GLRR Racing Team News

GLRR Track Workouts: An Update

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:36:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:15:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:12:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:28:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:02:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:32:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +0000

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!'

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:26:00 +0000

Monday, 16 March 2009

re: "Dave Oliver, again the #1 senior dude in a PR (!) 1:06:02"

As much as I (and Dave) would like to stand by the accuracy of that time, it should have read "1:16:02".

Oh and one more New Bedford factotum: About the time Brigham was doing his thing in Fairhaven, it's where "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks, and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." (Or was it the other way around?) But as we know from the old Chad Mitchell Trio tune, "You can't chop your papa up in Massachusetts (Massachusetts is a far cry from New York)!"

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:20:00 +0000

Monday, 16 March 2009

A quick yet hearty Congratulations to all hardy Greater Lowellites who ran the New Bedford Half Marathon on Sunday, the second stop on the 2009 USATF-NE road racing grand prix! It was an unusual day for a New Bedford Half -- neither too cold nor too windy, and what wind there was was at your back in the last four miles instead of in your face.

Particulars:

Dave Oliver, again the #1 senior dude in a PR (!) 1:06:02;
Liane Pancoast, again the #2 senior dudess, 1:34:56
Patty Foltz, again the #1 Veteran dudess (yaawwwwn), 1:39:13
Mark Reeder, a tres-superbe age-49 1:13:47
Senior men, 2nd by a mere 50 seconds (no thanks to yours truly) yet with a tightly-packed team finish (if only five counted instead of three . . .)
Women's team scoring #18 Open, #6 Masters, composed of one Senior (Liane), one Master (Melanie Hire), and one Veteran (Patty).

An Observer's Note: It has been my wont, since the first time I ran New Bedford, so take an hour or so to explore town before heading for home. The cobblestoned historic distrct is fascinating, anchored by the excellent Whaling Museum, the Seamans' Bethel (of Moby-Dick fame), and any number of good shops and (yes, Phil) pubs. But the highlight has been the short trip across the harbor to Fairhaven, cutting through town to Phoenix State Beach at the head of the harbor, site of a Revolutionary War skirmish and the still-poised guns of a Civil War battlement. The magnificent harbor view is, however, at least equaled by the mind-blowing architectural display clustered in the center of this otherwise unassuming town, unavoidable if you make the trip to Phoenix Beach. The high school, town hall, library, and Unitarian church all look like they might have been designed by H.H. Richardson. It turns out that they were at least Richardson-influenced, all done by Charles Brigham, a Watertown native whose own credits include the MFA and Christian Science mother church in Boston as well as several Back Bay masterpieces. But why Fairhaven, and all the major civic buldings therein? Turns out that it was home to one Henry Huddleston Rogers, #2 robber baron of Standard Oil after Rockefeller, and Rogers wanted to reward the place in his robber-barony way. Hence one of the most remarkable clusters of period architecture to be found anywhere in small-town America. Go see 'em for yourself next time you're in the area: http://www.davidjrusso.com/architecture/brigham/buildings/DesignList.php.

Next up: the Bedford, NH 12K on May 16th . . . THIS IS THE MOST LOCAL GRAND PRIX RACE OF THE YEAR BESIDES BAY STATE SO DON'T NOBODY MISS IT . . . LET THERE BE A BODCACIOUS GREATER LOWELL TOEIN' OF THE LINE IN BEDFORD!

jb

noreply@blogger.com (John Barbour) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:59:00 +0000

Monday, o2 March 2009:

Fellow GLRR Racers ("Greater Lowell Road Runner Racers" - now ain't that a tad redundant?) --

While no doubt everyone who ran the Jones 10-Miler on Feb 22 complained all week (with total justification, we might add) about weather, wind, and course, by now you have had plenty of chance to reflect on this: What if it had been a week later? You don't even want to think about that. (You CAN think about the fact that Stu's 30K, another tradition-rich New England race, was held yesterday as scheduled.)

A slew of stellar results from L'Affaire Amherst last week, however, starting with a squeaker team win by the Senior men. Led by Dave Oliver's outstanding division win, Dave was backed up by Tom Offenbacher in his Greater Lowell debut and Veterans' division hands-down champeen Bill Dixon. The total margin was les than a minute over Whirlaway (now with Reno Stirrat in its stable), 3:05:37 to 3:06:33. Given the close finish, and that Tom represents that new FODO ('Friend Of Dave Oliver' -- thanks for the remninder, Tom Foltz, I'd forgotten I came up with that) breed, we can safely say that this was a FODO-finish.

Turning heads on the women's side, however, was long-time GLRR-er Liane Pancoast with a fine 1:13:03 for third, just half a minute out of second. Hip problems behind her at last, Liane must be getting tired of daughter Stephanie, a Cornell track standout, hogging all the family athletic headlines. We can't wait for the challenge race; the only question: What distance will it be?

"Dixon and Foltz and pray for rain." Okay, it doesn'r rhyme like Spahn and Sain but the effect is the same. With Patty and Bill on the starting line, Las Vegas stops taking bets. It's over. They're the Veterans division champions, end of story. Of course it's never that easy as they'll be the first to tell you (Bill, in fact, rose bravely from the chiropractor's couch at the last moment), but . . . . wow. How about something like: "Foltz and Dixon and you're gettin' a lickin'?" "Dixon and Foltz, we're nags, they're colts." (Or in deference to Patty, perhaps, "Patty and Willie's like racing two fillies."

It bears noting as well that the GLRR masters women (Liane, Patty, and Melanie Hire) finished in 7th position -- with an average age of 52.

In case you missed the other extraordinary GLRR result from that day, Mark Reeder, age 49, blasted 15:56.60 for 5000 meters at the USATF-NE indoor meet at Harvard, placing 11th in a field of 21 against open (i.e. all-age) competition. We are duly humbled.

New Bedford is just around the corner, two weeks from yesterday, March 15th . . . Please contact myselves and/or President Glenn (and/or Tom F. if you're over 50) if you are in the hopper for this one. My list, which is perennially behind it seems, show the following:

Women -- Pancoast
Men -- Barbour, Jacobson, Offenbacher, Reeder, Stewart.

I look forward to receiving many many many corrections & updates,
John B.