Glendale Cyclocross

The Glendale course sits in an upscale urban park.



Rockin' Rob Kramer absolutely killed it off the start in the 35+ race, riding in front group of four for two laps.



Solo and Kramer posing for animal crackers post-race.



Robin rides the sand pit.



Solo eating a pumpkin cupcake. WTF is the world coming to?

Glendale, the Gene Galindo Turkey CX. For me this was a repeat, but they adjusted the course a bit, making it totally awesome, fast and flowy, with alternating hammer and recovery sections. No call up for me. This was the SoCal state championships too, so even though everyone in the 45+, 50+, and 55+ started together, we were scored separately.

Being in the last row, I still picked the wrong side for the start. I'd preridden all of the course except for the start/finish stretch, as with chip timing pre-riders are not allowed to pass through there. I got pinched onto some roots that I did not know were there and lost ground. In the chip results, I'm one of the few whose fastest lap was not the first, instead doing my quickest on lap two. I moved up steadily, but by the time I cleared all the traffic the leaders were gone. In the end I got 4th/11 in the 50-54, 8th/31 overall. The winner was former Honda factory motocross pro Johnny O'Mara. Stuck around to watch the two Rob's, feasting on a catered Mexican buffet provided by the race organizers. Life is good again. Thanks for reading.

Topanga Turkey Trot 10k

Being away from home means missing the traditional local running races the morning of the Thanksgiving holiday. But they must still have these things out here right? I'd been meaning to try one of the X-Terra Trail Series races for a few years now, and sure enough on Thursday morning the Topanga Turkey Trot was fairly close by. The event offered 5k, 10k, and 15k options, all on trails in Topanga State Park. The 10k course profile showed around 1400 feet of climbing, so I chose that, and signed Robin up for the 5k. The 15k started earliest and I did not expect it to have a big turnout but I was wrong. It turned out to be the largest with around 300 runners. There were around 225 in the 10k and 160 in the 5k. I guess the series is a pretty big deal for some people, thus most of the serious trail runners did the 15k.

Topanga canyon is the home of the legendary Geo Snelling, college roomate of Gewilli, but there were no sightings. We got there pretty early, yet the parking was already full and we were directed to an overflow lot at Topanga High School, which was up a steep hill. A long line was already waiting for the shuttle, so we decided to walk. One of the kids manning the lot advised us against this, as he said it was "freezing cold." I think it was around 40 in the shade and 50 in the sun... Well it turns out that the race site was 1.5 miles from the boulevard, up a 10% grade. So the walk was a decent warmup. We got our numbers just as the 15k started. For a $45 entry fee, the event organization was not exactly top notch, but the situation was manageable. Rob went off for the 5k, and twenty minutes later I lined up for the 10k.

The first 1.25 miles of each race went straight up fireroad, climbing at least 600 feet onto the ridge. The views were spectacular. The Santa Ana winds have been blowing all week, which clears the air. All the Channel Islands were visible. But of course there was no time for sightseeing. The first mile took me 9:07, and I was pretty close to the front of the pack. A short downhill led to some rocky uphill singletrack. By now we were pretty spread out. The middle was all fire road again, some up and some down. Then we ended up on a steep descent, merged with the 15k runners again. Running as fast as I could, I still got dropped. I'm much better going uphill.

Eventually I passed a mile four marker. The distances at this event were highly suspect. The 15k may have been true distance, but the word was the 10k was closer to 10.5, and the 5k was actually a full 6k. At any rate, no records were broken. I was expecting the fire road to head right back to the park, so I was quite surprised when we turned on to extremely narrow and steep single track with a mile or two to go. The trail was barely wide enough to pass, all switchbacks, with wooden water bars cut into a lot of it. Some of them were a two foot drop. Running full speed down this, suffice to say your legs took a pounding. Some dude caught me from behind, but at ever place the trail crossed the ravine, there would be a short uphill at the switchback and I'd sprint away. Then he'd catch back up on the downhill. This pattern went on for about a mile. Nearer to the end, the trail opened up a bit and got rocky again. At one point I stumbled and barely caught my self, windmilling forward with my face about a foot from the ground (or so it seemed). We were catching some 5k backmarkers too, but most let us by without incident. At the end of the trail there was a hundred meters or so of uphill and I opened a gap. Good thing, as I was not expecting a long downhill sprint on a paved park road back to the chute, but I held on.

