Four Party Goers

Don't forget. Next Thursday (September 9th) is our famous summer party. This week's picture was taken at the end of the night at a past summer party. If you can name the four people in this picture (left to right), and the year of that party, you will receive two complimentary old-style NRA car stickers.

Nicole and Aroline

Stonington, CT. August 25, 2010. For the 4th consecutive year, the NRA descended on now-suspecting Stonington CT for their annual Tuesday-night 5K, designed to support the public library and celebrate the anniversary of the War of 1812's Battle of Stonington. After a somewhat weak showing last year (numbers-wise anyway) we returned to form, with 10 NRA participants, 7 of whom walked away with either a bottle of wine (age group award) or cash (1, 2, or 3 overall). Notable performances include a 5th place overall and a huge 5K PR for Jonathan Pincince (18:33 for 5:59 pace). Equally impressive was a big PR by NRA board member Nicole Rattay (that's Ms. Rattay if you're one of her lucky students). Nicole lopped almost 40 seconds off her 5K best, finishing in a time of 20:15 for a pace of 6:32, 3th woman overall (edging out local legend Heather Bessette). Nicole joined the group in February 2008, and completed the Providence 1/2 Marathon in May 2008 in 7:56 pace (her first race ever). Since that race, she has made remarkable progress, lowering her marathon best from 3:41 to 3:18 in only three tries over the span of one year. Unable to run Boston last year due to an injury, she looks to improve on that 3:18 at Marine Corps this Fall and Gansett in the Spring. This week's picture is a squee-worthy shot of Nicole and NRA-friendly Aroline, about a year ago at the Cape Cod 14 miler.

world-ranked beer milers

Exeter RI. Undisclosed location. Top secret. The "beer mile" is a well-established event with strict rules, but basically it's a 1-mile race segmented into four 1/4-mile laps around a track or loop course. The hard part is that you have to drink a 12-oz can of beer before each of the four laps. It's not easy. Though this was not an official club event, the NRA presence was strong. The two (anonymous) competitors shown here earned themselves places in the beer mile's top-100 world rankings in their respective age groups. Heady days indeed.

sprint to finish

The Battle of Stonington 5K has become an NRA tradition. In 2007 we sent a team of nine and all nine came back with either cash in their pockets (overall awards) or a bottle of wine in their lap (age-group awards). In 2008 and 2009 we also did very, well, but never quite recaptured that 7-bottle dominance of 2007. The next Battle of Stonington 5K takes place on August 24th, and this message is an official call to arms of team NRA. Fast or slow, we need you. Race starts at 6pm, but there's usually a kids 1-mile race as well. Stay tuned for information concerning the kids race and carpooling down to the race. Immediately post-awards, we head over to the post-race party at the Dog Watch Cafe (right on the docks in beautiful Stonington Borough). This week's picture is a shot taken by race directer Stephen Bessette, and shows NRA's Annie Cox in a sprint to the finish for 5th place female.

June 27, 2010. Mosi, Tanzania. The Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon. Peter Barbera completed the 2010 Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon, knocking Africa off his list of continents in his quest to run a marathon in each. His time of 3:30 placed him atop the tourist division and is even more impressive when one considers the race conditions. Exeter (North America), Dublin (Europe), Antarctica (Antarctica), and now Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa). What's up next? You'll have to ask Peter. In this week's picture, Peter and Betsy are seen distributing NRA paraphernalia to the locals.

Zak

Narragansett RI. July 11 2005 marks the first meet of the first season of Narragansett Running Association's Summer Youth Track Series. We were pleasantly surprised (and alarmed) by the big turnout -- about 40 kids. In each week of that first 5-week series, the numbers grew, with about 120 kids participating in the 5th meet. Each week, Brian and Tammy had to come up with new strategies for handling the steadily increasing numbers. Each week, more volunteers, more supplies, more preparation. Fast forward to July 11 2010 -- the second meet of the 6th annual series (the 27th consecutive meet with no cancellation). Over 420 kids participated. This was no surprise. On one night of the 2009 meets, we had 490 kids. We're prepared. This is a lot of work for Brian and Tammy especially, but all the regular volunteers have put in a lot of time. Some volunteers, though, have barely missed a meet, and that's a notable fact. In this week's picture is one such volunteer. Zak Kudlak (orange shirt) can be found shouting the starting commands at the starting line of the running events. He can also be found at the track, hours before each meet starts, helping prepare the track and the field for the coming onslaught of kids and parents. Unfortunately, Zak's almost-perfect attendance record will be broken next year because he has accepted a tenure-track position at Mt. St. Mary College on the Hudson in NY, and he'll be leaving RI in August. If one could rank volunteers based on their total contribution to the YTS, Zak would at the top of that list alongside several others who will be named on some other day.

no comment

Narragansett RI. It's back. NRA's annual Hideous Race T-Shirt Night is upon us. Your training is over. You're tapered and the money's in the bank. Most trained hard, and many trained in secret. Most experts claim that the key component to good training is a gradual and consistent build up of the weekend long-wear. One athlete, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed that her longest wear was over 5 hours -- not only wearing her most hideous race t-shirt in public, but to a Red Sox game! It took her almost a week to recover physically. And mentally...who knows. Imagine if she had been spotted on TV or captured on the jumbo-tron? The brain child of evil genius Dave Nitro, Hideous T-Shirt Night is, like the marathon itself, a contest of the mental and physical. Not content to have this contest in the privacy of someone's home, co-organizer Jim C. chose the heavily-mirrored and public back room at Pancho O'Malleys as the contest venue. Damn you Jim for winning that raffle. Game on. (This week's photo is a shot from last year's contest. Enough said.)

Glenn and Brian

Mount Washington, June 19, 2010. After a failed bid for a 5th consecutive lottery entry for the club, four NRA members who had bypass entries made the trek to the Eagle Mountain House for the 50th running of the Mt. Washington Road Race (Tara, Mike, Paul, and Tim). Times were relatively slow for a variety of reasons, but still quite respectable. The big story, though, was the level of support from non-runners. The appearance of Brian McNeiece at the top of the mountain was a complete surprise to everyone except those he hiked up with. Among other non-runner supporters were Dave H., Dave T., Jim C., Zak, Ryan, and Glenn A. Glenn A. in particular has been a noteworthy supporter. Glenn singlehandedly secured over $3000 in sponsorships for the Youth Track Series. In this weeks photo we have Glenn and Brian at the top of the mountain, preparing for the hike down.

breaking the tape

Narragansett, RI. May 29, 2010. Not appearing in the coolrunning race results is the 2010 "Race for Grace - 5K Strollathon." Since its inception in 2007, this very successful event has raised over $350,000 for Rett Syndrome research, and quite a few NRA members came out to support the cause. Since the results are not published (or perhaps even recorded), we have to rely on eyewitness accounts. Kate Hoffman reports that she was top female overall and this information is corroborated by this week's photo in which Kate is seen "breaking the tape."

Jeff

This guy's on fire. On April 25, NRA's own Jeff Vuono of Westerly RI, ran the London Marathon in 2:57 -- a sparkling personal best. Three weeks later he won (first overall) the Narrow River 10K on May 15 in a speedy 6:11 min/mile pace -- get this -- after biking 30 miles from Westerly! One week later, on May 23, Jeff won (first overall) the Commitment To Change 5K in Westerly in 5:54 min/mile pace. At 47, Jeff is faster than ever. This photo is from the 2008 A1A Marathon in Fort Lauderdale. In Jeff's words, "I'm only smiling because I saw the camera well in advance. It was mile 24, 82 degrees, and we were running into a hot wind for the last 12 miles."