Tag: Christin Doneski

Gate City Takes Home 2nd Straight NH Grand Prix Win at Pack

May. 17 Articles, Racing no comments

By Mike Giberti

This past Sunday, the Pack Monadnock 10 Miler in Wilton, NH was the race to watch in the New England road racing scene. The event was both the 2nd installment of the USATF-NE Mountain Circuit and the 2nd race in the New Hampshire Grand Prix Series. Many of the top mountain runners made up the front of the field along with the NH Grand Prix series drawing members of the New Hampshire RRCA clubs to add to the depth.

Brandon Newbould (Whirlaway Racing Team) wound up the individual winner of the event with a time of 64’08” over runner-up Kevin Tilton who was about a minute and a half back. Now that doesn’t sound like a blazing fast 10 mile time, but when you figure in the fact that there was 1800 feet of elevation gain from start to finish and the last half of that gain being “Packed” (literally) into the last approximately two kilometers of the race, this is a very impressive finish. Brandon is also the coach of the Greater Derry Track Club team that placed second in the NH Grand Prix team standings.

The top masters for men was Todd Callaghan, who took his second straight masters mountain race title along with double teaming for the Gate City Striders and netting them 10 NH Grand Prix points in the process. Also double teaming for Gate City was top senior finisher Dave Dunham, who narrowly missed the senior’s course record on what turned out to be a warm day for the runners. With a more seasonable temperature, he’ll get that record next year no problem!

In the age-graded individual standings it was the aforementioned Dunham & Callaghan who took the top spots, scoring 10 & 9 points, respectively. This vaulted them into 4th & 5th place for the season. Since they both missed the first event of the series they trail a couple of guys, including series leader Rob Edson. Rob scored 7 points at Pack, which helped him add to the lead he got from his Nashua Soup Kitchen 5k win.

On the women’s side of things, Kath Hardcastle from Watertown, MA broke the tape in a 74’11”. The top master’s female, Christin Doneski, took the 2nd overall honors on the day just three minutes behind Hardcastle and scored 10 NH Grand Prix points out of the Female 40-49 division for the Granite State Racing Team. Doneski was also the top age-graded woman on the day and earned 10 points in the individual standings. Since she also missed the Soup Kitchen race, she currently sits in third. Nashua winner Lynn-Marie Fawcett picked up another 9 points and remained at the top of the standings. Lynn Marie has a bit more of a cushion than Edson does in the men’s standings, but it’s still early and both titles are up for grabs still.

For the New Hampshire Grand Prix, this was hands down the toughest race in the series as the next four races all decrease in distance and are not net uphill. The Gate City Striders took advantage of the home turf location and won the race by a 35 point margin over the second place Greater Derry Track Club. The Upper Valley Running Club out of Lebanon, NH took third once again with the White Mountain Milers, Granite State Racing Team, and Rochester Runners rounding out the NH Grand Prix scoring teams. Here are the official team scores for the Pack Monadnock race:

Gate City Striders – 154
Greater Derry Track Club – 119
Upper Valley Running Club – 57
White Mountain Milers – 28
Granite State Racing Team – 18
Rochester Runners Club – 5

Check out the NH Grand Prix website for the official series scores after the first two races as well as a more in-depth summary by NHGP scorekeeper, Mike Giberti.

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Record Setting Day at Pack Monadnock

May. 16 Articles, Racing no comments

The Pack Monadnock 10 Miler, the second entry in the 2014 USATF-NE Mountain Circuit, represents a stark contrast to the first race. Sleepy Hollow was all trails and mud, and even the roads leading up to the course were essentially muddy trails. For Pack, it was all on roads and most of it was even asphalt. Make no mistake about it though, it was still a mountain race.

Pack Monadnock Elevation

Courtesy of Garmin, and EJN’s pain & suffering.