My finish time was 52:51, 8:32 pace if you believe the distance. At the start I'd spoken to the eventual winner who'd told me his 10k PR was 31:30, and he ran 46 something. So at 14 minutes off my recent 10k times, I guess I did OK. I was sixth overall, and first in the 50-54 age group (they do not use your actual race day age here, I guess because the series ends next year) but it did not matter to me because the medal is not engraved and I'd have been first in the 45-49 anyway. Rob won her age group in the 5k too. The weather was nice and they at least had muffins and scrambled eggs for everyone, along with finisher medals and decent T-shirts.

The shuttle ride back to the parking was the funniest part of the whole day. The bus was built with maybe 24 seats, and at least sixty people crammed on this thing despite the driver pleading "no mas" after about thirty had boarded. And we're driving straight down the twisting grade. I envisioned it ending something like this. We made it though, and then ground up the other side of the canyon to the school. Let's just say things did not smell too good around that bus when we unboarded. Thanks for reading.

Tuna Canyon

Finally rode this today with Rob K. In the daytime of course. Road was closed due to landslide but we got through. Wish I had a helmet cam. Descends around 2000 feet in just a few miles. One lane, one-way. What a blast. Thanks for reading.

Convert Cross

You can see me hiding in the back, one of the few with no arm warmers. Seriously guys, it was at least 60 degrees...



Caution tape is for pussies. Barbed wire = no cutting the course.



SoCal CX races still have serious competitors who use mountain bikes. The stairs were insurance against anyone attempting to ride this.



If my bars look too high on this bike it's because they are.



Lake Casitas was the venue for rowing at LA84



The 45+ share the course with single speed women in CA.



With over twenty national titles already at 18 years old, Coryn Rivera is just a plain old badass bike racer.



The rideup was steep, making it a good spot to mash big gears and make up time, at least for me.

This weekend I traded a race in perhaps the least scenic venue in the country for the natural splendor of Lake Casitas in Ojai, CA. The Ventura Convert Cross would open my 2010 west coast CX tour. After arriving here late Friday night, we headed up on Saturday to assist with course setup, as Rob's Judgement Velo/Trek Bikes of Ventura club co-hosts the event with the Successful Living team. Well the normally arid Ventura county got a few days of drenching rain, making some parts of the course a muddy mess. Just doing a few test laps pulled so much muck onto my frame that at one point the wheels simply locked up. I'm serious. "Peanut butter" does not adequately describe the consistency of mud. It was more like dog shit, without the smell. Not what I'd planned on. Saturday night I cleaned up the bikes and went to town with wax and other homebrewed mud repellents for the frames and our shoes. And during the night it rained more, hard.

Sunday though, on the short drive up to Ojai the sun shown brightly. There was some snow on the peaks in the distance, but only at elevations over 5000 feet or so, and even that would disappear as the day went on. The wind was up, and things actually dried out rather quickly. We were again helping with setup and all though, so I never did get a chance to pre-ride and see how much it had changed. The 45+ was the second event of the day, at 10:30 am. There were 25 guys registered. I lined up second row, behind those who'd earned callups in the SoCal series. We had chip timing for this event, which is kind of cool, as your fastest lap time of the day gets published, neat for comparing fields. But with the course drying out, turning the sticky, velcro like mud of the morning into fast hardpack by afternoon, well, things just got faster. At least that is my story.

