GLRR Track Workouts: An Update

Good to see everyone who came to the track workout at Tewksbury last evening (Thursday 6/04) -- new faces, old (relatively) faces, and lots of good, hard work. We've been fortunate that four of the five track sessions this year have been in cool weather conditions, though if tradition holds we're in for a hot spell some time during June. But hey, NOTHING stops us runners.

Happy Belated National Run Day (Wednesday 6/02)!

And, most important of all: Please send your most excellent vibes and such southward to the lovely Caribbean isle of St. Maarten/St. Martin, where our intrepid club president and track workout timer-in-chief, Glenn Stewart, is vacationing. Did we say vacationing? He's also recovering from a broken collarbone after crashing his bike. (Running is MUCH safer, Glenn.) We're not sure whether he's staying on the French side or the Dutch side of the island, so that's either a French Kiss or a Dutch Treat. He reports that all is okay and that he's not in too much discomfort; moreover, he can still raise a glass unimpeded. Enjoy the rest of the holiday, Glenn, get healed up, and don't let anything happen to your stopwatch-pushing finger, okay?

GLRR Track Session #6: Thursday, June 11; Tewksbury High School (Pleasant Street), 6:00 p.m. (warmup on your own beforehand). See you there!

Bedford Good, Rhody Next

We runners can be a critical bunch. Go to any race and you'll hear some complaints about the weather, the course, the amenities, the awards, or (usually) some combination thereof. Over at the high school in Bedford, New Hampshire last Saturday, (May 16), though, nary a discouraging word was heard. Weather was ideal, the hospitality excellent, the post-race feed more than adequate, the competition fine, and comments this correspondent heard pertaining to the new course were uniformly positive. A fast finish on a spanking new track (reminiscent of the Ro-Jack's days), and an undulating course that some said actually felt as if it contained more downs than ups -- unheard of. (Of course, some of us long for the days when age-group cash awards went two or three deep, but in this economy whaddyagonnado?)

It was good showings by Greater Lowell teams. Let's start with the women: The all-masters-plus squad of Mel Hire (54:20), Moira Durnin (55:27), Peg Bastien (56:58) and Patty Foltz (58:19) ran well enough to place 8th out 13 Open teams -- quite an accomplishment! Of course at the masters level they were even better, placing 5th. Seniors and Vets were one and two runners respectively shy of complete teams, though when that day comes look out, as Senior Moira and Veteran Patty are among the best. Patty won the 60-69 division, despite running with a painful leg injury, to increase her Grand Prix lead.

Men: Again we're talking all-masters-plus, in fact Tom Doody at 47 may be the baby of the lot. (Oops, sorry Adam.) Tom's appearance was a happy surprise (at least to some of us) and he showed he was plenty fit by placing 25th overall and #5 Master in a fleet 40:21, leading GLRR to a 6th place Open finish out of 15, and 3rd of 11 Masters. He was joined therein by Mark Reeder (42:02), John Barbour (42:16), Dave Oliver (43:02) Tom Offenbacher (45:59) and Adam Sherer (48:18). Senior team scoring was muy interesting: several observers, both impartial and otherwise, noted that one result of the aging of the 'running boom' generation is a packed Seniors group, and that a 12K ought rightfully be scored five deep rather than the present three. At three-deep, GLRR was at the mercy of a Whirlaway squad which, Craig Fram having turned 50 and Reno Stirrat having recently joined, is tough to match. And though we gave it our best, we were a little short, 2:09:33 - 2:11:17 (2nd of 11 teams). Go five deep, though, and adding the prodigal John Dowling (46:03), Ken Jacobson (46:50) plus ever-youthful Phil Riley (48:41) and Ken Goodin (51:53) and the flips are flopped. The Veterans team was full and fine even without American-in-Paris Bill Dixon, placing 3rd and represented by Gary See (57:03), Tom Foltz (58:31), Steve Kanarcus (59:15) and Jon "Father" MacKenzie (1:08:58), who was last seen picking up the rice in the church where the wedding had been.