Eric Macknight led the charge from the starting command and held onto the lead until about 8 miles in, where Brandon Newbould took control. But even then, it wasn’t in the bag. Brandon coaches some high school runners, and leading up to the race he had been joking around with them, telling them about how much of a beast this particular race is. Brandon explained:

“I was telling them about the last time I did this and just how painful the end of that race is, and that I remember going up that (the last climb) thinking, I had the race won, all I had to do was keep moving, and I remember thinking ‘second isn’t that bad.’ A moment of weakness, but today was the same thing,” said Brandon, laughing. That sums up the last climb quite nicely. As Kevin Tilton explained afterwards, the last mile of Pack Monadnock is steeper than what you get at the Mt Washington Road Race. For his part, Kevin did quite well. In fact it was on that last climb, near the grueling end of it, that Kevin reeled in Macknight.

To push yourself to get after anybody going up that wall takes some resolve. Brandon reiterated: “Really all I had to do was hang on but I remember thinking ‘jeez it won’t be that bad if Kevin catches me or if one of those guys gets me. I tried hard,” said with a smile on his face, of course. “To be honest, everybody wrestles with some doubts and stuff, you know and I was able to fight them down but it was an argument. It was just very painful…a very painful finish.” Brandon ended up with a 64:08, with Tilton and Macknight following up in 65:40 and 65:53, respectively.

While not exactly pedestrian, it was a little slower for the lead guys. The same can’t be said for the other leaders. Kath Hardcastle made a serious run at the women’s overall record, her 74:11 falling just short of Gina Lucrezi’s 73:25. Not too bad for a woman with a little bit of Boston left in her legs. Instead she had to settle for the sub-masters record, which was a 76:25 (by Tara Cardi). If you’re not familiar with Kath, it may be because she moved to Montana a couple of years ago but is back in Boston now and taking full advantage of the opportunity to compete in the mountains again.

“I had a vague memory of the course but apparently I had forgotten just how hard it was! No shortage of hills the entire way.  I’m still testing the proverbial waters being 3 weeks out from the Boston marathon so my goal with the mountain races is to have fun and love running,” said Kath. Since she didn’t know exactly what was in the marathon-weary legs, Kath pushed it out harder trying to get a bit of a cushion on the women’s field. Would there be enough left in the tank for the climb to get her through to the end though? The strategy paid off this time, with her nearest competition being three and a half minutes back. That runner was Christen Doneski.

snapAcidotic Pack Monadnock Doneski

Christen climbing the last wall, courtesy of SNAPacidotic.

Christen ended up second overall, and although the masters runner extraordinaire didn’t get the outright win (as she did so many times last year), she still had an outstanding race. Her final time of 1:17:39 eclipsed Kathy Maddock’s old record by three seconds. Record setting masters win? Yeah, that should take the sting out of finishing second.

“My goals for Pack were to be first masters and to beat the standing masters record. I figured if I could maintain 7 minute miles on the road that would make my goal of sub 1:17:42 attainable. So that is what I did; my first mile was just over 7 and my second was under 7. I am not a numbers person, but when I hit Miller State Park (editor’s note: just over a mile to go) I knew it was going to be close and that I needed to run smart. When I hit 1/4 mile to go I was at 1:15. As I came over that last wall and saw the clock I had to kick it in and crossed the line at 1:17:39…goal met by 3 seconds. I was happy.”

That was a plan well executed. Christen is also coming off of Boston, and she recognized the tall order that it would be to try to keep up with Hardcastle. Instead, she came up with a plan, ran her own race, and set a record in the process. For the men, the top masters runner once again was Todd Callaghan. Todd ran a 67:49 and finished 7th overall. Not only did Todd have to hold pace to keep any other masters off of him, but if he slipped too much he might’ve been taken down a senior.

Senior Dave Dunham ran a 70:02 and missed Martin Tighe’s senior record by a scant 14 seconds. That is so heartbreakingly close. He must’ve ran about 9.9 miles before realizing he was just going to miss it. Not too bad for a guy who’s had to fight through an ankle injury and a bout of walking pneumonia recently. Dave ended up placing 11th overall, showing that he’s still a force to be reckoned with in the mountains.

Where Dave fell short, Cathy Pearce nailed it. The Whirlaway senior runner ran an 88:37, breaking Lisa Doucett’s course record of 89:04. With the way these ladies are racing, it’s shaping up to be a very exciting year. How many other records will fall?

