Archive for January, 2006
Rough course doesn’t slow the Lance Armstrong of snowshoe race
It takes a confident man to wear lime green shorts and a T-shirt during a snowshoe race, and Alan Evans is just the man to do it.
The 42-year-old Hornby resident won his eighth Finger Lakes Snowshoe 7.6-mile title Saturday, posting a time of 53 minutes, 55 seconds. The dominant victory, set on a loop course throughout the Finger Lakes National Forest in Hector, broke Evans’ existing open (1:00:12) and masters (1:03:45) course records.
Brian Densmore, 23, of Canandaigua was second in 59:18, and Ithaca’s Eric Davis, 25, was third in 1:05:00.
In the women’s race, Kellie Gregoire, 38, of Murry, N.Y. (near Brockport), won her first title in 1:14:30. Nancy Kleinrock, 45, of Trumansburg was second in 1:20:43, and 31-year-old Ann Brewer, also of Trumansburg, was third in 1:22:08.
Evans has lost the Finger Lakes Snowshoe title only once in its nine-year history, placing second to Derek White of Syacuse in the late 1990s. And there was only one year when there was no snow, and the race became a trail run.
Read the rest at the Star-Gazette
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Marathon no mere walk on the beach
Eric Pohlman spent two hours and forty minutes one recent Sunday on the treadmill at the gym preparing for the McMurdo Marathon. Doing a steady 10-minute mile, it was a relatively easy 16 miles. But he knows race day conditions outdoors won’t be a walk on the beach. Then again, maybe that’s exactly what it is.
“I’m preparing myself for a 26.2 [mile] run on the beach, because it’s like running in sand, except it’s freezing cold,” said Pohlman, a hazardous waste management technician at McMurdo Station. Pohlman will test his theory on Jan. 8 during the annual marathon. Last year, a dozen runners attempted the marathon or half-marathon. The race is nearly as popular with cross-country skiers, with seven people opting to glide their way across the Ross Ice Shelf in 2005.
One of the skiers was Mary Holozubiec, the only one to finish the 42-kilometer route, in a time of three hours and 39 minutes. This will be the third time the McMurdo retail materials worker will ski the race. She also ran the full marathon in 2001 on a calm, crisp day in 3:38. “Skiing to me is just like a long outing,” she said. “It’s a chance to get out for a longer period of time.”
Weather is a key factor in any race, but perhaps never more so than in Antarctica, where wind and blowing snow can quickly turn any run into a slog. Like last year. “It was full-on dumping [snow],” said Rachel Murray, recreation department supervisor. “It was like sand.” Holozubiec recalled that the wind was howling so fiercely on the leg between Pegasus and Williams airfields that the runners bunched up in a sort of phalanx, with each one taking the lead for a short while to help others conserve energy. “It was so windy that they ran in drafting style,” she said of the 2005 marathon. “The thing about the marathon is that it’s very condition dependent, both for running and skiing.”
Dan Simas ran the full marathon that year, persevering to finish the race in just under five hours. This year’s goal is to improve his time by nearly an hour, possibly a modest goal for a college tri-athlete who had never run a marathon before last year.
“I didn’t train,” said Simas, a utility tech at the Crary Science and Engineering Center. “I just decided to do it. I had done all the other races that year.”
Illinois runner goes down under and wins Children’s TLC Groundhog Run 10K race
This is an interesting race, run underground at the Subtropolis
Pulled from the Subtropolis site:
WHAT IS SUBTROPOLIS?
SubTropolis was created through the mining of a 270-million-year-old limestone deposit. In the mining process, limestone is removed by the room and pillar method, leaving 25-foot square pillars that are on 65-foot centers and 40 feet apart.
The pillars’ even spacing, concrete flooring and 16-foot-high, smooth ceilings make build-to-suit facilities time and cost efficient for tenants. A tenant requiring 10,000 to one million square feet can be in their space within 150 days. SubTropolis is completely dry, brightly lit, with miles of wide, paved streets accessed at street level.
Hunt Midwest SubTropolis sets the standard for subsurface business developments.
Adam McDonell probably never thought he would work up that big of a sweat at the end of January after a short warm-up run.
But there he stood inside the HuntMidwest Subtropolis on Sunday morning before the start of the Children’s TLC Groundhog Run dripping wet from a quick test run.
“We did a 1.5-mile warm-up, and I was just drenched,” McDonell said. “I knew I didn’t need to do too much more.”
No, he saved the rest of his energy to get a lead in the 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) race and hold on for the win. McDonell, of Troy, Ill., finished in 30 minutes, 47 seconds. Despite the quick sweat, McDonell, who came to run with about 15 people running for sponsor Anheuser-Busch, said he enjoyed running in the Subtropolis.
“It’s a pretty wild concept,” McDonell said. “It’s nice to not have to worry about the weather conditions. You don’t have to wear tights for outside. You don’t have to wear a jacket, hat or gloves. So it’s easier for your concentration.”
Two of his Anheuser-Busch running mates, Bryan Glass (30:57) and Zac Freudenburg (31:05), both from Troy, finished second and third.
Cindy Cameron of Mission won the women’s 10K race in 38:15. Cameron broke away from other women after the first mile and never looked back. Her closest competition came from Wanda Scheib of Lenexa, who finished in 39:07.
The Groundhog Run’s 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) races were won by recent collegiate runners.
D.J. Hilding of Lawrence, who finished his track career at Kansas last year, won the men’s race in 15:57, besting his closest competition by nearly 20 seconds.
The women’s race was paced by Danielle Nagel, who won in 18:53. “I just finished running college cross country a few months ago, so I wasn’t sure what I could do,” said Nagel, who ran for Central Missouri State. “I had to get out early, and hold on. I guess being around the guys makes you run a little harder.”
Via the Kansas City Star
How to tie your shoes 101
Ian likes shoe laces. Ian really knows a lot about tieing shoe laces. Ever go running and have your lace too tight, or your shoe pinching your foot? Well $8.95 gets you Speed Laces, or you can try one of these methods for free.
Ian’s Shoelace Site - “Ian Knot” = Ian’s Fast Shoelace Knot
Ian also has a cool flip book for the “Ian Knot”, or the World’s Fastest Shoelace Knot.
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