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Under this Ground…<br />
New Balance Grand Prix<br />
Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
Top X List<br />
1998 Stu’s 30K<br />
Outside Interactive<br />
Profiles on…<br />
Blake Russell<br />
Greg Hammett<br />
Robert Cipriano<br />
Becky Hutchinson<br />
Stirrat x2<br />
The Fast Legs Issue<br />
<strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
$7.50
welcome to the underground<br />
underground...<br />
underground<br />
Editor’s Note page 4<br />
TABLE OF CONTENTS<br />
LEVEL RENNER ISSUE #6<br />
Lane 1: Performance page 6 Multisystems<br />
Lane 2: Nutrition page 7 Turkey Spinach Lasagna<br />
<strong>Level</strong> Event Feature page 8 Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
<strong>Level</strong> Profiles page 11 Cipriano, Russell, Stirrat x2, Hutchinson, Hammett<br />
<strong>Level</strong> Bits page 24 survey, music, miscellaneous stuff<br />
Lane 3: Commentary page 21 Top 9, Top 5, Deconditioning, Outside In-<br />
teractive, Dealing w/ Disappointment<br />
Race Spotlight page 28 New Balance Grand Prix<br />
HSR Reissues page 34 Bennie’s, 1998 Stu’s 30K<br />
Robert Cipriano (432) kicking hard at Carver last July. Greg Hammett (2005) running with<br />
teammates at New Bedford in 2010. Do you know what both photos have in common?<br />
On the cover: We’re not sure but those are likely the fast legs of American Josh Scott. If<br />
those are his legs, they ran a 46.54 400m at the NBGP.<br />
Cover photo by Joe Navas/Organic Photography<br />
Photo on left by Ted Tyler. Photo on right by Krissy Kozlosky.<br />
<strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Mini Masthead<br />
Contributors<br />
Joe Navas<br />
Ray Charbonneau<br />
Kathy Gorman<br />
Lesley Hocking<br />
EJN<br />
Kevin Gray<br />
Muddy Puddin’<br />
Brett Ely<br />
Gary McNamee<br />
Scott Mason<br />
Ted Tyler<br />
Krissy Kozlosky<br />
Ed\Pub<br />
Kevin Balance<br />
3
Editor’s Note<br />
Let’s start with the big news first. <strong>Level</strong><strong>Renner</strong>.com<br />
is here. This news is so BIG<br />
that I want you to stop reading right now<br />
and head on over to the website. Wait!<br />
Before you go, let me tell you what you’ll<br />
find there.<br />
One: Subscriptions! That’s right. You’ll<br />
now be able to register for a free digital<br />
subscription to <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong>. Sign up<br />
once and from that moment onward you<br />
will receive an email with an electronic<br />
file of the latest issue attached. No more<br />
laborious mouse clicks for you. Just sit<br />
back, open your email, click a download<br />
button, and start reading. The goal here is<br />
to make The <strong>Level</strong> as reader friendly as<br />
possible. Keeping it free is step 1. Putting<br />
the magazine right under your nose is<br />
step 2.<br />
Two: a Blog. The <strong>Level</strong> “staff” is going to<br />
keep this as up to date as possible with<br />
race reports, photographs, and videos.<br />
Three: Back Issues. Missed an issue over<br />
the holidays or busy fall? No problem.<br />
The Back Issues tab will allow you to catch<br />
up on everything you missed.<br />
Four: About Us. Read an extremely brief<br />
history of <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> and find out more<br />
<strong>Level</strong> Communications A <strong>Level</strong> Rap<br />
NEW:<br />
Cool stuff at levelrenner.com<br />
subscriptions, pics, latest news<br />
Like us on facebook<br />
www.facebook/levelrenner.com<br />
Follow the founder on twitter<br />
@kevbalance<br />
about our excellent authors.<br />
Five: T-shirts. You can even get a limited<br />
edition <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> T-shirt if you so desire.<br />
Okay, enough website promotion: let’s<br />
get to what’s inside issue # Bill Russell.<br />
We got two lists for you. A Top 5 and a<br />
Top 9. Developed independently by two<br />
great minds (Hocking and Charbonneau),<br />
these easy to read articles will<br />
save you some dough and make you<br />
chuckle. And thanks again to Ray Charbonneau<br />
for his Winter Running article<br />
from the Jan/Feb issue. That wonderful<br />
jinx is still on.<br />
We also got two featured events. One<br />
that’s happened and one that will occur.<br />
Joe Navas hooks us up with some awesome<br />
photographs from the New Balance<br />
Grand Prix (event report too) and Muddy<br />
Puddin’ offers a diagnosis on a marathon<br />
that you simply need to run: Gansett.<br />
I’m running out of space and haven’t even<br />
mentioned the 5 great profiles firmly ensconced<br />
in the middle of this mag. In no<br />
particular order, get motivated by Susan<br />
and Reno Stirrat, Greg Hammett, Robert<br />
Cipriano, Becky Hutchinson, and<br />
by Kev MC Balance<br />
Write to the <strong>Level</strong> via levelrenner@gmail.com. Edits may be made for clarity and brevity’s sake.<br />
Olympic athlete Blake Russell. Yes, The<br />
<strong>Level</strong> is now chatting up Olympic athletes.<br />
We have Kevin Gray to thank for that.<br />
Speaking of Olympics, the marathon trials<br />
occurred back on January 14, and Brett<br />
Ely writes a gut-wrenching article on her<br />
experience there. I have to tell you that if<br />
the parenthetical at the end of her article<br />
doesn’t tug at the laces of your athletic<br />
soul, just put the magazine down and walk<br />
away. You are not ready for The <strong>Level</strong> (at<br />
least not yet).<br />
This just in: Amherst coverage. LR was out<br />
in full force at the first stop on the USATF-<br />
NE GPS tour, the DH Jones 10 Miler. You<br />
have to check out the blog and photo gallery<br />
sections of the website. We are<br />
linked to hundreds of photographs from<br />
Scott Mason and Krissy Kozlosky, and<br />
we also have 3 fabulous videos brought to<br />
you by Joe Navas and EJN. I have to give<br />
a big shout out to my boy E because he<br />
has taken this bull (levelrenner.com) by<br />
the horns and “steered” it in the right direction.<br />
He’s keeping the website current,<br />
comical, and hardcore. You could<br />
say he’s keeping it on The <strong>Level</strong>.<br />
Run. Read. Peace.<br />
Set fire to the track<br />
Turn your skin into brack<br />
Separate yourself from the pack<br />
Let your legs talk the smack<br />
And don’t ever look back<br />
If you do you’ll be back<br />
And end up on your back<br />
So put yourself on the rack<br />
Don’t end up the hack<br />
Who slipped through a crack<br />
And don’t follow Rex’s advice and eat yourself a snack<br />
You’ll end up as memorable as a man named Todd Gack<br />
And look as formless as a sack<br />
Of potatoes<br />
The <strong>Level</strong> is obviously taking nominations for poet laureate of<br />
this semi-prestigious if not esoteric rag.<br />
4
Lane 1: Performance<br />
Multisystems, Overload, Adaptation Oh My!<br />
Get Faster with a Plan<br />
by Kevin Balance<br />
Last issue we talked about periodization<br />
and the need for a plan. This<br />
month’s article builds upon that concept<br />
and takes a deeper look into the<br />
contents of our mesocycle’s (4-6 week<br />
period) design. Let’s start with the<br />
different body systems we need to<br />
train.<br />
The Energy System. Ever hear of<br />
ATP? How about adenosine triphosphate?<br />
Don’t worry about that. All<br />
you need to know is that ATP is the<br />
energy source that allows muscles to<br />
both work and recover. For long distance<br />
runners, the more efficient our<br />
energy system is the better.<br />
The Neuromuscular System. If<br />
you’re a car, this is your battery.<br />
We’re talking about the nerve firing<br />
system. One of the main functions of<br />
the nervous system is to send messages<br />
to the muscles and surrounding<br />
tissues. Better have that trained well,<br />
especially when it comes to developing<br />
speed and power because it’s the<br />
most important system for sprinting in<br />
your finishing kick.<br />
The Musculoskeletal System. This<br />
system is responsible for producing<br />
force via muscle tissues. Those muscle<br />
tissues transmit force to bones and<br />
other such things that propel your<br />
body forward. Skeletal muscles, fascia,<br />
bones, joints, connective tissues:<br />
all these make up the musculoskeletal<br />
system.<br />
Even though the Energy System is the<br />
most important of the three for us runners,<br />
all of them are important and<br />
interdependent on one another. We<br />
have to train all of them—not just the<br />
Energy System—whether we like it or<br />
not. If we ignore one for the other,<br />
then that system of focus will hit a<br />
glass ceiling. Your progress will be<br />
stymied because the other two components<br />
will be holding you back.<br />
Running is supposed to be simple,<br />
right? Just put one foot in front of the<br />
other and go for as long and fast as<br />
you can. Having just reread over my<br />
first few paragraphs ( I’m the damn<br />
editor of this rag; I better proofread—<br />
still pisses me off how many “typos” I<br />
miss), I think things are getting a little<br />
too complicated. Let’s look at it another<br />
way. I think most of us get that<br />
If we just do the same runs<br />
and workouts week after<br />
week, our bodies will cease<br />
to adapt, cease to improve.<br />
we can’t do the same workout every<br />
day. Some days we go easy, some<br />
days we’re at the track, others still we<br />
practice at lactate threshold pace, and<br />
every weekend we go long. We’re<br />
training various biomotor components.<br />
Let’s put a name to each one.<br />
Endurance. We’re talking work capacity.<br />
Our ability to hold off fatigue.<br />
Progression runs, threshold runs,<br />
longer intervals (Kara Molloy Haas<br />
does 5 x 5K!) are just a couple of ways<br />
to improve endurance. We all need a<br />
high work capacity because that is<br />
what allows us to train harder and better<br />
for longer amounts of time. Somebody<br />
who can only run for 30 minutes<br />
doesn’t have nearly as much endurance<br />
as someone who can trek for 60.<br />
Strength. That’s your ability to produce<br />
force. For example, many runners<br />
do hill workouts as a means to<br />
improve strength.<br />
Speed. Yes, we all know: moving with<br />
celerity, as quickly as we can. Sprinting.<br />
We do short intervals (400s,<br />
200s, 100s) on the track or other such<br />
place to improve our speed.<br />
Now that we have put names to some<br />
of the different physiological components<br />
that we need to train, we can<br />
concentrate on how to improve them.<br />
The chief way to improve a particular<br />
facet of your training is to overload it.<br />
You have to fatigue your body to improve<br />
it. We must create training scenarios<br />
that push our bodies beyond<br />
their accustomed limits if we want to<br />
lower our PRs. Of course, it is nonsensical<br />
to train this way in every session,<br />
but you certainly need to overload<br />
your body once or twice every microcycle<br />
(7-10 day period).<br />
We achieve overload through increases<br />
in either intensity or volume, but I<br />
wouldn’t recommending both at the<br />
same time. Most traditional training<br />
programs call for a buildup in volume<br />
first then intensity once your body is<br />
used to the higher mileage. As we<br />
near our goal race/championship season,<br />
those lines crisscross: volume<br />
goes down and intensity goes up.<br />
Edge city people!<br />
To be clear: overload days—6 x 1<br />
mile @ goal 10K pace with one minute<br />
recovery or a long run 2-3 miles beyond<br />
the norm—are hard days. By<br />
now, we know The <strong>Level</strong> philosophy.<br />
Say it with me: Hard Days Hard…Then<br />
we rest. We must rest (go on easy<br />
runs) because if we don’t, the training<br />
done in an overload session will be<br />
for naught. The body will never get a<br />
chance to adapt to the new stimulus<br />
you just created.<br />
So let’s define adaptation and how it<br />
works. Our bodies are marvelous<br />
organisms; they will evolve and adapt<br />
to the stresses of our overload days in<br />
order to better handle them the next<br />
time around. That’s what getting in<br />
shape is.<br />
Continued on page 33<br />
5
Lane 2: Nutrition<br />
A Healthy Dish on a Traditional Favorite<br />
Spinach Turkey Lasagna<br />
by Kathy Gorman MS, RD, LDN<br />
As a dietitian, modifying recipes to make them a little<br />
healthier is second nature. Much to my fiancé's chagrin, I<br />
rarely follow a recipe as written from start to finish; I’m<br />
always throwing in extra veggies, reducing the fat or<br />
throwing in a little flax to boost omega-3s. Mickey doesn’t<br />
get upset about this because he doesn’t like the food, in<br />
fact it’s quite the opposite—he loves it and is annoyed that<br />
it’s not written down anywhere for him to repeat later.<br />
He’s also taken to appreciating eating things that are<br />
healthier while still tasting delicious.<br />
As runners, we all enjoy our carbs. While the rest of society<br />
can often shun them, we embrace them! This adapted<br />
lasagna recipe is one that we both love and think you will<br />
too. I’ve done this one enough that I have all my adaptations<br />
memorized, but here I’ll write it down for the first<br />
time. The original recipe is from my bible of cookbooks,<br />
The New Best Recipe, from the editors of Cooks Illustrated.<br />
Mine is healthier in that it cuts back on fat by using lean<br />
ground turkey instead of a combination of fattier ground<br />
meats, uses less cheese, swaps out part of the ricotta<br />
cheese for fat-free cottage cheese, and uses part-skim<br />
mozzarella. I add in some frozen spinach for extra vitamins<br />
and fiber and I completely leave out the added salt<br />
and fat. Full disclosure: I can’t say my recipe is better<br />
than the original, because I’ve never tried it as published,<br />
but this lasagna can’t last long enough in my house!<br />
Directions:<br />
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.<br />
2. Using a heavy pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high<br />
heat and add the onion. Sauté for about 2<br />
minutes or until translucent.<br />
3. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant—about 1-2<br />
minutes.<br />
4. Add the turkey and pepper and cook until no longer<br />
pink. Break up and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula.<br />
Turkey Spinach Lasagna<br />
Ingredients (makes 12 servings)<br />
5. Add both cans of tomatoes and the spinach. Stir together<br />
then allow to simmer while you create the<br />
cheese mixture. Stir occasionally.<br />
6. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the ricotta, cottage<br />
cheese, 1 cup of the Parmesan, egg, basil and<br />
pepper.<br />
7. Assemble the lasagna in a 9x13 pan: Start by spreading<br />
about ¼ cup of the sauce in the bottom of the pan.<br />
Place 3 lasagna noodles over the sauce. Spread 1/3 of<br />
the cheese mixture over the noodles, sprinkle ½ cup<br />
of the mozzarella over the layer and top with 1 ½ cup<br />
of the sauce. Repeat layers 2 more times, and top with<br />
the final 3 lasagna noodles. Pour the remaining sauce<br />
over the top and sprinkle with the rest of the mozzarella<br />
and the remaining ¼ cup of Parmesan.<br />
8. Spray one side of a piece of foil (big enough to cover<br />
