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Mill Cities Relay (Read 498 times)

    This past Sunday I took part in a really cool event, the Mill Cities Relay. For the non-New Englanders out there this is a 27.1 mile 5-person relay from Nashua, New Hampshire to Lawrence, Mass. It is a club event put on and contested by 16 member running clubs. There is a complex scoring system that I don't pretend to understand but it involves each club entering teams in the various divisions; mens and womens open, coed open, mens and womens masters, coed masters etc. I was on a coed open team with 2 other guys and 2 women. The legs vary in length from 2.7 to 9.5 miles. I ran the 9.5 mile leg. My team finished 7th out of 43 teams in our division, scoring 9 points for the club, and 30th out of 173 teams overall. Our club, Shamrocks, took 4th in the club championship. RESULTS It was very cold out but everyone's spirits were high. This is a really fun event, lots of camaraderie and laughter and the best part is it ends at a bar, The Claddagh Pub, which doesn't always strictly adhere to Lawrence city rules about serving beer before noon. There were rumors that the driver of one of our other teams (a particularly sleep-deprived software engineer who was up all night writing code and rocking techno in an effort to finish some GPS importer feature for his running website) got off course and didn't deliver one of his runners to her exchange point in time. But that is, as far as I know, just a rumor.

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      Mikeymike, I participated as well. It was my first one. I did the first leg, 5.6 miles. I didn't realize that Nashua was only 27 miles from Lawrence, but I know now, and I know the back way to get there! The Claddagh was a blast afterwards. The pub sponsors a 4 mile race in March, and the post party is great. It also has the worst hill I've ever run. You literally look straight up at it. Check it out, and congrats on the Mill Cities participation.

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        I participated as well. It was my first one. I did the first leg, 5.6 miles.
        Rich, you bastid. Just trying to catch up on a million or so racing threads and find out you got on a team! Who did you run for? Since you didn't share this info, you can't run on my all-star team next year. Wink I did a ten miler that morning, and it was so cold I thought my calves were going to crack and fall off. I was going to try to get to the Claddagh to help Jessica celebrate her birthday but Zach's indoor soccer practice ran too late. Congrats Mikey! No congrats to you Rich, you're a bad, bad, bad, bad dawg. Evil grin

        E.J.
        Greater Lowell Road Runners
        Cry havoc and let slip the dawgs of war!

        May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your SPF30, may the rains fall soft upon your sweat-wicking hat, and until you hit the finish line may The Flying Spaghetti Monster hold you in the hollow of His Noodly Appendage.

        btb1490


          Relays are fun, aren't they? But I've also found that I push myself harder in relays than if I were just running as an individual. Fear of letting the team down I guess. Sounds like a great event!
            Sweet run Mike ... and a great report. That (relay event) sounds like a lot of fun. Congratulations on a fine outing.

            At the end of the day, be happy with where you are and what you've accomplished.