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