Next up in the series is Wachusett Mountain on May 24th.

For more, check out pics by SNAPacidotic, and our interviews with:

Men’s champion Brandon Newbould
Women’s champion Kath Hardcastle
Top renners Dave Dunham and Kevin Tilton

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Sleepy Hollow Kicks Off Mountain, ATR Series

May. 09 Articles, Racing no comments
Mason Sleepy Hollow Enman

Kasie Enman orchestrated a heck of a race, including her own outstanding win. Courtesy of Scott Mason Photo.

The first one is in the books, and boy was it a doozy. The Sleepy Hollow Mountain Race served a couple of different purposes this year and it had more than enough mud to go around for each of them. Traditionally this race has been on the USATF-NE mountain circuit and is once again for 2014. This race is a bit of a hybrid in that it’s also a trail race, and in that role it served as the USATF-NE trail championship race and was also the trail segment of the new All Terrain Runner series. That’s a lot to process right there.

With all that in mind, there was more than just pride on the line. Series points, titles, and of course, bragging rights. Enter Josh Ferenc (aka the Last Hero and Only Hope): ”I was just going to attack the whole time. I knew that it would be really really tough for someone to hang with me.” And attack he did, right from the gun. There’s a brick walk on the far right side of the start area, and while everyone else at the front opted to dive right into the soft, sloppy slope, Josh shot up the launching pad that was the walk way. In fact, in the video below you can see the point at the start where EJN looks over and is thinking “that Ferenc is a clever SOB…”. Josh had a singular goal in mind: to run his race, pushing the needle as close to that redline as he could go, no matter what the competition had in mind for a plan.

There’s a preme for this race, where the first man and woman to hit the high point (just over a mile in) are awarded the coveted King of the Mountain status (and get some sweet syrup). On his way to putting a hurting on everyone (including himself), Josh picked up that preme as well. Said Josh of his effort: “I gave everything I had today. I was really hurting.” It showed in the results too (well, not the hurting part at least) as he ended up with a 2:05 lead over second place Jim Johnson.  Johnson and Kevin Tilton are no slouches (and also no strangers to less than favorable trail conditions), but couldn’t quite keep up with Josh. Jim edged Kevin by seven seconds, which is much closer than it sounds on a trail like that.

The wildcard in it all was Nate Jenkins, the elite road runner who was lured back onto the trails by the new All Terrain Runner series. Would Nate be able to hang with the trail animals? Or would Nate tame said animals? Jenkins held his own in the deep field and ended up finishing 4th in 43:13. Johnson, Tilton and Jenkins are all CMS teammates too, so it was a good day for the Striders.

For Kasie Enman, the race might’ve been the easier part. Kasie is not only some elite, globe-trotting Salomon runner, but she’s also the race director for Sleepy Hollow. “I was nice and tapered, felt good. I also didn’t get to warm up because I was race directing, so I used the first lap as a warm up.” Kasie gave a nice little pre-race speech, then quickly hopped onto the line, and during her ‘warm up’ she picked up the King of the Mountain preme as the first woman to mount the summit.

Kasie impressively finished 16th overall with a 46:44 and must’ve been pretty comfortable with the home course advantage. Kasie was able to put some distance between herself and her nearest competitors, which happened to be a couple of Somerville Road Runners: Kath Hardcastle (49:02) and Kate Hails (52:40).

Top masters runner and defending mountain series champion (overall) Christin Doneski was in unfamiliar territory: 4th place. Although her 53:43 was good for top masters runner on the day and 46th overall, Christin was faced with stiff competition for the overall win. The fact that she was even that close despite having recently run the Boston Marathon was a feat in and of itself. Between the marathon fatigue and the deeper field, it made for a challenging day. On her race, the conditions and her fitness, Christin said:

First, I have NEVER run in conditions like that. I was actually in a very good mood going in to this race. I was worried about my fatigue (from Boston and my post-marathon cold) but I was happy to be there and thought the sloppy conditions would be fun. They were fun and exciting initially but by the end my legs were pretty tired. Having to really pick my feet up for every step took it’s toll. What do you call it “post-holing” when you stride and one leg sinks in to mid calf….well whatever it is called I did that a number of times and it really brings your momentum to a stand still. The conditions were certainly part of the fun, but also an area in which I was entirely inexperienced. That said, I know coming off Boston definitely impacted my climbing. I am usually much stronger on the uphills than downhills and I was not as strong on the uphills as I would have liked.

