Updates

Season update

Doing only local races this year has been really fun and a great way to save some money. Next season I'll be back in the MDOT scene racing Ironman Cour D Alene in Idaho (June 2010). We close on our house in a week (as long as the seller doesn't terminate the contract---again).

I raced the "Race to to the top of Vermont" 2 weeks ago. This was a mountain run up Mt Mansfield- Vermont's highest mountain. They also had a mtn bike option. It went straight up the toll road (dirt) and finished at the top. 4.3 miles and around 2500 ft (maybe 2200 I can't remember)of vertical ascent. There was a very deep field there with Eric Morse one of the best mountain runners in the country along with some other very studly runners like Eli Enman and Scott Loomis. I tried to stay super calm at the start and just conserve as much energy as possible.I alsmost half asleep at the start--very mellow. Gun goes off---I just eased into it. The first half mile was the steepest on the whole course so I knew if you blew up there--you are going get dropped big time. I just tried conserve but stay near the front. Next thing I knew I was running in 3rd/4th and feeling great!!! Somehow I was ahead of Eli Enman (arguably one of the best runners in Vermont). We pulled back Scott Loomis (another very studly athlete and I believe Olympian nordic skier) and by that point we had about a mile to go. We were passing lots of mtn bikers who had started about 10 min earlier--that was pretty fun. I hung on for 4th only 8 seconds out of 3rd place overall. My time was within 15 seconds of last years winning time by Dave Dunham --very elite mtn runner. Anyhow this was probably one of the best run races of my career. I performed at a much higher level than I do on flat road races. I definitely am going to try and get some more mountain run races next year!

By the way the fastest time up the mountain was from a runner this year not mountain biker!! Jim Johnson from NH crushed the course record and beat the first biker by roundabout a minute or so.