to pace off of. By the time we hit the rail trail I was probably in 10th place o/a. Derrick Hamel (acidotic RACING 2) already had a sizable lead, followed by Justin Soucy (one of my GCS track coaches) in a distant second. By the time we left the trail and hit the roads at mile 2 I had picked off a few runners and settled into 7th place behind Eric Williams (Team High Speed Vomit, GSRT runner). Eric and I would essentially run back and forth the rest of the way, never really being more than a few yards apart. His team were the defending champs so I really needed to stay with him if I could.
Eric and me at about 3 1/2 miles
Heck, I wasn't going to catch team aR2 so I had to focus on somebody! Running together helped us close the gap on a few more runners by the time we got back to the final 1 mile straightaway. With 1/2 mile to go I had moved up to 4th but wouldn't look back to see where Eric was. As we turned onto the grass with about 50m to the transition area I found out where he was...going by me! Man do I HATE getting passed right at the finish!!!! I entered the transition at 28:20, 4 seconds behind Eric and Team Vomit and exactly 2 minutes behind Derrick of aR2. Now all I could do was wait (and take pictures!).
Special note: Derrick had the fastest road run split of the day with a 26:20.
After my run I went up into the woods to take some pics of the mountain bikers and some of the early trail runners before heading back to the transition area to catch the finish. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any photos of the road bikers (sorry Geoff!) Chris would hammer the bike (42:34) and not only make up the 2 minute deficit but also tack on an additional 11 minute gap over aR2.
Chris on the descent
Geoff would have a very comfortable cushion to start his ride. He too would not give an inch to aR2 and even managed to pick up 38 more seconds, averaging nearly 22mph on his 13.75 mile ride, with a time of 37:59.
Geoff back from his warm up ride
Interestingly, both the mountain bike and trail run would ascend a wicked set of stairs (yes, Chris had to carry his bike up the stairs), before heading further up the mountain course. The lead solo athlete reached the top, placed his bike down and popped his rear tire on a nail. He managed to repair the flat AND still finish 2nd OVERALL (including teams)....1st solo finisher in 2:11:00.
Brent climbing 100+ stairs up a seriously steep hill
Brent was our more than capable anchor leg to finish up the day. With a nearly 12 minute lead over aR2, only an injury would doom us. Thankfully doom was not in our forecast today and Brent ran the 5th fastest trail split of the day (26:21), and our team finished a strong 4th overall in a time of 2:16:40. Tim Cox of aR2 made a herculean effort, making up 2 minutes and 14 seconds in the 3.4 mile trail run but in the end it was not enough. Team Vomit finished first in 2:09:20.
Brent bringing it home!
Special note: Tim Cox of aR2 had the fastest trail run split of the day with a 23.58.
Final acidotic RACING Results:
acidotic RACING 1 (Steve, Chris, Geoff, Brent) 2:16:40
acidotic RACING 2 (Derrick, Steve, Jay, Tim) 2:26:17
acidotic RACING 3 (Kurt, Brayden, Jay, Austin) 2:48:02
