Northfield Mt. Race 2011

Let the games begin.

Another series and another few months of familiar faces, good times, hard running and story telling. This past Saturday kicked off the New England Mt. Circuit for another year.

On Friday, Tim Mahoney and I joined Dave D to mark out the route that was used in 2008 and 2009; a classic up down course with good footing. A few hundred flags, a few hours and we were set up.
Dave deserves a hand not only for directing a great event the past 10 yrs. but also for the relationship he has built with the Recreation Center and as a result their desire to have us runners return from year to year in the spring as well as winter.

at the platform on a lovely NE afternoon

The rain held off Saturday morning but the skies remained overcast enough to keep things cool albeit somewhat humid. According to the posted results, 225 runners toed the line for this race which also served the USATF-NE Trail Running Championship.

The Dbl's D and J will have good posts on the race up front so I'll just give a quick view from 41st place.

I went out relatively easy knowing well the terrain that would take us up 849' to the turn around at the platform that overlooks the reservoir. I felt good while climbing but my time at the top told a different story. I just kept my focus on what was happening in front of me then tried to limit the number of passing runners on the descent. I thought I should run something 15 seconds either side of 44:00 but it wasn't in the cards (or the legs it appears).
Maybe the ground was a bit soft from all the rain or maybe the runner is just getting soft. Anyway here's the numbers:

	Platform	Finish
2008	27:14	43:15
2009	28:17	44:25
2011	28:30	44:58

After the race, Rich Teal and I headed out to clear the course. A longer warm down than usual but we had a good time talking running and sharing tales about other sporting interests we have in common.

Top 5 in the M50 Division:

	1	41	0:44:58	Paul	Bazanchuk	56
	2	49	0:46:15	Erik	Wight	51
	3	69	0:49:14	Brian	Bigelow	51
	4	70	0:49:15	John	Martin	59
	5	72	0:49:23	Ted	Cowles	52

As usual Scott Mason, who ran the course before the race, was out there with his Nikon capturing grimaces, smiles, and whatever other facial contortions we were exhibiting during our periods of oxygen deprivation. Thanks as always.

So until next weekend at Wachusett...

Cool Runnins