Post-holing really is the perfect way to describe that energy sucking phenomenon that plagued runners throughout the race (and just added to the fun of it all).

Speaking of the masters, Todd Callaghan got exactly what he wanted: mud. Todd knew those conditions would play to his strengths and he capitalized on the opportunity by running a 44:20. That was fast enough to place him 9th overall and make him the fastest masters runner on the day.

Next up is the mountain series is the Pack Monadnock 10 Miler, while the window is now open for All Terrain Runners to get their track 5k in.

Links:

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2013: A Look Back, Pt II

Jan. 01 Articles no comments

Part II of a multi-part year end review by Jim Dandeneau

JUNE

June saw the 53rd Mt. Washington Road Race dominated by 45 year old Laura Haefeli of Colorado. Laura won by an astounding 5:43. Connecticut’s Eric Blake, 34, won his 3rd title finally dipping under the magical 60:00 barrier (by 3 seconds). Craig Fram, 54 (and the 50-54 record holder), dominated the division yet again with a superlative 1:09:52 even though he was still well off his amazing division record 1:06:58. Jacqueline Gareau, 60, the 1980 Boston Marathon winner, destroyed the 60-64 course record by almost 8 minutes running 1:33:24.

On the track, Henry Wynne dipped under 1:50 at the New England high school championship and won the New Balance Outdoor national championship. New Canaan’s James Randon finished second in the 2 mile (8:52:56) and 4th in the mile. Westport ,CT star Hannah DiBalsi (only a freshman), finished 3rd in the 2 mile.

At the NCAA Div I Track and Field Championship in Eugene, OR Riley Masters, a Maine native running for Oklahoma and one of the favorites for the 1500 meter national title, got caught up with 120 meters to go, falling to the track finishing 11th. Abbey D’Agostino pulled away to win the women’s 5K with Emily Sisson of Providence College finishing 6th and teammate Laura Nagel 12th.

At the USATF national championship Molly Huddle finished 2nd in the 5K qualifying her for the IAAF World Track and Field championship in August. Ben True, after a pedestrian first 2 miles, took the pace and ran 3:55 for his last 4 circuits however was only able to finish a heartbreaking 4th in the men’s 5K. 2012 Olympian Donn Cabral finished 6th in the men’s 3000 meter steeplechase.

Kenya’s Stephen Sambu (28:08) and Ethiopia’s Mamitu Daska (31:45) won the BAA 10K road race. Brighton’s Mark Reeder, 53, an age group sensation, ran a fantastic 34:48 in hot conditions.

Tim Ritchie (13:47) led 4 under the magical 14 minute barrier at the USATFNE 5K in Hollis, NH while Erica Jessman (15:30) reversed places with Olympian Steph Reilly (15:46) at the 3rd stop of the road race grand prix. Maria Servin, 50, a former Olympian from Mexico ran 17:31. Richard Larsen, 61, ran 17:07.

JULY

July saw Eric Blake win the insanely tough Loon Mountain race by 2 1/2 minutes with Hopkinton’s Christin Doneski, 42, dominating the female race winning by almost 4 minutes.

At the USA National Mountain Running Championship later that month in North Conway, Morgan Arritola, of Ketchum, ID, finished clear of Stevie Kremer, Crested Butte, CO and world class marathoner Magdalena Boulet, Oakland, CA, to claim the title. Doneski finished 12th with Kasie Enman, the 2011 world mountain running champion, right behind in 15th. On the men’s side, Joseph Gray, Renton, Wa, pulled away from Zack Ornelas and Max King to solidify his place among the nation’s best. Locally, Eric MacKnight finished a solid 11th.

