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SQRR Quarterly Newsletter |
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The holiday season is here and I hope everyone made it through the first leg without picking up too much additional weight. Sometimes folks get stressed out with to-do lists for the holidays and they aren’t able to enjoy this time of year. This is where your running can actually help. Make time to get out when you can and take this time to refocus, relax and readjust your mindset. These 20+ minutes can make all the difference in the day. We’ve been lucky to make it so late into the season before the first cold snap, but it looks like luck is running out. Last Sunday's Mill Cities Relay started off cold, but many runners on the last leg changed to shorts when temps reached the 40s. As you've probably seen from the emails this week our young men's team finished 6th overall and took home one of the Mill Cities Bricks for second place in their division. We've recently moved the Sunday run meeting place to Town Hall on the corner of Rte. 119 (Main St.) and Station Ave. Start time is still 9 am. Running from there gives us a little more visibility than starting from the Groton School. We are working on getting into the Groton School for the indoor track on Wednesdays at 7 pm – we’ll keep you posted. Keep an eye on your email for any additional club runs/races coming up. I hope everyone has a great holiday season and I look forward to seeing you out on the roads. Happy Running, Chris
Close to 40 (!) fishy friends and family celebrate an early holiday
treat in Ayer. The Squannaccook River Runners tore themselves from warm beds en masse Thursday morning to descend like a cloud of happy locust on the Ayer 5k. Did we have a record turn out? You betcha! Did we have fun? Yup! The weather held and we scampered like besotted lemmings around metro Ayer under gun metal grey skies. Fortunately or unfortunately the secret is out about this convenient, simple 5k. No more rising at the crack of dawn to fight the crowds in Andover for a frozen, industrial apple pie. Now we can drive 5 minutes, get a brisk trot in with friends and be in the buffet line by 9:00 AM. Other runners have found out about this race as well. It is only in its second year, yet it was 3 times as big as the inaugural. This meant lots of company on the course and no easy medals for slacking midpackers. Some of our greyhounds did make the stand and receive the laurel wreath. Most notably Paul Funch (1st in M5059), Carl Skipper (2nd in M6069), Kayla Reeves (1st in F1115), and Shoko Yoshikawa (1st in F5059). Sue Hoxie was running a brisk business in her impromptu haberdashery and there was a sea of SQRR purple crowded around the club banner in the new AFD building. (The new gear has been a unanimous success – get some if you haven’t already.) The race directors were very chummy and gave us our own space in which to frolic. In a controversial turn of events, Buddy the Wonder Dog was ejected from the race (like Jock Semple tackling Katherine Switzer). Relegated to the car, he vowed to keep training for the day when Border Collies are accepted as the athletes they are! As we lean back in our easy chairs and slip into turkey induced torpor we can smile and give thanks. Thanks for the Ayer 5k, thanks for being out there on a cold morning, thanks for breathing the sweet New England air, thanks for family and friends and thanks for a vibrant club with a super member family!
Race day (April 29, 2007) is a ways away, but activity has already begun for next year's race. There have been two exciting developments in the last few weeks. First, the Groton Road Race 10K has been selected by USA Track & Field's New England chapter (USATF-NE) to be the championship race in its 2007 Grand Prix series. Approximately 200-250 elite runners from throughout the region will gather in Groton to test their mettle on our renowned course and to compete for points toward the Grand Prix individual and team championships. The race committee carefully weighed the pros and cons of submitting a proposal to host the 10K championship. The consensus was that we could put on a quality race that would satisfy elite runners while not impacting the family-focused event for which Groton is known. With a minimum of back-room politicking (and some races do plenty prior to the voting meeting), we presented our bid package and won by two votes over our nemesis, the James Joyce Ramble. The Ramble has hosted the 10K championship several times and is coincidentally held the same day as our race. Secondly, we recently launched a newly designed web site to promote the race. This project has been underway for the past six months and relied on the hard work and expertise of Sue Hoxie, Gordon Row, Susan Preiss, and a freelance web designer, Eric Walker. Check out the new site!
