Cranmore Hill Climb Photos

Cranmore mountain 11.4 km USATF NE championship

Results

1st Lap Photos

2nd Lap Photos

See You Next Week at Loon Mt.

Mt Washington Weekend Musings

First off, let me say that i did not run the 50th version of the Mt Washington Road Race. I was entered, but i am in no shape to this kind of thing right now. The way i see it is that even in shape you are going to suffer so why multiply that pain by ten. I don't want a Scott Graham-ish look on my face at two miles, at least Scott's was at 7+. So instead of running, i was there with cameras to shoot and then on to the partying.

A few thoughts and observances from the weekend.

---We stayed over at Attitash Mountain Resort. What a great place, the condo slept up to 14. There are
    special rates for MW runners and they have bears wandering around to keep you on your toes. There
    were three MW runners staying here, Bob Jackman, Carl Pecchia and Martin Tighe. CMS had taken a      
    condo on the other side of the tracks from us which prompts the question of who was coming from the
    wrong side of the track? Lets see....they were faster than us but we probably drink more, i guess it IS
    the Turtles.


---I brought 20 bottles of my homebrew up for post
    race at the base of the mountain, an Imperial IPA
    code named MW 50-50. It seemed to go over
    pretty well for the lucky one's to sample the
    brew. Chris Dunn was the lucky first recipient,
    the benefit of being parked next to the GTI. I
    wish i had more to go around, maybe next year.
    Fitz finally got his hands on some, i think he has
    been looking forward to it for quite some time.
    I think i may brew a batch for a snowshoe race
    this coming winter, what do you think Chris?


---It was a beautiful day on top of the mountain,
    some wind, but out of the west so you did not
notice it much on the other side. I liked last year better
    as the clouds were below you and the effect was great. Being clear all the way up makes for a tense
    ride at times for the passenger, right Jackie? Last year driving through a cloud means you don't see the
    drop off that is ten feet to your right. This year i got to drive Bill Riley down the mountain. Bill
    finished 1st in the 70-74 age group. His time was a bit off as he was looking for about 1:35 but had to
    settle for 1:39......not bad at 74 years old. Bill's wife Debbie had her Sea Shades sunglass booth set up
    down below which doubled as our drinking base camp. Thanks Debbie and Bill.

---One thing i love about this race is that you get to hang with so many good people after the race, one
    big party atmosphere. You don't get this at many races, not like here. Runners tend to hang out much
    longer. There are a lot of old school runners here as well as the regular mountain runners and snow-
    shoe people. Many people that i see at a lot of races, all great people. Tuckermans Brewing is here
    pouring their good beer. There is live music. Teams set up their tents, break out the grills and beer.
    How can you not like this scene.

---There were a lot of good performances, JJ ran a PR. DD ran above expectations, Dave Quintal had a
    good one. I felt bad for Kevin Tilton just not having it on Saturday, but i imagine he will be back with
    a vengeance. Bob Jackman had a solid first run up the hill. Congrats to Reno and Bill Riley for
    winning their age groups.

---Good to hang with the CMS crew for a while late saturday night at the condo. Knocking back a few
    Genny Cream kingers with the brothers Quintal and the rest was fun.

---Great to see my friends Sarah and Sheila. Been a whole year.

---Good to catch up with ex-RI runner John Gorman after the run.

---Note to anyone wearing sandals on a day like this, take them off, apply suntan lotion, put them back
    on. My feet have tiger stripes on them right now and my ankles are burnt too, they feel more like

    cankles!


---Photos for the race are up on my website now,
    see them HERE.

25 Years Ago -Maine Coast Marathon

I could say it seems just like yesterday that i ran and won the Maine Coast Marathon, but no, it seems more like an eternity. Twenty five years ago i was living in Portsmouth, NH. I was running pretty good, coming back from a bad hamstring pull, I had just run a pair of 5 milers in identical 25.22 times. I was feeling fast. I had teammates from the Amtrol Racing Team going up to Maine to run the marathon, so i decided to join them although i wasn't training for anything past 5m-10k. I ramped up the training a bit so that come race day i had two long runs of 19m and two 14 milers, not what you would call totally prepared.


