Since I am unable to run, or even be at, the Bluff this year I have been looking to the Nipmuck Marathon as the end of my racing season for quite some time now. I am not sure what it is about Nipmuck but it is a race, and a trail, that calls to me every year. As the day approached it looked like a good crew of Bimblers would be participating and so it was, as El Toro, Hillary, Nadia, Catamount, Miles (he needs a name) Shelly Girl and I toed the line to take on the Nipmuck trail. [Read more...]

On Saturday morning Shelly Girl and I decided to jump in the car and drive to Massachusetts to run the Oxford Dam Trail Race. After a summer of mountains I was looking for something flat and totally runnable and Shelly was looking to find the groove that has been elusive in her running this summer. For both of us the race turned out to meet our goals.

We did not know much about the race, other than it is put on by the Central Mass Road Runners, it is a part of the Grand Tree Series, just under eleven miles of trail and it is supposed to be fast. I had read several race reports which seemed to indicate there would be no major climbs, a variety of non-technical single track trail and various types of fire roads. Of course defining a hard climb or technical single track is not as simple as one might think. I suppose it really depends on your experiences in previous races, but this looked good and off we went to find out.

We left bright and early and got to Oxford about 45 minutes before the start. The crowd looked small and I think the turnout for this race is effected by a lot of other races going on this weekend (Ocean Beach, Sea Legs Shuffle and People’s Forest to name three) This was fine by us, in fact it was the type of race we wanted.

After the usual preparations, mainly consisting of figuring out what to take on a course we did not know on a day that was hot and humid, we wished each other luck and toed the line.

The race starts with both the long and the short course (5 miles) runners starting together and ascending a hill of about a quarter mile. Considering there was not supposed to be any hills I was a bit surprised, but it really was nothing too serious and I chugged forward until we reached the single track. The trail was a bit more technical than I had anticipated but it was very fair and I just settled into a pace I thought was moderate. Within a mile or two I was keenly aware of two things. First, it was hot and the course was fairly exposed to the sun and second, I was breathing way too hard for this early in the race. The trail was quite easy so I really was in a bit of a panic as to what was going on. First order of business was to slow down. So I adjusted my pace and even walked a couple of bumps. I always find stopping and walking helps me when I am out of the zone. As I tried to regain my composure I took inventory and realized that my legs were feeling pretty heavy. I am not used to that feeling this summer. Everything I have done has been geared towards mountain type courses and the feelings on those races has been pain more than leg fatigue. I suddenly realized that I have not done a race all summer where I had to run the whole time and run pretty fast. These are not my type of races! We got to the 3 mile split, where the short course went right and long course goes left and I almost veered right. It was hot, I was out in the open on flat roads where you are supposed to run fast and I was sucking wind three miles into the race. Yikes! I struggled on as best as I was able and slowly worked my way back from the brink. One thing that helped was I tried to focus on the thought that this was good training for me. I was no longer racing but simply trying to get used to running hard on runnable trails.

By the second aid station, at roughly five miles, I was tired but I had a better frame of mind and settled into a pace I could maintain. The trail continued to alternate between nice shaded single track and out in the sun fire roads, with some ATV trails tossed in for good measure. The trail was terrific and I was already thinking that I simply need to come back next year better trained for this type of race. At the last aid station (roughly seven miles) I ate a bit and walked a hill, to gain as much energy as I could, and then took off for the final three plus miles. All day the trail was nice and rolling and while I would say the course was a bit more hilly and technical then I had anticipated it still was quite a fast course and everything is runnable. Up to this point in the race I had been the guy getting passed but finally I started seeing people up ahead and, as we all know, passing people always helps your frame of mind. While I was tired I was well in charge of my mind by this point and just went as fast as I could go and soon enough I was done. The real highlight came about four minutes later when I saw Shelly Girl pounding down the trail. To be honest, she has not felt that great about her running this summer. This combined with the heat, that she does not like, and the speed of the course made me think it might be a rough day so I did not expect to see her for another five minutes. When she hit the tape at a little over 1:41 I knew she had had the day she was hoping for. Sweating and gassed, but smiling, what more can you want? Plus, she got pumpkin bread for winning her division , which we chomped on all the way back to Killingworth.

So at the end of the day, it was a terrific race. The course is fast (Jim Johnson won the race in 1:04. That’s almost 11 miles of trails in 64 minutes!!)well marked and the RD put on a great event. Shelly found her groove and I learned I need to work on running faster. Plus we got Pumpkin Bread!

Lefty

We have been wanting to do the full Pemi Loop for a couple of years. When we saw that the weather was looking great for Sunday we decided to go for it.. Quickly assembling our gear we headed up to the White’s on Saturday and hit the trail bright and early on Sunday morning. The Pemi Loop is a 50k, covering ten peaks and the entire Pemigewasset Wilderness Range.. It seems like our old friend Ben Nephew and Kevin Tilton hold the fastest loop record of just under seven hours and five minutes and the hiking book time is about tweny one hours. With this in mind, we estimated fourteen hours for our trek. [Read more...]

A few weeks ago Shelly Girl and I decided to meet after school and head over to Bluff Point in Groton to run the Twilight Trail run. We have done the 7.4 mile race before but it had been several years and we wanted to see if our older bodies could handle this fast course. Due to distance or terrain or both most of the races we do have significant hiking sections. Bluff Point is not that race. If you are looking for a tempo workout on a course roughly Bash distance this is a good race to run. [Read more...]

I drove up to the Holyoke range on a last minute whim this morning to run the Seven Sisters. With the new house in Florida, running really has not been much of a focus for us this Spring, but, with Bear Mountain looming next weekend, I figured I should get in one last long run and they are always easiest for me when either on a bimble or in a race. So , with Shelly Girl nursing yet another cold, grhhh!!!! I drove solo up to the race.

I have rode the sisters several times over the years so I pretty much knew what I was getting in to. Those girls only last for six miles but they are quite busty (okay, I will stop) and you have to take them on twice to complete the 12 mile course. Before the start I did have the most pleasant of surprises, when seeing not one but 5 runners from Canada who we had run Trans Rockies with last summer. [Read more...]

I have no idea how to write a race report for Transrockies! How does one condense six days of running and living in the world of this event into something that is both readable in length and does not come across as somewhat egotistical and self important? I don’t know, so I will just let it all hang out and hope everyone judges my intentions as honorable. [Read more...]

If you are a lover of trail running like me and Shelly Girl well then you have to run Bear Mountain. I mean, the name alone was enough to get us to register and toe the line. Think about it. Question: “Where did you run last weekend?” Answer: “I ran Bear Mountain”. Sounds cool! [Read more...]

Let me start by saying we had every intention of running a 34k and not a 50k when we headed up to West Hartford on Saturday morning. Shelly Girl and I had decided that running two loops of the Traprock 50k course would accomplish several things. We could get in our 4 hours of training, we could check out this new event on the running scene, we could run some new trails and we could support the efforts of the folks trying to get this race off the ground. With those thoughts in mind we set off on a rainy morning to run some of the Metacomet Trail. [Read more...]