the pan) with cooking spray. Place foil spray-side<br />
down over the pan and wrap tightly. Place in oven for<br />
15 minutes.<br />
9. Remove foil and cook for 25 minutes more once<br />
cooled, cut into 12 pieces, and serve (try to eat only<br />
piece!)<br />
Nutrition content per serving: 331 calories, 13 g fat, 6.5 g<br />
saturated fat, 637mg sodium, 434 mg potassium, 27g carbohydrate,<br />
3.5 g fiber, 27 g protein. For the average<br />
American, 1 serving also meets nearly 50% of daily Vitamin<br />
A requirements, 40% of calcium needs, and 25% of<br />
your daily vitamin C.<br />
For the sauce For the Cheese Mixture For the Layers<br />
Serve your lasagna with a big green salad topped with<br />
your favorite low-fat dressing. In our house, it works best<br />
when we put our leftover pieces of lasagna directly into<br />
individually sized freezer bags and freeze right away. We<br />
pull them out to bring for lunch or heat up the leftovers for<br />
dinner. Pre-portioning right after the lasagna has been<br />
made helps keep portions appropriate. Granted, if you<br />
did a 20-miler on lasagna day, go ahead and treat yourself<br />
to 2 pieces—you deserve it!<br />
Recipe adapted from The New Best Recipe by the Editors of<br />
Cook’s Illustrated, 2004.<br />
1 Tbsp olive oil ¾ cup part-skim ricotta cheese 12 no boil lasagna noodles<br />
1 medium onion, finely chopped 1 cup fat-free cottage cheese 2 cups part –skim mozzarella<br />
cheese, shredded<br />
6 garlic cloves, minced 1 ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese<br />
20 oz package lean ground turkey* 1 Tbsp dried basil<br />
½ tsp ground black pepper 1 large egg, beaten lightly<br />
28 oz can strained or pureed tomatoes ½ tsp ground black pepper<br />
28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained<br />
10 oz box frozen spinach, thawed<br />
*look for a label that says 93% lean or higher—some ground turkey can have as much fat as ground beef<br />
6
Featured Race Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
The Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
The Most Important Race You’ve Never Heard Of<br />
by Muddy Puddin’<br />
If you’re as strange as me, then on<br />
Saturday, January 14 th , you too chose<br />
to go into “electronic deprivation”<br />
mode—no cell phone, no TV, no radio,<br />
no internet. I was temporarily<br />
trying to isolate myself from the outside<br />
world and the <strong>2012</strong> Olympic <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
trials. Since NBC chose to air<br />
the races in an edited tape delay at<br />
3:00 pm, fans nationwide had two options:<br />
monitor the race online and get<br />
the results “real time” or wait until the<br />
afternoon and watch it unfold before<br />
their very eyes.<br />
I waited and I hope you did too. And<br />
as I watched I found myself more fascinated<br />
and enthralled by the next<br />
runner, Dathan Ritzenhein and<br />
his crushing 4th place finish. Having<br />
secretly chosen him as my<br />
“dark horse” to make the team, I<br />
watched him kneel down after<br />
the finish line and cover his face.<br />
Sympathetic towards his feelings,<br />
I still felt as though I couldn’t<br />
fully comprehend his pain.<br />
What would it feel like to train so<br />
hard to achieve your dream and<br />
come up short by such a tiny distance?<br />
I don’t know much about<br />
racing, but I’m fairly confident<br />
that with another 1200-1800 meters<br />
he would’ve caught Abdi<br />
Abdirahman. Unfortunately, 4th place is still 4th place. As Ritzenhein<br />
quietly shed tears, I pondered<br />
the discipline, skill, and<br />
hard work it takes to get into a race<br />
via qualification only. Then I began to<br />
wonder.<br />
Although qualifications for a marathon<br />
are certainly nothing new, how many<br />
races in the U.S. are as strict as the<br />
Olympic Trials? I knew that Boston<br />
had stringent qualification times, but<br />
even in Hopkinton there are ways<br />
around the age group requirements<br />
(charity/fundraising/knowing somebody).<br />
So just how many races—<br />
besides the OT—have the actual qualification<br />
only tag? To my astonish-<br />
ment, there is only one and in a<br />
quirky spin of fate, it’s in my own<br />
backyard!<br />
Entering just its third year, the Gansett<br />
marathon is the only 26.2 miler in<br />
the entire country that has solely one<br />
way in. If you want to run, you have to<br />
prove yourself first. A visit to the race<br />
website reveals the header: Welcome<br />
to the Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon, the only marathon<br />
in the USA, outside of the Olympic<br />
marathon Trials, where qualification<br />
is the ONLY means of entry. With<br />
qualification standards five minutes<br />
faster than those of Boston, this event<br />
QUALIFYING STANDARDS<br />
Age Men Women<br />
18-34 3:05 3:35<br />
35-39 3:10 3:40<br />
40-44 3:15 3:45<br />
45-49 3:25 3:55<br />
50-54 3:30 4:00<br />
55-59 3:40 4:10<br />
60-64 3:55 4:25<br />
65-69 4:10 4:40<br />
70-74 4:25 4;55<br />
75-79 4:40 5:10<br />
80+ 4:55 5:25<br />
is a race for runners, by runners, focusing<br />
strictly on running. Almost Zen<br />
-like in its simplicity, it feels as if there<br />
is a definite <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> vibe to the<br />
race. Why hadn’t I heard of this event<br />
before? Was this some sort of an underground<br />
society that was only whispered<br />
about amongst initiated members?<br />
Perhaps it followed guidelines<br />
akin to those laid forth by Tyler<br />
Durden in the movie Fight Club (Rule<br />
Number One: Nobody talks about<br />
Fight Club). Utterly fascinated, I contacted<br />
Michael Tammaro, the race<br />
director to see if he could shed a little<br />
light on this contest of qualifiers.<br />
Why Gansett? Why now? Simply rewind<br />
to a few years ago when the now<br />
43 year old Tammaro found himself<br />
qualified yet again for Boston. However,<br />
having already run it several<br />
times, he failed to sign up in a timely<br />
manner. Along with thousands of other<br />
runners, he was confronted with<br />
the new “registration debacle.” Many<br />
felt that instead of being based upon<br />
how fast a person can run, Boston had<br />
suddenly turned into “how fast can<br />
you email?” The president of the other<br />
NRA (Narragansett Running Association)<br />
and current physics professor<br />
at the University of Rhode Island was<br />
mildly irritated. Although empathetic<br />
of the need for a change<br />
in the BAA registration process,<br />
he was still a little frustrated.<br />
“Actually, some of the previous<br />
publications have overstated my<br />
initial reaction and response.<br />
I’m certainly not anti-Boston or<br />
anti-“mega race” at all. I was a<br />
little upset [at missing registration]<br />
but I have always had the<br />
desire to develop and put on a<br />
local marathon. Being excluded<br />
from Boston just reinforced the<br />
idea that now was the right time<br />
to do it.” Having always wanted<br />
to have a qualifiers only marathon,<br />
his exile from the Hopkinton<br />
to Copley Square dash was<br />
just the impetus he needed. With his<br />
underlying motif of “…many people<br />
can easily qualify for Boston, I want to<br />
make it a little harder” Michael began<br />
developing a race that aimed at doing<br />
just that.<br />
In year one (2010), the Gansett marathon<br />
was actually not even held in<br />
Narragansett. Originally known as the<br />
Exeter <strong>Mar</strong>athon, it started in the<br />
small, rural town in Rhode Island because,<br />
as Tammaro stated, “I had<br />
done a great deal of running in the<br />
Exeter area and was able to map out a<br />
7
Featured Race Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
nice course that I felt was fairly fast.”<br />
When asked to elaborate, he was able<br />
to quickly respond, “Faster than Boston.”<br />
Dr. Tammaro later went on to<br />
emphasize that he did not form his<br />
race as an intentional slight against, or<br />
to compete with, the world’s oldest<br />
annual marathon. “I just really like<br />
smaller marathons. Take one of my<br />
favorite marathons, Holyoke, [Walter<br />
Childs Memorial Race of Champions<br />
<strong>Mar</strong>athon] for example. When you<br />
get passed by another runner there,<br />
it’s a big deal because a person can<br />
still count ‘OK, I’m in 4 th place. Now<br />
I’m in 5 th place, etc.’ At Boston, it’s<br />
more like, ‘Now I’m in 434 th place.’<br />
Who cares?” Although Gansett is not<br />
about outdoing the big one in Beantown,<br />
there is still a rather obvious,<br />
highly competitive nature here. Plus,<br />
one can’t help but wonder why Tammaro<br />
chose to hold his race the Satur-<br />
day before Boston each year.<br />
After the success of its inaugural year<br />
and its <strong>Apr</strong>il calendar slot firmly in<br />
place, Gansett organizers immediately<br />
turned their attention to improving<br />
the race. "We thought about it and<br />
decided to make this even more of an<br />
NRA event and hold it in Narragansett,”<br />
he said. The seaside community<br />
was receptive to the running club’s<br />
proposition and suddenly the race<br />
had changed. The USTAF certified<br />
Gansett course became, and still is, a<br />
unique partial double loop, with a<br />
good deal of it running along the<br />
ocean and nearby salt pond/marsh<br />
area (see map). When asked about<br />
the challenge of designing a new<br />
route all over again from scratch,<br />
Tammaro chuckled, “How do you plan<br />
a run the distance from here to Providence<br />
without going up at least one<br />
big hill?” All modesty aside, a study<br />
of the map’s elevation data shows that<br />
he has managed to do just that.<br />
Further scrutiny reveals that although<br />
it is a small race, still in its infancy, the<br />
Gansett starting field tripled last year<br />
(58 in ‘10 vs 162 in ‘11) and should<br />
continue to grow annually. Its demographic<br />
makeup is also surprisingly<br />
more diverse than one would expect.<br />
I mistakenly assumed that a small race<br />
in a small town in the smallest state<br />
would logically be comprised mainly<br />
of Ro’ d’islandaz (“chowdah and clamcakes”<br />
accent implied here). However,<br />
a look at both years’ results shows<br />
this most certainly is NOT be the case.<br />
“We’ve had people from all over the<br />
place run here,” Tammaro said at one<br />
point, his eyes lighting up as he listed<br />
locales scattered across the U.S. as<br />
Images from gansettmarathon.com<br />
8
Featured Race Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
well as Sweden, Korea, and British<br />
Columbia. “<strong>Mar</strong>athon Maniacs and<br />
50 States <strong>Mar</strong>athon Club are two<br />
groups in particular that contact me<br />
frequently about registering for the<br />
race.” With interest and excitement<br />
mounting, perhaps the sky is the limit<br />
here. Yet, despite continual hopes for<br />
expansion, Gansett’s director, who<br />
happens to be a 70 mile per week runner<br />
himself, did admit wanting to<br />
eventually cap his race’s field somewhere<br />
around 800 participants. In<br />
sticking with the qualifier only, limited<br />
field concept, when I pressed about<br />
whether or not he will also lower Gansett’s<br />
qualifications by five minutes<br />
per age group every time Boston<br />
does, Tammaro did not mince words.<br />
“Absolutely,” he responded with zero<br />
hesitation. Clearly, a man who feels<br />
that “if you give a little flex, somebody<br />
will ask you to flex a little more”<br />
knows where he stands. The rules are<br />
10th Annual Joseph & Rose Gilio Memorial<br />
5k Road Race/Walk<br />
Saturday, May 26, <strong>2012</strong> 9:00 AM<br />
8:45 am 75 Yard Kids Fun Run (Free)<br />
Saint Timothy’s Church<br />
650 Nichols Street Norwood, MA<br />
Proceeds to benefit Saint Timothy’s Social<br />
Outreach Program<br />
Cash Prizes!<br />
Professionally Timed!<br />
Free T-shirt and High Performance New<br />
Balance Socks to the first 150 applicants<br />
1 st , 2 nd ,& 3 rd Place Prizes in each Age<br />
Group Category<br />
Course Records: Kevin Gray15:55 & Emily Logan17:43<br />
Race Day Registration is Available!<br />
Worth a look<br />
www.distance-running-tips.com<br />
clear cut and apply to everyone. “If<br />
the President of the United States<br />
called us up and said he wanted to<br />
race Gansett we’d have to tell him no.<br />
Sorry, but you didn’t qualify,” Tammaro<br />
declared with a wry smile. Imagine<br />
telling the Commander-in-Chief<br />
to step up or stay away.<br />
Without a doubt, Gansett is a runner’s<br />
race. It’s a no frills, zero pomp and<br />
circumstance affair. You won’t find<br />
rock n’ roll bands serenading you at<br />
mile markers, nor are there gimmick<br />
costumes or gags. In fact, finishers<br />
don’t even receive a medal (an embroidered<br />
finisher’s patch is provided<br />
at the finish line along with the customary<br />
Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon T-shirt). This<br />
only further reiterates the spirit of the<br />
event. The satisfaction of earning<br />
your way into a coveted spot in a quality<br />
race and running your tail off is all<br />
the incentive a serious runner needs.<br />
As we drained our pint glasses and<br />
the interview came to a close, I managed<br />
to sneak in one final question,<br />
“Suppose I’ve recently run a BQ and<br />
I’m looking for a marathon to run.<br />
What would you say in order to convince<br />
me to run your race?”<br />
Tammaro’s response was simple and<br />
sincere. That impish grin showed itself<br />
again as he held both arms out to<br />
his sides and in a casual manner said,<br />
“You wanna run a real qualifier?<br />
Come run Gansett.”<br />
Get in where you fit in, boys and girls.<br />
You know you want to do it.<br />
If Muddy has piqued your interest, more information<br />
can be found at http://<br />
www.gansettmarathon.com. Gansett is fast approaching<br />
and is now accepting registration<br />
applications for the <strong>Apr</strong>il battle.<br />
9
A Day in the Life of Robert Cipriano The (Semi)Elites<br />
Photo by Miles Cipriano<br />
Weekday (a typical Thursday)<br />
0515 first alarm/first battle with my black Labrador, Carbon, to<br />
get out of bed<br />
0525 climb over Carbon to get out of bed<br />
0530 two quick shots of espresso to wake up followed by banana,<br />
some toast along with some Greek yogurt and of<br />
blueberries, glass of orange juice<br />
0600 shower and dress into bike clothes<br />
0630 take Carbon for a walk/jog up the street and back<br />
0645 pack panniers for office<br />
0655 get on bike and ride to office 17 miles<br />
0815 first patient<br />
1000 second breakfast: oatmeal and strawberries<br />
1300 lunch: salad with chicken and tofu brought from home<br />
along with bread, carrots, pretzels, water<br />
1600 snack: Greek yogurt and granola<br />
1715 finish up in office and change back into bike clothes<br />
1730 get on bike and ride home<br />
1830 arrive at home change into running clothes, shot of espresso<br />
and bike down to Charles River meet friends and<br />
go for a 10 mile run<br />
2030 finish run throw bike in back of friend’s car for a ride<br />
home<br />
2100 dinner: salmon, salad, broccoli, rice; sorbet for dessert<br />
