Granby 10k

It was Lani's 40th and "her" day in many other ways; she won multiple awards (3rd overall woman or 1st Granby finisher, not sure which (or if both)), 1st in her age (48 and low change), was surrounded by friends and socks, and Life is Good hats and energy bars and cards and granola from Florida, and Road IDs, and a supportive Peter and and and and. We love you Lani.

Ms Vroeginday PR'd, placed 3rd. Waydago Tray!!!!!! Lee met a new guy to worry about (65 years young and about a minute in front of him who is likely to turn up at the Newington Library 5k so he better train faster and even the record book), Rose was just over an hour and is already talking about longer training runs so the two 1/2s (Iron Horse and Fairfield) will go well.

LBrad took some awesome photos, drove Rose and me to Granby and home and once again won her division (best support person on Earth).

We walked away with more stuff than we could carry; a trophy, 2 lbs of coffee, a bottle of wine and a vision of hope that every challenge we face in the future will come out well.



Click here or the picture above to see more pictures.

55 mile bike ride w/ Lani

I'm sure Lani (and I) will have more to say about today's ride in the coming days but here's my Garmin report. I joined her in the Simsbury to New Haven first leg but we soon realized my hybrid was too slow (yeah, blame it on the bike ...) to make it to New Haven in time so we ended up heading out on our own. Lani was really really nice to hang back with me. A beautiful day and we went thru some beautiful places. Thanks Lani for giving me so much.
 

Trail ultra

Hey team! How's everyone doing today? Happy Easter. I was able to sneak away for a short run and a few hours on the bike, and it was beautiful! What was up with yesterday's weather??
Anyway, I have looked into the Nipmuck myself too. In the past at least, to get in you had to prove completion of at least one trail marathon. I believe the Vermont 50 which I did a few years ago is an acceptable qualifier. The Vermont 50 is a gnarly course, I remember a section called the Cardiac Bypass, triple diamond trails, quicksand, and a minimum of 9 miles between aid stations which were actually called checkpoints. You don't have to run a qualifier for this one, and I'm pretty sure they have a website.
Anyway that's what I know about these local events.

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Countdown to Granby 10k!

Lake Waramaug Ultras

The Brickyarders were well represented today in New Preston today: Lee, Tracy, and myself ran as official registrants;  Momma Rose completed her own long run around the lake; Linda handled navigation, coordination, nutrition, and photography.  Peter was driving around the lake and met me somewhere on my 3rd lap. 

The weather took mainstage at today's event.  It was actually snowing on my way up! Then it turned to a nasty cold rain, topped off by an arctic wind coming off the water.  So much for spring.

I think everyone had a unique experience in today's activities, as ultras tend to be a bit less mainstream than a typical road race.  Tray and Lee both ran along at a smokin' pace, not sure if they really got a chance to really check the lake out with everything going by at such a blur!!! Kudos to both of them on their times.

I took an early start and went out at a really slow pace in an attempt at 50 miles. Early on, I ran with a group of Marathon Maniacs from a variety of states. The guy I talked to the most was from New Mexico, here on the East Coast to run 10 marathons in the next 4 weeks.  I guess they don't call themselves Maniacs for nothing.  Most of the Maniacs were in the middle of a double header, tommorow they are running the Easter Marathon in the Bronx. They were an interesting bunch, but were running a little too slow for me (is that possible?????). There were also a few 50 Staters out there, one guy was on 46 or 47.  He still needs HI, I told him to come with me in December!

Anyway,  I felt great mentally and physically when I reached the last point to pull out of the 50 mile event...but started to realize that in the rain, wind, and cold temperatures the risk of an injury or bad outcome was ever increasing so I headed back.  While that lead to a pretty slow time, I am quite happy to report it was a zone 1-2 run the whole way and as a result I already feel recovered and am about to jump on my bike trainer.  I'll still be making good on my charity pledge, it will be a per KM donation rather than per Mile now. 

I don't know who else will ever see this blog but I want to thank the race directory, all the great volunteers, and our personal support crew of Linda, Momma Rose, and Peter who helped make this possible.

Can't wait to hear the stories from Tray and Lee, as well as see Linda's pictures. 

PS- don't post any photos of me, I had a bad hair day and wardrobe malfunction!
PS #2 Rose, I will sign up for Ironhorse.
PS #3 Hope to see some of you next Saturday for the Granby Road Race.

Countdown!

Happy Birthday Lee!

