First Shoes

Yes, these are the first real running shoes i ever had, bought in early 1979. How many of you out there still have you first real pair of running shoes?  I ran before i bought these, first starting on the cinder track at Lockwood Jr. High wearing leather Nike shoes, the Cortez. After realizing that i like doing this, it was time to get into real hardcore running shoes and the New Balance 320 was the choice for me. I bough these shoes at Lightning Sports on Thayer Street in Providence. At the time, these were top of the line and cost a whopping $29.99. Choices back then weren't anything like today, i could have gone with Brooks, Adidas or Tigers, which seemed to be the choice of many top runners, now known as Asics. The NB 320's weren't the most attractive shoes out there, but they were comfortable. They had a gum rubber herringbone outer sole, not very long lasting. I used to build them up with ShoeGoo to get extra mileage out of them. Funny thing, they were a 9 1/2, i now were 11 but these shoes still fit. It seems the lasts that shoes are built on changed, not my feet. I would beat the crap out of my shoes, lots of miles and running sockless would do that and they would stink to high heaven. Why did i keep these, i don't know, maybe i thought it would be cool to see them 30 years later and compare. Obviously, they don't compare to anything now, not even remotely, but i could probably sell them on EBAY for more than i bought them for in 1979.

Later

Scott

Rhode Island 6 Hour

I woke up Sunday morning to a light mist and darkness, time to roll out of bed and get over to the Warwick City Park for the RI 6 Hour Race.  The weathermen in all their infinite wisdom are saying that it will be a nice day, temps in the low sixties and no rain. I can't imagine that there is anymore rain to fall after Saturday, how much can the clouds hold? 6:30am and here comes Mark Mitsmenn down the street for a ride over with USATF-NE Ultra Chairman Paul Kirsch following behind us. There is a steady stream of cars heading into the park and the locals must be wondering what is going on. We head on down to the beach and start area, the lot is filling fast. Tents are popping up all over, this place doesn't see this much action even in the summer. On a clear day, there is a view all the way down Narragansett Bay towards Newport, it is a very nice spot for a race. The course here is a 2.7 mile paved bike path that meanders through the woods and ball fields of the park. Much of the path is flat, but there is a rolling section that lasts for less than a half mile which could wear on the legs over the course of 6 hours. So let the fun begin.

8am is here and the start of the race goes off right on time. The players here are Ben Nephew and Martin Tighe, Ben is 34, Martin is 17 years older than that at 51. Both have impressive running resumes. Both are looking for more than 50 miles in the alloted 6 hours. They take off together and plan on running together for a while. At the same time as the ultra run, there is also a relay going on. Twenty Eight teams
with anywhere from 2 to 6 runners doing anywhere from 1 to 3 laps an individual stint. This is not a strictly regulated relay like some, you can set it up anyway that suits your team. My team, the Tuesday Night Turtle "C" team is handing off every lap, figuring that will keep us better rested and able to kick the ass of the Turtle "B" team. All our best runners were on the "A" team which was going for the overall win, but we weren't concerned with them, only the B's. Team FuelBelt came in with 5 teams, there were teams from the Wild Colonial Running Club, Shamrock Running Club, Inskip Auto Dealership and many more. Oddly though, no other big RI running clubs showed, oh well, maybe next year.

Meanwhile, Martin and Ben are going at it on the bikepath. Two laps in and Ben has already shed his shirt, a few laps later Martin does the same. They are lapping at around 6.30 pace which comes out to about a 5:25 50 mile time. Seems a bit rich. Two hours in and Martin is off the front just hammering the shit out of the course, i guess he did not want anymore company. Did he go too early, time will tell. Ben seemed to just settle in and run a fairly even pace. Martin was adding time every lap, building up to a 7 minute lead, but things were closing in. Cramping was starting to be an issue. Both runners slowed over time, that was a given considering the early pace. With a few laps to go, it hit. Martin was lying down on the path with someone trying to massage the cramps out of his legs, this cost a good 5 minutes of his time as Ben closed in. Now Martin's pace was off, he was hurting but still able to push on. One thing i know about Martin is he is a tough runner and will do all he can to hold on. But when you are being pursued by someone like Ben Nephew, the writing was on the wall. With a lap to go, Ben came around side by side with Martin and that was it, Ben put 1 1/2 minutes on Martin on the last lap. In the end, both runners covered 51.3 miles, but Ben did it quicker. Both runners ran sub 5:50 for 50 miles, an amazing feat. Martin ran a PR by 10 minutes, i do not know what Ben has previously run for a 50.  Separated by a minute and a half after 6 hours, what an exciting race! Congratulations to both. In the womens race, Daniele Cherniak of New York, a long time excellent ultra runner won by about 2 minutes over Allison Lassoe. Daniele covered 41.4 miles.