2200 take Carbon out for a walk<br />
2230 shower, read a bit, and fall asleep<br />
Robert Cipriano, a man who had a sterling year in the<br />
50+ age group in 2011 which included domination in his<br />
age division in the New England Runner Pub Series and<br />
killer times in Boston, Cape Cod, New Bedford, and<br />
Stowe, did not race in high school. Instead he chose the<br />
team sports: soccer, baseball, and basketball (team<br />
captain). Shoulder injuries led him to rowing in college.<br />
Of crew he says, "I wasn't very good but I was<br />
generally able to outrun most of my team during winter<br />
conditioning." Yes, the seed of running had been planted<br />
in those conditioning runs, and he eventually started<br />
to jog more consistently years later in dental school. He<br />
recalls, "I remember my apartment overlooked the<br />
George Washington Bridge spanning the Hudson River<br />
and I decided to one day run across the bridge...it was<br />
exhilarating to be running 225 feet above water and was<br />
a real escape from the demands and monotony of dental<br />
school.”<br />
After crashing and burning in his first marathon (1986<br />
NYC; 3:17) on 30 miles per week, Robert ran recreationally<br />
until 2002 when he joined the Somerville Road Runners.<br />
With them things started to click. He says, "The<br />
late Steve Burton, our track coach at the time, became a<br />
friend and encouraged me to 'use the club' for support<br />
and motivation, and through some hard work and more<br />
importantly with the support of other club members, I<br />
was able to make running a part of my life...I was no<br />
longer running alone but I was running with teammates<br />
and this energized me then and still does today." He<br />
really hit his stride in 2011, and he attributes that to not<br />
only avoiding injuries but more importantly to the<br />
"excellent competitive training atmosphere" that SRR<br />
provides.<br />
The consistent training and hard work all came together<br />
for Cipriano at the Cape Cod <strong>Mar</strong>athon this past October.<br />
Running much of the race side by side with Jon<br />
May (unofficial SRR long run coordinator) and Joe<br />
O'Leary (SRR track coach), Cipriano and his teammates<br />
won the master's team division, all finishing within seconds<br />
of one another. Cipriano won the senior division<br />
outright with a time of 2:43.42 breaking the senior<br />
course record (formerly held by Reno Stirrat [profile<br />
pg 15]) by over 2 minutes.<br />
For <strong>2012</strong> Robert is looking forward to running a few races<br />
with his 21 year old daughter Chiara and 16 year old<br />
son Miles as well as the USATF-NE Grand Prix Series. In<br />
October he plans on going out to Chicago for the marathon<br />
with a group of his SRR teammates. One last note<br />
on Cipriano: he doesn't use a training log. In his own<br />
words, he refrains from the journal "just to challenge the<br />
hardcore numbers guys out there." Cool. The <strong>Level</strong><br />
likes that.<br />
PR’s as a 50+ Runner<br />
5K – 16:48 Super 5K <strong>2012</strong><br />
5M – 27:51 Carver 2011<br />
13.1 – 75:51 New Bedford 2011<br />
26.2 – 2:41.23 Boston 2011<br />
11
Blake Russell The Elites<br />
A Diamond in the Rough<br />
by Kevin Gray<br />
As is the case with many diamonds in the rough, Blake<br />
Russell just kind of fell into running after showing potential<br />
in the mile during P.E. class in high school. While attending<br />
a small private school in her hometown of Winston<br />
Salem, North Carolina, she was encouraged to join the<br />
team by a friend because they had trouble filling out a<br />
complete squad. Russell hasn’t stopped running since that<br />
first high school practice, and in high school she went on to<br />
win 11 out of 12 state titles. She didn’t stop there as she<br />
had a successful career at perennial powerhouse UNC and<br />
eventually became a United States Olympian in the marathon.<br />
Although talented, success did not<br />
come to Russell overnight. She was<br />
a low-mileage high school runner<br />
and the step up to a big time program<br />
at UNC proved challenging.<br />
As a freshman walk-on, the upgrade<br />
in collegiate competition was<br />
an eye opening experience. “I was<br />
definitely over my head at first, and<br />
the first day of practice, I ran further<br />
than I did my previous four<br />
years of high school. I think I was<br />
such a low mileage high school athlete,<br />
so I had lots of room for improvement,<br />
but that also meant I<br />
was really working hard just to<br />
keep up,” says Russell. Narrowly<br />
missing qualifying for the NCAA’s<br />
in her junior year provided extra<br />
incentive to up the training the<br />
summer before her senior season:<br />
“I really had a great streak going<br />
where I consistently improved my<br />
times with each race throughout<br />
Photo by Scott Mason<br />
college.” Blake’s tenacity paid off,<br />
as she would go on to be the ACC<br />
champ in both the 1500 and 5000 meters. After graduating,<br />
Blake hoped to continue with her streak of improvements<br />
and was not ready to give up competitive running. She received<br />
a lot of encouragement and direction from her then<br />
coach Joan Nesbit Mae, improving to top three finishes at<br />
the US 8K and 5K Road Championships. The year 2000<br />
seemed when everything came together for Blake, posting<br />
a 32:17 10K solo performance at Mt Sac and a 15:21 5K two<br />
weeks later at the prestigious Penn Relays. “I guess this<br />
was my breakout year,” said Russell.<br />
Blake and her husband John Russell (also a talented runner)<br />
soon found themselves relocated to Medford, MA,<br />
which was beneficial because it now put them close to two<br />
things: John’s parents and Bob Sevene. Blake says, “I had<br />
been coaching myself the year before the 2000 trials, and<br />
we later bought a house in Acton, MA, which was dictated<br />
by the areas that we ran the most in Lincoln and the Walden<br />
Pond area.” After living and training for a few years in<br />
Massachusetts, enduring the tough winters, Blake had the<br />
opportunity to relocate to Monterey, California as part of<br />
Team USA Monterey Bay, an elite post collegiate training<br />
group that would be coached by Sev. Of her preparation<br />
leading up to the 2004 trails, Blake recalls, "I took a five<br />
week leave of absence from work before the 2004 <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
trials to get out of the cold weather and rented an<br />
apartment in Monterey. Sev actually insisted on paying for<br />
it, and I fell in love with the area. There are 40 miles of dirt<br />
running trails right out the door from my apartment, and<br />
the weather is around 55-65 degrees year round, so it’s<br />
really hard to complain.”<br />
After finishing agonizingly close<br />
(4th) to making the Olympic <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
team while training in California,<br />
Blake and John decided to<br />
make Monterey their new home<br />
with Blake continuing to be<br />
coached by Bob Sevene. “Sev and I<br />
have been working together since<br />
2000 and have become very close,”<br />
Russell said, “ We meet for<br />
workouts twice a week, and I will<br />
often drive to his house to run near<br />
the trailheads.” While prepping for<br />
the 2008 trials, Blake would run between<br />
90-110 miles a week, mostly<br />
in singles, with one or two doubles<br />
a week, a track workout, and a marathon<br />
pace workout on the roads. A<br />
standard long run would be between<br />
18-22 miles to end her training<br />
week.<br />
The 2008 Olympic <strong>Mar</strong>athon trials<br />
proved to be a homecoming of sorts<br />
for Blake, racing along the familiar<br />
confines of the Charles River. “ The<br />
trials were a tough race for me. I<br />
knew I needed a solid race, but I was having some injury<br />
issues and was very worried. The course itself definitely<br />
did not run as fast as everyone thought it would, but luckily<br />
I was mentally prepared for the wind having run along the<br />
river so many times while living there,” she continues,<br />
“My plan was to be top three, and not to try risking not<br />
making the team again, and thankfully it worked out. I<br />
knew that with about three miles to go, no one was charging,<br />
and I was feeling strong enough to hold my current<br />
pace. A lot of people were nervous, including myself, going<br />
into that fourth loop with Davila looking good in fourth<br />
place.”<br />
With her third place finish at the trials, Blake qualified for<br />
the Olympic Team that would compete later that summer<br />
12
Blake Russell The Elites<br />
in the heat and humidity of Beijing. “China and the Olympics<br />
make me think of a lot of things: exotic food, families<br />
of four on Mopeds, and sweet children everywhere greeting<br />
us with Welcome to Beijing,” Blake said. With the extreme<br />
conditions expected from the Chinese summer, an<br />
acclimation period of up to a month was needed to let the<br />
body adjust: “The first three weeks in camp were a waiting<br />
game and actually proved to be quite boring; everything<br />
we did was monitored by the police and they did not want<br />
you leaving the grounds. We were able to sneak out for a<br />
few short runs, but if you needed to do a road workout,<br />
they would shut down a major highway for up to two hours.<br />
We had police escorts to the track and other outings as<br />
well.” Blake went on to run a solid 27 th place in a time of<br />
2:33:13 and was the only member of the United States team<br />
to finish. “The day of the race was actually quite humid,<br />
but not all that hot,” said Russell, “My coach and I really<br />
thought more people would have starting dropping off.”<br />
Since her Beijing experience, Blake and her husband John<br />
have welcomed a baby son named Quinn to their family.<br />
“Having Quinn has been wonderful for me as a person and<br />
for life, but I have to admit a lot tougher than I imagined for<br />
competitive running,” she continues, “The pregnancy was<br />
rough and the comeback was rougher. I could not run<br />
much after six months and started back running five weeks<br />
after he was born. I nursed for a year, so in hindsight,<br />
it really set me back.” As can be expected, having a<br />
newborn child and continuing to train is not the easiest<br />
experience, and Blake admits to a lot of sleepless<br />
nights and a feeling of constant exhaustion: “I was just<br />
not recovering from runs or workouts and Quinn did<br />
not sleep for more than three hours for a period of<br />
eight months. I guess all new moms are tired, but I<br />
have very little down time, and have to juggle childcare<br />
for Quinn while running, although he will come<br />
along to the track, loves running, and will time me<br />
with Sev. Just the other day, he said he was going to pace<br />
me and feels very comfortable at the track.” No doubt, if<br />
Quinn decides to be a runner, he’ll have some very good<br />
role models to follow.<br />
With Blake competing in the Olympics and focusing most<br />
of her attention towards the marathon the last few years,<br />
she has some auspicious goals on the track and is looking<br />
forward to a break from the rigors of the marathon. “I have<br />
to say,” she says, “It feels like a relief not to be doing marathon<br />
training anymore. I had three stints in a row and was<br />
just worn out and stale. I am looking forward to getting<br />
back onto the track and trying to get into PR shape. We are<br />
doing much less mileage to try and get some leg speed<br />
back. It is something I have been lacking since the pregnancy.”<br />
With Blake’s work ethic and intelligent approach<br />
to training, it is hard to count her out and she must be<br />
looked at as a force for the upcoming Olympic Track Trials.<br />
Kevin Gray is a senior staff writer for <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> and a running geek.<br />
13
Side by Side Susan Stirrat<br />
Photo by Ted Tyler<br />
Training Week<br />
Monday<br />
AM: easy run 4-6 miles at 9:10-9:30 pace<br />
PM: one hour of stretching and leg strengthening consisting<br />
of lunges, squats, band work and Power Yoga exercises<br />
and ending with trigger point session using a lacrosse<br />
ball followed by leg massage with foam roller<br />
Tuesday<br />
PM: A 2-3 mile warm up followed by hill repeats on an 8%<br />
grade of 12-16 x 1 minute, ending with 6 x 30 seconds on a<br />
flat at 5k pace and a 2-3 mile cool down followed by light<br />
stretching, ball and foam roller<br />
Wednesday<br />
PM: easy run 6-8 miles at 9:10-9:30 pace followed by light<br />
stretching, trigger point with ball and foam roller<br />
Thursday<br />
PM: Tempo run starting at 4 miles, increasing weekly by 1<br />
mile up to 10 miles at an 8:00-8:15 pace followed by light<br />
stretching, ball and foam roller<br />
Friday<br />
PM: Easy run 6-8 miles followed by Monday’s leg session<br />
Saturday<br />
AM: easy run 4-5 miles<br />
PM: Heated Power Yoga<br />
Sunday<br />
AM: long run of 14 and increasing weekly up to 20 miles at<br />
8:58-9:15 pace<br />
Weekly Totals<br />
50-60 miles per week<br />
With leaves falling all around her on a crisp autumn day, a 21<br />
year old coed took the first run of her life. The fifteen minute<br />
jog left quite an impression on Susan Stirrat and a love affair<br />
with running was born.<br />
College life quickly passed and before she knew it Stirrat was<br />
married with two children and in her thirties. She lived in<br />
Southie, logically joined the L Street Running Club, and started<br />
racing on weekends. In short time she was averaging 6:20-<br />
30 a mile and winning lots of races. Winning the POW 10K<br />
with a PR of 39:04 was a definite highlight.<br />
Skipping to her 40s, Stirrat was looking for a new challenge.<br />
She joined the BAA and took to the coaching of Ed Sheehan.<br />
He quickly convinced her to run Boston as part of the master’s<br />
team. To get a sense of Stirrat’s grit, a quick anecdote about<br />
that marathon: Now with three children, Susan took her youngest<br />
to the Hynes Convention Center for number pickup. Well,<br />
in a very maternal moment she lifted up Jack and wretched<br />
her back. She recalls, “The following morning when I woke<br />
up, I couldn’t get out of bed. I called Ed and he said, ‘Just<br />
make it to the bus.’” Somehow she did make it to the bus and<br />
to the finish line. She nailed a 3:20 debut bad back and all.<br />
After two knee surgeries, Stirrat started to doubt her running.<br />
Juggling a fulltime job with the toils of being a single parent<br />
only bolstered those doubts. She needed a change. In steps<br />
her son Liam with future husband Reno in tow. Circuitously<br />
through the marvels of modern technology, Liam introduced<br />
his mom to Reno and a courtship commenced. Of course, the<br />
understated Reno never mentioned his running credentials.<br />
Susan found that out when she flipped through the pages of<br />
New England Runner. As a close friend told her, “Susan, you<br />
are talking to the real deal.”<br />
The rest is history. Susan and Reno ran their first race together<br />
at the Bradford Valentine’s Race and took 4 th team overall.<br />
They both individually shared a passion for running, and now<br />