Sam Alexander, Waterford, CT won the Blessing of the Fleet 10 mile road race by 7 seconds over collegian Brian Doyle while Irish Olympian, and former Providence College star Marie Davenport, 38, making a comeback, won the women’s race.

In Little Compton, RI, Amos Sang and Glarius Rop formerly of AIC took a shot at Dylan Wykes course record (22:38) coming up just short, running 22:47 and 22:49, 4:45 pace for the 4.8 mile race. Jessica Barton won the women’s division.

At the hot/humid Carver 5 mile USATF road race Tim Ritchie held off a very game Ruben Sança winning by 4 seconds in 23:59. Steph Reilly won the women’s race to increase her lead in the series while Sean Duncan (5th 24:30) started to take command in the men’s grand prix standings.

At the Yankee Homecoming 10 mile race, NINE men broke 51:00, something rarely seen these days in New England with Brian Harvey (50:17) finishing 5th being the top NE result. Heidi Westover (58:41) won the female division. Robert Cipriano, 53, ran 58:13. Pat Fullerton tuned up for his sub 4 road mile a week later winning the 5K in 15:21.

If you missed Part I, check it out here. As you can see, we were quite busy in 2013, and the clips thrown in here only represent a fraction of what we did. To see the rest, check out our YouTube channel. More to come on 2013.

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Nahant 30k Recap & Raw Footage

Sep. 30 Articles, Racing no comments

The Nahant 30k is in the books and we have the race footage to prove it. It’s raw footage, but it gets the job done. We interviewed the winners yesterday and already posted that, but you can find said interviews with Dan Vassallo and Cheryl Cleary here.

For the men, Dan Vassallo led CMS to victory in the open division. Chris Magill and the BAA took the masters division, but Magill wasn’t the fastest masters runner on the day. That honor belonged to Jason Porter of…you guessed it…CMS. The Whirlaway seniors won their division by topping Greater Lowell by a 23 minute margin.

Over on the ladies’ side, Kasie Enman and the BAA topped the SISU squad in the open division while Whirlaway captured the masters and senior divisions. The top masters runner on the day was Christin Doneski, a member of that Whirlaway masters machine.

Sorry kids, no time to go into detail like who ran what time, but you can find the full results here. And while you’re looking for stuff on the race, be sure to check out Krissy Kozlosky’s pics from yesterday. The featured image attached to this post on our main page today is hers, and you’ll be able to see that and much more once you click that link.

As promised, here’s the raw footage from the race:

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Lone Gull 10k: Duncan Finds His Rhythm

Sep. 19 Articles, Interviews, Racing no comments

Sean Duncan (WMDP) and Olympian Steph Reilly continued to tear up the USATF-NE Grand Prix series with their wins at the Lone Gull 10k on Sunday in Gloucester. Both runners shot out to the lead early and held it, but ran a little conservatively and weren’t quite sure of what to expect in terms of competition.

Sean knew there were runners in the field that were capable of giving him a run for his money, especially with Nate Jenkins lurking somewhere out of sight. When he felt a presence coming up on him later on, there was some surprise to see that it wasn’t Jenkins but instead newcomer Nick Karwoski (Whirlaway). Nick surprised a few people that day, including many Whirlaway teammates who didn’t see a welcome email but were shocked to see an unknown giant in a Whirlaway singlet chasing down Duncan at the end of the race. The element of surprise wasn’t enough and Nick wasn’t able to reel in Sean. Sean’s 30:50 was good enough for a seven second cushion, and added even more points to his series total.

With only two series races left (30k & marathon), Sean appears to be in command. In fact, coupled with his win the prior week at the WMDP XC Festival, he now leads in two series (road and xc). It appears that 2013 is Duncan’s year. It’s not over yet and it may be premature to celebrate, but I think it’s okay to start the celebratory dancing. Just a little bit. Maybe for 16 seconds or so.

Steph Reilly also has a commanding lead in the grand prix standings and further asserted her dominance on Sunday. Reilly cruised through the streets of Gloucester and comfortably ran a 34:58. Her next closest competitor was Jess Minty of New Balance Boston, who ran a 36:27. Steph is more focused on coaching her Bryant University team right now and is just trying to get through this phase unscathed. You wouldn’t know it from the way she’s racing.