Meanwhile, back at the relay. The TNT "A" was out front by over a lap and the rest of us were left to shoot it out. My "C" team was led by Captain Jodi Hall as she led myself, George, Jim, Vicki and Pieter to a third place finish, way above expectations. I managed to run better than i thought i would, averaging 7 min. pace for 3 legs. I'll take it for now. My knees felt good, that is a good thing. I even wore racing shoes, probably not the best thing for a fat, starting to get back in shape runner, but it is a relay and i don't want to let the team down. With the relay going on with the ultra, there were many more runner/ spectators here, and a very boisterous crowd. This had to help the ultra runners and added a certain electricity to the race. The one thing i would like to see next year is an updated leader board for the relay so that we know who we are close to. I was surprised to find we were in the top 3, but in the end, the 2-8 teams were separated by only 4 minutes. It would be good to know who you have to go after or hold off.

I did get to hang out some with old friend and racing foe, Jon Barnes, who was running on one of the Fuel Belt teams. Back in the eighties, Jon ran for the Belle Watling A.C., anyone out there know where that name came from without googling it? Buy you a beer if you get it right.

Want to see many photos from the race, go HERE.

By the way, that is the lovely captain of our relay team, Jodi Hall who is interviewing Ben Nephew after the race.

A big shout out goes to the other Turtle in the 6 Hour, Jake Schieffelin who covered 37.8 miles and took 3rd place in the USATF-NE masters championship.

Way to go Jake!!!

New York City Marathon

How great is it to see an American win the NYC Marathon? In a USA shirt to boot.

 I get a kick out of how they played up Ryan Hall for much of the race and Meb comes through with the win.  Of course, that has to do with some of the non-running broadcasters. Everything has to be a cliche or witty remark. Why not put Toni Reavis alone in the booth and keep the others out on the remotes? They did a good job. They just had to put up with stupid questions or idiotic observances from the play by play guy. Just my opinion, of course.

Oh well, aside from that. Great to see Americans finish 1st and 4th.

Photo at right is from Boston in 2006 at 15 miles. Meb finished in 2:09.56, 2.42 behind Robert Cheruiyot. Not sure who #19 is, he was a dnf.

Boston Mayor's Cup

It was a gorgeous day to watch some cross country racing at the Boston Mayors Cup in Franklin Park. The trees were on fire with color, the temps were low 60's and there was a bit of mud on the course, it doesn't get much better than this.

Kudos go out to DJ Principe, son of Turtle president Dave. DJ won the 10 and under race with a time of 6.40 over a 1.1 mile course.

See some photos of the races here:

Mens Championship 8k

Womens Championship 5k

All races gallery

Grog and Dog Jog

What a beautiful day for racing and eating. I headed over to watch the Turtles race the Grog and Dog Jog at the Wild Colonial in Providence. It is a relay of 1 1/4 miles X four with a beer and a dog before you hand off to the next runner. The trick is trying to eat and drink as fast as possible with out puking, because many places change during the handoff. You can also leave your eating manners home for this one.

Our Turtle team dressed up as Geeks, well, truth be told, it is not really a turtle team. Two Turtles, Bob Jackman and Ben Keefe were joined by Alan Bernier of CMS and Zak Kudlak of the Unattached TC. Alan went as far as to add tape the glasses and pens in his pocket, no pocket protector though. Also on the start line were a wench, a hot dog, runners in tux's and wigs and wings, i even saw a running clam. From the start, Zak took the lead for the defending champion Turtles, building a small lead by the time they emerged on the other side of the Providence River. At the end of his leg, Zak grabbed his beer and dog and chowed it down pretty quick, then handed off to Ben Keefe. Ben hasn't been doing any speed work this summer and it showed. He held off the second runner, clad in a tie and BC tank top, by mere seconds. This is where fast eating comes in handy, we were out first with Bob Jackman and another BC runner right behind. Bob lost the lead, but due to fast eating we got a good start on the last leg with Alan cranking out a fast mile and a quarter, but it still was close enough that they were eating for first and second in the food corral at the same time.

From the sidelines, you can look at them and wonder why they aren't eating any faster, but i guess until i run one myself i will just never know. Someone said that Keith Kelly put down his dog/beer combination in 20 seconds, hope he didn't spill any on his wench outfit. Costume of the day is a tossup between the running wenches and the hot dogs. One can only imagine what a passing motorist must think? Why is the St Paulie Girl chasing that guy down the road, is he a bad tipper?

Kudos go out to Brien Lang and the Wild Colonial for putting on a fun event.

For more photos of the Grog and Dog Jog, look here.

Link to the Wild Colonial here.

At right is Clammie the Narragansett beer mascot.