they share a passion for each other. As Susan says, “Give us a<br />
good pair of running shoes and healthy legs to run with, and<br />
we are happy.” Enough said.<br />
What is Side by Side?<br />
Side by side is a new feature in <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> magazine.<br />
From time to time, The <strong>Level</strong> wants to take a<br />
look at people who share a common relationship<br />
(spouses, siblings, best friends, etc) and how their<br />
training is similar and different. Do they balance<br />
each other out? Do they keep it on The <strong>Level</strong>?<br />
Well, that’s for you , the reader, to decide. Post<br />
your thoughts on this month’s tandem on <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong>’s<br />
facebook page or tweet 140 characters<br />
@kevbalance.<br />
14
Side by Side Reno Stirrat<br />
Photo by Scott Mason<br />
Photo by Scott Mason<br />
Training Week<br />
Monday<br />
9.5 @7:21 easy<br />
Tuesday<br />
AM: Warmup 4.2 @7:35 4 mile tempo semi hilly 23:16, cool<br />
down 7:09<br />
PM: 1 hour core, upper body and legs<br />
Wednesday<br />
9.6 @ 7:35 recovery<br />
Thursday<br />
AM: Warmup 4 @7:43 Hill intervals ¼ up ¼ down, 6x 800 avg<br />
3:03, 1 min recovery, 6x40 sec 5k pace 40 sec jog recovery,<br />
cool down 4.3 @7:16<br />
PM: 1 hour core, upper body and legs<br />
Friday<br />
10.2 @7:45 recovery<br />
Saturday<br />
9.5 @7:25 easy<br />
Sunday<br />
20.1 mile long run @7:07, last 10 miles sub 6:50 pace<br />
Weekly Totals<br />
85.7 miles<br />
Reno Stirrat ran his first race in 1970 when he was a freshman<br />
in high school. He stuck with it and hit his peak in his<br />
late 20s and early 30s. Check out these PR’s:<br />
Mile: 4:10<br />
5K: 14:19<br />
10K: 29:21<br />
Half: 65:05<br />
Full: 2:19.17<br />
That marathon time got Stirrat into the 1980 Olympic <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
trials and chiseled his name into, as Susan’s friend<br />
had said, “real deal” status.<br />
Moving into the 21 st century, Reno and his wife Susan<br />
joined Whirlaway in 2008. That merger has been nothing<br />
but good for Stirrat. He says, “Having a running wife who<br />
shares dreams, aspirations, and a love of running brings<br />
joy to both our lives and makes it easier to live the<br />
‘runner’s lifestyle.’” Indeed it has. Since marrying Susan<br />
and joining WRT, his times have dropped. At 56, he ran<br />
16:56 at the Syracuse Masters Championship 5K, 75:16 at<br />
the New Bedford Half, and 2:42.27 at Boston. That’s nothing<br />
to glance over. Stirrat is the man. So much the man<br />
that he won the 55-59 age division at Boston and was<br />
named USATF Masters 55-59 Runner of the Year.<br />
To cap of this incredible campaign, Stirrat joined the exclusive<br />
5 Decades of Sub 3 hour <strong>Mar</strong>athons Club. Not only<br />
did Reno run sub 3:00 in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s, but<br />
he did each one under 2:45. 2:45! About such a feat, Stirrat<br />
simply says, “The true challenge will be to break 3<br />
hours in 2020 when I’m 64. With the 60’s on the horizon in<br />
2014 I will move into a new age group which will be fun.”<br />
Stirrat is not a selfish man. He now helps runners of all<br />
ability levels achieve their best through the website distance-running-tips.com.<br />
He is also the Director of Running<br />
at Outside Interactive (see page 26 for more on that). But<br />
above all, he is one of the most encouraging and positive<br />
thinkers in our running community. That in and of itself is<br />
worth recognizing and celebrating.<br />
As of this writing, Stirrat is experiencing his first major injury.<br />
It took 41 years, but it finally happened. Don’t get<br />
too excited, though, you current masters. He is biking 150<br />
miles per week and doing enough rehab work to come<br />
back stronger and faster than ever.<br />
15
The Dossier Files: Becky Hutchinson The (Semi)Elites<br />
Becky Hutchinson is a pure runner. The personification of The <strong>Level</strong> creed. She runs to<br />
tap into nature and connect with her body. Evidence? Check out what she says about her<br />
experience at the Exeter (now Gansett) <strong>Mar</strong>athon.<br />
Name: Becky Hutchinson<br />
Age: 30<br />
Height: 5’6”<br />
Weight: 130<br />
Residence: Boston<br />
Occupation: Architect<br />
High School: Amity Regional High School, CT ‘99<br />
College: Brown ‘03<br />
Club: Cambridge Running Club<br />
Avg Miles per Week: 40-70 depending on the season<br />
Notable PR’s<br />
1. <strong>Mar</strong>athon 3:01:40<br />
2. Half <strong>Mar</strong>athon 1:26:50<br />
3. 10K 39:09<br />
4. 5K 18:42<br />
5. 1 Mile 5:22<br />
Favorites<br />
Races:<br />
1. Exeter <strong>Mar</strong>athon, RI (now Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon)<br />
2. Mount Washington Road Race, NH<br />
3. 26x1 Mile <strong>Mar</strong>athon Relay, MA<br />
4. Doggie 5K (with my dog!)<br />
Workouts:<br />
1. 5x1 mile @ 10K pace, 1 min rest<br />
2. 8 x 400m @ mile pace; 400m @ marathon pace<br />
3. 40 min “hill” run on the treadmill, holding between 12% and 15% incline<br />
Places to Run:<br />
I run all around Boston and its surroundings, including Cambridge, South Boston,<br />
Charlestown, Newton, Jamaica Plain, the Fells, or wherever my running shoes and friends<br />
take me.<br />
Running Shoe:<br />
Saucony Kinvara<br />
Photo by Justin Verdirame<br />
Workout Songs:<br />
I never listen to music when I run. I enjoy listening to my body and focusing on the<br />
present.<br />
Book:<br />
My two favorite running books are Born to Run and What I Talk About When I Talk About<br />
Running.<br />
Hobbies:<br />
I love to read about architecture and, when lucky, travel to see amazing buildings and<br />
unique urban spaces.<br />
Running Intangibles<br />
Training Philosophy:<br />
Challenge yourself with personal goals but use the camaraderie and motivation of teammates<br />
to achieve them.<br />
16
The Dossier Files: Becky Hutchinson The (Semi)Elites<br />
Prerace Ritual:<br />
Oatmeal breakfast + foam roller<br />
Career High/Lowlights:<br />
Running the inaugural Exeter <strong>Mar</strong>athon (now Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon), first organized in 2010 by<br />
race director Mike Tammaro, was the purest race experience of my running career. I toed the<br />
line with just 50 other competitors that day. Thanks to the conspicuous absence of spectacle<br />
and fanfare that now surrounds most events, I was able to listen to my body, find my<br />
zone, and hit my PR. It also helped to have my amazing friends and family following me down<br />
the course: I ran upon a personal cheer squad every few miles!<br />
I’ve been most disappointed by my repeat poor performances in the Boston <strong>Mar</strong>athon, my<br />
hometown race. Despite training religiously on the course, all four of my Bostons have ended<br />
in frustration and sub-par times. I’ve decided to target other marathons instead and to<br />
substitute running on <strong>Mar</strong>athon Monday with wild cheering for my teammates, with a beer in<br />
hand.<br />
Goals:<br />
Break 3 hours in the marathon<br />
Be one of the top scorers for CRC’s USATF Grand Prix Team<br />
Proudest Moment:<br />
Winning the Doggie 5K (women’s division) with my dog Snuggs was one of my favorite race moments<br />
- I was so proud of Snuggs! She has proven to be a natural runner and a fierce competitor.<br />
Running with her reminds me to let go of the metrics of time, pace, and distance<br />
and just enjoy being outside and going fast!<br />
Miscellaneous:<br />
I owe my love for training and my PR achievements to the amazing community that I’ve found<br />
in the Cambridge Running Club. I hope that all runners can be so lucky as to find a training<br />
partner or running group who helps bring out the best in themselves and in our sport.<br />
www.organicphotography.org<br />
Kris and Joe Navas<br />
508-649-5187<br />
organicphotographylove@gmail.com<br />
17
Q and A w/ Greg Hammett The (Semi)Elites<br />
I had talked to him a few times prior,<br />
but I really got to know Greg Hammett<br />
(Keene, NH) when we cooled down<br />
together after the 2010 Rhody 5K. As<br />
we talked, I found his outlook on life,<br />
including all things running, to be inspirational.<br />
It was one of the easiest<br />
cooldowns I have ever done. Check<br />
out how Hammett answers the following<br />
questions and you might just learn a<br />
thing or two. You don’t even have to<br />
run a 5K first.<br />
Q: I hear that you began running in<br />
your senior year of high school.<br />
How’d you get started?<br />
A: That’s true. I was a soccer player<br />
my whole life. In high school, I played<br />
on the soccer team and wrestled. My<br />
senior year I started out playing soccer,<br />
but I was frustrated with<br />
a lack of playing time so I<br />
quit. I wanted to stay fit for<br />
wrestling in the winter, so I<br />
asked the XC coach if I could<br />
run. I ended up being pretty<br />
good, finishing first for<br />
my team in every race, placing<br />
19 th at the RI State Meet,<br />
and going to New England’s.<br />
I was hooked! I decided to<br />
run track in the spring and<br />
have been running ever since.<br />
Q: Most runners have been influenced<br />
by a friend, coach, or family member.<br />
Who has been your biggest influence?<br />
A: My high school cross country and<br />
track coach, Bill Haberek, was a tremendous<br />
influence in my first few<br />
years of running. Now, I am influenced<br />
by my training partners,<br />
friends, family, and other runners in<br />
New England.<br />
Q: Before we get too far along, congrats<br />
on you recent marriage to Jen<br />
Fice. So tell us, as a newlywed have<br />
you found any benefits (or detriments)<br />
to your training as a now married runner?<br />
A: Getting married to Jen has been<br />
great for my running. She’s a runner<br />
and understands the lifestyle and<br />
quirks of a runner. She is very supportive<br />
of my running and encourages<br />
me to run races and do training runs<br />
with my friends. She is an outstanding<br />
cook and loves to prepare healthy<br />
meals that keep me strong and well<br />
nourished. Finally, she is an athletic<br />
trainer and can tend to all my aches<br />
and pains. I’m a lucky runner!<br />
Q: An ongoing <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> debate is<br />
whether or not one should run doubles.<br />
Brett Ely and Bob Wiles do<br />
them. Ben Nephew doesn’t. What’s<br />
your take on running twice a day?<br />
A: I think there are great physiological<br />
benefits to doing doubles. I think<br />
if we all wanted to train optimally,<br />
then we would do doubles. I believe<br />
from a psychological stand point,<br />
however, doubles can be too tough.<br />
Running twice a day can make running<br />
feel like a full-time job. I do doubles<br />
in the summer and sporadically<br />
the rest of the year. When I’m teach-<br />
It feels great to really dig<br />
down and be pushed by<br />
outstanding competition. I<br />
love that feeling.<br />
ing and coaching and have a full<br />
schedule, I really look forward to that<br />
single run in the afternoon. I think<br />
people need to experiment and find<br />
what works for them while still keeping<br />
running enjoyable.<br />
Q: Back in the September issue, you<br />
wrote a letter to The <strong>Level</strong> advocating<br />
that dogs are man’s best friend (as<br />
opposed to renner’s worst enemy).<br />
Can you share some of the experiences<br />
you’ve had with “the Girls?”<br />
A: “The Girls” are Griffin, Lena, Ellie,<br />
and Bailey. Griffin is my dog, Lena<br />
and Ellie belong to Josh Ferenc, and<br />
Bailey is Justin Fyffe’s dog. I do the<br />
majority of my runs on trails with Griffin<br />
and the other girls join me quite a<br />
bit. Griffin is always up for a run, never<br />
complains, and doesn’t mind stopping<br />
to take a swim or enjoy the good<br />
smells. She always lets me pick the<br />
pace and route and if I’m not feeling<br />
well she is more than happy to shut it<br />
down and walk home. Griffin is by<br />
far the best running partner I’ve ever<br />
had.<br />
A couple of winters ago, I did a 2 hour<br />
snowshoe run at night in Pisgah State<br />
Park with a couple friends: Dave Sontag,<br />
Bryan Johnston, and Griffin. We<br />
kept getting off trail because it was<br />
dark and there was deep snow. Griffin<br />
knew to stay on the trail and we<br />
just ended up following her rather<br />
than looking for trail markers. She<br />
lead the way and would wait for us to<br />
make sure she didn’t get too far<br />
ahead. She seemed to know that we<br />
couldn’t see the trail and she lead us<br />
with her nose. She kept us on track<br />
and we had quite an adventure, finishing<br />
our run around midnight in 10 degree<br />
temps in 18 inches of snow. I’m<br />
not saying we couldn’t have done it<br />
without her, but she was a big help in<br />
navigating the trail and she<br />
added to the adventure.<br />
Q: Over the last 2 years, you<br />
have been the points leader<br />
in the Central Mass Striders’<br />
internal team GPS.<br />
That’s no small feat given<br />
CMS has a healthy handful<br />
of top tier runners. To what<br />
do you attribute your combination<br />
of racing speed and<br />
consistency?<br />
A: I make the Grand Prix races a priority.<br />
Occasionally I’ll train through<br />
one, but I always show up. That’s a<br />
huge part of it. I’ve been an iron runner<br />
the last 2 years. I also make staying<br />
healthy the number one goal of<br />
my training. I run on soft trails most of<br />
the time, stretch after I run, lift<br />
weights, and listen to my body and<br />
take a day off when I need it. I think<br />
staying healthy and showing up to all<br />
the races are the keys to doing well in<br />
a long series.<br />
Q: The Keene Wednesday afternoon<br />
training group has become legendary<br />
here in New England. Describe the<br />
typical atmosphere and competitiveness<br />
of running with the Keeneyans?<br />
A: We have a great thing going on.<br />
We get together for workouts every<br />
Wednesday of the year. We have a<br />
consistent core of about 5 guys, but<br />
occasionally we’ll get 20 people to<br />
show up. Some days everyone is on<br />
18
Greg Hammett at the 2010 Bay State <strong>Mar</strong>athon<br />
Photo by Krissy Kozlosky<br />
19
Q and A w/ Greg Hammett The (Semi)Elites<br />
the same page, doing the same<br />
workout, but often times everyone is<br />
doing their own thing. The camaraderie<br />
keeps us all motivated. We often<br />
get together for Sunday long runs too.<br />
We’re not only a training group; we’re<br />
also great friends.<br />
Q: You have tremendous range, having<br />
raced 50K to 800M within a couple<br />
months. Any secrets as to what allows<br />
you to race competitively over such a<br />
vast array of distances?<br />
A: I do year round speed workouts<br />
and year round long runs. I really<br />
think that helps<br />
a runner be versatile.<br />
It also<br />
helps you cut<br />
down on injury<br />
risk. I like to<br />
race a lot. In<br />
2010 I raced<br />
over 50 times. I<br />
think by doing<br />
some race pace<br />
specific stuff for<br />
a couple weeks<br />
leading up to a<br />
goal race, you<br />
can be successful<br />
in many different<br />
events.<br />