Binney Mitchell (GMAA) and Christen Doneski (Whirlaway) were the top masters. As far as teams go, Central Mass Striders took the titles in both men’s open and masters. Having Jenkins and Dan Vassallo finish 3-4 is a great way to start the day. The New Balance Boston women claimed the open team title, while Whirlaway was able to score the masters team title.

For more on this event, check out:

Race pics by Ted Tyler
Race pics by Krissy Kozlosky (featured image on the main page is hers)
Full results

*Sorry for the video quality. For some reason YouTube isn’t uploading it in HD. We hope you can enjoy the dancing and the interviews without that video quality. We’ll try to fix and re-upload later.

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Sept/Oct 2013 : Issue 16

Sep. 03 Articles, Issues no comments

 We’re on fall side of Labor Day now, so put away those white shoes and put on your cross country spikes and road flats. It’s time to embrace autumn and take the racing scene by storm.  This issue is sure to get you motivated to train hard and race fast. Enjoy your copy of the hippest, free-est underground running mag in the entire universe!

As always, the digital copy is free, but if you would like to purchase a hard copy you may do so via the hp MagCloud site.

September/October 2013

Issue 16

Table of Contents

issue xvi

Click cover to start reading

The Warm-up
• Editor’s Note
Level Communications
• Electronic Epistles
Lane 1: Performance
Lane 2: Body Shop
Lane 3: Nutrition
• Brown Bagging It by Kathy Ireland
Legion Profiles
• Sam Alexander
• Rich Paulson
• Christin Doneski
• Kristina Folcik-Welts
Club Spotlight
• L Street by Alma Ramos-McDermott
USATF-NE MUT
• 2013 Mtn Series Recap by Dave Dunham
Bits
• Survey & Music
Featured Event
• Level Renner 10K by EJN
Lane 4: Commentary
• Biking by Joe Navas
• Marathon Spells by Ray Charbonneau
Level Art
• McAllister & Lynch
The Cool Down
• Learn the Legion

 

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Cranmore: Interviews & Highlights

Jul. 26 Articles, Interviews, Racing no comments

The final race in the USATF-NE mountain series took place in North Conway, NH last Sunday. The Cranmore Hill Climb was the culminating event and served as the US and NACAC Championships.

In the men’s race, Joseph Gray (aka Joe Geezi) started out conservatively and overcame a late surge from Zachary Ornela to secure another championship. Joe talked to us shortly after the race:

Glenn Randall got the better of his old Dartmouth teammate Chris Zablocki in their head to head match up on the mountain. The mountains are a whole different animal than the roads, but Chris still did pretty well for a first timer on this terrain. Glenn ran real well and made Team USA again. Here are the two of them talking about the race and competing against each other:

For more on the men’s race, we compiled a raw footage highlight video (well, there’s some editing):

One of our favorite shots from this is of a wobbly Eric Macknight crossing the line. A lot of people had that look going through the finish chute that day and it was a testament not only to how hard the course was but to how hard they worked out there. We finally had Christin Doneski on camera for an interview, but we cut it short to go make sure Eric was okay (he was). Christin’s a tough competitor (2013 mountain series champion) and also a pretty good teammate too.

Speaking of Christin, we had already put up some coverage of the women’s race, but here’s some more. Afterwards we got an interview with Meggan Franks, the top finisher from Team Canada and also the top foreign finisher (13th overall). She’s totally #OnTheLevel:

All this mountain series coverage left you with a case of mountain fever? Well start training now and maybe you’ll be ready to take on the series in 2014. Complete the whole circuit and you’ll attain Mountain Goat status and be able to bypass the Mt Washington race lottery. There’s still the world championships coming up in Poland too, so you’ll see more from the mountains on the Level. Be sure to also check out Scott Mason Photo and Joe Viger Photography for some absolutely amazing shots from the race.