I did not get such a great start, getting edged off my line by a mountain biker no less. Then at the first turn onto the grass, which was wet, heavy, and uphill, I failed to execute my planned shift into the small ring. I'm a Shimano guy, but my west-coast bike is SRAM, and I did not have it down. This cost me a few spots. I think I was more than halfway back. After a minute or two of damage control, we exited the twisty grass onto the second of two fairly long sections of flat pavement, where I opened up the four-barrel and moved ahead. But then we 180'd onto some grass where, having not pre-ridden, I plowed myself into the deepest, wettest mud, well over the tops of the rims. Not exactly graceful, and surely burning more fuel than I'd have liked, I plodded along. At the muddy plunge into the the 180 and the stairs, where my wheels had stopped turning the day prior, I pre-dismounted and ran in order to protect the bike. It was pretty fast, but the mud had been dried and tamped to the point where riding the downhill and 180 was clearly more economical, if not a time saver as well, so I did that for the remaining laps.

The second lap went better. At this point I was still fairly close to the top five, but some guy rallied by me and rode away. The third lap was tough for me, but by then I'd figured out some good lines and had an excellent rhythm on the flowy course. Which was a good thing, as by now it was time trial time. The only company I had was lap traffic, both 55+ riders and single speeders, who just ride weird. I thought some of them were just warming up, as they ride slowly to rest for the difficult sections, where the have to ride super hard and fast in order to keep the gear rolling. Whatever. I'm passing, so if I'm in your way a second later, too bad. My grandparents did not brave the U-Boats and the icy Atlantic so that I could ride around in one gear at 40 rpm. They wanted a better life for me, with STI and a 27 cog out back. Thanks Grammy!

At the finish it turns out I was 8th, 1:37 down on winner Edwin Rambuski. So about a third of the way down in the field, same as at home. I'd been hoping for better on this course as it was pure power all the time, very heavy, perfect for me really. Without the first lap mistakes, and maybe a better warmup it could have happened. Did a cooldown ride out and back on Casitas Pass, then had lots of fun the rest of the day, many, many dogs at this race, but no beer. We stayed until the bitter end and did course teardown. Saw a Cyclocrossracing.com kit, sure enough it was Rob Kramer (he and Rosalie had four dogs with them) and we are set to do a ride down the coast on Friday. Maybe I'll have more pictures for another post. Thanks for reading.

Putney Conclusion

Hurdling the log run ahead of JimmyE (Svelte) and Mr Hamel (Joe's Garage). Yes I saw the thin rideable line on the right but at this point in the day the sideboard had not been pushed back so far and the right pedal hit it. Plus there was a stake lurking in there. So we ran.



Around the food table. Good place to recover. No close encounters with Benji or any other small, unattended humans this year.



Slaying the famous Putney runup with the proper around-the-head-tube shouldering technique. Photos and contact lenses courtesy of EyeFNBob

Where did we leave off? Don't remember, but I almost missed the start, ending up in the back of the field. Tried to take the wide line up the hill, but others could not hole the inside and drifted way out. This still got me into the right onto the grass on the inside, and that worked out for a few spots. But I was back there, and one dude proved difficult to get around. A gap opened. Then he bailed on the pump track, and I squeaked by. All the way around the cornfield to close the gap. Passed a bunch of guys in a group. That may have been on the second lap. Turns out they were 35+ backmarkers, and I was not as far up as I thought.

Spent the race in a group with Timmy, Jimmy English, and Ed Hamel. May have been other guests coming and going. I'd get away but then get reeled in when I tried to recover. Then Timmy went with me second wheel. So I went slow and he rode away. I knew this was a gamble as there were other guys up the rode and if we did a slow lap we'd really have our work cut out for ourselves to catch them. But I was suffering and the lap cards read 5 to go so I sat up and then sat on. Eventually Jimmy brought Timmy back, but never once did I take a pull on the long dirt road or in the cornfield.

