Northfield Mountain Trail Race, Northfield, MA , June 5, 2004
If ever there was a race that Bob Gillis would have loved and Matt Curran ought to have run, it was Saturday's USATF NE Mountain Running Championship In Northfield. A 13.2k (about 8.1 miles) trail/mountain run, it featured a double loop, each time gaining about 900 feet elevation over a mile, then dropping down the other side each time for about two miles in one of those long sloping, winding downhills that Matt flies on.
But no Matt this time. Instead, runners Wes Lassen, Jenn Brooks Lassen, Steve Davis and Peter Watson made the hour and forty-five minute drive and represented Team Gloucester.
Wes led the way with a 1:06:01 good for 25th. An achilles spasm created visions of a DNF and forced Jenn to walk much of the first hill, but it proved temporary and she was able to finish with a 1:07:09, 32nd overall (and second to Kelli Lusk among the women as she was at Kearsage); Steve came in at 1:12:37, 50th, and Peter, 89th, 1:26:21. There were 128 runners.
Jenn won a subscription to "Trail Runner" just as hers was running out. Josh Ferenc of Keene broke Paul Low's winning streak with a 49:18 run, seven seconds ahead of Low.
In team results, Team Gloucester was sixth with 107 points, behind two CMS teams, two NMC teams, and the Moose Milers. In series standings, Jenn is still second in the open women's division with 224.70, behind Kelli Lusk with 242.68. Wes is fifth in the open men's behind Paul Low, Joshua Ferenc, Kevin Tilton, and Greg Ward. In the men's masters, Steve Davis is third with 212.7, behind Mark Pitts (262.18) and Robert Naser (227.48).
Steve twisted his right ankle in the last chute downhill a couple of minutes from the finish but not too seriously.
The really bad news of the day was that Dave Dunham was in a walking cast on his left leg with a partial tear of the Achilles and will be out of the running for awhile and certainly for Mt. Washington. Nevertheless he was the race director (and the person who came up with an ice pack for Steve). Dave's sendoff at the start. "This is a "trail/mountain run" and four to five people will get lost." He was undoubtedly right. But not us. Wes and Peter did a bit of that on the Sunday run.
