Poetic Justice

October 2006. Dark days. Sophie's Coffee, the NRA's meeting spot for our fabled Exeter "blue" runs, closed down. No warning. In its place and "coming soon" was Java Buzz. Ouch. We can't frequent a place called "Java Buzz" and certainly not after they kicked out our beloved Sophie's Coffee. The only worse scenario would be a Starbucks, where we'd be forced to order $4 coffees in Italian from high school punks with noserings. Then a miracle happened. On November 30th, Sophie's Coffee reopened next door to Java Buzz! They welcomed us back, and there was peace in the running world once more. Then another miracle happened! (See photo.) I believe they call it poetic justice.

Mountain Runner

This year's Mt. Washington road race was the site of the US Mountain Running National Championships. As we expected, the field was deep. In fact, it was much deeper than we expected. When three-time-winner Dave Dunham gets 32'nd place, you know the Mountain Running elite was there in full force. Nevertheless, the NRA teams scored big, with the Men's open team taking the stage for the first time with 5th place of 23 teams. The Women's team took 5th of 18 teams. The Male and Female masters teams took 3rd and 2nd place of 17 and 11 teams respectively. Individually, Tara Cardi was 12th female overall, less than a minute behind Mountain Running great Kelli Lusk, and recorded the fastest ever finish by a Rhode Island female. Penny Catalano was first place in the 60-64 age group, running 7 minutes faster than last year and coming within 5 minutes of her age-group course record. Overall, the NRA had 24 finishers and a good time was had by all. In this week's picture we have Paul Letoile slugging it out up "the wall" (so nicknamed is the last 50 meters of the course, which ascends at an impossible 20% grade). Paul ran every step, was 5th man for the NRA in an impressive 1:26, and there is now no doubt that running uphill is one of his strengths. And now we patiently wait for the Mt. Washington Road Race lottery to open on March 1, 2009, at which time we will cross our fingers in hopes of gaining entry once again.

Good Times

Eagle Mountain House, Jackcson NH. June 2007: The day starts and ends at the Eagle Mountain House. In the morning there is the buffet-style breakfast and in the evening there is relaxing on the wraparound deck. In this photo, the NRA mountain team relaxes after a long day that included a footrace up the Mt. Washington auto road. The female team scored 5th place with Bridgette (far left) representing the 3rd NRA woman. The men were edged out of 5th place by Team Goucester by a combined time of only 29 seconds. Shortly after this photo was taken, team NRA was kindly asked to leave the deck in order that the guests could sleep in peace. Luckily, we found the game room in the basement, allowing the revelry to continue far into the night. Good times.

Mountain Champs

Try to imagine the toughest road race possible. How about an extremely hilly 10-miler with the last 1.5 miles straight up a mountain? What you've imagined is a reality in the Pack Monadnock 10-miler. The second in the 6-race "USATF-NE" mountain championships, this classic race is usually dominated by the mountain runners from central MA and NH (think Dunham, Low, Lusk, and West). Not this year. This year the top male and female were RI residents Tara Cardi and Glen Guillemette (NRA and "NRA" respectively). The significance of this achievement cannot be overstated. This is pure, raw competition. Throw out your personal bests, lace 'em up, and may the toughest runner win. There are a lot of good runners out there, but not many who have the guts (or the talent) to take on and win a race like this. In this week's picture we have Glen and Tara enjoying the view from the top of the mountain.

Finish Line Crew

Speaking of the Narragansett Summer Youth Track Series (YTS), here's a photo from last year. This is Maria Rocchio, Mr. and Mrs. McNeiece, Ken Straight, Jim Sullivan, Neil McDermott, and Tim Mahoney at the finish line of the 50 meter dash. The 50 meter dash is open to kids aged 0-6, and you may well ask why the NRA goes to such great lengths to time a 50 meter dash for the youngsters. After all, the timing, measuring, recording, and reporting of the results for 200+ kids accounts for a significant fraction of the volunteer effort for any given meet. Simply put, it's not a track meet if there are no results. Though competition is not emphasized, it's there for those interested in improving from week to week, year to year, or for those who may look back at the results many years later and marvel at the fact that their 100 meter time has only improved by 3.2 seconds in 12 years. If you've never seen a YTS meet, you should. Volunteer, watch, or bring your own kids to participate. It's the NRA's signature event.

First place, wire to wire.