June 7th is not far off, and by now many of us can find our way to the dog track in Lincoln with our eyes closed, though please let's no one try that. This is the sprint race of the year, a 5K that may or may not finish on the dog track itself this time. It'll take nothing out of you so there's no excuse for not giving it everything, whether you're training through or not. And for Senior men it's a chance to atone for our collective failure to account for the evergreen talents of John Dowling, who fooled us all by taking the wild card position at Bedford in the Dixon Cross Country Wager Pool. If you're not on Glenn's list and can run, please let one or both of us know. Right now. No, don't wait. Do it now. Okay, that's good.

Track Is Under Way and Bedford Is Upon Us

Yes indeedy, Thursday, May 14 will mark Week II in the GLRR Spring Track Series. It's good to be with folks again, many new since I last did this. . . . Tewksbury HS, 6:00 p.m. Thursday, ready to run. Workouts are on the "Track & Coaching" section of the GLRR web page.

The Bedford, New Hampshire, Rotary Club 12K is on tap this Saturday, starting at 9:00 a.m. from Bedford High School, not far from the Manchester airport. Here's who is entered to date:
Women: Peg Bastien, Moira Durnin, Patty Foltz, Melanie Hire. (Got Open, Masters, and almost Seniors covered there.) Men: John Barbour, Andrew Bianchieri, Mark Corbett, John Dowling, Tom Foltz, Ken Goodin, E. J. Hrynowski, Ken Jacobson, Steve Kanarcus, Jonathan MacKenzie, Tom Offenbacher, Dave Oliver, Mark Reeder, Gary See, Adam Sherer, Glenn Stewart. (Good Masters-Seniors-Veterans teams.) It'll be good to be on the starting line with John and Peg for the first time in a while, along with others for the very first time! Get there in plenty o' time and we'll see you at the start.

Note on the front page of the GLRR web site, acknowledgment of the passing of Bob Gould. Bob was a frequent track workout attendee when I was club coach in the early part of this decade -- physically large, to the extent that one might night take him for a runner right off the bat. But he and Steve Kanarcus were faithful regulars, and always put in the work together. Bob was not only friendly but enjoyed talking about track work, his fitness and racing hopes, his family, and life in general. Bob was one of the people that made the long drive from Gloucester to Cawley Stadium worthwhile: a non-elite runner for whom running had an important place, and who was willing to work at it while enjoying and embracing the effort. I miss him already.

Spring Track Start: Thursday, May 7th

The Boston Marathon's in the rearview mirror, ergo it must be time for GLRR Spring Track sessions to begin. Hurray!

The club's decided to go for the retro look this season, meaning that they've dragged the old coach out of mothballs. I look forward being on hand for the nine track sessions this spring, the first of which is Thursday, May 7th, at Tewksbury High School starting at 6:00 p.m. (Warm up at your leisure prior to then.)

Tewksbury HS has an excellent track (I recall doing a good, tough session of 15 x 400, relay style, there with Tom Doody a few years back), easily accessible from both the Lowell and Boston areas. It's near the town center, just off Route 38, convenient to both I-93 and I-495. Click on the "Track & Coaching" section of the GLRR web site; there's a link to a map there. (oh! here it is! http://local.yahoo.com/info-10106775-tewksbury-memorial-high-school-tewksbury).

I enjoyed a truly wonderful seven year-stint as your Wednesday-evening coach, and look forward to the opportunity to see many of you out there again. (We're doing Thursdays in order to allow a day's recovery for those doing the Good Times 5K series.) Some who read this know others who were regulars or semi-regulars during that period -- pass the word around. Spring is racing season, and in order to race your best you need to hit the track. And there's nothing like getting onto a track with fellow runners on a regular basis.

There will be workout options each week to accomodate varying levels of fitness and experience. Challenge yourself (realistically). You'll be a better runner for it.

See you at Tewksbury next week!
John

The Bedford 12K Cometh

Mayday, Mayday! (Yes, it's May Day. So what?)