For example, I’ll<br />
make sure to<br />
get some long 3<br />
and 4 hour trail<br />
runs starting 8<br />
weeks out from<br />
the Pisgah Trail<br />
50K.<br />
Q: You do most<br />
of your runs on<br />
trails. Why do<br />
you choose<br />
t r a i l s o v e r<br />
roads?<br />
Photo by Ted Tyler<br />
A: I just happen<br />
to live right outside<br />
of the largest<br />
state park in New Hampshire, Pisgah<br />
Park. My parents live in Rhode<br />
Island, right near Burlingame State<br />
Park. I think having access to great<br />
trails right out your front door helps. I<br />
also just love being in the woods.<br />
Training on trails is a great way to cut<br />
down on injury risk as well. The softer<br />
ground and uneven surfaces are much<br />
more forgiving and mentally invigorating.<br />
Every run in the woods is an<br />
adventure.<br />
Q: As an ardent follower of your blog,<br />
I know that you are involved in other<br />
extracurricular activities besides running.<br />
Does your involvement in these<br />
sports—saying refereeing a game or<br />
lifting weights—assist or detract from<br />
you development as a runner?<br />
A: I think that lifting weights is helpful<br />
to my running. It keeps me well balanced<br />
and helps reduce the risk of<br />
Greg Hammett (on left) duking it out with HFC stalwart Lee Danforth at the finish of the Carver 5 Miler last July.<br />
Don’t tell Lee that Greg ran The Blessing of the Fleet the night before. And in the middle of their final sprint did<br />
these two harriers literally reduce that unidentified runner to his knees? Bloody likely.<br />
injuries. I also do yoga, which is<br />
great. I have a goal of being 90 years<br />
old and still being able to touch my<br />
toes. Refereeing basketball games<br />
cuts into my running, but I try to tell<br />
myself that it’s kind of like doing an<br />
easy run with strides and drills (I’m<br />
accelerating, backpedalling, and<br />
moving laterally all the time). My legs<br />
and body usually feel really good after<br />
a night of reffing. I’m also a P.E.<br />
teacher, so I’m constantly moving at<br />
work and doing activities like floor<br />
hockey, skipping, rock climbing, tag,<br />
and dodgeball. It might not directly<br />
help my running, but it does keep me<br />
well balanced.<br />
Q: You continue to challenge yourself<br />
by setting lofty yet attainable goals.<br />
How do you go about setting goals?<br />
And could you recount one goal you<br />
reached of which you are particularly<br />
proud?<br />
A: I’m going to<br />
sound like a<br />
broken record<br />
here, but my<br />
first goal every<br />
year is to remain<br />
healthy<br />
and avoid injury<br />
at all cost. I<br />
usually set my<br />
goals for the<br />
year on New<br />
Year’s Day. I<br />
look at my past<br />
running logs (I<br />
have every run<br />
I’ve ever done<br />
recorded) and<br />
set my goals<br />
from there. I do<br />
a lot of races<br />
but I usually<br />
pick 5 or 6 key<br />
races a year.<br />
The other races<br />
I do, will usually<br />
be there to help<br />
me get ready<br />
for my goal<br />
race. A good<br />
example of this<br />
was doing the<br />
Savoy 22 mile<br />
trail race and<br />
the Wapack<br />
trail race in preparation for the Pisgah<br />
50K.<br />
I think I’m proud of any good race that<br />
I’ve had and by racing frequently I<br />
can forget the bad ones and quickly<br />
move on. Some of the best races are<br />
where you surprise yourself and run<br />
20
Q and A w/ Greg Hammett The (Semi)Elites<br />
faster than you thought you could. A<br />
good example was at the end of 2010<br />
when I ran a 4:20 mile at the first minimeet<br />
of the year. I really didn’t think<br />
I was in that kind of shape. I was just<br />
hoping to break 4:30. That was exciting.<br />
I’m also proud of just about any<br />
race I’ve won, because I think to win a<br />
race you have to mentally believe that<br />
you deserve it, that you are better<br />
prepared than anyone else in the<br />
r a c e .<br />
(You also<br />
have to<br />
be very<br />
fit.) It<br />
f e e l s<br />
great to<br />
r e a l l y<br />
d i g<br />
d o w n<br />
and be<br />
pushed by outstanding competition. I<br />
love that feeling.<br />
One of the last things he<br />
said to me was, “You are<br />
100 times stronger than<br />
you think you are.”<br />
Q: A friend of yours tells me that you<br />
had a friend that succumbed to cancer<br />
several years ago and that this<br />
tragic event had a major impact on<br />
you. How has his death affected your<br />
(running) life?<br />
A: Elijah Barrett was an amazing<br />
person and runner. He really loved<br />
doing epic runs. I learned to be careful<br />
what you suggested around him. I<br />
remember saying, “Man, it’s a nice<br />
night, it would be a great night to run<br />
up Mt. Monadnock.” I was speaking<br />
hypothetically but he started packing<br />
up gear and before I knew it we were<br />
driving to Mt. Mondanock ready for a<br />
run. He was famous for running in<br />
blizzards and thunderstorms. I remember<br />
we once did a track workout<br />
at midnight. He just loved that kind of<br />
stuff. He would often let out a primal<br />
scream when he got to the top of a<br />
huge hill that we just ran up. He was<br />
also the strongest, most confident,<br />
and intelligent person I’ve ever met.<br />
It was a real shock when he got cancer;<br />
it made me realize that life is<br />
fragile and that none of us are invincible.<br />
He’s in-<br />
spired me to<br />
live life to the<br />
fullest and be<br />
appreciative<br />
of what I<br />
got. I also<br />
like to keep<br />
epic runs in<br />
my training<br />
even if it’s not<br />
the perfect training for an upcoming<br />
race. One of the last things he said to<br />
me was, “You are 100 times stronger<br />
than you think you are.” He said that<br />
when he was riddled with cancer. His<br />
physical strength was legendary<br />
when he was healthy, and his strength<br />
of spirit and mental fortitude when<br />
sick were nothing but amazing and<br />
inspiring. I have many runs where I<br />
think of him and smile. Griffin was<br />
Elijah’s dog and every run I do with<br />
her is a reminder of the friendship<br />
Elijah and I had.<br />
You can try to keep up with Greg Hammett<br />
during this season’s USATF-NE GPS. If you<br />
want to talk to him, however, you might<br />
have to wait for the cooldown.<br />
For a practical approach to your nutrition needs<br />
www.eatpractically.com<br />
Kathy Gorman, MS, RD, LDN<br />
Owner/Dietitian<br />
Kathy.GormanMSRD@gmail.com<br />
p. 617-750-4846<br />
f. 617-608-4884<br />
Quickies<br />
Do you ever wear a fuel belt/fanny pack?<br />
Yes, I use a fuel belt, hand held water<br />
bottle, or a camel back for really long<br />
training runs but I usually will go 2 hrs<br />
without anything. I’ve done a few long<br />
trail races with a hand held bottle. It’s<br />
nice because you can refill it quickly at<br />
aid stations and then carry only enough<br />
fluids to get you to the next aid station,<br />
saving weight.<br />
Do you use a GPS watch?<br />
No, I hate GPS watches!! I tested one<br />
once for an article in Runner’s World.<br />
I’ll stick with my Timex Ironman.<br />
(Editor’s Note: You can read that article at http://<br />
www.runnersworld.com/cda/microsite/<br />
article/0,8029,s6-240-321--13216-5-<br />
1X2X3X4X5X6X7X8-9,00.html)<br />
Do you eat fast food?<br />
Yes, sometimes nothing tastes better<br />
than a greasy burger and fries after a<br />
long hard run.<br />
Do you use gels during a race?<br />
Yes, if a race is over an hour and a half<br />
I’ll carry gels.<br />
Do you ice post run?<br />
No, but I do dip my legs in icy streams<br />
sometimes for recovery. Only in the<br />
summer though I’m not very tough!<br />
Hours of sleep per night?<br />
I get 9 hours of sleep just about every<br />
night. I go to bed early and wake up at<br />
around 5 am, even on weekends.<br />
Number of miles per week?<br />
60-95. I do higher mileage in the summer,<br />
and consistently in the 60-70’s the<br />
rest of the year. Every year I’ve done a<br />
little bit more, and I hope to run more<br />
miles this year too.<br />
Running shoe of choice?<br />
I like the Scott T2 for roads and I’m still<br />
searching for the perfect trail shoe, I like<br />
Inov-8’s for racing trails.<br />
Favorite athlete?<br />
I like Meb, Pre, and Kevin Garnett.<br />
Favorite running blog?<br />
South County Trails and Miles of Muddy<br />
21
Lane 3: Commentary<br />
Run Like a Champ…<br />
The <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> Way<br />
by Ray Charbonneau<br />
At races, people ask me “How can<br />
you be so fast? I mean, look at you!”<br />
and I just smile. It really isn’t that<br />
hard to become an awesome runner.<br />
Until now, I’ve kept my training tips to<br />
myself, but the competitive advantage<br />
my plan gives me just isn’t fair. So<br />
here, in a <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> exclusive, I’m<br />
sharing my running secrets with you:<br />
The Top<br />
9<br />
List<br />
1. In order to be the best, you have<br />
to make running your number one<br />
priority. Friends, family, a job - those<br />
are all nice to have, but you always<br />
have to be ready to push them aside<br />
to make time for number one, or<br />
you’ll never finish number one. If you<br />
want, it’s OK to make friends with<br />
your fellow runners and train with<br />
them, but only if they always run with<br />
you at your pace and when it fits your<br />
schedule.<br />
2. When you’re training, run the<br />
same loop over and over, and try to<br />
run it faster every day. It’s as simple<br />
as ABC – Always Be Competing! Never<br />
get that guilty feeling that you’re<br />
not trying hard enough. Even when<br />
you’re just training, every day should<br />
be a new PR. If you’re not improving,<br />
you’re not doing it right! If you have a<br />
bad day, it’s not because you need a<br />
break, it’s because you’re a failure.<br />
Train even harder the next day to<br />
make up for it!<br />
3. Race often, at least once a week if<br />
not more, and always race as hard as<br />
you can when you race. You want to<br />
stay mentally tough. Taking it easy in<br />
a race situation will blunt your edge in<br />
the next race. Remember, practice<br />
makes perfect.<br />
4. Don’t bother with stretching, massage,<br />
foam rollers, The Stick, yoga, or<br />
anything else designed to improve<br />
your range of motion or increase the<br />
flow of blood to your muscles. There<br />
isn’t any conclusive scientific proof<br />
that any of that stuff helps, and they all<br />
take time that can be better spent running.<br />
Running is all you need to get<br />
your blood pumping, flush out lactic<br />
acid, and carry nutrients to your muscles.<br />
Anyhow, any extra range of motion<br />
beyond what you need for running<br />
is useless. If you get a little stiff,<br />
that actually helps keep you from over<br />
-striding.<br />
5. Learn the difference between pain<br />
and injury. If something hurts but you<br />
can still run, that’s not an injury.<br />
That’s just pain and you can, and<br />
should, push through pain. If you<br />
don’t run when something hurts,<br />
you’ll never run.<br />
6. Never do any cross-training. Only<br />
running trains the specific muscles<br />
you need to run better. Runners don’t<br />
go biking, swimming, cross-country<br />
skiing, lift weights, or do plyometrics.<br />
None of that will help you. Runners<br />
run.<br />
7. You need the best tools to get the<br />
best results. You need all the latest<br />
gear to be a winner, especially the<br />
newest and best shoes. Keep track of<br />
the latest shoe trends and buy your<br />
shoes from whoever has the most advanced<br />
technology. If you can’t decide,<br />
always buy the most expensive<br />
shoes. If they cost more, they must be<br />
better. Shoe companies have your<br />
best interests at heart, and they’re<br />
always working to get you whatever<br />
edge they can, however small. You<br />
may not be able to tell your current<br />
shoe from the newer model, but what<br />
do you know?<br />
8. Eat as much as you want of whatever<br />
you want. If the furnace is hot<br />
enough, it’ll burn anything. Highcalorie<br />
foods, with lots of sugar and<br />
fat, are the quickest and most efficient<br />
fuel for a runner. Beer, especially<br />
post-race free beer, helps keep you<br />
hydrated and has B-vitamins and<br />
carbs for energy. Avoid too many<br />
fruits and vegetables. All that fiber<br />
just leads to unscheduled pit-stops<br />
while you’re out on the run.<br />
9. The only way to run your best is to<br />
take it to the limit and train as hard as<br />
you can as often as you can. And the<br />
only way to find where your limits are<br />
is push beyond them. Sure, you’ll<br />
break down – that’s what makes them<br />
limits - but how else can you learn<br />
where they are? After you heal, your<br />
muscles will be stronger, full of tough<br />
knots to help protect against future<br />
injury. A few weeks or months off,<br />
and you’re back, better and smarter<br />
than ever, and ready to go out and<br />
test your limits again.<br />
If this were Runner’s World there’d be<br />
10 rules you’d have to follow, but my<br />
exclusive <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> plan is so simple,<br />
all you need is nine! Pound out<br />
those miles! The hammer is the best<br />
tool you’ve got to turn yourself into a<br />
running machine! Follow these rules,<br />
and you too can bring home the hardware!<br />
Disclaimer: This article is meant for educational<br />
purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons,<br />
living or dead is purely coincidental. Use<br />
only as directed. No other warranty expressed<br />
or implied. May be too intense for some viewers.<br />
For recreational use only. Penalty for private<br />
use. Sanitized for your protection. Beware<br />
of dog. Not responsible for direct, indirect,<br />
incidental or consequential damages resulting<br />
from any defect, error or failure to perform.<br />
Terms are subject to change without notice.<br />
Ray Charbonneau has very good health insurance.<br />
For more of his books and articles visit<br />
www.y42k.com.<br />
22
Lane 3: Commentary<br />
Get the Most for Your $$<br />
How to Save on Running Gear<br />
by Lesley Hocking<br />
Here are 5 quick ways to save money<br />
when you are purchasing your running<br />
gear:<br />
The Top<br />
5<br />
List<br />
1. Buy two pairs of shoes at a time.<br />
This may sound counterintuitive, but it<br />
takes 24 hours for the foam inserts in<br />
shoes to bounce back, so running on<br />
them every day will wear them down<br />
faster. If you alternate between two<br />
pairs of shoes (preferably different<br />
models), you not only get more miles<br />
out of them, but you’re likely to ward<br />
off injury. Your feet will also weaken<br />
if you wear the same pair of shoes<br />
every day; many of today’s shoes offer<br />
so much support that your feet will<br />
accommodate the new support as a<br />
result.<br />
2. Buy fabrics that feel good. Not all<br />
dry-fit shirts are made equally. Some<br />
develop a nasty funk a few miles into<br />
the run, while others tend to chafe. I<br />
find that I only wear three shirts in my<br />
running wardrobe because I gravitate<br />