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A Couple of Olympians Make Team USA

Jul. 23 Articles, Interviews, Racing 1 comment

Back in our Cranmore Hill Climb race preview we highlighted the two Olympians in the field, Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Morgan Arritola. While many runners out there probably remember Magda running the Olympic Marathon back in ’08, not as many may not remember Arritola’s Olympic competition since hers was as a Nordic skier.

Morgan won the US & NACAC Champioships on Sunday at Cranmore by running 42:31 for the 8k course. Not bad for someone who’s still relatively new to the sport. Morgan had about 19 seconds on Stevie Kremer (42:50) an then a couple of minutes on Lewy Boulet (3rd in 44:52) and Megan Kimmel (4th in 45:01). Those four rounded out the roster for Team USA.

Lewy Boulet is even newer to the mountains than Arritola, and her first foray into the discipline proved to be quite the success. Magda started out conservatively and was on the fringes of the top ten on the initial descent. By the time she had finished the first climb, Magda had worked her way up to sixth with a lap to go. The “newbie” made up some ground on the second and final lap and moved up a couple of huge spots, securing her spot on the Team USA roster for the championships in her native Poland.

Christin Doneski (12th), Kristina Folcik (14th) and Kasie Enman (15th) were the top locals in this championship race. They competed quite well with both the Americans and the international runners. In fact, only one international runner was able to beat them (Meggan Franks of Canada, who finished 12th).

Keep checking back here for more race coverage, coming very soon. Also be sure to check out Scott Mason Photo and Joe Viger Photography for some absolutely amazing shots from the race.

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Loon in the Rearview, Cranmore on the Horizon

Jul. 15 Articles, Racing no comments
Josh Ferenc on Upper Walking Boss, courtesy of Scott Mason Photo.

Josh Ferenc on Upper Walking Boss, courtesy of Scott Mason Photo.

By now it’s not really news that Eric Blake and Christin Doneski both won (convincingly) at Loon Mountain. But what is new is our race highlight/interview video, which is now ready for your consumption. Along with that we decided to go a little deeper into the results to point out a couple of noteworthy items:

– Doneski was the top woman overall. She probably won’t like us pointing out her age every time, but we just find it very impressive to see a masters runner accomplish that.

– Todd Callaghan was the top masters runner for the men and just edged out his rival Dave Dunham (50:17 to 51:27).

– In the senior bracket, Jacqueline Shakar was the top lady and Robert Cipriano beat out E-j Hrynowski. But did Robert really have a better day than E-j?

That’s a tough question and it depends on how you define ‘better’ in this case. Robert’s day was faster and easier, so in that sense he did have a better day than E-j. Somehow there was some finish chute confusion and E-j kept going after finishing, so he went on to do Upper Walking Boss twice. Okay, maybe that still doesn’t mean he had a better day than Robert, but we’re pretty sure he ran his way into mountain running lore with that effort. They say there is no safe word at Loon, so even if he wanted to “drop out” once he realized the mistake, it may not have been an option.

With Loon in the books, our attention turns to the Cranmore Hill Climb. This year the Cranmore race doubles…nay, triples, as both the USA and NACAC championships, along with being the last leg of the USATF-NE Mountain Series. The top 6 men and 4 women (that are USATF members and US Citizens) will be selected for the US Mountain Team and will go on to compete at the World Championships in Poland.

The course itself was designed to emulate this year’s course in Poland and will be a down/up type of race. The women and men will have separate races first, with the ladies going first. The ladies will do two laps and the men will complete three. So what exactly is a lap? A lap is a trip down the mountain and then back up to the start. That’s right, they’ll be climbing the mountain multiple times. Each lap is 4 kilometers long, so (using an abacus…) that would mean a total of 8 km and 12 km for the women and men, respectively. Rest up, all you competing have your work cut out for you!

We think that E-j Hrynowski would be the early favorite to lead Team USA into Poland. After all, he did bravely take on UWB multiple times. Who better to take on a race course featuring three trips to the summit?

Online registration closes on July 17th, but you can also register on race day at the mountain. Day of reg is a little more money, so sign up now to save yourself a few bucks.

We’ll publish the list of elites later in the week as we get closer to race day.

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