Race day arrives, the gun goes off and i blast off. I take the lead 100 yards into the race and go solo for the win. Sounds great, doesn't it? It wasn't that easy. I went out at what felt comfortable, building a sizable lead. At 20 miles i was at 1:47 flat with an 8 minute lead. Along the way, my friend Roland Davide, who has the course record and still has the fastest marathon run in Maine at 2:15, was with me on the bike warning that i was running too fast. I should have taken the advice of someone of his running stature, but i felt good. I was thinking from the splits that i was looking at 2:18-19 range...SWEET! Two hours in, well past 22 miles and i am having a sense of impending doom. The legs are starting to go, so i am thinking it is only 3 to go, how bad can it be. Bad. With 2 to go i had to walk, there was nothing left in the tank. All in all, i walked 5 times in the last 2 miles. I finished the race at 2:28., a minute in front of second. It took 19 minutes to go the last 2 miles. It is still a win, just not how i planned to do it. I did get the best trophy ever, a hand made lobster trap table. It still sits in my parents living room in Narragansett


In the twenty five years since this race, i have run 5 marathons. It is not what you would call my favorite distance. I don't like training for them, i really never respected the distance. I would like to do one more though so i could try to get into the 5 Decade Club which is running sub 3 hours in 5 different decades. I have 4 down now from the seventies on with nothing slower than 2:47. I have ten years to do it, we will see what happens.



Check out this link for a cool website on Maine running history:
                          mainerunninghistory.org

Boston Marathon Photos

Went up to the Boston Marathon on Monday to spectate and take some pictures.

See the photos here. 

The shots were taken at 5.5 and 19.8 miles.

Into the Light

 I shot a lot of photos this past weekend between the Merrimack River Trail Race and the Doyle's Emerald Necklace 5 Miler. I think this is my favorite, shot at the Doyle's 5m.


Photos from Merrimack here.


Photos from Doyle's here. 

Nike Hairs

I just came across this tonite while going through some old running stuff. Years ago, my brother got Don Bousquet to sign one of his cartoons for me. Don is from RI and did stuff in the local papers and Yankee Magazine. He obviously was overstating on my marathon abilities. In my opinion anyway, but i guess i was my own worst critic.

Granite State Snowshoe Finale

  You had to wonder if it really that good of an idea to head up to the Granite State Snowshoe Championship. Here in Rhode Island, the winds were gusting to over 30mph and the rain was coming down sideways. The clocks "sprang" ahead the night before, so you are somewhat sleep deprived for the 6 am departure time AND you have a 4 hour drive in front of you. Sounds like the perfect morning to sleep in.....NOT! Actually, i had no intentions of missing the final race of the season and then towards the end of the week, Dave Principe confirmed he was going too. Now i did not have to go up solo which made it much easier. Dave's son, DJ came along too, as we hydroplaned our way to Great Glen. I think Dave was getting a bit nervous as we hit the halfway point in Portsmouth and it was still raining heavily. Three hours in and still raining, we get into North Conway and wonder where is the snow. As we gained elevation heading towards Pinkham Notch, the wet roads slowly turned to slick, sloppy roads which caused a hairy moment or two in the last few miles (see Ryan Triffitts blog).  Once we arrived, there was plenty of snow and more coming down.

I was not running the race because of a sore foot i am just getting over. So i did my usual thing, i photographed the race. This turned into more of a challenge than i figured on. At race time, the snow was coming down pretty good, mostly sideways though and right into the front of the lens, meaning the auto focus was getting thrown off.  I was constantly wiping water off the lens glass too which was giving the photos a softened effect, not what i was looking for. I found that the camera kept focusing on the snowflakes and not the runners . I have shot in snow before as well as rain and even monsoon conditions and this may have been the toughest race i have done. So, all in all, i wasn't totally thrilled with the results, but considering the weather, they aren't that bad.  See them at scottmasonphoto.com

As for the finish of the race, it had to be one of the best i have seen. I was standing on the last downhill before the finish line that was about 100 meters away. As they came into sight, Kevin Tilton led Jim Johnson down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, Jim was pulling up even with Kevin, then as they approached the shed and went out of my line of sight, Kevin seemed to be pulling away again. When both came back into sight from behind the shed, Jim looked to be sprinting to catch Kevin and put in a final lunge at the line. Both went down and i could not see who won from my vantage point. In the end, it was called a tie. That last 30 seconds of the race was great! A fitting end to the GSSS season.

Another great finish to the season was having the post race awards at the Great Glen Outdoor Center. Sitting in a warm room with all those windows, looking out at the snow falling and the start area of the Mt Washington Road race was real nice. There was food from the cafe, a big cake with little pine trees on it and most importantly, a keg of Redhook LongHammer IPA. Boy did that IPA taste good after standing outside getting cold and soaked. The raffle was huge as they went two times around so as to not to leave anything untaken.




Big thanks go out to Chris Dunn and all the crew at Acidotic Racing for a great snowshoe series. In a winter season that lacked snow, the races still came off in a first class manner. Let us hope that the big snow is back for next season.