toward the comfort of seamless clothing.<br />
I probably would have been better<br />
off spending a little more on an<br />
extra one of these nicer shirts than<br />
buying scratchy polyester on sale.<br />
(Incidentally, think of all the money<br />
you could save on perfume, Band-<br />
Aids and BodyGlide expenses. They<br />
even make odor-resistant shirts now.)<br />
3. Invest in a foam roller. A masseuse<br />
may be better, but one hour with a<br />
masseuse will likely cost around $75,<br />
while you can snag a decent foam roller<br />
for a one-time cost of $30 online.<br />
Run for the Troops<br />
5K<br />
Sunday, <strong>Apr</strong>il 1, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Andover, MA<br />
9:00 start<br />
Funds from this race and associated Homes for Our Troops fundraisers will build a home designed<br />
for the specific injuries of one of New England’s own military heroes.<br />
Sgt Joshua Bouchard of Granby, MA<br />
Last year, with the help of 1,000 runners, we raised over $26,000.<br />
Let’s double that contribution this year! Bring a friend on <strong>Apr</strong>il 1!<br />
To find out more about all race details and runner amenities, please visit<br />
www.RunfortheTroops5K.com<br />
Century Bank — Massachusetts School of Law<br />
4. Medicine balls save on medical<br />
bills. It takes strength to ask your<br />
body to pound on pavement for miles.<br />
It doesn’t matter whether you lift with<br />
a medicine ball, use free weights, or<br />
join a gym. But a cheap way to get a<br />
full-body workout is to buy a medium<br />
weight medicine ball (8-10 pounds).<br />
Many brands offer kettle balls with<br />
removable handles that translate into<br />
medicine balls for a 2-in-1 savings.<br />
5. Join Schwaggle. This online coupon<br />
site offers enticing discounts of up to<br />
75% on many running-related items<br />
like pricy energy gels. They also offer<br />
relief from steep entry fees periodically,<br />
so if you don’t mind a few<br />
extra emails in your inbox, you could<br />
save big.<br />
Lesley Hocking is a USATF Certified coach<br />
through www.NERunningServices.com. She lives<br />
in New Hampshire with her husband, Dan, and<br />
she teaches high school English in her spare<br />
time.<br />
23
<strong>Level</strong> Bits<br />
Survey Results<br />
Last month The <strong>Level</strong> asked you how many miles<br />
you ran in 2011. Here are the results:<br />
100—500 6%<br />
501—1000 11%<br />
1001—2000 30%<br />
2001—3000 24%<br />
3001+ 18%<br />
Congrats to George Zack who posted the highest total: 3629!<br />
Good job GZ.<br />
This Month’s Survey<br />
How many running books do you own?<br />
A) less than 5<br />
B) 6—10<br />
C) 11-20<br />
D) more than 20<br />
Go to www.facebook.com/levelrenner or<br />
www.levelrenner.com to share your data. Please also comment<br />
your exact # when you submit. Keep it on The <strong>Level</strong>.<br />
<strong>Renner</strong> Music<br />
Turn up the volume. Turn up the pace. These three songs<br />
will make your workout faster. Guaranteed.<br />
“Rumor Has It” by Adele<br />
The percussion on this song will get your heart pumping. Then come<br />
the vocals. Adele has tremendous pipes, but it’s the background vocals<br />
that’ll really get you moving on this track.<br />
“There There” by Radiohead<br />
“Just cos you feel it doesn’t mean it’s there.” That’s the chorus to this<br />
incredible melody that for some insane reason will just make you<br />
want to run fast. And don’t forget: “There’s always a siren singing<br />
you to shipwreck.”<br />
“Unthought Known” by Pearl Jam<br />
I would only make one change to this song: change “walk” to “run” in<br />
the following lyric: “See the path cut by the moon for you to walk<br />
on.” I would not change this lyric at all: “Dream the dreams of other<br />
men, you’ll be no one’s rival.”<br />
Forward your <strong>Renner</strong> Music nominations to levelrenner@gmail.com.<br />
Put <strong>Level</strong> Music in the subject line. Pick your best three songs and<br />
give a 2 sentence explanation of why you picked each one. You’ll get<br />
your name is this rag and live in immortality, even posthumously.<br />
Bring it to the Next <strong>Level</strong><br />
Do you want to advertise in the newest, hottest,<br />
most trending magazine in all of New England?<br />
Place your ad in the next issue of <strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong>.<br />
Rates are cheap. Contact levelrenner@gmail.com<br />
to learn more.<br />
You can also submit your original artwork, literature,<br />
photography, and articles for consideration.<br />
Make your voice heard!<br />
<strong>Level</strong> <strong>Renner</strong> is FOR RUNNERS BY RUNNERS<br />
Be a part of it!<br />
www.levelrenner.com<br />
for more info<br />
24
Lane 3: Commentary<br />
Deconditioning<br />
by EJN<br />
Rest periods, tapering, work/family<br />
responsibilities and even a minor injury<br />
all provide a break in a runner’s<br />
routine (wanted or not). As much as<br />
the runner may fear that he has lost his<br />
edge, he’ll find that he normally gets<br />
back to peak shape pretty quickly if<br />
the break isn’t for too long. Deconditioning<br />
is a whole different beast, my<br />
friends. It’s like the witness relocation<br />
program for runners; training partners<br />
and teammates thought it was just a<br />
calf injury but now nobody has seen<br />
or heard from you in months. It’s just<br />
part of the risks associated with our<br />
sport and unfortunately sometimes<br />
shit does happen. It could be either a<br />
catastrophic injury or a relentlessly<br />
nagging malady that seems to defy<br />
diagnosis but the dreaded result is the<br />
same. Sound the alarms, awake the<br />
elders, and start rationing the canned<br />
goods: I’ve just entered the apocalyptic<br />
deconditioning zone.<br />
For those out there not intimately familiar<br />
with Deconditioning, here’s a<br />
quick tutorial. There are three stages:<br />
Mad Max, The Road Warrior, and Beyond<br />
Thunderdome. There are fairly<br />
clear symptoms associated with each<br />
step that can help you figure out how<br />
far along you are.<br />
The Mad Max stage (< 2 months) is not<br />
bad by itself because in this stage<br />
there’s still hope for the world and if<br />
you can get out of it quickly then it’s<br />
no big deal. Obstacles are presented,<br />
but they are manageable unless you<br />
don’t get control because then the<br />
problems will run you down like a<br />
lawless motorcycle gang. Symptoms<br />
are more subtle here: despite your<br />
grief you still dress normally, attend<br />
races as a spectator, and even continue<br />
to eat right and take the stairs<br />
when you can just because you’re still<br />
that active person at heart.<br />
In The Road Warrior stage (2-4<br />
months) the grief boils over to frustration<br />
and sorrow turns to despair. You<br />
quickly realize the world is looking<br />
bleak when the injury takes the form<br />
of The Humungus, you find yourself<br />
eating dog food and squabbling over<br />
the last of the gas. Symptoms here:<br />
instead of jeans you’ll find yourself<br />
inexplicably wearing ill-fitting sweats<br />
more and more, trips up the stairs turn<br />
into escalator rides and then frozen<br />
foods and beer slowly start to dominate<br />
the diet.<br />
Beyond Thunderdome stage (>4<br />
Break a deal,<br />
Spin the wheel.<br />
months) can be classified as either<br />
acceptance or also flat out giving up.<br />
After your wheels are stolen, you find<br />
yourself in Bartertown and things arguably<br />
can’t be bleaker. You hope<br />
Auntie Entity can work a miracle for<br />
you because she’s your last shot. The<br />
symptoms in this situation are more<br />
like sad facts really: no effort is given<br />
to working out, you’ll gladly wait 5<br />
minutes to take the elevator up 1 floor,<br />
and you’re on a first name basis with<br />
all the drive-thru workers within a 5<br />
mile radius.<br />
Once you find yourself in Thunderdome,<br />
you realize that Deconditioning<br />
is the worst type of parasite because it<br />
attacks the body and mind. The desire<br />
to find alternate means of staying<br />
in shape slowly diminishes as it takes<br />
longer and longer to nail down a diagnosis<br />
and a firm plan of treatment.<br />
The once chiseled legs are starting to<br />
feel doughy while the once mighty<br />
lungs now wheeze for no apparent<br />
reason. The sad truth of the matter is<br />
missed workouts have a tendency of<br />
snowballing, and once the momentum<br />
shifts it’s very hard to swing it back in<br />
your favor since motivation is no<br />
doubt tough to come by now. Even as<br />
I type this I can feel my muscle fibers<br />
softening, relaxing, atrophying, weakening.<br />
After a while the light at the<br />
end of tunnel reveals itself to be a<br />
train and you find yourself crying in<br />
the dark while listening to Glory Days<br />
on a continuous loop while eating<br />
Power Bars and softly repeating to<br />
yourself, “It’ll be okay. It’ll be okay.”<br />
It’s almost impossible to look at this<br />
situation without being overdramatic.<br />
Truth is, I know the world’s not going<br />
to end, I know that I will run again<br />
soon, and I know that I’ll be faster than<br />
I was before. Until I can put the shoes<br />
on and go for a run without worrying,<br />
then the world is going to end and in<br />
very dramatic fashion. After all, what<br />
is a runner that can’t run? It makes me<br />
think of Superman II, when the Man of<br />
Steel gives up his powers and is just a<br />
dork with glasses that gets his reporter<br />
ass whupped at a coffee shop by a<br />
hick. For many of us, running is not<br />
only a form of working out, but it can<br />
also be a way to help you work<br />
through your problems; it’s selftherapy.<br />
When the therapy ends up<br />
being the problem then how do you<br />
go about dealing with it?<br />
Can a runner come back from deconditioning?<br />
Odds are if you’re young<br />
you’ll come back fine and possibly<br />
even stronger. Once that age starts<br />
creeping up there the hurdles become<br />
taller and the task becomes that<br />
much more daunting. Add in a family<br />
and increased responsibility at work<br />
and then it might start to seem like the<br />
closest you’ll get to competitive running<br />
is some sort of Black Friday stampede<br />
at Best Buy.<br />
But if you find yourself in Bartertown<br />
and want to make that journey back<br />
from the brink, then for most physical<br />
Continued on page 33<br />
25
Lane 3: Commentary<br />
Outside Interactive<br />
Run a Virtual Race Course on Your Own Treadmill<br />
by Gary McNamee<br />
Do you have a treadmill that is gathering<br />
dust in your basement? Are you<br />
stuck inside and bored on your treadmill?<br />
Lucky for you, Outside Interactive<br />
is the panacea to your treadmill<br />
blues. Outside Interactive, a Boston<br />
based company, offers treadmill runners<br />
a way to run famous race courses<br />
(yes, including Boston!), popular running<br />
routes, and exotic international<br />
destinations all from the comfort of<br />
their own home (and treadmill).<br />
Outside Interactive offers 2 products,<br />
a Pre-Paced DVD Series and Virtual<br />
Runner Software. The Pre-Paced DVDs<br />
work with any treadmill and DVD<br />
player. They are menu driven and<br />
allow you to pre-select the “pace” you<br />
wish the video speed to run. There is<br />
also an audio/mute option which lets<br />
you either hear the natural sound<br />
recorded when the video was<br />
made or your own personal music<br />
selections. You also have the<br />
option to start anywhere on each<br />
course by mile marker so a video<br />
can be spread out over a number<br />
of workouts. By wearing a footpod,<br />
the Virtual Runner Software<br />
will dynamically adjust the video<br />
speed based on your pace. As<br />
you speed up or slow down, the<br />
video adjusts to your pace.<br />
All videos are shot from a runner’s<br />
point of view allowing you<br />
to see popular race courses as if<br />
you were actually there. With<br />
landmarks, mile markers, and<br />
even elevation prompts, you’ll forget<br />
that you are on your “dreadmill,” especially<br />
as you adjust your incline to<br />
run up Heartbreak Hill! If you prefer<br />
more scenic locales, how about a run<br />
in Central Park, the Australian Outback<br />
at Sunrise, through the rice<br />
fields of Bali, or a run along the shores<br />
of Maui at sunset?<br />
“This is very cool,” said Eric Blake,<br />
current World Record holder for the<br />
Treadmill <strong>Mar</strong>athon at 2:21.40. “I actually<br />
feel like I’m on the course. With<br />
all the twists and turns, it’s like chapters<br />
in a book. You feel like you’re<br />
making progress. Without realizing it,<br />
you’re an hour in. That’s cool.”<br />
“This is truly a game changer,” stated<br />
Sharon Gayter. Sharon would know<br />
since this past December, she became<br />
the overall women’s and men’s<br />
World Record holder for the most<br />
miles covered on a treadmill in 7 days<br />
at 517.33 miles (832.57 km). “Running<br />
over 18 hours a day for 7 days while<br />
chasing the records, my biggest challenge<br />
was boredom. Outside Interactive<br />
has made great strides in making<br />
treadmill running more engaging and<br />
fun.”<br />
Pre-Paced DVDs start at just $19.95<br />
with free shipping in the continental<br />
US and the Virtual Runner Software<br />
OI’s virtual Falmouth course.<br />
Bill Rodgers being filmed for OI’s virtual Boston DVD.<br />
starts at just $99.95.<br />
For more information, go to<br />
www.OutsideInteractive.com.<br />
Gary McNamee is the president of Outside Interactive<br />
and runs for HFC, Hurtin For Certain.<br />
All photos and images courtesy of Gary McNamee<br />
26
Lane 3 Commentary Olympic Trials<br />
Dealing with Disappointment<br />
The <strong>Mar</strong>athon Olympic Trials<br />
by Brett Ely<br />
I recently watched the ESPN special<br />
The Brady 6; it focuses on the 2000<br />
NFL draft in which Tom Brady was selected<br />
199 th , the sixth quarterback<br />
picked. It’s a story of triumph, of the<br />
underdog rising to favorite status<br />
while the five ahead of him faltered or<br />
floundered in mediocrity. But what<br />
struck me wasn’t the happy ending for<br />
our own #12. It was seeing Tom<br />
Brady, the handsome multi-millionaire<br />
with 3 Superbowl rings and supermodel<br />
wife, still brought to tears remembering<br />
the disappointment, hurt,<br />
and rejection of those first 198 picks.<br />
And it struck me in that moment: he<br />
isn’t successful despite being pick<br />
199, he’s successful because of it.<br />
We’re driven by our disappointments,<br />
and we carry them longer and deeper<br />
than any victory.<br />
Mine, too, was supposed to be a story<br />
of triumph. It was outlined in my mind<br />
before it ever unfolded: the smart,<br />
patient runner flying under the radar,<br />
then quietly destroying the field at the<br />
Pan Am Games. The impressive turnaround<br />
in twelve short weeks leading<br />
to an even better marathon at the<br />
Olympic Trials. The feeling that every<br />
mile, every interval, every coolly calculated<br />
decision were all leading to a<br />
perfect, shining moment at the finish<br />
line. But this isn’t that story. This is<br />