CVS Caremark Downtown 5K

I got out for an early run today so i could finish up and head over to the USATF National Championship 5k in Providence. It is nice having a top notch race as this just 10 minutes from my house. I ran this race only once, 11 years ago when i was 40 years old. At the time, i was pretty quick and managed to run a 15.25 for 5th master, that would have won todays race. That's what happens when you pull out the money for masters, it went 10 deep then and maybe 3 deep now. Aside from that, this is still a great race. You want to run a fast time and aren't concerned with place, come to this race. Don't want to run, it is still a great race to spectate at

Want to see some photos from the race, click here..

See some off beat high school runners here.

See Flotrack Video here.

ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM

Well, it is Labor Day Weekend which means one thing to me, Lime Rock Vintage Fest!  For those of you not in the know, it is a weekend of old sports cars racing around a mile and a half road course in beautiful western Connecticut. There are cars from the early thirties to the late seventies. It is NOT your popular run in circles with cars that all look the same kind of boring racing. These cars have character and history attached to them. These cars have style, grace and elegance.


Pictured is the star of the show. It is a Mercedes-Benz W154 Silver Arrow Grand Prix car last raced in 1939 as World War II broke out. It had not been on a road course since then. The sound that this car makes going around the track is like a symphony. See a video of it here .

If you care to see some photos from the event, here are 50 of my favourites.

If you are really bold, see the full 275 shots here.

Race to the Top of Vermont

The Turtle Mountain Team headed up to Stowe, Vermont this weekend to run up Mt. Mansfield. The event is The Race to the Top of Vermont.  Making the drive up on a rainy Saturday were John Peabody, Martin Tighe(why do people continue pronounce his name"teague"?) and his nephew James, Vicki and Chris Jasparro, Jackie and Bob Jackman, Zak Kudlak, Larry Walker and me. We had rented a house for the night right in Stowe and packed it tight with runners. Also staying with us was Jim Johnson, author of the world famous DoubleJ running blog.

Saturday night, we picked up our numbers and headed over to The Shed Brewery for dinner and some beers. The beers were decent but not great and the food was expensive for what you get. A vegetarian quesadilla for 18 dollars seems a bit steep and it wasn't that big either. Towards the end of dinner, the waitress came over to the table and informed us that there was a police DUI checkpoint set up down the road so we let the non-drinkers drive back to the house. Turns out the police were set up right in front of our house! After the checkpoint broke up, we picked up a few six packs and sat down to watch the 2009 video of  Mt Washington road race, good stuff. You might be able to tell that we weren't taking the race too seriously considering all the beers.

Race morning was overcast but soon burned off to produce a beautiful day. We left early to make a stop at Bingham Falls in Smugglers Notch State Park. It was a long downhill hike to the falls and was worth the walk. The hike also helped loosen up my legs for the task ahead. Now it was time to get over to the toll road and hang out for a while for everything to get started.

First off were the walkers, then an hour later go the mountain bikers followed ten minutes later by the runners. I started off with John P., just behind Jackie and Chris J. I started off real conservative seeing that the uphill started right away. I figured to run with John Peabody as far as possible, but John wasn't coming along, so i had to go it alone. The course is a mixture of steep climbs and a few flats or near flat sections to give you a chance to catch your breath. The road is also dirt, but in really good condition. I chugged along at 12 min. or so pace for much of the race, mixing in slow running and power walking, this seemed to work well for me. Once the temperature started to drop near the top, i felt even better, not that i was going any faster, just more comfortable with the pain. By half way, we were passing mountain bikers on the road. I just can't imagine riding my bike up a road like this, last week i was riding up some of the jeep trails around Mt Toby and the quad burn was intense. I passed bikers on my power walks, they were peddling and going nowhere. I finished up in 54.40 at 97th place. Not too bad for where my fitness level is right now. This summer has seen too many little setbacks, you miss a week here and 10 days there, so there isn't any forward progress. I think that is behind me now, or at least i hope so. I ran down the mountain after the race and could actually walk this morning, unlike Mt Ascutney six weeks ago. I guess that is a sign of progress.

As a group, the Turtles did well, Jackie Jackman placed 4th woman overall and first in 30-39. Martin Tighe won the 50-59 group and Bob Jackman was 3rd in 20-29.

Overall, the race was won by Jim Johnson (35.30) and Kasie Enman (40.12) New course records for both.

Eric Morse finished second.

All in all, this is a nice race. Organization was very good. The only gripes i have are with the post race. If you go to the effort to do big post race free barbecue, you might want include something to drink too. Bottled water, soda, juice, something. In this case, you had to stand in a long line at the bar to get an overpriced can of soda after waiting in a long line for food. The other thing is the award ceremony. At the start, we were told that awards were at 12.30, the entry form said 1pm. In all actuality, 1.45 they finally got underway. There was a huge raffle with some real nice stuff, but considering that we had a 4 1/2 hour drive in front of us, there was no way we were hanging that long. Chip timing was nice, so can't you get things going faster?

For a report on the goings on up front in the race, see Jim Johnsons blog.

Later

Scott