Wakefield RI, Sunday, May 18th, 2008: The NRA is a PR machine these days. Everywhere you look, people are setting new personal bests for the full spectrum of road race distances. In this week's picture we have Mattew Santner running the Race to Grow 5K in Wakefield RI. This wasn't a PR for Matthew, but he did break the tape for the first time (he won the race), which is perhaps more exciting than a fresh PR. The NRA took top three overall, with Paul Letoile and Peter Barbera rounding out the top three. There were too many NRA types to list them all, but I did notice Jim "The Streak" Cotter's name in the results. Probably another PR for Jim...what else is new? Warren Angell did not run a PR, but perhaps daughter Allegra did. In other news, Chad Straight ran the Narrow River 5K and won the whole thing in a pretty fast time of 18:13. OK Chad, you're out of the closet now, no excuse for hanging back on Thursday nights. In still other news, Byron McKenzie finished the Sugarloaf Marathon on Sunday in his usual sub-3:00 fashion.

A rare and valuable blessing photo.

Narragansett RI, July 23rd 2004; Blessing of the Fleet 10 miler. I had met Dave Tetreault only a few months earlier (at the Red White and Blue run in Wakefield), so I barely knew him and this is definitely pre-NRA days. My Dad took this picture as he stood across from the clam shack at Pier 5 where the runners turn right onto Ocean Rd. Unfortunately he completely missed me, but amazingly he caught a bunch of people who I didn't know at the time, but would eventually become friends, NRA members, and NRA-friendlies.

1/2 Way

Providence RI, 05/04/08: Cox Providence Rhode Races. It was your typical multi-event city circus that caters to the entire spectrum of runners; from those hoping to simply finish to those hoping to need the med-tent after the finish (proving that they gave it their all). The only major problem organization-wise was that there were only 15 porta-johns for over 2000 people waiting in the start area. Unforgivable. The NRA turned out strong in the full marathon and the 1/2 marathon and not at all in the 5K. In the full marathon our own Aly Venti took first place in a time of 3:01:00. This was her first marathon, and she won a really big trophy. Brian "Mr. Consistency" McNeiece took 4th place overall in 2:48:36, running his 6th consecutive sub-2:50 marathon, and then spending some time in the med-tent while waiting for the awards ceremony. Also in the full marathon were Glenn Andersen, running his first in 3:40 (a full 20 minutes faster than his goal) and Rich Falvo, running 3:44 despite a rash of injuries, and Martin Neiberg, finishing in 4:31 (his first marathon on relatively light training). This was a killer-tough course and anyone who finished upright deserves some serious respect. In the 1/2 marathon we had s few 'sometimes run with the NRA' guys in Chris McHugh and Jamie Verdi both finishing in sub-7:00 pace. Laura Pagnozzi finished in 1:30, Neil McDermott in 1:33, Kevin Keitly in 1:34, Marisa Guarinello in 1:43. Nicole Rattay finished her first in a great time of 1:47, easily beating her goal time of 2:00, and Jim "the streak" Cotter ran yet another PR in a time of 1:52. This week's picture is Brian passing the 1/2 way point with two of his competitors.

Leaders at Mile 2

Kingston, RI, April 12, 2008: URI Physical Therapy put on its 18th annual Spring Into Motion 5 Miler. Unfortunately this great race attracts only a small field. Perhaps that's because of the big hill at mile 2, or that it's 5 miles, or that it's NOT a 5K. Poor excuses all. At least the NRA turned out in good numbers, and this picture shows the leaders (Mike T., Brian M., and Tim C.) climbing the aforementioned hill at mile 2. NRA took six of the top 10 spots with Mike, Brian, Tim, Kevin K., Rick C., and Glenn A. NRA's Becky Allen and Nicole Rattay took top two female spots. Ken A., Michelle S. were seen as well.

Matthew

Boston, 4/21/08: 153 Rhode Islanders ran the Boston Marathon. Second overall from RI was NRA's Ryan Blazejewski, who ran a PR of 2:39:49. First RI woman was our own Claire Gadrow, who broke 3:00 for a second time in two marathons. Matthew Santner and Paul Letoile both ran PR's in 2:57, finishing just ahead of Claire. Dave Tetreault had a solid race, Jeff Vuono set a PR while injured, Annie Cox finished just ahead of Peter Barbera (who had a very nice race), Carlene Messinger ran negative splits with her last 2 miles much faster than her average pace, Mary Camire had a great race, and Debbie Lysik beat last year's time by over 20 minutes. In this week's picture we have Mattnew Santner looking strong early on as he points to his adoring spectators.