With two to go (I think) somehow I got a small gap after the cornfield barriers, so I really drilled it. This got me to the road with nobody on my wheel, and I lit it up. By the top of the runup I'd rid myself of the group and it was time trial time. In the cornfield I reeled in a guy from the 45+ (there were lapped 55+ out there too, so it was confusing). Exiting the cornfield, up ahead I saw the black Hup United skinsuit of ...Baker. He is my number one Crossresults victim. He is not supposed to beat me. In fact, I not-so-secretly consider him to be my Grim Reaper. Chip is a good cross racer but he does not race road and could stand to lose a few kilos (that's free Nega-Coaching there dude). This was going to hurt. I'd been in solo attack mode for over five minutes, and now I'm sprinting up the dirt road. At the turn before the runup, I had his wheel, but was already throwing up in my mouth a bit from the effort. I run well though and had to give it a try. There are two lines up the runup. The right line was steeper and harder, but shorter and generally faster. The left line was longer but easier, and I could make it work for me. Flying up with my head down, BOOM! Little did I know my man Garabed from the 55+ was trudging up with the flashers on. End of progress. Chip remounted first, returning the favor of my victimizing him all season long. Good job. I slumped across in 11th, with tire tracks all over both arms and legs from race-long full-contact running up the cliff.

For an old times sake cooldown I bundled up and rode over to West Hill and up the old finishing hill from the road race. As I alluded to earlier, the Tour of the Valleys was a special 100k, single loop Spring classic road race back in the day. Today's riders are spoiled by nearly instant results and online reporting down to last place the very next day. Well racing in the dark ages was not like that. Very few races had finish cameras. Even those that did only picked and posted the top six or ten riders. If you were fortunate enough to place, you might see your name in fine print in the back of VeloNews a month later, gaining some notoriety. Putney was always different though, and with the slo-mo hilltop finish they'd pick and place each and every rider, with finish times. A few weeks later we'd get typewritten full results in the mail. Maybe I'll scan one and put it up soon.

The usual Putney hijinks of burritos, cider donuts, beer, and wool clothing expenditures in the shop ensued. The weather was awesome. We came, we raced, we saw, we heckled. Sorry this took so long. Thanks for reading

Putney and Old School blah blah blah

Better late than never. After getting all opened up at the 5k on Saturday, I even got out for a nice road ride that afternoon, surprisingly finding myself with time trial legs. Shut it down at 90 minutes rather than letting myself get carried away in the nice weather. Sunday I made the pilgrimage to Putney, taking the 128/2 route. On 91 north I had a flashback to my first trip to the Tour of the Valleys, which was in May of 1987 I think. It was a foggy morning, and as far as the eye could see (which wasn't very far), every car had a roof rack full of bikes. That was probably my first time witnessing a convergence of hundreds of bike racers on a location, the same location I was headed to today, the West Hill Shop off exit 4. The TotV, or simply Putney, was perhaps the original New Engand classic and arguably the best road race of its time. Nobody skipped it. One big loop. And no longer with us of course. I must have blogged about it before. More on this later.

The cx race has been around for a while too, long enough for G-Ride and Rooter and everyone else to talk about it as being "old school New England cross." For the record, the oldest courses were Plymouth North High, Wompatuck, Mansfield Hollow, Putney, Mt A, the Plymouth intermediate school, Pittsfield, and a couple of other central CT locations whose names escape me. The original "Cycle Smart" was at horse field next to some UMass dorms, but that did not come along until 89 or so. They are calling Putney 20th annual so I guess maybe it was not as old as Wompatuck and Plymouth. And though it started out at the shop on basically the same course we use now, for a time it re-located up to the top of West Hill Road itself, across from the Putney school. I think they may have done that because the original course was considered to "old school" at the time...