reality. This is the marathon in all its<br />
gut-wrenching glory.<br />
Most of my past few years of running<br />
have been focused on the <strong>2012</strong> U.S.<br />
Olympic Team Trials. I had no delusions<br />
of finishing in the top three, but<br />
still, I felt like I had another level to<br />
climb and was motivated to make that<br />
jump. One big, exciting wrench was<br />
thrown in my plans, though. I accepted<br />
a spot on the US team for the Pan<br />
American Games (October 2011 in<br />
Guadalajara, Mexico), knowing that<br />
I’d be attempting something I never<br />
had: 4 marathons in 13 months. Nonetheless,<br />
the plan was sound and I was<br />
confident. Workouts came together<br />
better than expected in the final<br />
weeks before heading to Mexico. If<br />
not for this persistent, nagging pain in<br />
my hip, I might have believed I was<br />
invincible.<br />
But I wasn’t okay. I<br />
was numb inside my<br />
cocoon of forced<br />
smiles.<br />
But, I wasn’t. My hip stopped me at<br />
20K in the Pan Am Games, led to several<br />
missed weeks of running thereafter,<br />
and continued to give me trouble<br />
through the training segment leading<br />
up to the Olympic Trials. I didn’t have<br />
a moment upon returning from Mexico<br />
to recover, to process, or to grieve.<br />
I dove right back into training and<br />
worked hard to stay positive as my<br />
body continued to struggle. I believed<br />
I could be better on January<br />
14 th than any given day in training<br />
leading up to the race. I had scripted<br />
the comeback in my mind in vivid detail.<br />
I wasn’t going to Houston to embrace<br />
and enjoy the experience; I was<br />
going to race like there was nothing<br />
after.<br />
By 12 miles into the trials marathon, I<br />
was limping and it was clear to me<br />
that my body still wasn’t where it<br />
needed to be. I stopped just before 16<br />
miles when I saw my husband on the<br />
side of the road. I borrowed a jacket<br />
and pants, wanting to assume the disguise<br />
of a casual spectator. I cheered<br />
like hell for my friends on the course.<br />
I said all sorts of happy things to everyone<br />
who tried to offer condolences.<br />
I even managed to laugh when someone<br />
came up after the race with an<br />
exuberant “Great job!” followed by<br />
“Oh, sorry…you’re not Jeannette…” I<br />
kept this relentlessly positive attitude<br />
all the way through my travels home,<br />
to the point that my friends were kind<br />
of baffled by how okay I seemed to be<br />
considering the outcome. But I wasn’t<br />
okay. I was numb inside my cocoon of<br />
forced smiles.<br />
It wasn’t until I arrived back home on<br />
Monday that I had a chance to process<br />
the previous few months. I looked at<br />
my watch and saw it was still stuck on<br />
the splits of my unfinished race. I<br />
knew I needed to hit that reset button.<br />
While it was the last thing I wanted to<br />
do, I updated my training log with the<br />
splits, the details, and the ultimate<br />
outcome of the race. It wasn't until I<br />
had those numbers and words out—<br />
the logical conclusion to this emotionally<br />
draining journey—that I finally<br />
had a moment to grieve. I had<br />
fought so hard to stay upbeat and to<br />
find the silver linings that it was actually<br />
refreshing to just acknowledge<br />
the overwhelming storm cloud and let<br />
myself be let down. In trying to put a<br />
positive spin on things, I had missed<br />
the importance of simply being able<br />
to say that I wanted more, I wanted it<br />
badly, and I didn’t get it done. It’s<br />
heartbreaking to care so much, to<br />
work so hard in obscurity, and to ultimately<br />
feel let down. But it’s also<br />
something every athlete at every level<br />
has to deal with, and it’s something<br />
that, in the end, drives us toward our<br />
goals with renewed dedication and<br />
fervor.<br />
This was supposed to be a story of<br />
triumph. It isn’t (at least not yet). But<br />
it’s a story we all have, we all know,<br />
and it’s what compels us to continue<br />
lacing up our shoes and looking toward<br />
the next training segment and a<br />
future, better self.<br />
Brett Ely will be back and stronger than ever.<br />
You better watch out.<br />
27
QUALIFYING<br />
GANSETT MARATHON: <strong>Apr</strong>il 14, <strong>2012</strong>, 8:00am, Narragansett RI<br />
www.Gansett<strong>Mar</strong>athon.com<br />
The Gansett <strong>Mar</strong>athon is a qualifiers-only marathon. To qualify, you must<br />
run a marathon in a time equal to or faster than your age-graded standard.<br />
Your age-graded standard is based on the table below.<br />
Your age category is determined by your age on race day: <strong>Apr</strong>il 14, <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
There is a two-year qualifying window. In other<br />
words, your qualifying race must be run on or after<br />
<strong>Apr</strong>il 14, 2010. Your qualifying race must be run<br />
on a properly measured course. Trail marathons<br />
and triathlon legs are generally not acceptable. The<br />
qualifying standards and procedures are adhered to<br />
strictly. No exceptions.<br />
RACE INFORMATION<br />
Awards for top three male and female overall. Awards for top male and female in<br />
the following age categories: 18-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-<br />
59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80+. Top three overall are not eligible for age-group<br />
awards.<br />
Fast, scenic, spectator-friendly, USATF-certified course. Miles and half-miles are<br />
marked clearly and accurately. Water and Gatorade approximately every 2.4 miles.<br />
Short-sleeved quality technical shirts for all runners.<br />
Male and female styles available. No advertisements<br />
on the shirts—only the Gansett<br />
logo.<br />
Men and women run with a separate, differentlycolored<br />
number sequence. Bib numbers are ordered<br />
by qualifying time, with top male and female<br />
qualifiers wearing bib #1.<br />
Every finisher receives an embroidered finisher’s patch. No medals.<br />
Professional photography by George Ross:<br />
www.digitalphotoconcept.com<br />
28
New Balance Grand Prix<br />
New Balance Grand Prix<br />
Reggie Lewis Center, Boston, 2.5.<strong>2012</strong><br />
by Joe Navas All photos by Joe Navas/Organic Photography<br />
Who says track & field isn’t a contact<br />
sport? For that matter, who says it’s<br />
predictable? At this year’s edition of<br />
the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix,<br />
on both counts the assertion was<br />
shown to be just plain wrong.<br />
There was a Men’s Mile that saw the<br />
current 5000 meter world champ<br />
throw the whole thing into chaos with<br />
a stumble and tumble 25 seconds in<br />
and still recover to PR in 3:57 (for 4 th<br />
place)…We witnessed 6 feet of female<br />
fierceness soar higher than all but one<br />
other has (and past all who hail from<br />
this land)…How about two women<br />
from the same country, one the current<br />
5000 world record holder, the<br />
other a 5-time World Cross Country<br />
Champion running in two different<br />
races of a very, very similar distance<br />
at the same meet? They both won, by<br />
a whole heck of a lot. You couldn’t<br />
make this stuff up.<br />
The night began with a race youngsters<br />
bemoan as circus sideshow and<br />
locals look forward to like it’s a<br />
legend’s game:<br />
The Master’s<br />
Mile. Charlie<br />
Kern, who made<br />
mincemeat of a<br />
fairly talented<br />
field at last year’s<br />
Games with his<br />
meet record 4:19,<br />
returned to defend<br />
his title and<br />
ran a machinelike<br />
4:22.<br />
The event saw<br />
regional track<br />
maven Jason<br />
Cakouros drop<br />
out h alf-way<br />
through the second<br />
lap when his<br />
upper thigh injury,<br />
which had already<br />
made his<br />
decision to participate<br />
a very last<br />
minute one, went pop! Cakouros said<br />
afterwards that he knew it wasn’t in<br />
the cards for him, but it was just too<br />
great an opportunity to pass up. Fellow<br />
area speedster Titus Mutinda,<br />
who the announcer mistakenly proclaimed<br />
had recently turned 50, led<br />
the early charge with a blistering 31<br />
second first lap, as if to say, “Jeez,<br />
man, I’m only 46!” However, he<br />
dropped off the pace quickly and after<br />
2 laps, Kern was running around in<br />
circles alone as the battle for 2 nd on<br />
down raged behind.<br />
The Girl’s Junior Mile ran next. Featuring<br />
one of the faster fields in the<br />
meet’s history, it was won in tactical<br />
fashion by Delaware high school runner<br />
Haley Piece in 4:48, followed less<br />
than three seconds back by Cayla<br />
Hatton of Farmington, Connecticut.<br />
The top seven girls broke five minutes<br />
with the top four all going 4:52 or better.<br />
The Boys Junior Mile followed the<br />
girls and while there was no one here<br />
who would threaten anything close to<br />
4:00 territory, the field was in no way<br />
weak. North Carolina’s Craig Engels<br />
took the title over <strong>Mar</strong>shfield High<br />
runner and Massachusetts State 1000<br />
meter champ Joel Hubbard in an ever-changing,<br />
incredibly close contest.<br />
Engels may have won with a very respectable<br />
4:13.70, but it was all he<br />
had to edge out Hubbard, who led<br />
through 800 meters and finished with<br />
a 4:14.35, as he was practically<br />
hugged by the rest of the field with<br />
less than a second separating 2-6 and<br />
last place (10 th ) coming in at 4:21.<br />
The rhythm of the evening was building<br />
perfectly and the static was<br />
cranked up just right for the Women’s<br />
800 meter run, the first pro event of<br />
the evening.<br />
Maggie Vessey was looking (along<br />
with the rest of the field) to go sub<br />
2:00, and the night seemed like it<br />
could be leading to that, what with a<br />
fast track and the packed house of<br />
nearly 5,000 already buzzing. But a<br />
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New Balance Grand Prix<br />
slow start and a bunched up first turn<br />
led to a jerky pace and the race became<br />
more pragmatic, with speed<br />
and timing giving the tape to Vessey<br />
over Erica Moore in a photo finish.<br />
Vessey was clocked with a 2:02.361 to<br />
Moore’s 2:02.365. Comparatively,<br />
Ethiopian Fantu Magiso’s 3 rd<br />
place 2:02.57 made her look as if<br />
she was still somewhere on the<br />
backstretch as Vessey and Moore<br />
broke the red tape.<br />
The time had come for the first of<br />
the 3 races the masses had come to<br />
see: The Women’s 2 Mile. Prior to<br />
the race, there had been much<br />
criticism and dissent among track<br />
fans regarding the decision to host<br />
two of the world’s greatest distance<br />
athletes in the history of the<br />
sport in Tirunesh Dibaba and<br />
Meseret Defar of Ethiopia and<br />
cave to their desire to not have to<br />
race each other, but event organizers<br />
caved, as was expected, and<br />
thus the meet was to feature a 2<br />
mile (or 3200 meter) race in addition<br />
to a 3000 meter contest. This<br />
also meant that the fields for<br />
each would be diluted,<br />
since now instead of one<br />
race featuring the best in<br />
the world as well as the<br />
reigning World Champ,<br />
Jenny Simpson, there<br />
would be two.<br />
The gun went off for the<br />
3000 and it was a quick<br />
group staying together<br />
through the first turn, with<br />
perennial US Olympic<br />
hopeful Delilah Dicrescenzo<br />
staying surely in<br />
the middle of it and Dibaba<br />
running conservatively behind<br />
a woman who would<br />
be her pacer for the first<br />
800. By the time the pacer<br />
skipped to the infield, Dibaba<br />
was so far ahead, it was<br />
easy to forget there were<br />
other runners in the race, as<br />
it was clearly just her running<br />
as fast a time trial as<br />
she could. The only fear<br />
now was what would happen<br />
if she lapped the field<br />
and got clipped. Fortunately, by the<br />
time she caught up to the caboose, the<br />
finish line had arrived and she had<br />
just run a solo 9:21.60, besting her<br />
nearest threat by over 30 seconds<br />
(Jackie Areson in 9:51.81.)<br />
Though it was written earlier that<br />
there were three key events the<br />
crowd had paid to see, there certainly<br />
was a fourth that was to be quite exciting,<br />
given that US phenom and World<br />
Bronze Medalist Matt Centrowitz was<br />
involved. That event would be the<br />
3000 meters, a race that last year was<br />
by far the most exciting event of the<br />
night. In that race, a young and talented<br />
upstart from Ethiopia named Dejen<br />
Gebremeskel lost one of his<br />
shoes at the start and hung tough for<br />
the win in a blistering time over none<br />
other than Mo Farah, outkicking the<br />
incredible Brit down the stretch for<br />
the victory. This year, Gebremeskel<br />
stood arrogantly on the line and announced<br />
without words that he was<br />
the man to beat, especially since<br />
Farah was signed up for the mile this<br />
evening.<br />
The race start was a pushing, elbowing<br />
affair that seemed to energize the<br />
field, and the pack went through 200<br />
in 29 seconds flat. The pace seemed<br />
to gas a few men and by 600 meters,<br />
there was already a distinct split into<br />
two packs with Centrowitz unfortunately<br />
in the middle part of the trailer.<br />
If he had any ideas about moving up<br />
into the lead group, that idea was<br />
quickly rejected by the 12 th lap of 15,<br />
as the group of four men that now included<br />
Gebremeskel and Kenyan rising<br />
star Silas Kiplagat cranked up<br />
the pace to 30 second laps, and<br />
surged with every straightaway as<br />
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New Balance Grand Prix<br />
they pushed each other away from the<br />
rest of the field. Kiplagat’s countryman,<br />
Caleb Ndiku, who stood defiantly<br />
next to Gebremeskel at the start,<br />
had taken the lead with seven laps to<br />
go and was the one responsible for<br />
the consistent up ticks, as if to challenge<br />
those behind him to dare to<br />
keep pace. He even gave Gebremeskel<br />
a little room on the outside coming<br />
off the final turn, but that turned out to<br />
be merely a tease, as Ndiku put 2<br />
more meters on last year’s champ and<br />
won with a 7:38.29. Centrowitz hung<br />
tough and placed 7 th in the field of 12<br />
in 7:46.19, but it showed that if he is to<br />
hang with the world’s best when they<br />
really decide to run a gutsy race, he’s<br />
going to have to get just a little faster.<br />
In the women’s 1000 meter, there was<br />
a decidedly local feel to the race as<br />
Maine’s Anna Pierce was looking for<br />
redemption following her abysmal<br />
4:39 3 rd place showing at the US Open<br />
in New York a week earlier. While she<br />
didn’t get it completely in the form of<br />
a victory, the former US 800 meter<br />
champ (2010) did get a more respectable<br />
result in a closer battle, finishing<br />
in 2:38.91 and staying in contention<br />
the whole race behind eventual winner<br />
Btissam Lakhouad (2:38.14) and<br />
Morgan Uceny (2:38.44.)<br />
Meanwhile, on the infield at the Reggie<br />
Lewis Center, Jenn Suhr, the far<br />
