Connecticut may me for wusses, not not mgerwn isn't one of them.

Whoa.  That was posted hurriedly before going on my run.  If think if I start drinking I'll get back to normal.  And freakin 2-5 degrees with wind.  What will I wear if I am not allowed to wear shorts?

Just got home from boozin' and dancin' this evening while out listening to a friend's band, and while I was there I learned that I was expected to run in the Bradbury Squall tomorrow morning. (Nice of my wife and her friends to give me notice...)

I think the race is 3 or 3½ miles but I'm not 100% sure.  Given that I don't know how long the race is, that it's supposed to be really friggin' cold, that I've never run in snowshoes before, and that my snowshoes aren't really designed for running, I honestly have no idea how long it's going to take me to run this race.

So on that note:

Distance: 3 or 3.5 miles?

Race: Bradbury Squall

Location: Bradbury Mountain, Pownal, Maine

Goal: Top third finishers

2:06 something, just didn't have it today and gave up by mile 8ish. Good seeing a bunch of swampers out there in very cold weather. 

Back in. Meriden Tradition Run 5K / 10K, Meriden, CT.  Picking the 10K option, Considering it's dirt road, uphill, and more like groomed ski trail than plowed road, let's say sub 60 minutes. Sunday Jan23rd

OK, maybe like a plowed intermediate trail. There were some bare spots along the way. 

59:24 Total time; 5K up (33:52), 5K down (25:32). 

 

Connecticut may me for wusses, not not mgerwn isn't one of them.

What what?

Boston Prep 16 miler Derry, NH

Pick flowers, beat L Train

Let's just get this out of the way now. I ran a gdawful horrible race. Really it can barely even be called a race. L Train crushed me by like 19 minutes or something. It was about as pathetic as pathetic gets. I did not even pick any flowers, and I looked for them. Complete, utter fail. Just put "fail" as my result.

1:57:04 and oddly enough, I'm not that upset despite missing my goal by a mile.  The goal was probably unrealistic given my current shape.  Most of the race was fine, the last two miles I had nothing because I used it all on the uphills trying to drop a friend.  Not not.

Made em all line up way behind the start line; nice job! (Even if inadvertent)

The race was somewhere between 3.5-3.75 miles.

 

And, you mistook what I wrote as my goal...my goal wasn't top 3, my goal was top third...as in I wanted to finish in the top 3rd of all finishers.

 

There were 32 finishers, and I finished 10th, so mission accomplished.

 

Not quite sure how...my friends took a look at my snow shoes and were quite happy since that gave them a chance to beat me in a race for a change.  My shins are all black and blue now...my canoes are not meant for running.  Every single step involved the front of the snowshoe coming up and whacking me in the shin.

 

I lined up about 4 or 5 feet behind the starting line, since I figured I had no business being right up front.  But then Judson Cake lined up next to me, and everybody else lined up next to or behind the two of us, so we actually started quite a ways back from the starting line, which rather amused me.  

 

10 guys went out ahead of me right from the get go, and within a mile or so I'd sort of figured out how to run in my snowshoes.  I got passed right before turning off of the groomed double track but then passed somebody halfway up towards the summit.  I caught up to Jeremy (who had passed me) around a mile into the race and just let him pace me the rest of the way since he was moving at a good clip while not going so fast that my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest.  Chuck Hazzard caught up to me and basically did the same thing within a half mile or so of that so the 3 of us ran in a line together until there was about 3/4 or a mile to go.

 

Jeremy took the straight line up a small steep hill on the boundary trail and was doing his best to make me work for a pass (since I wasn't asking for one he didn't feel a need to move out of the way) but I went out of my way and around a tree because it looked like it would be easier and I wound up in front of him anyway.  From there, I just tried to bust my ass and put some separation between myself and him and Chuck, and I wound up beating Chuck by 6 seconds and Jeremy by 21 seconds.  I also came within a half a minute of 9th.

 

It was a ton of fun, I can't wait for the next race.  The course had a small amount of groomed trail but most of it took place on single track.  There were some good climbs, and also a lot of crazy drops that I'd be scared to run down that fast in the Summer given how rooty and rocky and steep it is (normally we run that part of the trail in the opposite direction.)

 

I tried on some of the loaner Dions after the race, and it's amazing what a difference that makes.  They only weigh a pound and are much smaller than my snowshoes; it's not much different than running in normal shoes by feel.  I've already put my name in to borrow a pair for next time, it will be interesting to see how well I can run on fresher legs and with smaller, lighter snowshoes.  The second race is 4.25 miles or so and the last is 5 mile, all 3 on the mountain side of the park.

 

So, final numbers:

 

3.5+ miles in 35:39, good for 10th out of 32 finishers. Makes my goal of top third.

 

(Didn't win any prizes for running, but got a bag of goodies from Precision Nutrition as a raffle prize.  Well, Erin won the bag, I won some coffee, which I gave away, and then that person won some energy bars or something so she gave me those. Everybody was pretty happy.)

In that case you need to change your ID to "Run4top3rd"!