"People just couldn't understand why
someone
would run all that way for no particular reason."
- Forest Gump
"In all of history, the human spirit
has wanted to know what are
the limits of the human body. If something you felt was impossible
yesterday becomes possible today, then you've expanded your mind."
- Topher Gaylord
"Running provides happiness which is different from pleasure. Happiness has to do with struggling and enduring and accomplishing"
-George Sheehan
June 18-19, 2004 - Bighorn 100-Mile (Dayton, WY) This was my fall-back race after not getting into the Western States 100-mile lottery last winter. Unfortunately, I didn't finish: my first 'DNF' in over twenty years. But what a place to visit: absolutely beautiful.
May 15-16, 2004 - American Cancer Society Relay For Life (Newton, MA)
April 24, 2004 - Zane Grey 50-Mile
July 19-20, 2003 - Vermont 100-Mile (near Woodstock, VT). Success!! I was scared silly signing up for this in January, but it had a crazy/seductive allure that just wouldn't go away, and somehow I managed to execute on the training throughout the spring. I still can't quite believe I made it.
June 28-29, 2003 - Crewing & pacing for my friend Bruce Grant at the Western States 100M (Squaw Valley to Auburn, CA, 5:00AM); a long night, with lots to learn. Bruce was in serious trouble when he got to me at the Foresthill aide station at 62 miles around 8:30PM, but then got a strong second wind and pushed very hard through the night to set a new PR.
June 14, 2003 - 25-mile night run with the GAC on the Willowdale State Forest trails (Topsfield, MA, 12:00 Midnight). This run with about 20 other folks was a heck of a lot of fun, despite constant drizzle and a body beaten-down by an epic two-week 'push' phase in my training. We ran two 12.5-mile loops (my first trail run with lights), and finished slightly after dawn. A real confidence-builder for running through the night at Vermont in just over a month.
June 6, 2003 - Eight-hour training run on the Wapack Trail (Southern New Hampshire and Central Mass., 5:45AM). Hard on the heels of Nipmuck (see below), this turned out to be an epic, but confidence-building day. I ran with my friend (and WS100 competitor) Dave Nerrow over the infamously rugged Wapack trail for roughly 34 miles. This was the first day in New England that the temperature had crested 80F, and one of the few without rain. Running out of water and food midway made this interesting and memorable!
June 1, 2003 - Nipmuck
Trail Marathon (Ashford, CT, 8:00AM); a training event with no time
goals during my 'push phase' in preparation for the Vermont 100. This turned out
to be an epic day, with torrential rain and mud. Frustratingly, shoe/orthotic
problems left me fixing my equipment every half mile, and finishing well behind
my capabilities.
May 11, 2003 - GAC Mothers' Day Six-Hour
(Topsfield, MA, 9:00AM); a breast cancer fund-raiser, this three-mile loop
course consists of roughly 50% fire roads, 20% pavement, 20% single-track, and
10% crushed stone paths. On a perfect day (50's and sunny), I vastly
exceeded my expectations, placing 3rd overall out of 141 starters, completing 37
miles in 5:52:29. See results at: http://www.gaconline.net/mdres03.html.
April 26, 2003 - Zane
Grey Highline Trail 50-Mile (Payson, AZ, 5:00AM); billed as "the
toughest 50-miler", it lived up to its reputation for humbling even the
mighty world-class runners in attendance; my goal (stated on this page) was to finish before dark.
I did, but just barely.
April 21, 2003 - Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA, 12:00Noon); paced my wife Helen from Framingham (at 6.5 miles) to her first Boston finish on an unseasonably warm, sunny day.
March 22, 2003 - Grasslands 50-Miler (Decatur, TX, 7:00AM); Set a PR by over two hours, thanks in large part to pacing by friend Bruce on an absolutely perfect day. 20th out of 54 starters in a time of 8:27:58.
February 2, 2003 - Last Chance for Boston Marathon (Dublin, OH, 8:00AM); twenty-six laps of a flat one-mile loop with my friend Hal (from Columbus) pacing me to what I had hoped would be a Boston-qualifying time. Despite good weather, the race was an almost unmitigated disaster and wake-up call.
November 9, 2002 - Stone Cat Ale Trail Marathon (Topsfield, MA - about an hour from my house). Several Team Psycho teammates did their first ultra (50-mile) at this same event (4X over a 12.5 mile loop). I was happy to stop after two and a little bit, and hunker down to enjoy the offerings of the race's sponsor while cheering on my friends.
July 20, 2002 - Wakely Dam Ultra - A 32.6 mile extreme trail run, unsupported and remote, (with no crossroads), on the Northville to Lake Placid Trail, in the Adirondacks of NY. The T-shirt is described by the race director as "perhaps the ugliest in the history of organized athletic events." A slightly abbreviated version of this report was published in the September, 2002 issue of Ultrarunning Magazine (page 42).
June 20, 2002 - Epic 26.2
mile, 8-hour training run/hike in the High Peaks of the
Adirondacks with my friend
Hal Lescinsky.
June 9, 2002 - Nipmuck Trail Marathon (26 miles +/-, Ashford, CT) - A long slow training effort, just to gauge my fitness; surprised myself by finishing in 4:51 (42nd of 141), having not done any training runs longer than two hours since early March.
June 1, 2002 - Harpoon Brewery 5M to Benefit ALS (a Team Psycho event); great weather and great beer, but too much hill work in my legs; turned it into a bandit training romp after they oversold - no more official race numbers once I got there!
March 16, 2002 - RJ Crowley's Pub 5K (boy did that hurt... 2 weeks after an Ironman)
March 2, 2002 - Ironman New Zealand
January 27, 2002 - Boston Prep 16-Miler - a brilliantly sunny, warm winter day; cruised to a 1:56 finish on this extremely hilly course, feeling excellent
January 26, 2002 - Team Psycho 15K CompuTrainer Time Trial
November 3, 2001 - Weekend Before Hunting Season Trail Race
October 27, 2001 - Halloween Hustle 5K (pacing my daughter)
September 30, 2001 - Vermont 50-Mile Run My first fifty-miler. An abbreviated version of this report was published in the December, 2001 issue of Ultrarunning Magazine. The course of the Vermont 50-Mile Run is relentless. Check out the course map.
September 16, 2001 - High Tech Classic 10K
September 2, 2001 - Forest Monster Marathon
August 19, 2001 - Savoy Mountain 20-Miler
January 8, 2001 - Walt Disney World Marathon
(event name take you to event web site; year buttons are race reports)
Ironman Canada - , , ,
Walter Childs Memorial (Holyoke/Springfield) Marathon,
(have I really been at it that long?)
One-mile, 1981 - 4:56.4
Two-mile, 1981 - 10:26.0
10K, 1980 - 38:29
Berkshire County
Autumn Marathon, 1982 -
2:53:20
Picture of me winning my age group (18 and under)
I seem to have this knack for entering events that tax my heat tolerance. In the interest of more objectively comparing weather conditions and picking cooler races (particularly marathons), I compiled some data here that might be of interest to others.