So exactly what makes an "old school New England" cross course? Jerry seems to think they were not "roadie" like he found Putney. That one makes me laugh. Who do you think cyclocross was started by anyway? Or mountain biking for that matter. In those days, if you raced bikes, no matter what kind, you raced road. Nobody had got a mountain bike as their first bike. So there. But it's not like the newer Verge series grass autobahns aren't better race courses. Ironically, one of the Putney elements G-Ride complained about, the "flow killer" set of barriers back in the cornfield, are one of the attributes the old course all had: a dismount every minute or two. Combine that with a few sections narrow enough to bottleneck any field of over thirty riders, some crude non-lumber hurdles, and throw it a runup steep enough that you need to use your hands to scale it and you have all the elements of a back-in-the-day New England cross course. I used to get so aggravated that course designers (including the still famous one) used to be like "we need a barrier here" if any section making up more that 20% of the course length could be ridden without dismounting. I called it the "sundial method." You see, mountain bike clipless pedals had not yet been invented, and dismounting/remounting was a very important and difficult to learn skill, giving huge reason for the old guard who generally promoted races (designing or consulting for course builders) to throw in lots of dismounting.

I got to the race early, riding a few test laps with the Cronoman before the first race started. Pretty much the same layout as always, although the "slippery slope" (lot of quotes today eh?) ain't nearly what it used to be. Not sure if they've cut it down or if it's just naturally been flattened by soil washing it's way down, but it's pretty tame these days. There was a time when it was a vertical plunge into a giant mudhole. At least that's how I remembered it. The cornfield though, that has not changed at all, nor the road or the big-assed runup. We skipped that in warmup. I have a theory that hitting the courses for a hard pre-rde is a BAD idea for an old dude like me. I need some kind and gentle spinning before that kind of work.

I had a PRO parking spot near the portos. Man it stunk. You guys need to change up your diets a little. Then Eyebob came by with some contact lenses for me to try. Buck was impressed that I retained an eye doctor just for installing race day vision. This was my first time ever wearing contacts. I'd even bought some new landscaper protective glasses at the Depot the night before, just for the occasion (saw my man Pimpin' Fred for the first time in 33 years too, but that's another story). With eyesight restored, I got on the trainer to finish my warmup, with parked next car Dick Ring giving me intel on how the earlier races were affecting the course. I got into my warmup a bit too much though, forgetting that there were not callups at this race, and that we'd be using the "old school" method of hanging out near the start for an eternity before the race if we wanted to be near the front.

Hey you know what? My flight is almost boarding. I will finish this later. Thanks for reading.

FS

I didn't get a table for the bike swap tonight, and can't be there on time anyway, but if you're interested in any of this stuff, or need anything else in particular, email me at jellysidedown at the gmail and I can arrange to be there later tonight. Thanks for shopping.


56 cm Scattante CX frame and fork with nice Shimano BR550 brakes, seatpost, Reynolds stem and bars $100
Tubular track wheelset with tufo tires. Campy Victory rims, Campy track rear hub with 126 axle. Have 120 axle. Includes 2 cogs $125
Assorted fixed cogs new and otherwise.
Old 57 cm Rossin setup as a single speed, ready for Ice Weasels $100
LG Yo Eddy frameset, broken big one inch fork but can be repaired (I think), has replacement fork in there, canti posts but has guides for hydraulic lines (not cables) make offer
MTB rim brake wheelset, XTR hubs, Mavic 517 rims, brand new Fire XC Pro tires ($80 value) $140.
42 cm Cinelli model 63 crit bars and 12 cm Cinelli track stem $80
9speed Ultegra STI levers, front is triple $100
9 speed Ultegra triple cranks and BB, both 170 and 175 $60 each.
Some other Ultegra 9 speed stuff brand new in box.
Some 8 speed cassettes NIB and near new.
Lots of other stuff