A big shout out goes to my teammates, the Tuesday Night Turtles, as we moved up to fourth place in the final team standings. Bob Jackman ended up third in the overall standings. Dave Principe was coming on strong at seasons end (look out next year). DJ Principe, at 11 years old, ran 4 races. Ben Keefe, John Peabody, Jenny Saunders, Vicki and Chris Jasparro all were there along the way. I even got out there 3 times in between aches and pains. I think we should have a stronger showing next season.




What is in that trash can Chris??? Could it be Longhammer IPA?




More Race Reports:


DoubleJ Running                                             Dare Might Things




HAV2RUN                                                       DoubleD Mountainrunner


Now on to the trail and mountain series. See you out there.



Scott









                                                                                

Greetings From Syracuse

This past weekend was the USSSA National Snowshoe Championship in Fabius, NY. My original plan was to run this race as i had qualified at the Sidehiller in Center Sandwich, NH. At the time, I figured that i had 5 weeks to get ready, but the way this winter was going, who knows what would happen. Well....Two weeks ago at the Horse Hill SS race in Merrimack, NH, I end up aggravating a nerve on top of my foot which made running impossible. Turns out that i probably had the strap on my snowshoes too tight and that led to the problem. All is well right now, I ran a 3 mile tonight without problem, but lack of training has really screwed up the season. Lack of snow hasn't helped either.

As for the Nationals, I decided to go up anyway. Turtle teammates Bob Jackman and Dave Principe were going up to race so i packed the camera and figured to shoot the races which i do better than racing lately. We took the 5 hour drive up on Friday, checked in at the Best Western and headed over to the race site to pick up numbers and check out the course. As we pulled off the main road on to the road to the park, i looked at the hill in front of us and joked how they would be finishing up that thing. Yeah...ha, ha, ha. Well, seems i was right and the race would finish the last 350 yards uphill to the finish line. At this point, I was sort of happy that i would not be running the next morning. Oh well, now that we have seen the course, it is time for a beer (more on that later).

Saturday morning comes, it is sorta cold, upper teens. We head up to Highland Park early to see the Juniors go off at 9, followed by the Women at 10 and finally the Men at 11:30. The course is in decent shape from the cold temps overnight, but it is headed for the 40 degree range today. In the womens race, it was good to see Acidotic Racings Amber Ferreira take the National title.

After two races and rising temps, the men took to the line. By now, the snow was getting soft, the course was getting chewed up and that meant the racers would suffer. The softer the snow, the slower the course. Talking to Dave P. after the race, he said how he couldn't get any footing at the start and lost time right away. He also mentioned how his footing was all over the place in the single track. The hill at the end did not help either as he fell on the way down and then almost again on the way back up to the finish.. Of course, watching the mens champion, Josiah Middaugh, run this thing, you would have thought the course was flat. He averaged just under 7 minutes a mile in slow, mushy snow on a hilly 10k route. Just amazing to watch. I guess that is why he is a 4 time National Champion. Bob Jackman, fighting a cold, finished in 30th place at 56.15/9.04 pace and two spots behind was Dave Principe at  32nd/57.17/9.14 pace, good placings in a very competitive race.





Mens Race Results
Womens Race Results

I heard some grumbling after the race about the course, the hill and snow conditions. It is what it is, everyone had to deal with the same thing. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses in different conditions. I wish i could have tested mine, but there is always next year!

Keeping with our tradition, we searched out a local brewpub for a pre-race meal and beer. Into Syracuse we went, Jackie, Bob, Dave and myself, to the Empire Brewing Co. It is down below street level in the basement of an old brick building, a very nice setting on a street loaded with restaurants. Checking out the beer menu, it was quite obvious what i was getting, so i ordered up the IPA along with Dave. It is a nicely hopped brew listed at 6.8% alc. We sampled something called Deep Purple, it is a wheat beer made with concord grapes, it wasn't horrible, just reminded me of grape soda. Bob and Jackie went for the darker stuff, stout and porter. I didn't hear any complaints so they must have been good. Food here was excellant too. I had a Philly Turkey which is a Philly Cheesesteak, only with turkey instead of steak. It was great! No sweet potato fries here, but we did have this big slab of blue corn bread as an app with maple infused butter. All in all, a very good brewpub.

For more Nationals reading, try these blogs:

Kevin Tilton

DoubleJ Running

Dare Mighty Things

Irongirl and Ultrarunning Boy

PHOTOS:

Mens Race
Womens Race
Juniors Race

Mens Race by Dave Dunham