BostonBound59

The past week has been brutal payback for the cool and rainy summer we experienced here in New Hampshire from late June into early August. I'm a terrible hot weather runner so 4 out of 5 days this past week I (reluctantly) crawled out of bed early, put on my running gear and headed down to Nashua and the Mine Falls trails near where I work to get my run out of the way before the day's heat and humidity set in. Since we were planning to head to Portland, Maine from Friday afternoon until late Saturday and had a New Hampshire Grand Prix Race Sunday, I had to do my weekly long run--this week a 22 miler at 6:00 A.M. Friday.

For this summer's training cycle leading into my fall marathon I'm doing just four 20+ mile runs (vs. 8 for Boston) with shorter 16-18 mile "progression" runs in the alternate weeks. I felt I was flat at Boston and the extra 20 milers didn't help. This past Friday was my 2nd 20 miler in the cycle and quite ugly. When I began at Nashua South High School at 6:00 A.M. Friday the humidity was in excess of 70 degrees and the air temps. close to 80. When I finished more than three hours later the sun had broken through the overcast skies and heat index was in excess of 100. My pace was very slow--about 8:50/mile yet I was working harder each mile than the previous week when my pace was closer to 8 minutes a mile on a much hillier course. To make matters worse at about the 15 mile mark I experienced every runner's nightmare--in an instant I was pinned for close to 5 minutes against a car by a growling 8 month old pit bull (teeth fully bared...inches from my ankles) in a neighborhood near Nashua North High School. He had apparently jumped over the back yard fence when he heard my footsteps. Although the owner was (mildly) apologetic, even he couldn't get control of his dog. Only when a neighbor came over and threatened the pooch with a large tree branch did he run off. As one respected lawyer told me many years ago...forgive and remember.

On Saturday things turned more positive and we had a great 9 mile run along the ocean in Portland harbor and Sunday we returned to New Hampshire and ran the annual Moose on the Loose 10 miler in Mine Falls. Despite being quite sore from Friday's long run I couldn't race but ran a comfortable 7:19 training pace for 10 miles. The course was actually short .25 miles according to my Garmin as the official results had me at 7:11 pace although I did run the 2nd half of the course about three minutes faster than the first half (37:08 vs. 34:11). Cathy's marathon is one week later than mine so she was able to race this week and ran a solid 1:06 to finish 3rd
overall. I've posted some great pictures of Sunday's race taken by Ethan Platt. Here is a link to the whole album: http://plattracingphotography.shutterfly.com/2009mooseontheloose10m/4

Here are the results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/09/nh/Aug23_MooseO_set1.shtml

Posted by Mike Merra at 9:50 PM    

Labels: Gate City Striders, Nashua

My son Chris is a runner but prefers to juggle. We have the dents on our living room ceiling to prove it. Here is a 5 minute juggling video he put together (filmed in our back yard) a few days ago and posted on juggling tv.

Posted by Mike Merra at 9:30 PM    

Labels: juggling, upper body workout

It has been many years since I’ve run the Cigna 5k race but I decided to give it another shot this year after a nine year hiatus. The race is by far the largest field of any distance in New Hampshire and one of the largest 5k fields in New England with close to 5000 runners. I last ran the race in 2000 with temps close to 90 degrees and vowed it would be my last Cigna. This year I decided to find out what kind of shape I was in after a month of distance training for my Fall marathon. We lucked out with temperatures in the low to mid 70’s as race time approached plus we had a slight tailwind blowing in from the north which would help in the final (always brutal) mile down Canal Street before taking a left and finishing on Merrimack Street.

The field was loaded with elite runners. We had a decent 25 minute warm up but due to the size of the field we needed to get to the starting line earlier than usual just to hold a spot to prevent from getting boxed in during the early going. My goal was to run close to 18:30 (my previous PR on this course was in 2000 in 19:48—just before two knee surgeries) so I knew I had to get out fast to have a chance at 18:30. The gun went off after a long wait and the first mile is a straight shot up Elm Street. I’m not a natural 5k runner and felt very unsteady and out of sync as we pushed away from the start and thought to myself how much easier it would be to just pull up, bag it for the night and go on a long run but after about ¾ mile I started getting into my rhythm and passed the first mile mark in 5:54. I often describe to others that the first mile in a 5k feels like entering a state of semi-shock—you are standing still for several minutes then suddenly accelerating out from the start at speeds I rarely reach even during our Strider track work outs. Karen Long was running with me along with Justin Platt (pictured above) just to my left. I knew Cathy was in my midst but didn’t know for sure. At about the 1.5 mile mark the course swings left from Elm onto Thayer Street where there are two large water stops manned by Gate City Striders and Greater Derry Track Club members. I received many words of encouragement from my Strider teammates which helped immensely and after a slight downhill stretch passed the two mile mark in 5:42. I ran alongside Merrimack Valley High School Cross Country Coach Dave Irving the last mile, who had several of his high school runners with him in tandem and this helped me maintain a fairly steady pace. The last mile is pretty demoralizing as you see the 100 + runners strung out far in front of you along Canal Street making it all look so easy while my 50 year old lungs are literally exploding as I gasped for air trying to just hang on. Finally, I could see the turn onto Merrimack Street at 2.9 miles. As I came up the final hill I could see the clock in the distance at 17:45 so I pushed as best I could and came across the line in 18:05, 5th out of 244 in the 50-54 year old group. Cathy finished in 18:49 winning her age division and was 6th overall woman in the race. The photo above (by Strider Dave Delay) was taken at about the half-way mark showing eventual winner Alene Reta of Ethiopia (left), whose time of 13:53 was the fastest 5k road race time ever run in the State of New Hampshire. He is being closely pursued by Bajo Kiorku (right), the 2nd place finisher (14:03). If you look closely you can see the many Gate City Strider volunteers (in green shirts) manning the water stop.