Get the AED

It's Thursday already, not enough time for proper reporting. In a nutshell, Saturday the Walpole Cami 5k, first 5k I've run in over two years. In 2008 I ran four of them, the slowest being an 18:55 and the fastest an 18:10 PR. With my 10k times this fall being 39+, I was worried about breaking 19. Course was certified but a really dumb layout, with a tight loop off the start that actually crosses itself? WTF? And then they sent the walkers off first! Got there late, no warmup, and all this may have had me go out nice and easy for a change. Not sure as I did not see a mile one marker. Mile two came up in around 12:11, just on track for a high 18. In the last mile there was some downhill and I finished up in 18:41, very satisfied. Sunday was the world famous Putney CX. Above we have the Cronoman and a little post race drama, captured courtesy of EyeBob. Will try to bang out a report later. Thanks for breathing.

Noho Report

From a racing standpoint, this past weekend's two races at Look Park in Northampton were more of the same for me. Nice weather, strong fields, finishes in or near the 20s. With the accuracy of the race predictor you gotta wonder why we even run the race. For Saturday it had me around 30th out of 82 pre-reg'd riders in the 45+. The ever important (if you listen to the pundits) starting grid would be arranged by Verge points, and I was assigned bib #32, narrowly making it into the fourth row of eight riders. Everyone behind us was lined up by order of registration.

The start chute was on grass. I wanted the edge, but being the last one called for this row, I ended up on the right. This was not so good but my start was nonetheless OK. Maybe my starts have gotten better, or maybe having everyone lined up in rough order of how well they've been doing just makes things more, well, orderly. After the first chicane we dumped on to the pavement and I tried to make my way left. I'd scouted a wide line through the muck at the end of the road. The runup was a cluster as always, but I think I managed well enough.

[Insert long story about all the silly details of the middle of the race here]

OK, there were a few things of note that I remember. It took until 3/4 of the way through the first lap for Soups to pass me. Not sure what was up with that. I was up in a group with Helicopter Matt Domnarski (Horst-Benidorm), who has been beating me this year, and Evil McKneivel (JRA) was not far ahead either, and these facts led me to believe I might be having a good race. The ever-present Derek Griggs (KHS) was right there too, along with a Noreast rider who turned out to be Charles Bourdages. He was worse of a bull-in-a-china-shop than me on the tight sections, but could throw out mad power on the straights. At one point Brian came out of the pit right into our battle, but I don't remember if I ever passed him. He soon rode away. Matt was leading our group most of the time. Once early on he was spinning a tiny gear the size of a teacup like the Marinara Boy Basso, making me think his shifter was broken or something, so I tried to pass. He fought back to the death, which I found weird, as we were headed for the pavement into the wind. Fine with me. There was no pressure from behind, and I did not think we'd be catching the guys up ahead (translation: I was close enough to my limit to be content sitting on).

Oddly enough, on the tight sections, the hurdles, and the runup I was having no issues staying in contact. I was running the sandpits, as riding it was not a high percentage play. So, cutting to the last lap, into the big runup those guys seemed to slow prematurely. I don't know why. I slipped by at the last second, and bolted up the left side of the hill. On top I rode as hard as I dared. Not looking back, as far as I know Derek came with me but the others fell back. In the last few turns Griggs passed me, and I followed around the last baseball diamond roundabout. Coming back to the pavement, a last minute check revealed I was still in the little ring. Through the last chicane I did a lot of shifter paddling, getting up to the 46 and over to the middle of the cassette. I think Derek may have been in his small ring all the way to the pavement, because when we got there he hesitated a second before standing up. I had already started my jump and went by him on the right to finish 19th, just 2:50 down on the winner.

At first I was very excited by this result, having broke the "three minute barrier" as well as beating the race predictor by more than ten places. However, I later learned that 15 of of 82 registrants had no-showed! So there were only 67 starters. Three good guys had crashed in front of us on the first lap too. With one out of six not starting, that would put my place on the race predictor closer to 24th. Subtract the crash victims and that makes par around 21st. And, time gaps at Noho are always small for some reason. More on that later. So not really a breakthrough, but a solid race.

