Youth Team Update

By Joe Ferris

The youth team is transitioning from a very successful track and field season to what will hopefully be a cross country season that culminates with a return trip to Junior Olympic Nationals in December in Myrtle Beach.

Our largest team ever has started the season with two excellent outings, the first being the "Moose on the Loose" relay in Nashua, where we had 3 teams compete against the best relay teams that the area has to offer. Three teams with combined ages of 44, 41, and 37, more than held their own with one of the teams finishing second overall, with the other two teams close behind.  Results

On September 7th, a strong group of talented young athletes represented GLRR at the "Run for the Hills 5K" in Harvard with Lily, 13, not only winning her AG, but being the first overall female in the race. Devyn, 13, finished second in her AG, followed by Makayla, 11, in third place. one of our "veteran" top performers, McKenzie, 12, finished a close fourth in the AG. We had 15 other young athletes compete extremely well, several running their first 5K.  Results

The team will continue to practice as we prepare for a very competitive series of events at the always competitive Wayland cross country festival on October 12th, followed by a return trip to Franklin Park in Boston on October 26th to compete against the best that New England has to offer.

It Takes a Village – or some Angry Chickens

By Susan Bourque

This year was my 4^th time running the 12-hour race around Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, MA. This race is by far my favorite ultra race. I think it has to do with no fixed distance – that you can just run as much as possible within a fixed timeframe. I have found the trail ultra races with a fixed distance much more mentally challenging.

Sue at about mile 54.
Photo by Fil Faria

This year was the first time that I ran this race during the day. The past three years, this race had been run from 7pm – 7am. While fighting exhaustion was always a challenge, the weather was never a problem. And with ample supply of Red Bull (this race is the only time during the year I drink this sh*t), who needs sleep? So, I arrived to the race headquarters on Saturday morning and checked in. The 24-hour race had started the previous night at 9pm, so runners were already on the course. I cannot deny the feeling of impending doom I had while waiting for the race to start. I knew there would be a whole lot of hurt coming my way. I chatted with some runners before the start and felt weirdly like a veteran, as both women I spoke with had never run this race before. I still remember one of the women asking me if you had to run the whole 12 hours to get a medal. I thought that was such a ridiculous question at the time, but then when I saw her about three hours in with her flip flops on and with her gear heading to her car, it all made sense.

So, the race finally starts and we’re off. This has to be the most difficult race to gauge performance in that it is impossible to have any sense of how you are doing relative to other runners. Most of the runners hung together for the first few laps, but as soon as someone stopped to use the restroom or get a drink, you separated from them and likely never saw them again unless you lapped them. I ran with a crazy ultra-runner (who had run a 100 miler about 3 weeks prior and was planning on another 100 miler in the fall as well as other “shorter” distance races) for the first few laps and then we separated and never saw each other again that day. She ended up coming in second.

The author exhausted but smiling.
Photo by Zona Sharfman

Because you have no sense of how you are doing relative to others, you just keep running and hope it’s good enough. There is NO way I could have done that alone for 12 hours. Fortunately, I did not have to. There was so much support out on the course. E.J., Ken, Mike, Dave, Katie, Bethany, Fil, Allyson, Frank, and of course, Zona and Dan who camped out with Fred and helped keep me sane when I was starting to lose it later in the day. I was so lucky to have many of you run with me and I know I was not the best company. Tired, cranky, nauseous, sick of running and running very slow – I was an awesome running partner! Yet, everyone was so great and supportive. The amazing support of everyone is seriously the ONLY way I stayed on my feet and kept running. I recall being surprised towards the end of the race that top runners were dropping out and I have no doubt they did so only because they did not have my secret weapons – Angry Chickens.

I also never would have finished as many laps without supportive runners pulling me along. I remember refusing to accept the idea that I would run any more than 17 laps. This was later in the day and I thought 17 was a respectable number to put up and my brain would not allow me to think about running more than that number. But, when I found out that I was in the lead, I got a surge (okay maybe more like a small blip) of energy and motivation to keep going. I ran the last 2 laps without taking a break (because you have to complete a lap to get credit for it) as I was so nervous that I would not be able to finish the last lap. Dave kept telling me how much time I had left. The only time I took comfort when I realized I could walk and still finish the lap. No walking allowed though. By that time, I just wanted to finish the f*cking race and stop running. So, the best feeling was “sprinting” the last few yards across the finish line and being able to celebrate with so many that had helped me during the day.

Thank you to all who were there that day or who supported me remotely. It all helped. And I can’t wait to do it all over again next year!

[Ed. Note: Sue completed 19 laps totaling 61.1 miles in 11:42:30.  She was the first overall finisher in the 12 hour race, beating the first male by almost 7 minutes.  Full results can be found here.]