There were many Striders and Granite State Flash runners and coaches in the race, here are the results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/09/nh/Aug13_CIGNAE_set1.shtml

Posted by Mike Merra at 10:29 PM    

Labels: Cigna/Elliot Corporate 5k, Manchester, New Hampshire

On Sunday we headed up to beautiful York Golf & Tennis Club in York, Maine for a Merra family golf outing. I’m not exactly sure how this fits into a running blog other than to note I was more tired at the end of this 18 holes (riding a cart no less) than I was running 20 miles on Friday night. We had three groups and played scramble format (everyone hits and you pick the best shot and then everyone hits from that point onward) with the team consisting of my brother in law Dr. Matt Donovan (who is a member at York and our host), cousin Joe Lupica, his daughter Jackie and my son Chris taking the top spot with a 3 under par 67. My father Sam Merra, and brothers in law Morgan Molloy and Dr. Owen McConville along with Matt’s son William (assisted occasionally by Michael McConville) finished in 1 under 69 with our team of cousin Jean Chani, Dr. Jim Donovan and my son Anthony also finishing in 69. It must be noted that Dr. Jim, 86 years young, carried us much of the day on the greens by dropping three long birdie putts to keep our group’s score respectable.

This was a special day for us after a very difficult winter in our family with the loss of my father’s wonderful brother and my Godfather Frank “Gig” Merra who was not only our golf mentor but life tutor. The Gig was very much on our mind this day along with his daughter Fran who lost her long battle with cancer shortly before Gig’s passing, at the young age 46. They are shown together in the top picture above.

Posted by Mike Merra at 9:48 PM    

Labels: Merra Family Golf Outing, York Golf Tennis Club

We took a break* from racing this weekend and volunteered at the 7th Annual Crisman Memorial 5k Race in Amherst, New Hampshire. The race is run in memory of Kyle and Tim Crisman. On the afternoon of November 3, 2002,the two brothers from Amherst (pictured above), then students at Souhegan High School, were killed in a tragic automobile accident on Rt. 101 in Peterborough, NH while returning home from a visit with their grandmother. A scholarship fund was established in their memory and each year two Souhegan High School students benefit from the scholarship fund. Cathy has been involved on the race committee each year and I have set up and managed the race course the last two years. Last year we were able to get the course officially certified with USATF.

It was a perfect day for running and there was a good turnout this morning of 223 runners. Our son Chris Merra (#458 above) ran a PR finishing 4th in 17:37. Fellow Gate City Strider Karen Long also ran a PR in 18:56 finishing as 3rd women overall. Several of our Flash runners ran including Sam Daly (green Flash singlet above) (13th overall 18:49), Tyler Dechane (27th in 20:55), Brady Camplin (36th 21:46), and Jack Facey (53rd 23:21). My running buddy Charlie Lawrence tugged along his mutt (see above) in an impressive 26:38 despite battling some nagging injuries.

*On Friday night we ran our first 20 mile training run on the Hollis Rail Trail (starting in Hollis 10 miles to Ayer, Mass. & back) in anticipation of our Fall marathons. Total running time was 2:44 (8:12 pace) so racing this morning probably wouldn’t have been a wise idea.

Posted by Mike Merra at 10:32 PM    

Labels: Crisman Memorial 5k Race

It’s been more than a week since I’ve posted but I’ll try to catch up. Last Tuesday night (7/28) we ran the 49th Annual Yankee Homecoming 10 Miler in Newburyport. This was our first time running this race and the race drew more than 3500 runners for the 10 miler and 5k combined. Newburyport is an incredibly scenic coastal town and there were more spectators on the course than any race in recent memory other than Boston. It seemed every neighborhood had hoses and water tables set up for the runners and one group mercifully set up a water stop as we crossed back over Rt. 95 in the last 2 miles of the race. I stopped and snapped the above photo of this group in admiration. The second picture is of Cathy taken by JimRhodes and the third is one of the finish I took leading into Newburyport High School. The temperature was over 80 degrees at race time but it seemed cooler once the race started with ocean breezes directly in our face the last few miles. I decided before the start I’d raced enough lately so I ran this one as a workout at a steady 7:25-7:30 mile pace finishing in 1:14. Cathy was 7th overall and won her age group in 1:07.

On Sunday we began ramping up our long runs in anticipation of our Fall marathons with a brutal 19 miler-- this time heading north into Bedford, New Boston and finally back into Amherst. We started at 6:35 AM and the last several miles brought us back up over the New Boston Air Station (about an 800’ elevation climb) finishing in 2:48. The overall pace wasn’t fast but there were seven large hills during the run with elevation grades that at times seemed like we were back running Mt. Washington.

The bottom picture of Anthony was taken tonight. He asked me to set up “something tough” so I laid out a 16 miler on our favorite Boston training run into Mont Vernon. After I had finished my run on the Hollis rail trail I drove up and caught him heading toward Joe English Road.

Posted by Mike Merra at 9:55 PM    

Labels: Newburyport, Yankee Homecoming 10 Miler