Team Primal Force and the Brickyarders wishing Lee a Happy Birthday! Enjoy the day!
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Boston

These are the people I know who ran Boston. 

http://primepuzzle.com/tpf/boston-2011.txt

Imagine part II

I am imagining that I did not see rain in the forecast for Saturday-- but instead sunny skies, a little tropical breeze blowing off the ocean, with perfect surf waves...
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Imagine

Imagine there's no Wall
It's easy if you try.
No hip pain below us
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the runners
Living for today.

Imagine there's no ankle pain
It isn't hard to do.
Nothing that hurts to worry about
And unlimited Gu.
Imagine all the runners
Running like the wind!

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one.

A new blogger

The blog welocmes Mary, who kindly sent along this post:

The Greatest Gift

Today was a great day for two reasons, I got to run and I got to run with Lani. We made a date to run last night. I shot Lani an email and in subject line it said, “Run tomorrow?” She quickly responded with a how about 11:30 and potential locations. I responded that 11:30 would be great and she could choose the location. Lani chose the Brickyard. And what a beautiful day it was to run there. The only problem we experienced was dodging all the cyclists.
I arrived promptly at 11:27. Lani was already there. I quickly got out of my car and met her. We greeted each other accordingly, and then Lani tells me, “You need to take it easy on me because I was just on my bike for 4 hours.” She had just finished before she met me. I was aghast. I couldn’t believe it. I told her of course we could take it easy. I’m not breaking any records these days.
I was so happy when we started our run because I couldn’t believe that Lani had already done 4 hours on her bike and yet she still met with me to run. I felt I had received the greatest gift ever. I got to run and I got to run with Lani. Thank you Lani for making today such a great day and running with me.


Thanks for Blogging (and running Mary). I agree about those cyclists that were trying to run us down, that was intense.  Don't they know how much more challenging it is to torture one's self on a bike trainer, they should all be inside enjoying the pain and suffering and leave the trail to the runners- Lani

Lee has set up the blog so that emails to:
teamprimalforce.brickyarders@blogger DOT COM  will post a message to the blog, or as Mary did, you can email me at Laniralston@msn DOT COM.  Please note the dot coms are spelled out again so we don't get anymore spam, although the watches in those ads were kinda nice.

ultra fever

This is a little bit geeky but ... I can't resist. This is a screenshot of a computer program I've written that maintains a "linked list." Don't ask, it's pretty technical. Anyway, you enter age and name data and then print your list. It comes out in name sorted order. These are all the people I know who are either running the Jack Bristol Lake Waramaug Ultras or who will be doing a loop or two to support them.

For the inner geek, the "source code" of the program, for your light reading pleasure, is here.

Tomorrow

Tray and I were thinking it might be fun to start the run at Sperry Park tomorrow instead of at the regular parking lot. This is in Avon. You get to it when you run north on the trail after about 8 miles. By car, you can take Route 10 in Farmington center and head north. It's right on the Greenway. I have 10 miles in mind, 5 from Sperry Park heading north, turn around and come back. Just an idea. Email me or post here what you think of this idea. This is one way to get to know more of the trail. 

I second the motion to run the Granby 10K on April 30. This is exactly 1 week after the ultra so hopefully Lani's, Tray's and my legs will still be usable. Who's gonna bake the cake? This is the 40th annual for both our very own Lani and the race.

Speaking of Lani, great idea to go to Brickyard the very next day (May 1) and help in the cleanup. My brother will be visiting us that day so we could run, cleanup and celebrate at our favorite place.

Trail Clean Up Day

Hi everyone, just wanted to send everyone an FYI. The Farmington Valley Trails Council is hosting a few upcoming events:
1) A group bike ride from the start of the trail in New Haven up to the Simsbury/ Granby line on 4/29. I am signed up, and planning to skip the barbecue thing at the end in Simsbury and ride straight thru to the end of the line in Westfield. Hope it does not rain!

2)Clean up day on the rails-to-trails is 5/1. One of the meeting sites will be at the Brickyard Rd parking lot. Info and sign up are on the trails council website. This is a great chance to give back to the beautiful trails we enjoy so much in the warmer months. If anyone would like to join me at Brickyard Rd I will go, otherwise I would probably help out on the Granby section.

-Lani
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Happy 1st Birthday

Hello team, hope everyone had a good weekend. Today marks the first anniversary of the blog. It's been great running and blogging with everyone over the past year. When I look back over the archives, I am really inspired by all the Brickyarder accomplishments during that time. Hope this next year brings us a few more runners and a few more bloggers.

