Merrimack River Trail Race, April 16, 2005

Well it was another great start to a racing season for Team Gloucester. With the date of the Merrimack River Trail race being pushed back due to snow on the course until the 16th of April, only five members were able to make the trip up to Andover for another great Dave Dunham / Steve Peterson event.

There was actually supposed to be five, but someone bailed at the last moment after she realized she did not have a snowballs chance in hell at beating Dave in a trail race. Layce you need a better excuse than the babysitting issue you used. Well the five members Matt Curran, Bob Gillis, Rick Ciolino, Dave Geary, and George Pagonas all lined up at the start and at the sound of "Ahh-ooh-ga!"  the field was off.

With the race being pushed backed by two weeks the course was in good shape and it was very dry even at the beginning, which is infamous for some good shoe sucking mud. Matt lead the pack of TG members, going out strong and finishing in 11th place overall and 2nd place in his age group with a time of 1:05:04. Right behind him was Bob who won his first title of the year in his new age group with a awesome time of 1:13:03 (2nd fastest masters time on the course).

Following on his heels was Rick who was blowing smoke up everyone’s butt all week by claiming he was not running well; he managed to pull off a time of 1:13:28 and it did not earn him a thing in his new age group. Dave came in next with a time of 1:21:19, not bad considering he was coming off of a severe ankle sprain two weeks earlier. This did not earn him anything in his age group either, but he did win a nice shoe bag in the raffle.

Now lets see how the Team faired in the Team Competition. Well Team Gloucester was able to pull off a 2nd place finished with 85 points behind the stacked team from CMS who had 6 points; the top three runners for each team is how the score is derived. The team would have had a lower score; however, someone forgot to list himself as a team member. Figure it out who it was the top three were Matt, Bob, and Dave. That’s alright Rick I know you were thinking you still lived in Charlestown too, or is this what happens when you….oh  well I  will move on.  

Overall it was just another great fun race with a lot of goodies for raffle prizes and the zaney antics of Steve Peterson who is guaranteed to get you laughing, even if you're not feeling great after conquering the course. Well all want to wish George a speedy recovery--he sprained his ankle around mile 6 and could not finish the race. Get well soon George!