Solid enough for me to be satisfied the pressure was off, and sit around the camper pounding beers with Timmy, Garabed, and a string of socialites who came by all afternoon. We stayed till the end, watching all the races, both heckling and encouraging. Timmy made chicken thighs with mushroom sauce that he served over spaghetti squash. This was living. Then we stayed over in nearby Greenfield as guests of man-about-town Jay McDonald (NCC) and his girlfriend Rachel, taking in a few more beverages at the People's Pint. Seems everyone has a story about losing race focus Saturday evening, and we were no different. Nothing too major though. I had a sweet potato and mushroom burrito and two pints of Farmer Brown Ale.

[Insert Sunday race story here, nearly the same as Saturday]

Maybe not exactly the same. The course was similar, but different. What sets the Noho layouts apart are that the turns down on the grass are all fast. There is none of the stop and go tight shit, even up top. The low tier is the fun part though, with almost everything being either a constant or increasing radius turn, which means non-awkward and high exit speeds. I had more trouble up top than on Saturday though, which required me to chase back on more in the fast parts. Once again it was me and Derek. Matt was further ahead. Andy Durham (CCB) let a huge gap open on the first lap, and so I made a slightly sketchy pass, leading him to return the favor and then some with a full-contact move in the fast gravel turn. Then he slowed down. I don't get it, as if he'd just let me by we'd have closed the gap to the rapidly disappearing train up ahead. By the time I got around him for good Matt and company had ten seconds. Sunday's legs weren't what Saturday's were, and I never really got on comfortably. Eventually Derek came around me and filled in the gap, but then he dropped his chain at the top of the runup (yes we were running it at this point in the day, when it was still quite loose, though Matt rode it successfully almost every time). In the end I crossed behind Matt in 24th, just 2:14 down on the leaders this time.

On Saturday, everyone who finished ahead of me had a bib number lower than mine, meaning they started ahead or beside me. On Sunday more of the same, except for Jimmy English (Svelte) who was wearing #76 meaning he started DFL. That is some ride. As for the small time gaps, I think it's just a fast course with no real bottlenecks, and the leaders tend to play cat and mouse due to the drafting nature of the layouts. So again a solid ride, but more or less a par performance. We hit the beer tent after for FREE and EXCELLENT High and Mighty Stout, capping the weekend off nicely. No pictures, what can I say, we relaxed and had fun. Thanks for reading.

Nega-Coach and the Senator Elect

Yes it's true, before moving into politics, Kelly Ayotte was a pretty decent bike racer. Here the newly-elected US Senator from New Hampshire gets some last minute racing advice from a then portly Nega-Coach at the Fitchburg Circuit Race. Somewhere around here I have a picture of her racing cross in a Team Bonk kit at Wompatuck. Nega-Coaching can help you succeed at more than just bike racing! Congratulations to Kelly, even if this is kind of like making it to the majors but then playing for the Yankees...

Canton Fall Classic 10k

Wait, I thought Canton was a cross race? Yes, Saturday, which was new, as in the past the bike race often conflicted with the Canton Fall Classic running race, which goes right by the cyclocross venue. In fact, in 2006, I was even dumb enough to race both of them on the same day. So enjoyable was that little adventure that the next year I attempted to repeat it but was thwarted by mysterious forces beyond my control. Probably for the best. In 2008 I think I skipped the CX race, and beginning last year it started cx Saturday, running race Sunday, solving my problem.

The Canton 10k is a big deal to me because I've probably done it more times than any other running race. The first time was 1993, my first 10k ever and the furthest I'd ever run in my life at that point. The course is relatively hilly, mostly down for two miles or so, then one big wall before more downhill to the low point in the third mile. 3.5 - 5 are mostly up, gaining quite a bit, culminating in a wall on Dedham Street right at the five mark. The last mile is false flat uphill, but it seems pretty easy and fast compared to the prior sector. In 93 my time was 48 something. I was at the peak of my bike racing career then, having won a few bigger (for me) races that season, but I was no runner. Then through the 90s I continued to dabble in running each fall, but opting for the 5k option at this race in the years I did it. That continued up until 2003.