In other news, looks like the marathon record for males 80+ was broken yesterday: 3:25 by Ed Whitlock!!!!! Amazing.

Happy running- Lani
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Rose and LindaZ run Shark's Tooth

This is a follow up to Lani's post. (I cannot tell a lie; Tray & I ran "only" 20 but it's hard to prove cuz both our Garmins stopped and started due to either user error or an act of God).

RoseF and LindaZ ran today in 90 degree weather and are happy to report they survived. Rose did about 58 minutes, missing 1st place in her division by only 15 seconds. Check out the pictures by clicking the picture above or here!

Weekend report

Well, the weekend is not over yet...but I am so impressed by the accomplishments of the various Brickyarders I just couldn't wait to post this.

First of all, congrats to Rose in the Shark's Tooth 10k. She beat her time goal by about 2 minutes, and placed second in her age division. Way to go Rose!

Back here in UConn territory, Tray and Lee ran north bound on the trail for a super long endurance run. I think they originally were planning on running about 20 miles, but I think I heard Lee whisper something about running 40 or 50 miles as they passed us!!!

Mary had hoped to run a "just a few miles", but surpassed her own plans too with a nice long NON STOP run. She has her sights on the Newington Library race in May.

Not sure what's going on next weekend, but I'm sure Lee will keep us posted.


Hoping to see Frances, Leah, Kelsy, Dave, Barbara, and Judy at the Brickyard soon as well.

Mid-week update

Greetings Brickyarders-

Hope everyone's training is going well this week! This evening after work, I ran with the Thursday nite 8 miler in the W.H. Reservior. This was my first Thursday nite run since they put in the new parking lot and removed the striped pole a few years back. Only 5 people showed up, which was an improvement over last week when Peter Hawley ran solo. Kathy Shultz, Peter, and I ran at a nice leisurely pace which was a good thing since I was pretty tired after work and Kilkenny almost Killed Lani. So anyone who is interested should come down, this run does not seem to be the blistering fast near-race it used to be.

Looking ahead, as far as I know Lee, Tracy, Mary, and myself are planning to run various distances at the Brickyard on Saturday. I'll probably ride my bicycle down from Granby.

As far as I am aware, Rose is the only Brickyarder racing this weekend, Good Luck Rose!

The Lake Waramaug Ultra fast approaching, we are excited and ready to run (I think!).

Also, the 40th anniversary of the Granby Road Race coincides with my 40th birthday on the last day of the month. It's a nice course, about half on roads and half on trails. So if I can still walk after the Ultra, I'll try to be there and probably will drag my mother and Peter along too. Hoping some other Brickyarders can come down and celebrate my entry into the Master's Division with me on that day.

Per the track club newsletter, Lee is now the official race director of Hogsback!!! We'll all have to give him our support and make this a success.

See some of you Saturday, Lani

Oleksak Lumber Spring Half Marathon 2011

Tray slashed a full 2 1/2 minutes from her previous best 1/2 marathon time (she did a 1:55 @ the Hartford 1/2, which is flat). Lani refused to quit despite stomach problems and managed an 8:17 pace. Lee bettered his sub 1:50 goal by over two minutes. Linda took the pictures, drove the car and in general gave her all.

Click here or the picture below to go to the full report.

1/4 marathon

About 430 runners did the HTC 1/4 marathon this morning at Reservoir #3. Kelly Burns Gallagher directed it and did a fabulous job. It was pretty cold early on but the sun got stronger during the race and the sky was crystal clear.

Lani, Tray, Barbara, Dave and Lee ran. Lea volunteered. As Lee finished, Lani was waiting at the finish line (translation: she was *way* ahead of him). Tray crossed about 20 seconds after Lee. Lani reports Kathy Schultz picked up a couple of trophy blankets Lee and Lani apparently earned. Tray invited Lani to run the Westfield, MA 1/2 tomorrow and it looks like we'll have at least 3 Brickyarders (plus a friend of Tray's who will be accompanied by about 14 of her friends!).

Goals: Lee: 1:49:59. I shouldn't speak for Tray but ... how 'bout 1:54:59? As for Ms Ralston: if today is any indicator, she'll be well rested by the time the rest of us hit our watches.

Spozed to be *really* nice tomorrow.

Linda will hopefully join us and take some pix. April 18 can't come soon enuf; this is when her tax job will be done.

Lea's running Danbury tomorrow.

To all Brickyarders: rest, focus, eat well, be positive and do your best.



Lee