Sunday, December 3rd was the annual expedition from Nashua to Lawrence. The club fielded six teams this year and came away with one "brick" won by our men's open team--made up of two high schoolers, two college students and their chaperone, old man Chris Shaffer. The bricks are awarded to the top three teams in each of the categories. Please extend your congratulations to the 2nd place team "Runnin' Wicked Haad" made up of Chris Funch, Chris Shaffer, Brendan McCarthy, Steve O'Brien and JR Roberts. They completed the 27 miles in 2:36:29 Other team results were:
Next year's race will be on December 2, 2007.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! After a short but conclusive test, we have decided to change the traditional gathering place for our Sunday morning group run to Main Street, Groton, on the steps of the Groton Town Hall. Try it: you’ll like it! It’s a central location, with ample parking, a summertime water fountain and a short stagger to coffee and bagels afterwards. Moreover, we think that this location will give us more public visibility. See you there!
This was the second Squanner-sponsored Wapack Trail Race. The forecast was dicey, but the weather turned out to be not bad at all: “partly cloudy,” with occasional photons and passing periods of low humidity. The trail itself was well lubricated and the rocks were carefully and thoroughly rinsed. One runner exclaimed that the Wapack conditions were “the best I’ve ever seen it!” (worth noting that this was the first time this guy had seen the Wapack Trail). In spite of the rain, we had a remarkable turnout: approximately 60 starting runners. Paul Funch gave a few instructions and encouraging remarks (something about not needing to use your brain), and they were off. The base crew stoked the wood stoves, fired up the soup pot and made sure the cookies and bagels were fresh and tasty. We ran out periodically to retrieve and tie down the tents at the finish line. Steve Legge labored over a precise system for tracking runners and finishers. Once the finish line was ready, we settled in for a cozy hour of waiting in the hut. Carl Skipper looked like a Norman Rockwell painting, reading by the woodstove with his foul- weather gear, weathered good looks and mug of coffee. One of the runners left behind his sweet little mongrel, Sheba. Carl and Steve orchestrated several efforts to lure Sheba in out of the rain. The skittish dog refused all pleading, crooning, whispering, cajoling and derision. Maybe it was the 6-foot-2, hungry-looking guy wearing bright yellow rain gear, or maybe it was the cauldron of bubbling water. Sheba retreated to the muddy parking lot and waited by her car, and only accepted a few well-aimed bagel chunks and Milk Bones. The first runner completed the 18 miles in 2:46:12, looking freakishly relaxed and fresh. This was pretty far off the record, but remarkable given the slick trail conditions. The remainder of the runners straggled in by ones and twos over the next 4+ hours. With possibly zero exceptions, the runners were happy, spattered, humorous, and very, very glad for the event. Trail running is clearly a different sport, and trail runners are a well-matched species. The sport is equal amounts endurance and orienteering, and requires a healthy respect for nature (in all its forms) and a durable sense of humor and open- minded adventure. Those who got lost chuckled about their misadventures and generally took full credit for missed turns. For those of you who have not yet participated in a trail race, give it a try and get ready for a fun time. For those of you unable to volunteer for Wapack, give that a try too: it’s a good excuse to get out into nature (without the skinned knees), to get some fresh air and scenery, and to support these great athletes of the woods.
Since the last issue of the newsletter (July 2006), we've welcomed the following new members:
The New Years Day races are always the most fun and there's not much else to choose from in January. We offer you two choices, both of which have their proponents in the club: 26th Bud Light Hangover Classic and Optional Ocean
Plunge New Years Day Peanut Butter Chip Chase 5K
If you haven't purchased a uniform shirt or Coolmax hat, or if you'd like to purchase another style from what you already own, please contact Sue Hoxie. Again, pricing is as follows:
All these items are of high quality and have gotten rave reviews from the membership!
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email: shoxie0327@yahoo.com
phone: 978-772-3069
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