In 2004 I must have started running more often, and since then I've made the 10k every October, save for the 2007 debacle. My best time was in 2008, when I was killing it in my sneakers. The history:

2009, 11th, 38:21
2008, 12th, 37:35
2007 missed it
2006, 17th, 40:27
2005, 12th, 41:43
2004, 27th, 44:27

The course is not certified, but it's exactly the same every year, and I've no reason to believe it isn't legit. With the hills it's not fast. Typically Canton only draws around 175 runners each for the 5k and 10k, which start together before taking divergent paths just after the one mile marker. This year they somehow more than doubled that, so good for them. The quality has been lacking though, with just a handful of really fast guys showing up, as evidenced by the not-so-fast times of my top 20 placings. The race is well run for the most part, but awards are always a totally disorganized shit show, dragging on for what seems like hours as runner after runner from 5k and 10k age group podiums goes up to the table, hears the speech about what the best prizes left are, then takes their time picking through envelopes and other goodies. Many people leave, and the fast "money" runners probably avoid the race for this reason. Too bad.

I almost did not go. My knee was feeling twingy on Friday, but during the cx race Saturday it was fine. When I got to Canton Sunday I felt good warming up, even though the 3/4 mile from where I parked to the race was all I did, save for a few strides waiting for the fun run to end and the races to begin. At the gun it's flat for about 1/2 mile before starting down the hill toward Ponkapoag. You're mixed in with the 5k runners, many of whom are fast school kids, so it's hard to tell how you're doing. Not that pacing is my strong suit. Plus, with the undulating nature of this course, splits are never close to even anyway. I hit the first mile in 5:53. The leaders were WAY ahead. Half of the twenty runners ahead of me turned off for the 5k.

Mile two was 5:57, I think, again mostly downhill. I knew this was too fast but it's downhill so I kept on truckin. On the wall I caught a kid in front of me even though I slowed down a lot. There were not a lot of footsteps audible around us. Pretty lonely actually. Mile three ends in a downhill but it still took 6:18, quite a drop. We bottomed out through some road construction, starting the rolling grind up Elm Street. If there was a mile four marker, I missed it. I knew I was going slow though, yet I still caught the kid (who had pulled away on the descent) again. This process then repeated itself on the next downward dip, and he held the gap this time. I was fading in mile five, same as last year. Onto Dedham street, the last hundred yards of mile five is the wall in front of the Colgate building. My split for miles four and five was 13:18, or 6:39s, a pretty bad plunge. This put me at 31:35 or so with 1.217 miles to go. I knew my stretch goal of sub-39 was in jeopardy, but I still had to try. And I felt pretty good in spite of really pushing it all the way to the end, but alas the clock was at 39:18 when I crossed. At least nobody caught me from behind. My closing pace must have been around 6:21, just over my race average of 6:20, so I couldn't have botched the pacing too badly.

Four seconds slower than at Dorchester, but on a much tougher course, in high winds, the day after a cx race. I'll take it. The minute I lost since last year, and the two since 2008 matches up pretty well with the 2 seconds/mile/pound theory, as I'm up a few from last year and a few more from the year before that. So one of my goals for November is to lose two kg. Any bets? I cooled down, helped myself to a bunch of take away foods, changed at my car, jogged back, and still had to wait at least forty five minutes for my turn at the prize table. I'd finished 10th overall out of 360 or so, first out of the 56 male 40-49 group (despite finishing behind a 50 y.o. and a 58 y.o., so much for this getting easier next year). When I finally got up there all the cash and supermarket gift certificates were gone, but I managed to score a $25er to Tri-Town Discount Liquors, which should be good for a quartet of 22's. Thanks for reading.