Our intrepid club president, he of the Glenn Stewart persuasion, plans to submit entry names for the Bedford 12K this coming Monday. Here's who's on the GLRR list at the moment (meaning: if you intend to run and don't see your name here, contact Glenn a.s.a.p.):
Men = Barbour, Chandonnet, Corbett, Dixon, Foltz, Jacobson, Kanarcus, Mackenzie, Offenbacher, Oliver, Reeder, Riley, See, Stewart.
Women = Foltz, Hire.

The Bedford 12K is race #3 on the USATF-NE Grand Prix circuit. It starts at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday (that's correct, Saturday) May 16th; note that the course and start area are slightly different since the last time this was a GP race, so do plan accordingly. (http://www.rotarybedfordnh.com/brmrr.html.)

It's a good course, and the closest to Lowell and the Merrimack Valley area of any GP race this year (save the Bay State Marathon of course), so let us have a most excellent turnout.

Boston 2009

The 2009 Boston Marathon is in the can, mi agmigos y amigas. Marathoners trained through a winter with 20 inches more snow than normal (but around here what's "normal"?) and were rewarded with a day with good air save for the fact that it was moving too rapidly in the wrong direction for too much of the race.

I watched the start from the press room, then ran to the Kenmore stop and caught the Green Line out to Woodland at the 17-mile mark. (That used to be so easy; now everybody does it and the cars are jammed. What's more, everyone's tracking "their" marathoner on i-phones all the way out and all the way back in.) Got to see some folks, missed a few others when the numbers on the road thickened. Great fun, so it was.

This is not a complete rendering of GLRR finsihers by any means, but a quick "Ho-way" and congratulations to:

Mark Reeder -- 2:43:25, 4th-place in the men's 45-49 age group. Mark never seems to run a bad race here, no matter what the conditions; he runs tough and he runs smart, as befits a mathematician (the "smarts" part at least). BC didn't make him a full professor for nothing.

Dave Oliver -- 2:48:53, 7th-place Senior division. The co-GLRR male Runner of the Year (with Bill Dixon) also belongs on the 'consistently good Boston' list. Whirlaway's Ephraim Ezekiel sneaked up on Dave in the Boylston Street stretch, passed him, and Dave battled back to take the "top New England Senior male" title.

Adam Sherer -- 3:16:12. Well done . . . You'll be recovered in time for the Bedford 12K, right Adam?

Gerard Ottaviano -- 3:31:14. Gerard isn't technically on the racing team list, but he is among that rarefied group who have run consecutive Bostons for more than a quater-century, 27 years and counting to be exact. And Gerard isn't satisfied with "just finishing" -- he trains hard, is always looking for that extra edge, and gets out there and races -- like a true athlete. Plus he's the guy who organized the very FIRST-ever club bus to the start many moons ago.

Patty Foltz -- 3:39:08. The #7 Veter-woman overall and the fastest from New England. Fabulous! She's probably on the golf course as we speak.

Tom Foltz -- 3:39:57. That last mile after Kenmore must have been fun, Tom. ("I can see Patty, but I can't quite catch her . . . !")

I'm sure there are others, but this is what I know off the top. Congratulations to all, and to all who had a hand in arranging the GLRR bus, pre-and post-race massage, hotel rooms, etc. Y'all done good.

NEXT USATF-NE GRAND PRIX RACE: THE BEFORD (NH) ROTARY 12K, SATURDAY MAY 16 AT 9:00 AM. CONSIDER THIS THE FIRST CALL FOR ENTRIES, AND LET US PUT A LOT OF FULL TEAMS ON THE LINE!

Congratulations to Patty Foltz, Bill Dixon, and Dave Oliver, named last evening as the 2008 GLRR Runners of the Year at the club's annual Hall of Fame dinner. So too to new Hall of Famers George Davis (the club's first coach and long-time coach at UMass-Lowell), introduced by fellow HOF-ers Dave Dunham, Dave Camire and Peg Donovan, and Mark Coddaire, introduced by Phil Riley and Tom Carroll.

Boston tomorrow. To paraphrase Tiny Tim, 'Go Get 'Em, Every One!'