Club News

8th Annual Marcia Lemkin 5K
Sunday, August 29, 2010
by Mike Pelletier

LOWELL - In his first Grand Prix race in over a year, Dan MacAlpine was the fastest North Shore Strider and 1st Senior Male. Also taking first in their respective age groups were the ageless Nancy Giannone and Nancy Wilson. Veteran Master Linda Desjardins was second in her division. Finishing third in their divisions were Deb Beaulieu, Jayne Sexton, Jess Martin, and Joe Giannone.

The prize for most family members running in the race (and running well) went to Sean Kay and his three of his children: Alexandra, Sean Jr., and Aidan.

Full results at CoolRunning.

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Derby Street Mile
Friday, August 20, 2010
by Mike Pelletier

SALEM - Eric O'Neil was the fastest Strider at one mile and the 1st M0-19 with John Page close behind as 3rd M0-19.

Demonstrating their breadth of abilities by dropping in distance from the Marathon to the mile were Dennis Ryan, Neil Bernstein, Gary Freedman, and Mike Pelletier. Neil was the most successful of this group, finishing 3rd Male Senior, just behind Rich Tabbut who was 2nd Male Senior. Gary was 7th Senior. Mike, although the third oldest runner in the event, was 179th out of 344 overall and 5th Veteran.

Ironman Triathlete Bonnie Hallinan also took on the challenge of the mile and finished as 2nd Woman Veteran.

Triathlete Karen Vitone, like Dennis Ryan and Mike Pelletier, did a hard track workout on Thursday evening and then ran the mile the next night. However, while Dennis and Mike were resting on Saturday, Karen, along with husband Mike Riordan, was competing in a 2-Mile ocean swim.

New Strider Rick Johnson impressed by running a 5:46 mile as a tune-up for the Lynn Woods Relay. More experienced Strider Jim Logan, fresh off of an all night relay race, was using the Derby Street Mile to tune up for the Stonecat Marathon. (The viability of this strategy won't be known until November.)

Full results at CoolRunning.

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Twinning Out to Shelburne Falls and Back
Saturday, August 14, 2010
by Tom McMahon

SHELBURNE FALLS - Why would you do that, you might ask??

Annajean (or Tom?) McMahon Photos courtesy of Krissy Kozlosky (click photo to see race album)

Well, it was the latest stop on the New England USATF Grand Prix Series for the Bridge of Flowers 10K Championship Race. Annajean and I got off to an early start when I met her at 5:00 am at her house and she was ready to go. The race time was 9:00 am and we wanted to make sure we got there in time to pick up our numbers and prepare to run since the estimated driving time out Route 2 was 2 hours and 22 minutes. (Annajean was driving but fortunately she was not seeing double.)

We were blessed with a gorgeous day, some nice rural scenery, and despite a road repair delay we arrived in good time to beat the rush to pick up our numbers and use the bathroom facilities. The temperature was in the low 60s at gun time which was certainly a refreshing change to some of the hot weather we’ve all been running in of late.

I’d been hearing about the monster hill in the middle of the course and it did not disappoint. I held back a little bit during the first 2 miles to give myself a little extra to get over the hill. Despite that I soon found myself cursing before getting very far on the very steep hill that goes on for approximately .7 miles. This is how the elevation chart looks on the race website:

Everybody around me was walking up the hill, with a few runners doing intermittent short jogs. Basically this is what I did and it seemed the most efficient way to get to the top without burning yourself out.

After getting over the top there was a gradual downhill for about 1.2 miles and then relatively flat for the remaining 2+ miles to the finish. I was able to run well on this part of the race and make up some time after the really slow ascent up the hill. It’s a pretty unique race, quite an experience and certainly satisfying to complete it, but I’m not at all sure I’d do it again!

The winner of the race was age 23 Brian Harvey of the BAA who finished in a time of 31:55 (5:09 pace), which to me is amazing. The top female finisher was Lesley Hocking at 37:34 (6:03 pace.) As usual with these Grand Prix races there are many outstanding runners from all over New England competing and many fine performances.

We had 3 North Shore Striders finishing. Annajean McMahon’s time was 54:13 (8:44) which was good for 7/19 in F 55-59. I finished at 57:57 (9:20) for #25/39 in M55-59. Tom Lima’s time was 1:01:57 (9:59) which put him at #30/39 in M55-59.

Thanks again to Krissy Kozlosky for sharing her race photos and congratulations to Jim Pawlicki who finished 49th in the race with a time of 35:43 (5:45.)

After the race we took time to refuel on the post race food for the long drive back home. It was a picturesque setting overlooking the Falls which empty into a gorge filled with amazing granite rocks like some kind of giant sculptured quarry. The actually Bridge of Flowers (not part of the race course but adjacent to it), is a beautiful foot bridge with magnificent flowers that are very well tended.

Next up in the Series is 5K Women’s Championship and then the Baystate Marathon on October 17.

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Yankee Homecoming 10 Mile and 5K Races
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
by Mike Pelletier

NEWBURYPORT - Tuesday, July 27 in Newburyport, the temperature was 85 degrees but the humidity seemed much lower than usual. Thirty-five Striders lined up to race against another 3,000 runners.

In individual competition, Carl Buxbaum was first Strider male and Sue Besse was first Strider Female.

In team competition, Sue Besse joined with Lauren Hamilton and Jayne Sexton to finish as 1st Female Masters Team and bring home the gold, beating five other teams of women masters. In the Female Open category, Sue teamed with Deb Beaulieu and Sue Quimby for 6th place out of 12 teams.

In the Male Open team competition, Neil Bernstein, Gary Freedman, Lanse Stover, Sean Kay, and Eric Jones finished 13th of 14 teams. In Male Masters, Neil, Gary, Lanse, Eric Jones, and Jay Kumar finished 6th of 9. In Male Senior Masters (50+), Neil, Gary, and Lanse finished 4th of 8 teams.

In the Yankee Homecoming Races, the top runners in each age group earn cash prizes. The only Strider earning money was Linda Desjardins, 1st in the W60-64 category. Linda's time was quick enough to earn her an asterisk for being under the USATF Guidelines. That raised questions from Linda about those guidelines. Subsequent investigation led to the discovery of the All American Standards of Excellence for Masters (age 40 and over) in Road Running. The standards are based on actual times run in races of various distance and are maintained by the National Masters News for the United States Track and Field Association (USATF). To achieve All American status in road running a Master must run a race of a given distance in a time that is in the upper 5% of runners in the age group for that distance.

Using the All American Standards of Excellence for Masters, nine Striders (Carl, Neil, Sue, Lanse. Lauren, Jayne, George, Linda F., and Linda D.) achieved All American Status in the 10 Mile race and two Striders (Chip and Giuseppe) achieved All American Status in the 5 K.

Other notable age group performances were turned in by Bonnie Hallinan, Carol Geis, and Nancy Wilson, each finishing 3rd in their age groups.

* Achieved All American Standard of Excellence in this race

* Achieved All American Standard of Excellence in this race

Full results here.

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