and away favorite to win her event,<br />
was going for the American record in<br />
the Pole Vault. The crowd clapped<br />
rhythmically for her as she flew down<br />
the runway and ascended cleanly<br />
over the 16 foot high bar, never touching<br />
it as she came down already smiling<br />
as the audience went wild with the<br />
loudest roar of the night. It was Suhr’s<br />
3 rd time setting the American record<br />
at “The Reg” and it came, fittingly, on<br />
her 30 th birthday, as if somehow she<br />
needed to know she was just getting<br />
stronger at an age when many athletes<br />
who have relied on speed and<br />
power are beginning to see those elements<br />
escape. Driven on by the<br />
adrenaline of the crowd, Suhr, who<br />
admitted afterward she was conscious<br />
of some soreness in her Achilles, gave<br />
the world record of 16-4 ¾ one shot<br />
before calling it a night.<br />
The stage was ready for the night’s<br />
big show, the Men’s Mile, which featured<br />
a talented if odd hodgepodge of<br />
some of the world’s best runners trying<br />
their hand at an unfamiliar distance.<br />
This was to be a curious throwdown<br />
between training partners and<br />
rivals Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, with<br />
the added drama of last year’s surprise<br />
victor, Russell Brown, in the<br />
mix and certainly capable if all things<br />
went right. Of course, that was the<br />
catch. The gun cracked and by the 3 rd<br />
turn, Farah was out front and on pace<br />
to run 3:54. However, his feet (he said<br />
someone clipped him, though replays<br />
proved inconclusive of that assertion)<br />
got tangled and he went down coming<br />
off the 4 th turn and nearly took everyone<br />
with him as he rolled in a ball for<br />
5 or 6 meters before getting up and<br />
sprinting back into the race. Rupp,<br />
who was now in the lead, kept looking<br />
over his shoulder and seemed to slow<br />
the pace to allow his friend to comeback.<br />
By two more laps, Farah was<br />
back in the hunt, and by the final lap,<br />
he looked as if he might actually have<br />
a chance at the win. However, the fatigue<br />
of the energy expense necessary<br />
to climb back in was evident, and<br />
he simply ran out of gas. Rupp looked<br />
no better as he came off the final turn;<br />
he was passed by up-and-coming<br />
Irishman Ciaran O’Lionaird, who<br />
had been carefully waiting on his<br />
shoulder for the latter half of the race,<br />
executing his move perfectly and<br />
besting the American 10,000 record<br />
holder by just over 1 second, as Taylor<br />
Milne also came by hard on Rupp<br />
and finished 2nd. Farah finished 4th<br />
with an astonishing (given the circumstance)<br />
PR of 3:57 and Brown was 5 th ,<br />
failing to break 4:00 (4:00.79) as he<br />
was obviously a victim of the mess<br />
that had occurred earlier.<br />
Finally, to bring the show to a close,<br />
the other absurdly fast Ethiopian<br />
woman in the building toed the line<br />
next to last year’s 3000 meter winner<br />
and current 1500 world champ Jenny<br />
Simpson. The other two notables in<br />
the race were American Sara Hall,<br />
who last year went into the meet with<br />
a virus and threw up multiple times<br />
during her race and Ethiopian rookie<br />
Gotytom Gebreslase. Again, the<br />
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New Balance Grand Prix<br />
race became a onewoman<br />
show very early<br />
and within 3 laps, it<br />
was Defar out front by<br />
an entire straightaway<br />
and everyone else<br />
splitting into two chase<br />
packs with Simpson<br />
struggling to remain at<br />
the front of the first.<br />
Hall, who has had an up<br />
and down last two<br />
years, seemed content<br />
to bide her time and sit<br />
back with fellow American<br />
Shannon Rowbury,<br />
as Simpson was<br />
struggling to keep<br />
form as well as pace.<br />
By the halfway point, it<br />
was apparent that<br />
Defar was not going to<br />
set a world record, so<br />
she simply settled in<br />
and ran strong, finishing<br />
in a still extraordi-<br />
nary 8:33.57, followed<br />
by an impressive<br />
showing<br />
from Gebreselase<br />
in 8:46.01. Simpson’s<br />
final 200 was<br />
a sad 38 seconds<br />
and she struggled<br />
to a last place finish<br />
in 8:58.70. Hall,<br />
though slowing in<br />
the last 400 meters,<br />
finished well<br />
for 4 th place in<br />
8:54.75. Afterwards,<br />
Simpson<br />
made no excuses,<br />
other than to say<br />
she’d been training<br />
hard at alti-<br />
tude and had really<br />
upped her miles recently,<br />
coming into the race<br />
fatigued but healthy. It<br />
just wasn’t her night. But<br />
that’s why track fans<br />
love to watch and why<br />
athletes love to compete,<br />
because once that<br />
gun is fired, anything<br />
can happen, stuff you<br />
couldn’t even make up.<br />
Joe Navas is a senior writer<br />
who has the ability to write<br />
race reports and snap photographs<br />
simultaneously.<br />
(Editor’s Note: We debated<br />
whether or not to add identifying<br />
captions to the photos but<br />
ultimately decided that the<br />
sharpness of the pics made that<br />
unnecessary. Just read the<br />
bibs. Plus, we didn’t want to<br />
muddled them up w/ script.)<br />
32
Continued from page 25<br />
therapy (PT) is the way in. In the post-apocalyptic<br />
world that is deconditioning, Thunderdome takes on a<br />
second meaning that is a metaphorical representation<br />
of PT. Two men enter, one man leaves. If Mad Max<br />
(you) doesn’t do as Auntie Entity (physical therapist)<br />
says and eliminate Blaster (the injury), then you broke<br />
the deal. Break a deal, spin the wheel. It’s okay<br />
though, all the penalties on the wheel are just more<br />
copayments. And fair warning, it’ll be weird when<br />
Master (the receptionist) is openly rooting for the injury<br />
to win. If you are the one man to leave then maybe<br />
you just are tough enough to come back and tear up<br />
the roads.<br />
EJN is a fully deconditioned runner and regular contributor to The<br />
<strong>Level</strong>. If you look closely, you’ll see him popping up in the background<br />
of famous photos and paintings throughout history.<br />
Continued from page 6<br />
It takes the body 3 to 4 weeks to adapt to a new stimulus.<br />
Not coincidentally, this is the approximate length of a<br />
mesocycle. That’s why we should have a plan for each<br />
meso because if we don’t, if we just do the same runs<br />
and workouts week after week, our bodies will cease to<br />
adapt, cease to improve. We must continue to incorporate<br />
runs into our training programs that promote the development<br />
of strength, speed, and endurance.<br />
Variety. We need variety. Changing things up, doing different<br />
types of runs on different days, allows adaptation to occur.<br />
Doing short super fast repeats one day then a long tempo<br />
a couple days later promotes adaptation. The more opportunities<br />
we give the body to adapt—whether within or between<br />
a mesocycle—the better our body will get at it. Two<br />
added bonuses to variance: 1) it mitigates monotony, 2) it<br />
reduces risk of injury.<br />
The <strong>Level</strong> wants fast runners reading this magazine. We can<br />
get faster by training our multiple physiological systems,<br />
overloading them through volume and intensity, and allowing<br />
the body to adapt to the overload via rest and recovery. Just<br />
keep these systems balanced. Keep it on The <strong>Level</strong>.<br />
Kevin Balance is a USATF certified coach. Information from this article was<br />
taking from the USATF <strong>Level</strong> 1 Coaching Curriculum.<br />
33
Rat Re-Issues Bennie’s Lunch and Tap<br />
Do you like the grainy photograph<br />
and text printed below? You better.<br />
It’s vintage Hockomock Swamp Rat.<br />
The graininess is amplified because<br />
you’re getting this retro cover and<br />
subsequent Bennie’s Lunch and Tap<br />
Race Info 2nd maybe even 3rd hand.<br />
No doubt Head Rat Peter Wallan him-<br />
self cut and pasted—I mean actually<br />
clipped and glued with his own two<br />
hands not with some fancy dancy computer—the<br />
picture and bill some 14<br />
years ago and who knows from what<br />
yellowed paper he got the original.<br />
I tried to do the same with the race<br />
report from the 1998 Stu’s 30K (part of<br />
HSR’s notorious Grand Pricks Series)<br />
but I just couldn’t do it. The Rat’s signature<br />
6 point Times New Roman was<br />
just too small and pocked. I couldn’t<br />
even read it when I tried copying it in<br />
and I have quasi-young eyes. Thus,<br />
no shortcuts. I retyped the piece and<br />
then searched endlessly for a font that<br />
34
Rat Re-Issues 1998 Stu’s 30K<br />
would best replicate the IBM Selectric<br />
that Wallan purchased at least 20<br />
years ago for $900. Below is the best I<br />
could do.<br />
Now the good thing about retyping an<br />
article is that you get to appreciate it<br />
all the more. The style and tone of the<br />
report fits perfectly with the race it-<br />
self. Raw. Edgy. Like salt on chafed<br />
skin. I love it. It’s what The <strong>Level</strong><br />
wants to be.<br />
And how ‘bout some of them names?<br />
Some blasts from the past. Some I<br />
don’t think we’ve heard or seen since<br />
that fated race back in the winter of<br />
‘98. A real testament to this<br />
“grinderoonie.” But some are still<br />
cranking: Gail (Heinrich) <strong>Mar</strong>tin and<br />
Harry Carter among them.<br />
I could go on and on about Stu’s, the<br />
below recap, and the fantastic lore of<br />
Bennie’s 10 Miler, but I’m out of space<br />
so you’ll just have to read and reflect<br />
for yourselves.<br />
BIG, BAD, UUG-LEEEEE STU’S 30K CROAKS 700+ BUT NOT JIM GARCIA (1:49.13)<br />
– POST (GFTC) SCORES BIG GPS GAIN<br />
FITZPATRICK IS FOURTH, HEINRICH RUMBLES OVER BABES, ROSS BLEEDS AND KESSLER GROANS<br />
CLINTON, MASSACHUSETTS – Aha! I have it! A cure<br />
for all those frostbitten yuppy Mount Everest<br />
Climbers. Let their chums come to scenic Clinton,<br />
Mass. and lay in some serious training miles on<br />
the Stu’s 30K course. Better still, let’s see<br />
them race this sucker. C’mon you day-glo wimps.<br />
I dare you!<br />
Talk about apoxia, oxygen starvation and<br />
vertigo. Cripes, even Sir Edmund Hilliary (no<br />
fancy equipment, just a superb athlete and not a<br />
yup) would have nosebleed on this savage killer of<br />
extreme magnitude. We almost had to get out the<br />
LL Bean official crampons to scale the killer<br />
hills at (ugh!) 17 and 18, and then there’s (of<br />
course) that miserable switchback grinderoonie of<br />
a nut buster at mile 8-9, an athletic sensation I<br />
haven’t had the pleasure to experience since the<br />
fecund summer of 1959 when I took a line drive<br />
directly in the macadamias in a high school baseball<br />
game. Yup, this Boylclint Tour-de-Wachusett<br />
will make your baby blues seep and will dull your<br />
sex drive.<br />
The best thing about this no-frills race is<br />
that it attracts only real runners. All hardcore,<br />
of all abilities. There are no complainers or<br />
whiners. We were all here simply for the challenge<br />
of a long race. This indeed is the philosophical<br />
equal of the monstrous Derry, NH 16 (but<br />
slightly easier). This is how distance running<br />
ought to be. This is actually how it was. Man, I<br />
wanna tell you that this is some kinda good<br />
sheeeeet here just up the street a bit from the<br />
old Bigelow Carpet Factory in bricky old Clinton,<br />
which has more class and history than any ten uppah-class<br />
ritzy suburb enclaves combined. How<br />
classy is this race? Even Ed and Bev Whitney<br />
(NMC) showed up to spectate. They’ve got nearly<br />
100 combined years of service to the sport of distance<br />
running on their noble ledgers. Add Tom<br />
Hurley, Bobby Hodge, and Maine’s marvel Carlton<br />
Mendell and you’ve got so much class and history<br />
that you can choke on it. I’ll bet the ghost of<br />
Clarence De<strong>Mar</strong> was here, too.<br />
You bleed here. Mentally and physically.<br />
Fred Ross (Brattleboro, VT) looked like his poor<br />
nipples had been sandpaper-massaged at the finish.<br />
Several runners’ brogans seeped pale red, and Ruth<br />
Kessler (Burlington) uttered the best Stu’s 30K<br />
comment a half mile from the finish<br />
line…”arraaggghhhmmmff’…I couldn’t have put it any<br />
better myself. Don Lambert (<strong>Mar</strong>lboro) had to walk<br />
the last three, Killer Miller (Plainville) hit the<br />
woods for a 2-minute pee-pee-wee-wee stop, Natick’s<br />
Chris Post indicated that his cold showed<br />
signs of turning to bulbar pneumonia, and Jane<br />
Goodman hit the sack before 8 p.m. after she got<br />
home to Dedham.<br />
But then, geez, there are guys like Jim<br />
Garcia (CMS) and Dermont Fitzpatrick (SoRR). They<br />
eat this stuff up like Mo eats dogs and burgers.<br />
Garcia buried the field and added to his GPS lead<br />
over the aching and nearly hors-de-combat Hank<br />
Gediman (pulverized at 50+ by the new HSR Jostein<br />
Pederson). Fitzpatrick copped 4 th and there is<br />
simply no truth to the scurrilous rumor that he<br />
once played hockey without a helmet under the alias<br />
Trevor (Skull) Hull from the Flin Flon Bombers<br />
of the Alberta Junior League.<br />
Speaking of bombers, can anyone beat Gail<br />
Heinrich? She’s making perfumed hash of the women’s<br />
GPS competition with only Cambridge barristette<br />
Erin Brown a threat. Had she not missed<br />
three races she’d be hanging on Garcia’s back like<br />
a cheap suit in a heat wave.<br />
But the overall women’s winner was Erin<br />
VanKeen of R.I. of whom nobody knew nothing except<br />
that she beat most of us, even Manny Arruda who<br />
won’t be a Clydesdale any more if he keeps this<br />
up. Whoa! Dark Cloud, whoa!<br />
Looking down on the list of Rats we find<br />
Jeff Gould racing his 12 th Stu’s. Dave Camire<br />
missing the old sub 7:00 days, Harry Carter creamin<br />
the 60+ Rats, Paul Powell (MSP) edging out Mike<br />
Sullivan (BPD) in the Rat Lawman Division, Bill<br />
Brown coming all the way from Vineyard, Rob Rose<br />
passing no-show Larry Kessler with 3 ½ GPS points,<br />
and Glenn O’Connor (SoRR) eschewing racing in favor<br />
of passing out water on the course. Smart guy<br />
except he took grief from Garcia for handing him<br />
the cup incorrectly.<br />
Post race found tired folk all over the<br />
school cafeteria totally ignoring Don Drewniak’s<br />
award ceremony. This is traditional. Nobody<br />
cares about winning anything. Stu’s 30K’ers have<br />
gone waaaay beyond that point. Food included Polar<br />
soda, bagels, and junky wing-dings and whoopie<br />
pies. Also traditional. Don’t like it? Tough.<br />
What is this? A race or a bleeping buffet?<br />
And what’s a rat race without a spandex<br />
comment? Suffice to say that women who run 30K<br />
are WOMEN, and women who run 5K are…well…girls.<br />
Later, there was migration to cozy Clinton watering<br />
holes, just down the same hill you climbed to<br />
the finish.<br />
Hey, is it safe to mix Rolling Rock with<br />
two Advils? I’ll have to ask Ed Dowling and Dave<br />
LeBlanc.<br />
Official Race Song: “Don’t think twice, It’s All<br />
About Fright,” Dylan, 1973.<br />
35